Holocaust Notes
Wikipedia Page on Nazi Experimentation
Wikipedia Wikimedia, 2001. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation>.
Nazis experimented on about 1,500 twins, only 200 of which survived.
Most experiments on twins were done to see if their eye color could be changed.
Nazis froze Jews to experiment different treatments for hypothermia. They placed them naked in temperatures as low as 21F. These experiments were done to find help for Nazi soldiers in cold place. 100 people die from being frozen.
From 1942- 1945 Jews were stripped and exposed to mosquitos in order to get malaria. The Nazis then tested different cures for malaria. 500 victims of these experiments died.
Between 1939 and 1945, victims were exposed to mustard gas which inflicted severe chemical burns. Nazis tested for the best cure for these burns.
Wounds that imitated wounds from war were inflicted on Jews in order to test the most effective treatments.
There were experiments done to test different ways of making sea water drinkable. People were put in rooms with nothing other than sea water to drink.
Nazis experimented the best ways to sterilize individuals. About 400,000 people were sterilized aside from experiments. Many people suffered radiation burns from these experiments.
Nazis did several experiments with poison to test the most effective kind. These tets included putting the poison in victim’s food and shooting people with poison bullets.
Experiments were done with phosphorus burns to test the best cures. These were supposed to imitate wounds from incindiary bombs.
High altitude experiments were done to imitate german soldiers ejecting out of planes. 200 subjects were tested, 80 died from the initial experiments and the others were executed.
After the Holocaust, doctors pleaded in trial that their actions were legal because there were no international laws against medical experimentation.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Page on Experimentation
“Nazi Medical Experiments.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 4 May 2009. Google. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005168>.
Most experiments on Jews were conducted for the benefit of the Nazi soldiers. This was the first of three categories of experimentation in the Third Reich.
High altitude experiments took place in a low pressure chamber at Dachau.
The second category was testing treatment methods.
At Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Natzweiler, Buchenwald, and Neuengamme is where most of these took place. They tested treatments for malaria, typhus, turberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and hepatitis.
The third category was to change people’s physical characteristics, such as eye color.
The most infamous doctor, Josef Mengele, conducted many experiments on twins. He mainly attempted to change their eye color, but also conducted experiments to test whether different races had different reactions to diseases.
Wikipedia Page on Josef Mengele
“Josef Mengele.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 14 Feb. 2010. Google. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele>.
Born March 16, 1911. Died February 7, 1979.
He was the main physician at Auschwitz.
He supervised which prisoners were killed immediately and which were chosen for labor.
He was known as the “Angel of Death.”
After the war, he fled to South America and became a war criminal.
Joined the Nazi party in 1937 and got a medical degree in 1938, which allowed him to join the SS.
After being wounded in battle, Mengele was promoted to an SS captain.
In May, 1943, Mengele replaced the doctor that became ill in Auschwitz.
Josef Mengele was the person who stood at the entrance of Auschwitz and directed people to either the gas chamber or the barracks.
Children under 5 feet tall were sent to the gas chamber immediately.
He was especially interested in identical twins, they even had their own special barracks and food.
He took interest in the Ovitz family, a family of dwarfs, of whom he called “my dwarf family.”
Did several experiments attempting to change the color of people’s eyes by inserting different chemicals.
Mengele put 14 pairs of Roma twins on experimentation tables, and while they were asleep killed them. He then dissected them, examining everything he could about their bodies.
After every experiment, Mengele killed the victim and examined their bodies.
Mengele did one experiment in which he sewed two twins together, creating conjoined twins.
Mengele presented himself as a protector, when he went to his children subjects, he called himself, “Uncle Mengele.” He also was known as “Mengele the protector” because his subjects were better fed, housed, and safe from the gas chamber.
Approximately 3,000 twins were experimented upon in Auschwitz, only of which 100 survived.
Wikipedia Page on The Ovitz Family
“Ovitz Family.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 17 Feb. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovitz_family>.
The Ovitz family was a family of dwarves that was captured and experimented upon in Auschwitz.
Most of the family survived Mengele’s experiments because he wanted to spare them because they had a special deformity.
Before they went to Auschwitz, the dwarves of the family formed a Lilliput troupe, in which they sang to entertain people.
The Ovitz family were perfect experimentation subjects for Mengele because there were tall members and dwarf members.
Mengele extracted bone marrow and other materials from the dwarves’ bodies to test hereditary disease.
Mengele drew blood from the veins behind the dwarves’ ears.
Mengele killed and boiled newborn dwarf babies to exhibit their bones in a museum.
On one occasion Mengele ordered them to strip naked so he could present them to a group of observers.
A film was also made of them for Hitler’s amusement.
When the Holocaust was over, the family went back to their looted home them settled in Israel. They then continued touring and later bought a cinema hall.
Script
Scene 1- A collage of pictures of medical experiments, slow music in the background.
Narration: Thousands of people were experimented upon during the Holocaust. Of about 3,000 twins, only 100 survived. These brutal medical experiments included mustard gas, malaria, and freezing.
(Collage fades to black and goes to pictures of Josef Mengele)
Narration: Josef Mengele, the head physician at Auschwitz, conducted most the experiments there. Known as the “Angel of Death,” he seemed to be the savior of the Jewish people because his subjects were better fed, housed, and were not forced into labor. Mengele did this in order to keep his victims healthy. Mengele also did not only have one job, but he was also the person that directed people either to the gas chamber, or the forced labor camp. His most famous dealings at Auschwitz, however, were his medical experiments.
Narration: Mengele took a special interest in genetics, which led him to love twins and dwarves. Mengele’s experiments were often brutal and without anesthesia, this included dissections and experiments with chemical substances. One example of an experiment is when he killed 14 pairs of Roma twins in their sleep and dissected them, looking for any genetic similarities. One exception was the Ovitz family, a family that was a mix of dwarves and normally sized members. Mengele did very few experiments on them because they were such a rare test subject. The one who got most the experiments was Shinshon Ovitz, a dwarf with two normal parents. The experiments on him included withdrawing blood from behind the ear and fingers. To escape the experiments, the family humored Mengele by singing German songs, dancing, and other ways of entertainment. Two other dwarf members were also boiled in order to put their bones in a museum. Mengele was a very ruthless, violent doctor that killed thousands of people. During his time at Auschwitz, he experimented on at least 3,000 twins alone. Only 100 of which survived.