Editing Nazi Medical Experimentation

[[File:Dachau cold water immersion.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A cold water immersion experiment at Dachau]]
'''Nazi Medical Experimentation''' is the term used to describe what was in essence an elaborate and highly immoral method of mass-execution and torture performed by the [[Nazi Party]] under the guise of "medical science" - designed purely to allow Nazi "scientists" to indulge in psuedo-science and racist fantasies these were widely considered some of the most brutal, outlandish and cruel tortures of the era. Notable Nazi doctors who practiced these heinous experiments include [[Josef Mengele]] and [[Carl Clauberg]].

==Examples of those experiments==
The table of contents of a document from the Nuremberg military tribunals prosecution includes titles of the sections that document medical experiments revolving around: food, seawater, [[epidemic]] [[jaundice]], [[sulfanilamide]], blood [[coagulation]] and [[phlegmon]].<ref>''"Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Table of contents for prosecution document book 8, concerning medical experiments". nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-14.''</ref> According to the indictments at the [[Subsequent Nuremberg Trials]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Medical Experiment |work=Jewish Virtual Library |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/medtoc.html |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings |work=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/indiptx.htm |access-date=23 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420105201/http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/indiptx.htm |archive-date=20 April 2008 }}</ref> these experiments included the following:

===Experiments on twins===
Experiments on twin children in concentration camps were created to show the superiority of heredity over the environment in determining phenotypes and to find ways to increase German reproduction rates. The central leader of the experiments was Josef Mengele, who from 1943 to 1944 performed experiments on nearly 1,500 sets of imprisoned twins at Auschwitz. About 200 people survived these studies.<ref>[http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/lhs/science/mos/twins/mengele.html Josef Mengele and Experimentation on Human Twins at Auschwitz] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414074936/http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/lhs/science/mos/twins/mengele.html |date=14 April 2015 }}, ''Children of the Flames; Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz'', Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel, and ''Mengele: the Complete Story'' by Gerald Posner and John Ware.</ref> The twins were arranged by age and sex and kept in [[barracks]] between experiments, which ranged from amputations, infecting them with various diseases and injecting dyes into their eyes to change their color. He also attempted to create [[conjoined twins]] by sewing twins together, causing gangrene and eventually, death.<ref name="WEAK">{{cite book |last=Black |first=Edwin |title=War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfliJPdl9V4C&pg=PA358  |year=2004 |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |location=United States |isbn=978-1-56858-258-0}}</ref><ref name=Berenbaum194>{{cite book |author=Berenbaum, Michael |title=The world must know: the history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |publisher=Little, Brown |location=Boston |year=1993 |pages=194–5 |isbn=978-0-316-09134-3 }}</ref> Often, one twin would be forced to undergo experimentation, while the other was kept as a control. If one twin died from experimentation, the second twin would be brought in to be killed at the same time. Doctors would then look at the effects of experimentation and compare both bodies.<ref name=":1">Baron, Saskia, director. ''Science and the Swastika: The Deadly Experiment''. Darlow Smithson Productions, 2001.</ref> If the first twin survived, Mengele would dissect their bodies.{{sfn|Lifton|1986|p=351}}

===Bone, muscle, and nerve transplantation experiments===

From about September 1942 to about December 1943 experiments were conducted at the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]], for the benefit of the German Armed Forces, to study [[bone]], [[muscle]], and [[nerve]] [[regeneration (biology)|regeneration]], and bone transplantation from one person to another.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHhtsODHWf0C|title=When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How|last1=Perper|first1=Joshua A.|last2=Cina|first2=Stephen J.|date=2010-06-14|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781441913692|language=en}}</ref> In these experiments, subjects had their bones, muscles and nerves removed without [[anesthesia]]. As a result of these operations, many victims suffered intense agony, mutilation, and permanent disability.<ref name=":0" />

On 12 August 1946 a survivor named Jadwiga Kamińska<ref>{{cite web|url=http://individual.utoronto.ca/jarekg/Ravensbruck/Photographsofvictims.html|title=Women's Concentration Camp Medical Experiment Victims|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> gave a deposition about her time at Ravensbrück concentration camp and describes how she was operated on twice. Both operations involved one of her legs and although she never describes having any knowledge as to what exactly the procedure was, she explains that both times she was in extreme pain and developed a fever post surgery, but was given little to no aftercare. Kamińska describes being told that she had been operated on simply because she was a "young girl and a Polish patriot". She describes how her leg oozed pus for months after the operations.<ref>[http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/2055-deposition-concerning-medical-experiments?q=author:%22Jadwiga+Kaminska%22#p.4 <nowiki>"Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Deposition concerning medical experiments at Ravensbrueck [bone/muscle/nerve experiments]"</nowiki>]. ''nuremberg.law.harvard.edu''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>

Prisoners were also experimented on by having their [[bone marrow]] injected with bacteria to study the effectiveness of new drugs being developed for use in the battle fields. Those who survived remained permanently disfigured.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005168|title=Nazi Medical Experiments|website=www.ushmm.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref>

===Head injury experiments===
In mid-1942 in [[Baranowicze]], occupied Poland, experiments were conducted in a small building behind the private home occupied by a known Nazi [[SD Security Service]] officer, in which "a young boy of eleven or twelve [was] strapped to a chair so he could not move. Above him was a mechanized hammer that every few seconds came down upon his head." The boy was driven insane from the torture.<ref name=Small>Small, Martin; Vic Shayne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kaIYMRYufh0C&pg=PA135#v=onepage&q=%22Dr.%20wichtmann%22 "Remember Us: My Journey from the Shtetl through the Holocaust"], Page 135, 2009.</ref>

===Freezing experiments===
[[File:Dachau cold water immersion.jpg|right|thumb|A cold water immersion experiment at [[Dachau concentration camp]] presided over by [[Ernst Holzlöhner]] (left) and [[Sigmund Rascher]] (right). The subject is wearing an experimental ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' garment.]]In 1941, the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' conducted experiments with the intent of discovering means to prevent and treat [[hypothermia]].  There were 360 to 400 experiments and 280 to 300 victims indicating some victims suffered more than one experiment.<ref name="Berger" />

{|class="wikitable"
|+"Exitus" (death) table compiled by [[Sigmund Rascher]]<ref>{{cite book|page=183|title=The Dachau Concentration Camp, 1933 to 1945|isbn=978-3-87490-751-4|publisher=Comite International Dachau|year=2000}}</ref>
|-
!Attempt no.
!Water temperature
!Body temperature when removed from the water
!Body temperature at death
!Time in water
!Time of death
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|5
|{{convert|5.2|°C|°F}}
|{{convert|27.7|°C|°F}}
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|66'
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|80'
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|14
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|{{convert|27.5|°C|°F}}
|95'
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|16
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|{{convert|28.7|°C|°F}}
|{{convert|26|°C|°F}}
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Another study placed prisoners naked in the open air for several hours with temperatures as low as −6&nbsp;°C (21&nbsp;°F). Besides studying the physical effects of cold exposure, the experimenters also assessed different methods of rewarming survivors.<ref name=Bogod>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2004.04034.x|pmid = 15549970|title = The Nazi Hypothermia Experiments: Forbidden Data?|journal = Anaesthesia|volume = 59|issue = 12|pages = 1155–1156|year = 2004|last1 = Bogod|first1 = David|s2cid = 21906854|doi-access = free}}</ref>  "One assistant later testified that some victims were thrown into boiling water for rewarming."<ref name=Berger>{{Cite journal
 | doi = 10.1056/NEJM199005173222006
| pmid = 2184357
| title = Nazi Science — the Dachau Hypothermia Experiments
| journal = New England Journal of Medicine
| volume = 322
| issue = 20
| pages = 1435–40
|date=May 1990
| last1 = Berger | first1 = Robert L.
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mackowski |first=Maura Phillips |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781585444397/page/94 |title=Testing the Limits: Aviation Medicine and the Origins of Manned Space Flight |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2006 |isbn=1-58544-439-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781585444397/page/94 94] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Beginning in August 1942, at the Dachau camp, prisoners were forced to sit in tanks of freezing water for up to three hours. After subjects were frozen, they then underwent different methods for rewarming. Many subjects died in this process.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/freezing-experiments|title=Freezing Experiments|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref> In a letter from 10 September 1942, Rascher describes an experiment on intense cooling performed in Dachau where people were dressed in fighter pilot uniforms and submerged in freezing water. Rascher had some of the victims completely underwater and others only submerged up to the head.<ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/documents-regarding-nazi-medical-experiments "Documents Regarding Nazi Medical Experiments"]. ''www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>

The [[freezing]] and hypothermia experiments were conducted for the Nazi high command to simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], as the German forces were ill-prepared for the cold weather they encountered. Many experiments were conducted on captured Soviet troops; the Nazis wondered whether their genetics gave them superior resistance to cold. The principal locales were [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] and [[Auschwitz]]. [[Sigmund Rascher]], an [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] doctor based at Dachau, reported directly to ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] and publicised the results of his freezing experiments at the 1942 medical conference entitled "Medical Problems Arising from Sea and Winter".<ref name="NOVA">{{cite web |author=Tyson, Peter |title=Holocaust on Trial: The Experiments |work=NOVA Online |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiside.html |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref> Himmler suggested that the victims could be warmed by forcing them to engage in sexual contact with other victims. An example included how a hypothermic victim was placed between two naked Romani women.<ref>Annas, p. 74.</ref><ref name="Ras">Letter from Rascher to Himmler, 17 Feb 1943 from ''Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Vol. 1, Case 1: The Medical Case'' (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1949-1950), pp. 249–251.</ref> Approximately 100 people are reported to have died as a result of these experiments.<ref>Neurnberg Military Tribunal, Volume I · [http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/01/NMT01-T200.htm Page 200]</ref>

===Malaria experiments===
From about February 1942 to about April 1945, experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp in order to investigate immunization for treatment of [[malaria]]. Healthy inmates were infected by [[mosquitoes]] or by injections of extracts of the [[mucous gland]]s of female mosquitoes. After contracting the disease, the subjects were treated with various drugs to test their relative [[efficacy]].<ref name="LawHealth1992">{{cite book|author1=George J. Annas Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law|author2=Medicine Michael A. Grodin Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Director of Law, and Ethics Program both of the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health|title=The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code : Human Rights in Human Experimentation: Human Rights in Human Experimentation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4P04DuPIfAYC&pg=PA98|date=7 May 1992|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-977226-1|page=98}}</ref> Over 1,200 people were used in these experiments and more than half died as a result.<ref name="CriminalityState1946">{{cite book|author1=United States. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality|author2=United States. Dept. of State|author3=United States. War Dept|author4=International Military Tribunal|title=Nazi conspiracy and aggression: Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality|url=https://archive.org/details/naziconspiracyag01unit|year=1946|publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off.}}</ref> Other test subjects were left with permanent disabilities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/malaria-experiments|title=Malaria Experiments|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref>

===Immunization experiments===
At the German concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Natzweiler, Buchenwald, and Neuengamme, scientists tested immunization compounds and serums for the prevention and treatment of contagious diseases, including malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005168|title=Nazi Medical Experiments|work=ushmm.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Metzger|first1=W. G.|last2=Ehni|first2=H.‐J.|last3=Kremsner|first3=P. G.|last4=Mordmüller|first4=B. G.|date=December 2019|title=Experimental infections in humans—historical and ethical reflections|journal=Tropical Medicine & International Health|language=en|volume=24|issue=12|pages=1384–1390|doi=10.1111/tmi.13320|pmid=31654450|issn=1360-2276|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Viral hepatitis ===
From June 1943 until January 1945 at the concentration camps, Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler, experimentation with '[[Viral_hepatitis|epidemic jaundice]]' was conducted. The test subjects were injected with the disease in order to discover new inoculations for the condition. These tests were conducted for the benefit of the German Armed Forces. Most died in the experiments, whilst others survived, experiencing great pain and suffering.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/epidemic-jaundice-experiments|title=Epidemic Jaundice Experiments|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref>

===Mustard gas experiments===
At various times between September 1939 and April 1945, many experiments were conducted at [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]], [[Natzweiler]], and other camps to investigate the most effective treatment of wounds caused by [[sulfur mustard|mustard gas]]. Test subjects were deliberately exposed to mustard gas and other [[vesicant]]s (e.g. [[Lewisite]]) which inflicted severe [[chemical burn]]s. The victims' wounds were then tested to find the most effective treatment for the mustard gas burns.<ref name="trials">{{cite web |title=Introduction to NMT Case 1: U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al. |work=Harvard Law Library, Nuremberg Trials Project: A Digital Document Collection|url=http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/docs_swi.php?DI=1&text=medical |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref>

[[File:Children of Bullinhuser Damm.jpg|thumb|Child victims of Nazi experimentation show incisions where [[axillary lymph nodes]] had been surgically removed after they were deliberately infected with [[tuberculosis]] at [[Neuengamme concentration camp]]. They were later murdered.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.auschwitz.dk/Bullenhuser.htm|title=Children of Bullenhuser Damm|website=www.auschwitz.dk|access-date=2016-03-31}}</ref>]]

===Sulfonamide experiments===
From about July 1942 to about September 1943, experiments to investigate the effectiveness of [[sulfonamide (medicine)|sulfonamide]], a synthetic antimicrobial agent, were conducted at Ravensbrück.<ref name="Schaefer">Schaefer, Naomi. ''[http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/5/schaefer.htm  The Legacy of Nazi Medicine]'', ''The New Atlantis'', Number 5, Spring 2004, pp. 54–60.</ref> Wounds inflicted on the subjects were infected with [[bacterium|bacteria]] such as ''[[Streptococcus]]'', ''[[Clostridium perfringens]]'' (a major causative agent in [[gas gangrene]]) and ''[[Clostridium tetani]]'', the causative agent in [[tetanus]].<ref name=Spitz>{{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Vivien |title=Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans |url=https://archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellh00spit  |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellh00spit/page/4 4] |quote=sulfonamide nazi tetanus. |year=2005 |publisher=Sentient Publications |isbn=978-1-59181-032-2 }}</ref> Circulation of blood was interrupted by tying off blood vessels at both ends of the wound to create a condition similar to that of a battlefield wound. Researchers also aggravated the subjects' infection by forcing wood shavings and ground glass into their wounds. The infection was treated with sulfonamide and other drugs to determine their effectiveness.

===Sea water experiments===
From about July 1944 to about September 1944, experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp to study various methods of making [[sea water]] drinkable. These victims were subject to deprivation of all food and only given the filtered sea water.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sea-water-experiments|title=Sea Water Experiments|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref> At one point, a group of roughly 90 [[Romani people|Roma]] were deprived of food and given nothing but sea water to drink by [[Hans Eppinger]], leaving them gravely injured.<ref name="NOVA"/> They were so dehydrated that others observed them licking freshly mopped floors in an attempt to get drinkable water.<ref name="ETHIC">{{cite web |author=Cohen, Baruch C. |title=The Ethics of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments |work=Jewish Law: Articles |url=http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref>

A Holocaust survivor named Joseph Tschofenig wrote a statement on these seawater experiments at Dachau. Tschofenig explained how while working at the medical experimentation stations he gained insight into some of the experiments that were performed on prisoners, namely those in which they were forced to drink salt water. Tschofenig also described how victims of the experiments had trouble eating and would desperately seek out any source of water including old floor rags. Tschofenig was responsible for using the X-ray machine in the infirmary and describes how even though he had insight into what was going on he was powerless to stop it. He gives the example of a patient in the infirmary who was sent to the gas chambers by Sigmund Rascher simply because he witnessed one of the [[#High altitude experiments|low-pressure experiments]].<ref>[http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/90-affidavit-concerning-the-seawater?q=medical+experiments#p.2 "Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Affidavit concerning the seawater experiments"]. ''nuremberg.law.harvard.edu''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>

===Sterilization and fertility experiments===
The [[Law for the Prevention of Genetically Defective Progeny]], which was passed on 14 July 1933, legalized the involuntary sterilization of persons with diseases claimed to be hereditary: weak-mindedness, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, insanity, blindness, deafness, and physical deformities. The law was used to encourage growth of the Aryan race through the sterilization of persons who fell under the quota of being genetically defective.<ref>Gardella JE. The cost-effectiveness of killing: an overview of Nazi "euthanasia." Medical Sentinel 1999;4:132-5</ref> 1% of citizens between the age of 17 to 24 had been sterilized within two years of the law passing.

Within four years, 300,000 patients had been sterilized.<ref>Dahl M. [Selection and destruction-treatment of "unworthy-to-live" children in the Third Reich and the role of child and adolescent psychiatry], Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr 2001;50:170-91.</ref> From about March 1941 to about January 1945, [[Forced sterilization|sterilization]] experiments were conducted at Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and other places by [[Carl Clauberg]].<ref name="trials" /> The purpose of these experiments was to develop a method of sterilization which would be suitable for sterilizing millions of people with a minimum of time and effort. The targets for sterilization included Jewish and Roma populations.<ref name=":2" /> These experiments were conducted by means of [[X-ray]], surgery and various [[medication|drugs]]. Thousands of victims were sterilized. Aside from its experimentation, the Nazi government sterilized around 400,000 people as part of its [[compulsory sterilization]] program.<ref>{{cite web |author=Piotrowski, Christa |title=Dark Chapter of American History: U.S. Court Battle Over Forced Sterilization |date=21 July 2000 |work=CommonDreams.org News Center |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/072100-106.htm |access-date=23 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415181618/http://www.commondreams.org/views/072100-106.htm |archive-date=15 April 2008 }}</ref>

Carl Clauberg was the leading research developer in the search for cost effective and efficient means of mass sterilization. He was particularly interested in experimenting on women from age twenty to forty who had already given birth. Prior to any experiments, Clauberg X-rayed women to make sure that there was no obstruction to their ovaries. Next, over the course of three to five sessions, he injected the women's cervixes with the goal of blocking their fallopian tubes. The women who stood against him and his experiments or were deemed as unfit test subjects were sent to be killed in the gas chambers.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The Nazi doctors : medical killing and the psychology of genocide|last=Lifton, Robert Jay, 1926- author.|isbn=978-0-465-09339-7|oclc=1089625744|date = 16 May 2017}}</ref>

Intravenous injections of solutions speculated to contain [[iodine]] and [[silver nitrate]] were successful, but had unwanted side effects such as vaginal bleeding, severe abdominal pain, and cervical cancer.<ref>{{cite news |author=Meric, Vesna |title=Forced to take part in experiments |date=27 January 2005 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4212061.stm  }}</ref> Therefore, [[gamma radiation|radiation]] treatment became the favored choice of sterilization. Specific amounts of exposure to radiation destroyed a person's ability to produce ova or sperm, sometimes administered through deception. Many suffered severe [[radiation burns]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Medical Experiments at Auschwitz |work=Jewish Virtual Library |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/aumed.html |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref>

The Nazis also implemented X-ray radiation treatment in their search for mass sterilization. They gave the women abdomen X-rays, men received them on their genitalia, for abnormal periods of time in attempt to invoke infertility. After the experiment was complete, they surgically removed their reproductive organs, often without anesthesia, for lab analysis.<ref name=":3" />

M.D. William E. Seidelman, a professor from the University of Toronto, in collaboration with Dr. Howard Israel of Columbia University, published a report on an investigation on the medical experimentation performed in Austria under the Nazi regime. In that report he mentions a Doctor Hermann Stieve, who used the war to experiment on live humans. Stieve specifically focused on the reproductive system of women. He would tell women their date of death in advance, and he would evaluate how their psychological distress would affect their menstruation cycles. After they were murdered, he would dissect and examine their reproductive organs. Some of the women were raped after they were told the date when they would be killed so that Stieve could study the path of sperm through their reproductive system.<ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/medicine-and-murder-in-the-third-reich#2 "Medicine and Murder in the Third Reich"]. ''www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>

===Experiments with poison===
Somewhere between December 1943 and October 1944, experiments were conducted at [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] to investigate the effect of various poisons. The poisons were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their food. The victims died as a result of the poison or were killed immediately in order to permit [[autopsy|autopsies]]. In September 1944, experimental subjects were shot with poisonous bullets, suffered torture, and often died.<ref name="trials"/>

Some male Jewish prisoners had poisonous substances scrubbed or injected into their skin, causing boils filled with black fluid to form. These experiments were heavily documented as well as photographed by the Nazis.<ref name=":3" />

===Incendiary bomb experiments===
From around November 1943 to around January 1944, experiments were conducted at Buchenwald to test the effect of various pharmaceutical preparations on [[phosphorus]] burns. These burns were inflicted on prisoners using phosphorus material extracted from [[incendiary bomb]]s.<ref name="trials"/>

===High altitude experiments===
{{further|Hubertus Strughold}}
[[File:Pressurization experiment at Dachau.jpg|thumb|A victim loses consciousness during a depressurization experiment at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] by Luftwaffe doctor [[Sigmund Rascher]], 1942.]]
In early 1942, prisoners at Dachau concentration camp were used by [[Sigmund Rascher]] in experiments to aid German pilots who had to [[ejection seat|eject]] at high altitudes. A [[pressure vessel|low-pressure chamber]] containing these prisoners was used to simulate conditions at altitudes of up to {{convert|68000|ft|m}}. It was rumored that Rascher performed [[vivisection]]s on the brains of victims who survived the initial experiment.<ref name=Cockburn>{{cite book |last=Cockburn |first=Alexander |title=Whiteout:The CIA, Drugs, and the Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC&q=%22sigmund+rascher%22+brain&pg=PA149  |year=1998 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-139-6 }}</ref> Of the 200 subjects, 80 died outright, and the others were murdered.<ref name="NOVA"/> In a letter from 5 April 1942 between Rascher and Heinrich Himmler, Rascher explains the results of a low-pressure experiment that was performed on people at Dachau Concentration camp in which the victim was suffocated while Rascher and another unnamed doctor took note of his reactions. The person was described as 37 years old and in good health before being murdered. Rascher described the victim's actions as he began to lose oxygen and timed the changes in behavior. The 37-year-old began to wiggle his head at four minutes; a minute later Rascher observed that he was suffering from cramps before falling unconscious. He describes how the victim then lay unconscious, breathing only three times per minute, until he stopped breathing 30 minutes after being deprived of oxygen. The victim then turned blue and began foaming at the mouth. An autopsy followed an hour later.<ref>"Documents Regarding Nazi Medical Experiments". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2017-04-14</ref>

In a letter from Himmler to Rascher on 13 April 1942, Himmler ordered Rascher to continue the high altitude experiments and to continue experimenting on prisoners condemned to death and to "determine whether these men could be recalled to life". If a victim could be successfully resuscitated, Himmler ordered that he be pardoned to "concentration camp for life".<ref>[http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/37-letter-to-sigmund-rascher?q=medical+experiement#p.1 "Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Letter to Sigmund Rascher concerning the high altitude experiments"]. ''nuremberg.law.harvard.edu''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>

=== Blood coagulation experiments ===
Sigmund Rascher experimented with the effects of ''Polygal'', a substance made from [[beet]] and apple [[pectin]], which aided [[coagulate|blood clotting]]. He predicted that the preventive use of Polygal tablets would reduce bleeding from [[wound ballistics|gunshot wounds]] sustained during combat or surgery. Subjects were given a Polygal tablet, shot through the neck or chest, or had their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Rascher published an article on his experience of using Polygal, without detailing the nature of the human trials, and set up a company staffed by prisoners to manufacture the substance.<ref>Michalczyk, p. 96</ref>

Bruno Weber was the head of the Hygienic Institution at [[Block 10]] in Auschwitz and injected his subjects with blood types that were differed from their own. This caused the blood cells to congeal, and the blood was studied. When the Nazis removed blood from someone, they often entered a major artery, causing the subject to die of major blood loss.<ref name=":3" />

=== Electroshock experiments ===
Some female prisoners of [[Block 10]] were also subject to electroshock therapy. These women were often sick and underwent this experimentation before being sent to the gas chambers and killed.<ref name=":3" />

==Aftermath==
[[File:Jadwiga Dzido shows scars on leg from medical experiments to the Doctors&#039; Trial.jpg|thumb|Jadwiga Dzido shows scars on her leg from medical experiments to the [[Doctors' Trial]]]]
Other documented transcriptions from Heinrich Himmler include phrases such as "These researches… can be performed by us with particular efficiency because I personally assumed the responsibility for supplying [[Black triangle (badge)|asocial]] individuals and criminals who deserve only to die from concentration camps for these experiments."<ref>[http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/documents/65-letter-to-erhard-milch?q=author:%22Heinrich+Himmler%22#p.1 "Nuremberg - Document Viewer - Letter to Erhard Milch concerning the high altitude and freezing experiments"]. ''nuremberg.law.harvard.edu''. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref> Many of the subjects died as a result of the experiments conducted by the Nazis, while many others were murdered after the tests were completed to study the effects ''[[post-mortem examination|post mortem]]''.<ref name="CHILD">{{cite web |author=Rosenberg, Jennifer |title=Mengele's Children – The Twins of Auschwitz |work=about.com |url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/auschwitz/a/mengeletwins.htm |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref> Those who survived were often left mutilated, with permanent disability, weakened bodies, and mental distress.<ref name="NOVA"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Sterilization Experiments |work=Jewish Virtual Library |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sterilexp.html |access-date=23 March 2008 }}</ref> On 19 August 1947, the doctors captured by Allied forces were put on trial in ''USA vs. Karl Brandt et al.'', commonly known as the [[Doctors' Trial]]. At the trial, several of the doctors argued in their defense that there was no international law regarding medical experimentation.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Some doctors also claimed that they had been doing the world a favor. An SS doctor was quoted saying that "Jews were the festering appendix in the body of Europe." He then went on to argue he was doing the world a favor by eliminating them.<ref name=":1" />

The issue of [[informed consent]] had previously been controversial in German medicine in 1900, when [[Albert Neisser]] infected patients (mainly prostitutes) with [[syphilis]] without their consent. Despite Neisser's support from most of the academic community, public opinion, led by psychiatrist [[Albert Moll (German psychiatrist)|Albert Moll]], was against Neisser. While Neisser went on to be fined by the Royal Disciplinary Court, Moll developed "a legally based, positivistic contract theory of the patient-doctor relationship" that was not adopted into German law.<ref name="BMJ">{{cite web |url=http://www.bmj.com/archive/7070nd1.htm |title=Informed consent in human experimentation before the Nuremberg code|last=Vollman |first=Jochen |author2=Rolf Winau| work=BMJ |access-date=8 April 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080304153538/http://www.bmj.com/archive/7070nd1.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 4 March 2008}}</ref> Eventually, the minister for religious, educational, and medical affairs issued a directive stating that medical interventions other than for diagnosis, healing, and immunization were excluded under all circumstances if "the human subject was a minor or not competent for other reasons", or if the subject had not given his or her "unambiguous consent" after a "proper explanation of the possible negative consequences" of the intervention, though this was not legally binding.<ref name="BMJ"/>

In response, Drs. [[Leo Alexander]] and [[Andrew Conway Ivy]], the [[American Medical Association]] representative at the Doctors' Trial, drafted a ten-point memorandum entitled ''Permissible Medical Experiment'' that went on to be known as the [[Nuremberg Code]].<ref name="USHMM">{{cite web |title=The Nuremberg Code |work=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/code_expl.htm |access-date=23 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221005231/http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/code_expl.htm |archive-date=21 February 2008 }}</ref> The code calls for such standards as voluntary consent of patients, avoidance of unnecessary pain and suffering, and that there must be a belief that the experimentation will not end in death or disability.<ref>{{cite web|title=Regulations and Ethical Guidelines: Reprinted from ''Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol. 2, pp. 181–182 |publisher=Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1949 |work=Office of Human Subjects Research |url=http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/nuremberg.html |access-date=23 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029120713/http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/nuremberg.html |archive-date=29 October 2007 }}</ref> The Code was not cited in any of the findings against the defendants and never made it into either German or American [[medical law]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ghooi|first=Ravindra B.|date=2011-01-01|title=The Nuremberg Code–A critique|journal=Perspectives in Clinical Research|volume=2|issue=2|pages=72–76|doi=10.4103/2229-3485.80371|issn=2229-3485|pmc=3121268|pmid=21731859}}</ref> This code comes from the Nuremberg Trials where the most heinous of Nazi leaders were put on trial for their war crimes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007722|title=The Nuremberg Trials|website=www.ushmm.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref> To this day, the Nuremberg Code remains a major stepping stone for medical experimentation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/doctors-trial/nuremberg-code|title=Nuremberg Code – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|website=www.ushmm.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref>

===Modern ethical issues===
Andrew Conway Ivy stated the Nazi experiments were of no medical value.<ref name=Berger /> Data obtained from the experiments, however, has been used and considered for use in multiple fields, often causing controversy. Some object to the data's use purely on [[medical ethics|ethical]] grounds, disagreeing with the methods used to obtain it, while others have rejected the research only on scientific grounds, criticizing methodological inconsistencies.<ref name=Berger /> Those in favor of using the data argue that if it has practical value to save lives, it would be equally unethical not to use it.<ref name="ETHIC"/> [[Arnold S. Relman]], editor of ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'' from 1977 until 1991, refused to allow the journal to publish any article that cited the Nazi experiments.<ref name=Berger />

{{quote box|width=30%|quote="I don't want to have to use the Nazi data, but there is no other and will be no other in an ethical world ... not to use it would be equally bad. I'm trying to make something constructive out of it."|source=Dr John Hayward, justifying citing the Dachau freezing experiments in his research.<ref name="ETHIC"/>}}

The results of the Dachau freezing experiments have been used in some late 20th century research into the treatment of [[hypothermia]]; at least 45 publications had referenced the experiments as of 1984, though the majority of publications in the field did not cite the research.<ref name=Berger /> Those who have argued in favor of using the research include Robert Pozos from the [[University of Minnesota]] and John Hayward from the [[University of Victoria]].<ref name="ETHIC"/> In a 1990 review of the Dachau experiments, [[Robert Berger (surgeon)|Robert Berger]] concludes that the study has "all the ingredients of a scientific fraud" and that the data "cannot advance science or save human lives."<ref name=Berger />

In 1989, the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA) considered using data from Nazi [[biomedical research|research]] into the effects of [[phosgene]] gas, believing the data could help US soldiers stationed in the [[Persian Gulf]] at the time. They eventually decided against using it, on the grounds it would lead to criticism and similar data could be obtained from later studies on animals. Writing for ''Jewish Law'', Baruch Cohen concluded that the EPA's "knee-jerk reaction" to reject the data's use was "typical, but unprofessional", arguing that it could have saved lives.<ref name="ETHIC"/>


[[Category:List]]
[[Category:Torturer]]
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[[Category:Villainous Event]]
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[[Category:Supremacists]]
[[Category:Doctors and Scientists]]
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