Medical Experiments In The Holocaust

The Holocaust was one of the most sadistic and inhumane episodes in world history. Of all the atrocious actions that occurred during the war, perhaps the most appalling was the medical experiments conducted by the Nazis. From 1933 to 1945 at least seventy pseudo-medical projects were performed on at least 7,000 human beings against their will (“Medical Experiments.”) These victims, almost all Jews and a few Gypsys, suffered unspeakable pain, mutilation, permanent disability, infertility, and in many cases death. It is difficult to assess the motive behind all of these actions but many of them were racist-inspired and involved protecting German blood. Under the guise of medical science and in cold blood, qualified and experienced Nazi doctors attempted to racially purify their nation and in the process innocent people endured endless pain and suffering.
The most notorious of these experiments were conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele and carried out on Jewish and Gypsy children--in many cases twins, dwarfs, and other "anomalies" of …show more content…
Such is the case of the tests performed on artificial insemination. After Heinrich Himmler heard that Dr. Carl Clauberg had successfully treated a high level SS officer’s infertile wife, Himmler ordered Clauberg to conduct artificial insemination experiments. “Some 300 women at Auschwitz subsequently underwent artificial insemination at the hands of Clauberg, who reportedly taunted victims strapped down before him by informing them that he had just inseminated them with animal sperm and that monsters were now growing inside their wombs” (Tyson, 2000, para. 10.) Additionally, to determine if people have any natural immunities to tuberculosis and to develop vaccines Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer performed experiments with tuberculosis. He injected live Tubercle Bacilli into the lungs of his victims and about 200 adult subjects died and he had 20 children hung in an effort to hide evidence