Menschenversuche in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern

The I.G. colors had various human trials in concentration camps between 1933 and 1945.

Under the leadership of doctors such as Sigmund Rascher and Claus Schilling, prisoners were abused for life-threatening experiments. Among the most notorious were the negative pressure and hypothermia experiments (to simulate the survival of downed pilots in the sea) and large-scale malaria experiments. Hundreds of defenseless victims were artificially infected with malaria to test experimental drugs. A large proportion of the prisoners died in extreme agony or suffered permanent damage during the experiments.

From 1942 onwards, the Dachau concentration camp was the site of extensive and systematic medical experiments on humans. These were often coordinated by the Luftwaffe and the SS\'s own research institutions (such as the “Ahnenerbe” research community).

From January 1942, a permanent station for medical human experiments was set up in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The center of these crimes was in Block 46 (an isolated and fenced-in stone barrack) and, from 1943, in Block 50, where the “Department for Typhus and Virus Research” of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen-SS was housed. The experiments were largely led by the SS doctor Erwin Ding-Schuler.

During the series of experiments, over a thousand prisoners were used as living test subjects. The prisoners were artificially injected with deadly pathogens in order to then test the effectiveness of vaccines from various manufacturers (including those from Behringwerke and the Robert Koch Institute). Hundreds of people died under the most painful conditions directly from the infections or the toxic side effects of the test preparations. Those who survived the series of experiments were often murdered afterwards to make room for new test groups. These crimes were a central part of the Nuremberg Medical Trials.

The Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen (as well as its subcamp Gusen) was the site of extremely brutal, often fatal series of experiments on prisoners. The experiments were coordinated by SS doctors such as Eduard Krebsbach, Aribert Heim (“Dr. Death”) and Heinz Baumkötter.

In Mauthausen, prisoners were systematically abused as experimental subjects. The injection experiments with gasoline, phenol or heart-active poisons directly into the heart muscle in order to research the speed of death are notorious. In addition, surgical operations (e.g. organ removal) were carried out without any anesthesia in order to test the reactions of the human body and surgical methods for the Waffen-SS. Almost all test victims died or were deliberately murdered after the tests.

The Waffen-SS hygiene institute was responsible, among other things, for the experiments of people in concentration camps, but also for numerous other inhumane studies.

Baumkötter became known for his pseudo -scientific experiments, which he carried out on prisoners. Due to the increasingly threatening war situation, an attempt should be made to make the crew of German submarines do without sleep for days. Reichsführer SS Himmler had previously given permission to carry out experiments on prisoners. Baumkötter carried out this by injecting drugs, including cocaine and pervit. Afterwards, the subjects had to march for days without sleep on a 700 -meter -long career with half a hundredweight. At the same time, they “tested” on the approximately 40 kilometers for the industry shoe soles (Schücker-Kommando).

Further experiments should affect the cause, infection and healing of jaundice, in which the prisoner was injected.

In addition, prisoners were inflicted by phosphorus 2. And 3rd degree to test the chances of recovery.

Baumkötter was directly responsible for crimes committed to the prisoners. He selected prisoners who were no longer able to work and was present for shootings to confirm the death of the prisoners. He was also a witness to gassing to certify the death of the victims here too. Baumkötter in Sachsenhausen introduced the playing of all marching music for shootings so that the other prisoners could not hear the rifle shots.

Schumann is involved in the Auschwitz concentration camp in human trials for sterilization through X -rays:

Schumann, who also worked with Gerhard Buhtz, received the order from the leader's firm in autumn 1942 to test the effectiveness of sterilizations by X -rays on prisoners from Auschwitz. It was about the search for an efficient method to prevent the reproduction of hereditary and racially undesirable people by infertile.