What+kind+of+experiments+did+the+Nazi+Party+perform+on+their+prisoners?

The experiments performed on World War 2 POWs were grisly, dark, and immoral – there is no questioning that. Some of the experiments performed are listed as follows:

__//Hypothermia Experiments: //__ To simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the Eastern Front, they performed a series of experiments on their subjects. First, they figured out how long it would take to lower the body temperature to a deadly level. Second, they had to figure out a way how to best revive the victim.

They had a number of ways to effect this. First, a selection was made from healthy Jews or Russians. Then… 1) The person would be stripped naked and their temperature taken. They would be put in a basin of freezing water. 2) The person would be put out naked in subzero temperatures, strapped in a stretcher. Most people would die when their temperature dropped to 25 C.

This wasn’t the end of it, however. They deliberately dropped their body temperatures so that they could find a good resuscitation technique to use on soldiers in the field. They were just as painful.

__//Sun Lamp //__ Some were placed under sun lamps so hot that they would burn the skin.

One homosexual victim was repeatedly cooled to unconsciousness and then he was revived with lamps until he was pouring sweat. He died one evening after several tests.

//__Internal Irrigation __// The victim would have water heated to a blistering temperature and then forcefully irrigated into his stomach, bladder, and intestines. All died.

//__Hot bath __// They were placed in a tub of warm water and the temperature would be slowly increased. This was proven to be the best method, though they did discover that if they were warmed up too quickly their body would suffer shock and die.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Body Heat __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">It was thought that intercourse might also be a way to sustain them, though while it was slightly successful it did not prove to have the best results as the warm bath.



__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">GENETIC EXPERIMENTS __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nazi Germany had a fascination with the ‘perfect race,’ which they believed to be people with blonde hair and pale eyes. To support this assumption, they took several measurements of the heads, eyes, noses, and even the blood of several individuals. This was used as false evidence to say that any race other than German was more prone to thievery or other various offenses. The ‘perfect race’ as the Nazis saw it was named Aryan.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A very deranged man named Josef Mengele, also known as “The Angel of Death,” did most of the experiments and genetic research. He would routinely select people and place them into separate lines and groups when they arrived via train at Auschwitz. Some would be sent to the gas chambers, others to hard labor camps. Twins, dwarfs, and other unique peoples were assigned to the experimental blocks.

__//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Experiments on Twins //__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Twins seemed to be of special importance to Dr. Mengele. Very precise measurements were taken, and if they were off even a little bit a doctor would be in trouble.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Twins would keep their hair for several days, but after all of their living data was collected, the two would be killed by an injection of chloroform to the heart. The twins had to die at the same times. They were then dissected, and the organs were sent to researchers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dr. Mengele was also keen on working with Romani children. He would bring them sweets and toys, and then he would personally take them to the gas chamber. Vera Alexander, a Jewish inmate who looked after 50 sets of Romani twins, said:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“I remember one set of twins in particular: Guido and Ina, aged about four. One day, Mengele took them away. When they returned, they were in a terrible state: they had been sewn together, back to back, like Siamese twins. Their wounds were infected and oozing pus. They screamed day and night. Then their parents – I remember the mother's name was Stella – managed to get some morphine and they killed the children in order to end their suffering.”

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Body Transplantation __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">From about September 1942 to about December 1943 experiments were conducted at the Ravensbrück concentration to study bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration, and bone transplantation from one person to another. Sections of bones, muscles, and nerves were removed from the subjects without use of anesthesia. As a result of these operations, many victims suffered intense agony, mutilation, and permanent disability.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Head injury experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">There was at least one instance where a boy of eleven or twelve was strapped to a chair so that he could not move. Above him was suspended a giant mechanized hammer that, every few seconds, would come down on his head.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Malaria experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Experiments were conducted to investigate the immunization for the treatment of malaria. Healthy inmates were infected by mosquitos or by injections of extracts of the mucous glands of female mosquitoes. The victims were treated with various drugs. 1,000+ people were used, and more than half died.



//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Mustard gas experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">There were investigations conducted to find the most effective treatment of wounds sustained by the use of mustard gas in the war. The subjects were deliberately exposed to mustard gas, which is a corrosive gas used in chemical warfare. When used on a live subject, it forms large, extremely painful blisters on exposed skin. This wasn’t the only chemical agents the prisoners were subject to, though. Their wounds were tested to find the most effective and easiest treatment for them.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sulfonamide experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">There were experiments conducted to find the effectiveness of sulfonamide, which is a synthetic antimicrobial agent. Wounds were inflicted on the subjects by the doctors and they were then deliberately infected with various bacteria such as Strep and tetanus. They cut off the circulation of the blood by tying off blood vessals at both ends of the wound to create a condition that would be very similar to what they’d experience on a battlefield. They then aggravated the wound by forcing wood shavings or ground glass into them. They were treated with sulfonamide to determine their effectiveness.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sea water experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">They also wanted to make sea water drinkable. At least one point, a group of 90 Roma were not given food, and they were only given sea water to drink. This, obviously, left them in a terrible state. Others observed them licking freshly mopped floors in an attempt to get drinkable water.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sterilization experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">There were also experiments that were aimed at making millions of people sterile the quickest and most effective way. They were conducted by X-Ray, surgery, and various drugs. Thousands of victims were sterilized during these experiments.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sometimes intravenous inkections of solutions (which some people think to have iodine and silver nitrate) would be successful, but would cause horrible side-effects. They then tried radiation treatment, which became a favorite choice.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Experiments with poison __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Poisons were also explored in Nazy Germany. They were secretly administered to the subjects in their food, and they invariably died. Others who took too long were killed to permit autopsies.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Incendiary bomb experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Burns were inflected on prisoners by the use of phosphorus material that was taken out of incendiary bombs. They were used to test the effectively of various pharmaceutical medications.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">High altitude experiments __// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A low-pressure chamber was built to contain prisoners and simulate conditions of altitudes of up to 20,000. There was a rumor that circulated around that Dr. Rascher performed vivisections on the brains of victims who survived. There were 200 subjects. 80 died outright. The rest were killed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The doctors in charge were later arrested and tried, which will be explained more in this section.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">For more information on the Nazi Human Experimentation, please look [|here.]

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