Criminal pseudomedical experiments in Auschwitz

Transcript of the podcast

A particularly drastic example of betrayal of medical ethics is the participation of many German doctors in the criminal pseudo-medical experiments carried out on concentration camp prisoners. I spoke to Teresa Wontor-Cichy about the experiments conducted at Auschwitz.

Except murderous slave labour, the horrible conditions, constant threat of life, some of the prisoners within the concentration camp system were also subjected to pseudo-medical experiments that very often resulted in either death or physical harm for those prisoners and also such shameful pseudo-medical experiments were also carried out in the Auschwitz concentration camp. What was the idea behind using prisoners in the camp for experimentations and also what kind of experiments the prisoners of Auschwitz were subjected to?
Teresa Wontor-Cichy: Looking globally at the idea of experimentation in concentration camps we have to stress just three major issues of the conducting: Firstly, was army and the war effort, to detect properly the diseases, to treat properly injured soldiers and also to meet all the other needs which army was bringing on the combat fields. Second was the Nazi ideology which was proclaiming the differences between the races and the position of the super-race which was the Nordic considered by the scientists those days. The other was also the pharmaceutical industry, which was to test basically the new products, new medicines, which were to be introduced in the market, in a very wide range. Then in the individual cases as we may add the fourth element, was just the personal interest to pursue their career to pursue their interest. In terms of approval, it has got the full support of the main office of the administrative and economic office as experiments cost also can be really surprised. Certain budget would have to be every time preserved for seperate proposals. In person the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler deeply supported and helped many of the German scientist to start the experimentation in Auschwitz.

In Auschwitz when we look at different doctors and different experiments it’s important to note that the experiments targeted everyone. That among the groups of prisoners who were experimented on, we’ll find men, we’ll find women, we’ll find children. The scope of different kinds of experiments basically could harm every person that entered into the system.

That is also the element which is the differentiation from the other camps that to Auschwitz actually all ages were being deported. The whole families. So all age groups and if we look at the separate examples of experiments we will see that they were actually focussed on different prisoners. Carl Clauberg was a very famous gynaecologist, professor, he was the head of the female division in clinic in Silesia region. In summer 1942 he was invited for a meeting, in Berlin and some discussion was carried out, which was considered as confidential. The idea was to find the most successful biological method of mass sterilisation. Clauberg was known before as a physician successful in hereditary issues, and now was to focus on something completely different. He chose as a place for his experimentation Auschwitz because the female camp started to operate here after March 1942. The first place he was offered to organise his lab was in Birkenau, which was at that time under construction. A wooden barrack was given for his disposal, but he found the conditions there as not suitable for his needs and this is why a few months later, he convinced the leader of the camp Rudolf Höss to move his lab to Block Number Ten in the main camp, in Auschwitz-I. The women who were subjected for his experiments, were taken from the unloading platform, from the new arriving prisoners. First, they were interviewed very briefly and there were two basic questions asked: If they were going through delivery before and if the menstruation circle was still functioning in their case. The women sent for this block were actually from all occupied Europe. The first women were from Belgium, France, later Greece, Poland Germany, also Hungary. The methods combined two stages: The first was introducing a chemical irritant into the reproductive organs of the women. This was to cause the closing of the fallopian tubes. The chemical caused pain, caused very often some harm, some fewer. Few weeks later the women were then taken for the next stage. This time the different type of chemical was introduced into their reproductive organs, in order to see if the tubes are really closed. The chemical also consistent of kind of contrasts so the X-ray could see how the result of the process looked like. The women were staying in this block for a few weeks and later on they were sent back for Birkenau for work. In a few cases, after a few weeks, again they were brought to this building to check the result. Clauberg was not the only one who was focussing on the sterilization project. The other one was Horst Schumann, a military doctor and he chose for his purpose x-ray. Especially Siemens production of two x-rays machine was brought for him to Birkenau and also a special cabin was organised, and he could from the distance start the devices. Prisoners used for his method, they were men and women, and the idea was to introduce a certain dose of the radiation on the organs which were because of the doses, destroyed. It caused burns, it caused wounds. After the first radiation the prisoners were again usually sent for the camp, in a few cases they were kept in Block number ten and then the second stage was surgery. The organs which were ruined because of the doses, were to be taken for the hospital for operation, in both cases, men and women. The scientist, as they were called, because of their task, they were to report about the results. So, Clauberg wrote a letter, extended letter, in 1944, saying that with the basic help of ten people from the medical staff, he was able to sterilize per day approximately 1,000 women. Schumann also has to report his result and he prepared an article and, in this article, he described with details of the cases of the result and as a summary he wrote that this method was found unsuccessful because of the injuries because of the sepsis which occurred also in the cases of death. So, his opinion was that eventually castration could be the most effective method. The doctor which is the most connected with the medical experiments here in Auschwitz is Joseph Mengele. And as we talk about the different age groups, he is actually the best example.

He was a student a very talented person. He finished university with two PhDs, one in anthropology, the second one in medicine and as a young person he was immediately found as a person, as a staff member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute, run by Professor von Verschuer in Berlin. The main interest of the research of Professor von Verschuer was hereditary, and his idea was that the best cases in analysing this process and the different features, different genes are the cases of twins and triplets.

But in normal situation to have the chance for such an extended test, experiment wasn’t available, as the adults the twins are usually separated, so they could only found twins in the very young age. So, back to Mengele. When the war started he was sent to the army, as a military doctor. After finishing his service in Eastern front, he returned to Germany and after short recovery he again was called for the institute in Berlin. And within this time here in Auschwitz, exactly in Birkenau, the family camp for Sinti and Roma was established where the whole families, different age, sometimes in two or even three generations were deported. And just this place turned out to be for professor von Verschuer and eventually Mengele interest the best occasion for finding the new cases. So Mengele appeared in Birkenau at the end of May 1943 and very shortly he developed his interest. Not only twins and triplets, he started to be interested in people with different anatomical abnormalities, then with people with different eye colour, then also some other cases, which were interesting for him. Especially, the disease which appeared in Sinti and Roma camp in summer 1943, called „Water cancer” or „Cancer of a cheek”.

Especially children were suffering from this disease. And what kind of procedure he introduced? So, for twins and triplets, the procedure started with the interview and different stages of anthropological documentation, with measurements, with information about the diseases which were in the family. And then the final stage of the experiment, was the autopsy, so children or adults, they were killed with phenol injection and the pathologist was to finish the documentation with the autopsy. In terms of children who were suffering from the cancer of a cheek, they started with some medication and better treatment. First of all, better food, with more vitamins and after they noticed some changes in wounds, the experiment was closed by the lethal injection and in few cases their heads were also taken for the analysis. They were just used as the material for the labs, were very often send even to Germany. Mengele did not work himself, from among the prisoners he chose specialists, very often world famous doctors, for example, for all the paediatric issues Professor Berthold Epstein, Czech doctor was to be involved in the documentation. Then for the anthropology he was using Doctor Martyna Puzyna, the assistant of professor Jan Czekanovsky, very famous polish anthropologist. Not only medical documentation was prepared he also was interested in having different type of files like for example some drawings. A Czech prisoner, Slamar, was to prepare the portraits of the Sinti and Roma and later on Dina Gotliebova was also to prepare some of the portraits of so called „Mischlings” , so the Romas from mixed marriages.

Clauberg and Mengele appear in the camp with the plan for experiments. Another doctor, Doctor Kramer came here, we may say, accidentally, because he came as a replacement.

A doctor who was here actually three months, and he came from Prague, he was serving in a military hospital in Prague, because the doctors here were, some of them on a sick leave, so they needed replacement, they needed the support. Johann Paul Kramer was a professor of Medical University in Münster, he was lecturing in anatomy. And here in Auschwitz, he was sent for the duties which were typical for the doctors, like he was to carry out death selections on the unloading platform, decide about life and death among the Jewish prisoners brought here. Then he also had the duties in the hospital, camp hospital and just being there he noticed that the prisoners who were exhausted because of starvation are having some changes on their skin colour and generally physically changing. So, he decided to start an experiment by choosing from among the exhausted prisoners a group and he started with the interview. Interview concerning their medical history, information about their weight, about family diseases. Then the prisoners were killed with the injections and some organs like the liver, spleen, were extracted using the surgical method and as samples were sent for Germany, mainly Münster University. And on the labels, on the packages, Kramer urged to put a label that this shipping is important for the military efforts of Germany.

It is also important to note that he kept a diary and when we want to learn a little bit about the life of an SS doctor not only in Auschwitz, but for us the particularly interesting period is his service in Auschwitz, looking into his diary is a very powerful lecture, because of the brevity of the wording, because of the very short description but I think it is even more powerful when we look at this document this way.

It is absolutely unique material, if we analyse, well generally the doctor role in the war and just the three months in Auschwitz, he was brief in his captions, but very detailed, very precise what he was doing. He thought that being only three months here in Auschwitz and considering the fact that so much of the documentation was destroyed, actually he won’t be targeted by court, by any institution of what he was doing here. Until his diary was found and it turned out that not only the prisoners were remembering his experiments but also, he was writing himself about packages being sent to Germany or in very few words, sentences, he was describing the medical cases he found here as interesting for him.

Kremer wasn’t the only surprising doctor appearing here in Auschwitz, making the experiments, accidentally let’s say.

Some of the doctors have never been here. For example, Professor August Hirt. He was a professor at the University in Strasburg and he was especially interested in racial ideology, he was to found the scientific justification, explanation and all this proof for this ideology. In very few universities those days there were collections of skeletons from different parts of the world and knowing that Auschwitz is a place that people from so many different places are being deported, he sent here his representants to choose. He wanted a large group of one hundred people to be selected but eventually eighty-six Jewish prisoners were chosen. Most of them were men, a smaller group of women. They were from all over Europe. They were again interviewed; they were tested if they are not carrying any dangerous diseases and the whole group was transferred to the camp in Natzweiler-Stuthoff. Right after arrival they were all killed, they were murdered in gas chamber there. Then all the corpses were given to the disposal of Professor Hirt who hired a pathologist to prepare the collection of the Jewish skeletons. The corpses were partly prepared for the whole procedure and because of the changes in the front, Western front, the whole project wasn’t finished. So when the allied forces entered the labs, they found huge tubs with parts of the human bodies. Later on the remains, they were buried on the local cemetery. Another physician who again, has never been here, was Kurt Heissmeyer, he was the specialist in pulmonology. At that time looking for the best methods of healing tuberculosis was really advanced, so he could not find good institution which would give him credits for his proposal. Eventually, he used his uncle who was a general and this is how he was allowed to start his experimentation, first in Neuengamme, where he was using mainly the Soviet prisoners of war and then he was allowed to experiment also on children. And for his request twenty children from Auschwitz, ten boys, ten girls, aged from six to twelve, were selected. Some minor tests were done here in Auschwitz. Then together with the assistance, they were medical stuff, they were doctors, they were all transferred for Neuengamme. The idea of Heissmeyer was to introduce the treatment of tuberculosis by using the different type of infection like for example the skin tuberculosis. So, the children were first of all infected with the pulmonary tuberculosis and that was to be the beginning of the experimentation. But again the situation in the war has changed. It was already spring of 1945, so the allied forces were approaching Neuengamme and the children who were sick because of the infections, they were hanged in the basement of one of the schools nearby, together with the doctors, with the nurses who were also prisoners, who were taking care of the children.

Did the situation in the camp, we know that because of the sanitary conditions, contagious diseases was a very important element of the daily life of the camp, but it also could endanger the life of the SS garrison, did this situation also result in experiments that could help the Germans to find a cure for some of the diseases that were present in the camp?

The pharmaceutical industry found the place as a great challenge for many medicines. They were not having given the name at that stage. They were having just the numbers which were used in the production process to be tested here in different circumstances. Some of them were strictly connected with the combat situations. So, the prisoners were injured and they were wrapped some creams, some liquids or they had to swallow some tablets or syrups. Their reactions were carefully written down with all the information about the fever, all the changes, so that was a part of the quite important experiment for the industry, but then also the doctors themselves started to think about the possibilities in dealing with the contagious diseases for example typhus was dangerous. Dangerous not only for the prisoners, they were mainly dying because of typhus but also the SS staff they were contracting this disease. Mengele as we mentioned before was out of duty because he contracted typhus. The Standortarzt, so the doctor of the garrison, the most important person from the medical point of view here in the camp, did not suffer from typhus but he brought typhus home, his wife was suffering from typhus, so it was a challenge for the doctors and some of them for example started to test the blood of the prisoners – which moment the blood is still infected, which moment it is already free of this virus. So, they were actually infecting the prisoners on purpose and then by taking the blood this type of experiments were carried.

Another type of medical procedure that can be considered close to medical experimentation, when we look at Auschwitz, is surgery, because on one hand we have those experienced researchers who are sent to Auschwitz for their research. On the other hand, within the structure of the SS medical stuff we have young not yet experienced doctors, surgeons, who can become better doctors thanks to the reality of the camp.

When we look at the medicals here in Auschwitz, especially at the biography of the doctors we may see that the majority of them were young men, few years after finishing the medical school. So, from the professional point of view they were not so qualified in their fields and to pursue their career they have to take examinations just as regular, normal the professional line of the doctors, so they needed practice and some of them wanted to specialise in surgery. So, in one of the buildings here, building number twenty-one, the lab was organised and few of the doctors: They didn’t have someone who would be the teacher as we may say, so from among the prisoners they choose surgeon and they were very good, experienced surgeons, so as they are saying in some of the operations they were to assist as a prisoner doctor, they have to be very careful with how they behave, what they are saying, how they react to what the German doctor is doing. In some cases, as they are saying in their testimonies they could easily notice that the German doctor is not having the talent for surgery at all, his hands are not for surgeries, his fingers are not the fingers of a surgeon. So, in many cases the operation would be unsuccessful. It means that the prisoner who was on the table would definitely die. So, in order not to kill the prisoner and also to kind of „play a game” with the German doctor they were finishing this operation, being kind and friendly and very professional to the German doctor and at the same time trying to save the prisoner who was on the operation table. Some of the operations were having the medical justification, they were to really help the prisoners, but in some cases in was just training.

When we talk about pseudo-medical experiments, adding the word criminal experiments, is also very important because as we could hear, most of the doctors did not really care about the fate of people they were experimenting on. Many of the experiments planned the death of the prisoners so we are talking about very few survivors of these crimes.

This is very true, some of them were actually having the intention that the final stage was to finish the documentation, because that was what was important for the doctors was the autopsy. That was in terms of for example Mengele’s experimentation, he was using two pathologists. The first was French doctor Jakub Wechsler and later on after June 1944 Hungarian pathologist Miklos Nyiszli. Their descriptions were to be very professional as Mengele expected from them really high quality of their skills. The same was for the other doctors like Professor Hirt, but in some cases like Clauberg and Schulman the idea was to see the full result in time space, so this is why most of the women who were taken for experimentation, they survived. They were sent to the camp and they were called for some post-analysis. If we consider the experimentation of Kurt Heissmayer, most probably his project included futher analyses, but the war situation pushed him to this horrible decision and the order to murder in such a brutal way all the children and the people who were assisting this group of twenty children.

Most of the documentation of the experiments was destroyed, during the evacuation, so it causes a several problems for us who try to research and learn the story of the experiments. On one hand the problem is that we are not able to give the number of victims of many of the experiments because they are simply no documents, on the other hand there was a different problem already after the war because some of the survivors of the experiments tried to get some kind of compensations for the suffering and without proper documentation it was very difficult.
Teresa Wontor-Cichy: The medical crime committed in concentration camps first of all, was first presented during the first trials in Nürnberg, the trial of the doctors. So it was very important issue for medical world first of all, but also as an element of justice, a budget was prepared and some compensations, some financial aid was prepared for the victims. In terms of Auschwitz the very urgent issue was the lack of documentation, as we know almost 95 percent of the documentation was destroyed. How to prove even the fact that the person was deported to the camp, there was not any record in the archive. In so many cases the people were having the number tattooed during the registration in the camp and still in the collection of documents there was no single information about them being deported here, so there was just this very difficult dilemmas for the whole process. In terms of survivors of Auschwitz who were after the war in Eastern Europe there was one more thing. The separation of Europe, the division into two blocks, so until 1972 the survivors of Auschwitz who were victims of the medical experiments were not allowed to apply for this type of aid or any type of compensation. There was no contact between the Western Germany and Poland. Only after 1972 the Special Office was established by the Minister of Health and the documentations started to be considered. So, in our archives we do have correspondence between the different survivors who are asking for any type of documentation. We have got long letters were they describe what kind of experimentation they were subjected for. In the archive, unfortunately, there was nothing about this, very often there was not even information to prove that they were established here. So many of the application were turned down. In the first phase 3500 were eventually paid some aid, general for concentration camps. As the budget was still available, so there was a second term in the 80’s and this time over 500 people were paid just this aid. Not a regular compensation, not something was paid as something that was added for their retire pension, it was just that a one-time amount of money.

What about the responsibility of the doctors?

So, after the war some of them tried to disappear. Professor Clauberg was arrested right after the war by the Red Army and was taken for Moscow. In Moscow, he was taken for the trial and sentenced for imprisonment. Ten years later when there was the agreement between Western Germany and Soviet Union he returned to Germany and he intended to start practice. He even organised a place and he put in the local newspaper an announcement about hiring the office worker. So, she would have to run the office, she would be skilled in typing methods, he even mentioned the working hours and he put his name in this announcement. It was found by survivors who were living around and he was arrested. He was taken for court, and he died during the preparation for the trial. Horst Schumann, first he was in Germany for several years and in the 60’s he left for first Japan, then he was in Africa, in Sudan, then in Nigeria, then in Ghana he was identified, arrested and sent for Germany, for the trial. In all the African places he was, he was still practicing medicine, he was a doctor. Preparation for the trial started and he died during this time. So, the trial never started. Mengele, the person associated with the experimentation in Auschwitz after the war was arrested and put to the camp as the prisoner of war. He was even registered in this camp with his own name, and he was released. Then he started to hide and thanks to his wealthy family and also other supporters he managed to leave Europe. He flew to South America and he died in South America in 1979 having the stroke during the swimming in the sea. Professor Hirt right after the end of the war was hiding, and he committed suicide in hiding. Standortarzt, so the main doctor here in Auschwitz for most of the camp existence, Doctor Eduard Wirths was arrested and the preparation for the trial started but he also took his life in prison. Few of the other doctors: Wetter, Entres, Klein they faced justice during the trial of the „Mauthausen staff” and the sentence given was death sentence and the sentence was carried out. All the doctors were holding the titles of professors, doctors, they were, all of them actually, stripped of these titles but in a different period of time, for example Mengele, the process was only in the 60’s. So, we may say for the medical world it was a long process to acknowledge the scale of the crime committed by the doctors in concentration camps.

The last question I would like to ask is the question about this responsibility on one hand but from a more universal aspect. The ethics of doctors, the warning that the story can give to the medical world today but also the ethical challenge what if they discovered something that would be valuable for humanity and what would we do with the results of these horrible crimes. What is the warning?

Looking with details on all the material of the experimentation we may have the impression that in terms of medicine, and in terms of proper analyses carried out with all the correct and very professional approach. And also we may get the impression that it was to actually help the condition of the prisoners to stop the spread of the diseases, to have a better methods of curing some of the very dangerous diseases which the humanity was facing. But we need another material, the testimonies of the survivors and as we were saying for example the diary of doctor Kramer, showing what was the circumstances of gathering this material and it is still a warning and it is still great moral ethical dilemma for the medical world how the knowledge, great knowledge and the dedication for medicine, the dedication for saving life can be manipulated by politics and eventually it can be turned into crime. Crime of innocent people, different age, and with as we say with the white gloves of people who never visited this place, most probably never seen the victims of their experimentation, being interested only in the records, in the papers, only focussed on their own career, to pursue the next stage of their career. To be completely uninterested on a person, a patient, a human being who in fact was to be priority for the doctor.