Human Experimentation Committed by Nazi Scientists and How Their Actions Were Justified

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Human Experimentation Committed by Nazi
Scientists and How Their Actions Were Justified

• By Carolyn F. Janecek

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Types of Human Experimentations

• Medico-Military Research
• To develop treatments for injuries/illnesses
  encountered in field.
• Miscellaneous, Ad Hoc Experiments
• Contained large varieties of torture without a
  pretense of scientific inquiry.
• Racially Motivated Experiments
• To advance racial ideology.

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Medico-Military Research

• Freezing Experiments
• High Altitude Experiments
• Sea-water Drinking Experiments
• Tuberculosis Experiments
• Etc.

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Miscellaneous, Ad Hoc Experiments

• Poison Experiments
• Phenol Gasoline and Cyanide.
• To see how fast the victims died.
• Wound Experiments
• Dr. Sigmund Rascher from Dachau Camp.
• To find a coagulant hemorrhaging leading cause
  of death among SS soldiers.

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Racially Motivated Experiments

• Artificial Insemination
• Sterilization
• Identical Twins/Jewish Dwarves Studies
• Dr. Joseph Mengele of Auschwitz.
• 200 of 1000 pairs of twins survived.
• Jewish Skeleton Collection
• Dr. August Hirt of Strassburg University.

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The Justifications

• The experiments were committed for the greater
  good.
• They were simply following the orders given them.
• The victims were considered sub-human.
• The prisoners were already condemned to death.
• The Nazis merely acquiesced because science lies
  outside politics and morality.

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For The Greater Good

• Medical Advances
• Technological Advances
• But can this new-found information be used
  despite its gruesome origin?
• The knowledge should not go to waste.
• It should never had been discovered in the first
  place it should be disregarded.

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2. Simply Following Orders

• Many Germans threatened by the Nazis.
• Repercussions had they not followed their orders
• They would be murdered/sent to a camp.
• Their families would be murdered/sent to a camp.

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3. Victims Considered Sub-Human

• The Aryan race was considered the superior
  race, anyone else was sub-human.
• They were exterminated or put to use as human
  guinea pigs.

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4. Prisoners Already Condemned

• The prisoners were condemned at their arrival to
  the camps.
• Men, women, old, young separated upon arrival,
  most killed immediately.
• Kept alive only
• To work.
• To be used as human guinea pigs.
• To be starved/tortured.

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5. Science Beyond Politics and Morality

• Science and scientists do not operate in a
  social and moral vacuum.
• Anything in the name of science
• Nazi science was not really science there is
  no ethical dilemma.

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• To forget would be not only dangerous but
  offensive to forget the dead would be akin to
  killing them a second time.- Elie Wiesel