1. Holocaust Unit Project
By: Katrina Raskie, Becca Wittek, and Jeff Schlichte

2. Why did Nazis Perform Experiments?

3. Who Performed the Experiments?
SS Officers that were trained medical practitioners
Dr. Mengele was a well-known physician at Auschwitz

4. About Dr. Mengele Born on March 16th, 1911 in Ginsburg, Germany
Studied Philosophy and Medicine at the University of Frankfurt
1938- Enlisted in the S.S.
1943- Heinrich Himmler appoints Mengele as the head doctor at Auschwitz-Birkenau

5. Dr. Josef Mengele Known as the “Angel of Death”
Supervised selection of who was to be killed and who would be kept alive for experimentation
Most people died because of experiments or later infections
At times he killed people just to be able to dissect them afterwards

6. Dr. Mengele Cont. Common Experiments:
Injecting victims eyes with chemicals in attempt to change the color
Injecting chloroform into their hearts
Tests on diseases (Tuberculosis, Typhoid) to find out how humans of different races withstood them

7. More Experiments Investigated ways to increase human fertility
Tried to find a genetic cause for the disease “noma”
Experimented with infected wounds

8. Twin Experimentation
1,500 sets of twins collected at Birkenau to develop a theory of heredity and relation between disease, racial types, and racial inter-breeding
He wanted to discover the genetic key to creating an “Aryan”
One twin was a control and the other one was experimented on

9. Twins Cont. They were called “Mengele’s Children”
Wanted to find a way so that all Aryan women could assuredly give birth to twins who were sure to be blonde and blue-eyed

10. Life of the Twins Mengele would often bring candy and talk with them
They would get to keep their hair and clothes
Called him “Uncle Mengele”
Spared hard jobs and labor so they would stay healthy for experimentation

11. Life of Twins Cont. Twins had blood drawn everyday
Blood transfusions of blood from 1 twin to another
Tried to fabricate blue eyes with chemicals
Injected Typhus and Tuberculosis
After one twin dies, the other was killed to examine and compare

12. Life of Twins Cont.
Performed surgeries without anesthesia including organ removal, castration, and amputations
Autopsies were considered the final experiment

13. Sterilization
Conducted at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck by Dr. Carl Clamber.
Tried to develop a method of sterilization for mass amounts of people with little time or effort.
Some were injected with solutions of iodine and silver nitrate. (Caused side effects including various types of cancers.) Other methods included castration, injections, or invasive surgeries with no anesthesia.

14. Sterilization (cont.)
Radiation became the fastest, most effective way to sterilize.
People were brought into rooms and asked to fill out forms which only took a few minutes. In this time, the people were sterilized. Severe radiation burns occurred.
They did this to develop and
efficient way to keep the
non-Aryan race from
reproducing.

15. High Altitudes/Air Pressure
At Dachau in 1942, doctors from the German Air Force and the German Experimental Institution tested patients responses to high altitudes to gain knowledge of the effects the German pilots could have because of ejecting themselves from planes at high altitudes.
Air pressure chambers simulated altitudes of 66,000 feet.

16. Treatment of Disease
At Dachau and Buchenwald, physicians injected subjects with a series of diseases such as malaria, typhus, TB, typhoid, and hepatitis and then tried to cure them.
They were all diseases that German military personnel could have encountered in their work or on the battlefield.
Almost all of the subjects tested died from the contagious diseases injected into their bodies.

17. Freezing Experiments
Tried to simulate the conditions the military was facing on the eastern front
Dr. Sigmund Rasher conducted the experiments at Birkenau, Dachau, and Auschwitz
Put the victims in ice baths, or put them outside naked in sub zero temperatures

18. Freezing Cont.
First, they measured how long it took to freeze the victims to death
Second, they tested ways of resuscitating the victims
These included extremely hot sun lamps, injecting boiling water into their organs, and giving them warm baths

19. Testing of Drugs
Infected victims with malaria, then tested multiple drugs to find an immunization or treatment
Most patients died either from the disease or from complications from the drugs
Sulfonamide was tested as a cure for tetanus
Tested at Dachau Concentration Camp

20. Transplantation Tested at Ravensbruck concentration camp
Experiments done of the transplantation of nerves, bones, and muscle
No anesthesia was used
Also experimented with nerve, bone, and muscle regeneration