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    Medical Experiments and Contributions of Nazi Germany

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    ca0suemin17
    The document summarizes medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany during World War II. It describes freezing experiments conducted to study hypothermia that involved submerging subjects in cold water. It also discusses wound experiments where injuries mimicking war wounds were inflicted on subjects to test treatment methods. While controversial, some argue these experiments contributed to advances in modern medicine, though most agree the experiments were inhumane given they violated medical ethics.

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    Medical Experiments and Contributions of Nazi Germany

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    ca0suemin17
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    The document summarizes medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany during World War II. It describes freezing experiments conducted to study hypothermia that involved submerging subjects in cold water. It also discusses wound experiments where injuries mimicking war wounds were inflicted on subjects to test treatment methods. While controversial, some argue these experiments contributed to advances in modern medicine, though most agree the experiments were inhumane given they violated medical ethics.

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    The document summarizes medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany during World War II. It describes freezing experiments conducted to study hypothermia that involved submerging subjects in cold water. It also discusses wound experiments where injuries mimicking war wounds were inflicted on subjects to test treatment methods. While controversial, some argue these experiments contributed to advances in modern medicine, though most agree the experiments were inhumane given they violated medical ethics.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views8 pages

    Medical Experiments and Contributions of Nazi Germany

    Uploaded by

    ca0suemin17
    The document summarizes medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany during World War II. It describes freezing experiments conducted to study hypothermia that involved submerging subjects in cold water. It also discusses wound experiments where injuries mimicking war wounds were inflicted on subjects to test treatment methods. While controversial, some argue these experiments contributed to advances in modern medicine, though most agree the experiments were inhumane given they violated medical ethics.

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    Medical experiments and contributions of Nazi Germany

    Choi 2 Table of Contents Intro........................................................................................................................................4 People and Experiments.........................................................................................................5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................6

    Choi 3 Outline I. II. Introduction Experiments A. Freezing B. War Injuries C. High Altitude III. People

    Choi 4

    Suemin Choi Ms. Murphy Period 1 English 10 June 2013 Intro During World War II, a crime known as the Holocaust was committed. This was a multistep extermination process in which millions of people were killed in the name of racial purity. However, this horrible crime actually did have some advantages. Other than the high ruling politicians such as Hitler, the other most important proponents were the doctors. These men were medical geniuses who had broken their Hippocratic Oaths and had used their knowledge in the realm of medicine to wound and destroy others in the name of science. As Miklos Nylszil, a survivor of Auschwitz, once said, Among all criminals and murderers, the most dangerous is the criminal physician (1). The Nazi doctors did many types of experiments on concentration camp members or prisoners of war (POWs), most of them resulting in the test subjects death. One very fatal but beneficial series of experiments were the freezing experiments, which were requested by the German high command (3). The main purpose of these was to find a cure to hypothermia (5). Many test subjects were placed inside cold water and the temperature was slowly decreased. Sometimes, the test subject died and the death time and body temperature were recorded. Other times, the subject was taken out and various methods were used to warm up the person. The most effective method was the warm bath, in which the subject was placed inside a warm bath and the temperature was slowly increased (2).
    student 6/10/13 6:30 PM Comment: What is the High Command comprised of? student 6/10/13 6:32 PM Deleted: ; student 6/10/13 6:31 PM Deleted: 3 student 6/10/13 6:29 PM Comment: Any specific people groups?

    Choi 5

    Another very important experiment was the open wound experiments. These experiments comprised of the war injury experiments and the bacteria experiments. In the war injury experiments, the subject was injured in a way that would be likely to happen on the battlefield, such as a large gash on the leg or a bullet to the chest. After that, the subject was treated in various ways to see which one was the most effective. In the bacteria experiments, the subject was inflicted with a war injury and then bacteria were forced inside the wound to cause infection. The subject was then given certain antibiotics to see which one worked the best. Both of these experiments actually laid down the basis for modern antibiotic advancement research. Obviously, inhumane medical experiments like the ones mentioned above could not be carried out in regular cities or hospitals. So, the Nazis rectified this mistake by creating several facilities that would later be known as concentration, or death camps. They could be described as industrial murder factories (7). Surprisingly, these camps were actually the worlds first industrial murder complexes (4). Examples of these camps are Auschwitz, Dachau, Ravensbruch, Belzec, and Warsaw. Minorities and invalids would be sent to these camps and they would be killed, forced to assist the Nazis war effort, or used as test subjects. Test subjects had no human rights and the doctors had been given permission by the German high command to wound or kill them. When knowledgeable people think of Nazis and medicine, the first person that comes to mind is usually Josef Mengele. The adult inmates at Auschwitz knew him as Todesengel, which translates to Angel of Death. The children knew him as Uncle Mengele. He would perform vivisections on twins and compare the internals. One of his biggest discoveries was a chemical that could be used to change ones eye color from brown to blue. He noted the growth of

    Choi 6 embryos both inside and outside the womb. However, most of his experiments had very little actual scientific benefit and were used to cause fear. Another very important person to the medical community was Dr. Sigmund Rascher. He was one of the few major doctors that werent at the Nuremberg Trials and was also the only major doctor that was killed by his leaders. He was responsible for overseeing the freezing experiments and was also responsible for conducting general research that would improve Nazi Germany as a whole. The latter of those two things would later be his ultimate demise. Dr. Rascher told Himmler, his superior, that women could have babies at ages that were normally thought of as outside a normal fertility range (8). However, his research and his proof were found to be false. Enraged and disappointed in his subordinate, Himmler had him and his wife executed for scientific fraud. The medical experiments of Nazi Germany were very controversial, with some saying that they were completely inhumane and pointless; while others say that they did make some contributions. The most commonly accepted point of view is that the doctors experimenting was inhumane, however it did make lots of medical contributions. Overall, the experiments may have been somewhat helpful, but all doctors should never stray away from their core values that are stated in the Hippocratic oath that they agreed to live by (9). Many people are always saying, All Nazis are horrible and didnt do anything good because they committed crimes against humanity, etc, etc, etc. However, the Nazis are a good representation of how the goodness and the willingness to advance in humans always prevails at least a little. In a great time of evil, good things did come out of what the Nazis did. A lot of modern medical research and knowledge has its backing in research done by the SS doctors. Just because something is evil, doesnt mean that its bad. Many of the vilest Nazi researchers were

    Choi 7 very good (in the sense of being highly proficient) scientists. They were also tremendously unethical, immoral, and perhaps even evil by our standards, treating their prisoners worse than modern Western scientists would treat a lab rat. This seeming paradox offends many folks today, but its an important lesson from the past. The ends do not justify the means, in and of themselves, and evil can coexist quite happily with expertise (10).

    Choi 8

    1) "Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine." Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine. N.p., 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013. "Holocaust History." Nazi Medical Experiments. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 11 May 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.

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