German experiences. The horrific experiences of Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele in a concentration camp

Anastasia Spirina 13.04.2016

Doctors of the Third Reich
What experiments were performed on prisoners of Nazi concentration death camps for the sake of scientific discoveries?

On December 9, 1946, the so-called war begins in the city of Nuremberg. Nuremberg trial in the case of doctors. In the dock- doctors and lawyers who performed medical experiments on prisoners in SS labor camps. On August 20, 1947, the court made a decision: 16 of the 23 people were found guilty, seven of them were sentenced to death. The indictment alleges “crimes that included murder, atrocities, cruelty, torture and other inhumane acts.”

Anastasia Spirina sorted through the SS archives and found out why exactly the Nazi doctors were convicted.

Letter

From a letter from former prisoner W. Kling dated April 4, 1947 to Fraulein Frohwein, sister of SS Obersturmführer Ernst Frohwein, who from July 1942 to March 1943. was in the Saxenhausen concentration camp as the deputy first camp doctor, and later- SS Hauptsturmführer and adjutant to the imperial medical leader Conti.

“The fact that my brother was an SS man is not his fault, he was dragged in. He was a good German and wanted to do his duty. But he could never consider it his duty to participate in these crimes, which we only learned about now.”

I believe in the sincerity of your horror and in the no less sincerity of your indignation. From the point of view of real facts, it should be stated: it is undoubtedly true that your brother from the Hitler Youth organization, in which he was an activist, was “drawn” into the SS. The assertion of his “innocence” would only be true if it happened against his will. But this, of course, was not the case. Your brother was a “National Socialist”. Subjectively, he was not an opportunist, but, on the contrary, he was convinced, of course, of the correctness of his ideas and actions. He thought and acted the way hundreds of thousands of people of his generation and his origin thought and acted in Germany...” He was a good surgeon and loved his specialty. He also possessed a quality that in Germany- due to its rarity among those who wore the uniform- called “civic courage.” “...”

I read in his eyes and heard from his lips that the impression these people made on him had at first dismayed him. All of them were more intelligent, treated each other more comradely, often in terribly difficult situations they showed themselves to be more courageous than the drunkards around him- SS men. “...” In the prisoner he saw- “privately”- “good fellow.”...” It was clear that beyond this point, SS officer Frohwein, loyal to his “Führer” and his leaders, would discard delicacy. Here a split consciousness occurred...”

Whoever put on the SS uniform was registered as a criminal. He hid and stifled everything human that once was in him. For Obersturmführer Frohwein, this unpleasant side of his activity was precisely his “duty.” This was the duty of not only the “good”, but also the “best” German, for the latter was a member of the SS.

Fighting infectious diseases

“Since animal experiments do not provide a sufficiently complete assessment, experiments must be carried out on humans.”

In October 1941, block 46 was created in Buchenwald with the name “Typhus Test Station. Department for the Study of Typhus and Viruses" under the direction of the Institute of Hygiene of the SS Troops in Berlin. In the period from 1942 to 1945. More than 1,000 prisoners were used for these experiments, not only from the Buchenwald camp, but also from other places. Before arriving at Unit 46, no one knew that they would become test subjects. Selection for experiments was carried out according to an application sent to the camp commandant’s office, and execution was transferred to the camp doctor.

Block 46 was not only a place for conducting experiments, but also, in fact, a factory for the production of vaccines against typhoid and typhus. Bacterial cultures were needed to make vaccines against typhus. However, this was not absolutely necessary, since in institutes such experiments are carried out without growing the bacterial cultures themselves (researchers find typhoid patients from whom they can take blood for research). It was completely different here. In order to keep the bacteria active in order to constantly have biological poison for subsequent injections,Rickettsia cultures were transferredfrom a sick person to a healthy person through intravenous injections of infected blood. Thus, twelve different cultures of bacteria, designated by the initial letters Bu, were preserved there- Buchenwald, and go from “Buchenwald 1” to “Buchenwald 12”. Every month, four to six people were infected in this way, and most of them died as a result of this infection.

The vaccines used by the German army were not only produced in Block 46, but were obtained from Italy, Denmark, Romania, France and Poland. Healthy prisoners, whose physical condition through special nutrition was brought to the physical level of a Wehrmacht soldier, were used to determine the effectiveness of various typhus vaccines. All experimental subjects were divided into control and experimental objects. Experimental subjects received vaccinations, but control subjects, on the contrary, did not receive vaccinations. Then all objects in the corresponding experiment were subjected to the introduction of typhoid bacilli in various ways: they were injected subcutaneously, intramuscularly, intravenously and by scarification. The infectious dose that could cause the development of infection in the experimental subject was determined.

In block 46 there were large boards where tables were kept on which the results of a series of experiments with various vaccines were entered and temperature curves on which it was possible to trace how the disease developed and how much the vaccine could restrain its development. A medical history was made for each person.

After fourteen days (the maximum incubation period), people in the control group died. Prisoners who received various protective vaccinations died at different times, depending on the quality of the vaccines themselves. As soon as the experiment could be considered completed, the survivors, in accordance with the tradition of Block 46, were liquidated in the usual way at the Buchenwald camp.- by injection 10 cm³ phenol to the heart area.

In Auschwitz, experiments were conducted to determine the existence of natural immunity against tuberculosis, the development of vaccines, and chemoprophylaxis with drugs such as nitroacridine and rutenol (a combination of the first drug with potent arsenic acid) was practiced. A method such as creating an artificial pneumothorax was tried. In Neuegamma, a certain Dr. Kurt Heismeier sought to disprove that tuberculosis was an infectious disease, arguing that only the “emaciated” body was susceptible to such infection and that the “racially inferior body of the Jews” was most susceptible. Two hundred subjects were injected with live Mycobacterium tuberculosis into their lungs, and twenty Jewish children infected with tuberculosis had their axillary lymph nodes removed for histological examination, leaving disfiguring scars.

The Nazis solved the problem of tuberculosis epidemics radically: With May 1942 to January 1944 all Poles who were found to have open and incurable, according to the decision of the official commission, forms of tuberculosis were isolated or killed under the pretext of protecting the health of Germans in Poland.

From approximately February 1942 to April 1945. At Dachau, malaria treatments were studied on more than 1,000 prisoners. Healthy prisoners in special quarters were subjected to bites from infected mosquitoes or injections of mosquito salivary gland extract.Dr. Klaus Schilling hoped to create a vaccine against malaria in this way. The antiprotozoal drug akrikhin was studied.

Similar experiments were carried out with other infectious diseases, such as yellow fever (in Sachsenhausen), smallpox, paratyphoid A and B, cholera and diphtheria.

Industrial concerns of that time took an active part in the experiments. Of these, the German concern IG Farben (one of whose subsidiaries is the current pharmaceutical company Bayer) played a special role. Scientific representatives of this concern traveled to concentration camps to test the effectiveness of new types of their products. IG Farben also produced tabun, sarin and Zyklon B during the war, which was mainly (about 95%) used for disinfestation purposes (elimination of lice- carriers of many infectious diseases, such as typhus), but this did not prevent it from being used for destruction in gas chambers.

To help the military

“People who still reject these experiments on people, preferring that because of this the valiant German soldiers were dying from the effects of hypothermia, I consider them to be traitors and state traitors, and I will not hesitate to name the names of these gentlemen in the appropriate authorities.”

— Reichsführer SS G. Himmler

Experiments for the air force began in May 1941 at Dachau under the auspices of Heinrich Himmler. Nazi doctors considered “military necessity” sufficient grounds for monstrous experiments. They justified their actions by saying that the prisoners were sentenced to death anyway.

The experiments were supervised by Dr. Sigmund Rascher.

During an experiment in a pressure chamber, a prisoner loses consciousness and then dies. Dachau, Germany, 1942

In the first series of experiments, changes occurring in the body under the influence of low and high atmospheric pressure were studied on two hundred prisoners. Using a pressure chamber, scientists simulated the conditions (temperature and nominal pressure) in which the pilot finds himself during depressurization of the cabin at altitudes of up to 20,000 m. Then, an autopsy of the victims was carried out, during which it was discovered that with a sharp decrease in pressure in the pilot’s cabin, nitrogen dissolved in the tissues began to be released into blood in the form of air bubbles. This led to blockage of blood vessels in various organs and the development of decompression sickness.

In August 1942, hypothermia experiments began, prompted by the question of rescuing pilots shot down by enemy fire in the icy waters of the North Sea. Test subjects (about three hundred people) were placed in water with a temperature of +2° up to +12°С in a full winter and summer set of pilot equipment. In one series of experiments, the occipital region (the projection of the brain stem where the vital centers are located) was out of water, while in another series of experiments the occipital region was immersed in water. The temperature in the stomach and rectum was measured electrically. Deaths occurred only if the occipital region was exposed to hypothermia along with the body. When the body temperature during these experiments reached 25°C, the experimental subject inevitably died, despite all attempts at rescue.

The question also arose about the best method of rescuing hypothermic victims. Several methods were tried: heating with lamps, irrigating the stomach, bladder and intestines with hot water, etc. The best way turned out to be placing the victim in a hot bath. The experiments were carried out as follows: 30 undressed people were outdoors for 9-14 hours, until their body temperature reached 27-29°C. They were then placed in a hot bath and, despite partially frostbitten hands and feet, the patient was completely warmed up within no more than one hour. There were no deaths in this series of experiments.

A victim of a Nazi medical experiment is immersed in icy water at the Dachau concentration camp. Dr. Rasher oversees the experiment. Germany, 1942

There was also interest in the method of warming with animal heat (the warmth of animals or humans). The experimental subjects were hypothermic in cold water of various temperatures (from +4 to +9°C). Removal from water was carried out when body temperature dropped to 30°C. At this temperature, subjects were always unconscious. A group of test subjects were placed in bed between two naked women, who had to press as closely as possible to the chilled person. These three faces were then covered with blankets. It turned out that warming with animal heat proceeded very slowly, but the return of consciousness occurred earlier than with other methods. Once they regained consciousness, people no longer lost it, but quickly learned their position and pressed themselves closely to the naked women. Test subjects whose physical condition allowed sexual intercourse warmed up noticeably faster; this result can be compared to warming up in a hot bath. It was concluded that warming severely cold people with animal heat can only be recommended in cases in which no other warming options are available, as well as for weak individuals who do not tolerate massive heat supply, for example, for infants, who are better They are generally warmed up near the mother’s body, supplemented with warming bottles. Rascher presented the results of his experiments in 1942 at the conference “Medical problems arising at sea and in winter.”

The results obtained during the experiments remain in demand, since repetition of these experiments is impossible in our time.Dr. John Hayward, an expert on hypothermia, stated: “I do not want to use these results, but there are no others and there will be no others in the ethical world.” Hayward himself conducted experiments on volunteers for several years, but he never allowed the body temperature of the participants to drop below 32.2° C. Experiments by Nazi doctors made it possible to achieve a figure of 26.5°C and below.

WITH July to September 1944for 90 Roma prisonersexperiments were carried out to create methods for desalinating sea water, led by Dr. Hans Eppinger. WITHThe subjects were deprived of any food, they were given only chemically treated sea water according to Eppinger’s own method. The experiments caused severe dehydration and subsequently- organ failure and death within 6-12 days. The gypsies were so deeply dehydrated that some of them licked the floors after they had been washed to get even a drop of fresh water.

When Himmler discovered that the cause of death for most SS soldiers on the battlefield was blood loss, he ordered Dr. Rascher to develop a blood coagulant to be administered to German soldiers before they went to war. At Dachau, Rascher tested his patented coagulant by observing the speed of drops of blood oozing from amputation stumps in living and conscious prisoners.

In addition, an effective and quick method of individually killing prisoners was developed. At the beginning of 1942, the Germans conducted experiments injecting air into veins with a syringe. They wanted to determine how much compressed air could be introduced into the blood without causing an embolism. Intravenous injections of oil, phenol, chloroform, gasoline, cyanide and hydrogen peroxide were also used. It was later discovered that death occurred faster if phenol was injected into the heart area.

December 1943 and September-October 1944 were distinguished by conducting experiments to study the influence of various poisons. At Buchenwald, poisons were added to prisoners' food, noodles or soup, and the development of a poisoning clinic was observed. In Sachsenhausen were heldexperiments on five people sentenced todeath with 7.65 mm bullets filled with aconitine nitrate in crystalline form. Each subject was shot in the upper left thigh. Death occurred 120 minutes after the shot.

Photo of a phosphorus burn.

The phosphorus-rubber incendiary bombs dropped on Germany caused burns to civilians and soldiers, the wounds from which did not heal well. For this reason, withFrom November 1943 to January 1944, experiments were carried out to test the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals in the treatment of phosphorus burns,which were supposed to ease their scarring. For this the experimental subjects were artificially burned with a phosphorus mass, which was taken from an English incendiary bomb found near Leipzig.

At various times between September 1939 and April 1945, experiments were conducted at Sachsenhaus, Natzweiler and other concentration camps to investigate the most effective treatment for wounds caused by mustard gas, also known as mustard gas.

In 1932, IG Farben was tasked with finding a dye (one of the main products produced by the conglomerate) that could act as an antibacterial drug. Such a drug was found- Prontosil, the first of the sulfonamides and the first antimicrobial drug before the era of antibiotics. Subsequently it was tested in experimentsGerhard Domagk, director of the Bayer Institute of Pathology and Bacteriology, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939.

Photo of the scarred leg of Ravensbrück survivor and Polish political prisoner Helena Hegier, who was subjected to medical experiments in 1942.

The effectiveness of sulfonamides and other drugs as a treatment for infected wounds in humans was tested from July 1942 to September 1943 in the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp.The wounds deliberately inflicted on the experimental subjects were infected with bacteria: streptococci, causative agents of gas gangrene and tetanus. To avoid the spread of infection, blood vessels were ligated from both edges of the wound. To simulate wounds received as a result of combat, Dr. Herta Oberheuser placed wood shavings, dirt, rusty nails, and glass shards into the wounds of experimental subjects, which significantly worsened the course of the wound and its healing.

Ravensbrück also carried out a series of experiments on bone transplants, muscle and nerve regeneration, and futile attempts to transplant limbs and organs from one victim to another.

From a letter from V. Kling:

The SS doctors we knew were executioners who discredited the medical profession to the point of impossibility. All of them were cynical murderers of a huge mass of people. Rewards and promotions were made depending on the number of their victims. There is not a single SS doctor who, while working in concentration camps, received his awards for his actual medical activities. “...”

Who the hell led or seduced whom? “Fuhrer”, the devil or some kind of god?

Is it true that “outside” no one knew about these crimes inside and outside the walls of the camps? The unassuming truth is that millions of Germans, fathers and mothers, sons and sisters, saw nothing criminal in these crimes. Millions of others understood this quite clearly, but pretended not to know anything,

and they succeeded in this miracle. The same millions are now horrified by the murderer of four million, [to Rudolf]Hess, who calmly stated before the court that he would have killed his closest relatives in the gas chamber if he had been ordered to do so.

Sigmund Rascher was captured in 1944 on charges of deceiving the German nation and transported to Buchenwald, from where he was later transferred to Dachau. There he was shot in the back of the head by an unknown person a day before the liberation of the camp by the Allies.

Hertha Oberhauer was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Hans Epinger committed suicide a month before the Nuremberg trials.

To be continued

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1. Homosexuality
Homosexuals have no place on the planet. At least that's what the Nazis thought. Therefore, they, led by Dr. Karl Wernet, in Buchenwald, from July 1944, sewed capsules with “male hormone” into the groins of gay prisoners. Then those healed were sent to concentration camps to live with women, ordering the latter to provoke newcomers into sex. History is silent about the results of such experiments.
2. Pressure
German physician Sigmund Rascher was too concerned about the problems that Third Reich pilots could have at an altitude of 20 kilometers. Therefore, as the chief physician at the Dachau concentration camp, he created special pressure chambers in which he placed prisoners and experimented with pressure. After this, the scientist opened the skulls of the victims and examined their brains. 200 people took part in this experiment. 80 died on the surgical table, the rest were shot.
3. White phosphorus
From November 1941 to January 1944, drugs that could treat white phosphorus burns were tested on the human body in Buchenwald. It is not known whether the Nazis managed to invent a panacea. But, believe me, these experiments took away plenty of prisoners’ lives.
4. Poisons
The food in Buchenwald was not the best. This was especially felt from December 1943 to October 1944. The Nazis mixed various poisons into prisoners' food and then studied their effects on the human body. Often such experiments ended with the immediate dissection of the victim after eating. And in September 1944, the Germans got tired of messing around with experimental subjects. Therefore, all participants in the experiment were shot.
5. Sterilization
Carl Clauberg was a German doctor who became famous for sterilization during World War II. From March 1941 to January 1945, the scientist tried to find a way to make millions of people infertile in the shortest possible time. Clauberg succeeded: the doctor injected prisoners of Auschwitz, Revensbrücke and other concentration camps with iodine and silver nitrate. Although such injections had a lot of side effects (bleeding, pain and cancer), they successfully sterilized the person. But Clauberg’s favorite was radiation exposure: the person was invited to a special chamber with a chair, sitting on which he filled out questionnaires. And then the victim simply left, not suspecting that he would never be able to have children again. Often such exposures resulted in serious radiation burns.

6. Sea water
During World War II, the Nazis once again confirmed that sea water is undrinkable. On the territory of the Dachau concentration camp (Germany), the Austrian doctor Hans Eppinger and professor Wilhelm Beiglbeck in July 1944 decided to check how long 90 gypsies could live without water. The victims of the experiment were so dehydrated that they even licked the recently washed floor.
7. Sulfanilamide
Sulfanilamide is a synthetic antimicrobial agent. From July 1942 to September 1943, the Nazis, led by the German professor Gebhard, tried to determine the effectiveness of the drug in the treatment of streptococcus, tetanus and anaerobic gangrene. Who do you think they infected to conduct such experiments?
8. Mustard gas
Doctors will not find a way to cure a person from a burn with mustard gas if at least one victim of such a chemical weapon does not come to their table. Why look for someone if you can poison and train on prisoners from the German concentration camp of Sachsenhausen? This is what the minds of the Reich were doing throughout the Second World War.
9. Malaria
SS Hauptsturmführer and MD Kurt Plötner still could not find a cure for malaria. The scientist was not even helped by the thousand prisoners from Dachau who were forced to take part in his experiments. Victims were infected through the bites of infected mosquitoes and treated with various drugs. More than half of the test subjects did not survive.
10. Frostbite
German soldiers on the Eastern Front had a hard time in winter: they had a hard time enduring the harsh Russian winters. Therefore, Sigmund Rascher conducted experiments in Dachau and Auschwitz, with the help of which he tried to find a way to quickly resuscitate soldiers after frostbite. To do this, the Nazis put Luftwaffe uniforms on prisoners and placed them in ice water. There were two heating methods. The first - the victim was lowered into a bath of hot water. The second was placed between two naked women. The first method turned out to be more effective.
11. Gemini
Over one and a half thousand twins were subjected to experiments by the German physician and doctor of science Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. The scientist tried to change the color of the eyes of the experimental subjects by injecting chemicals directly into the protein of the visual organ. Another crazy idea of ​​Mengele was an attempt to create Siamese twins. To do this, the scientist stitched prisoners together. Of the 1,500 participants in the experiments, only 200 survived.

The Third Reich is the most mysterious empire of the twentieth century. Until now, humanity shudders to comprehend the secrets of the greatest criminal adventure of all time. We have collected for you the most mysterious experiments of scientists of the Third Reich.

Some of these experiments are so terrible that sometimes just the thought that flashes through our heads about it gives us goosebumps.

It’s hard to believe that there were people who didn’t put the lives of other people at a penny, laughed at their suffering, crippled the fate of entire families, and killed children.

Thank God that in our time there are those who can protect us from the modern manifestation of this cruelty, if you support this, we are waiting for your comment.

Along with the design of nuclear weapons, the Third Reich carried out research and experiments on animals and humans as a biological unit. Namely, Nazi experiments were carried out on people, their endurance of the nervous system and physical capabilities.

Doctors have always had a special attitude; they were considered the saviors of humanity. Even in ancient times, witch doctors and healers were revered, believing that they had special healing powers. This is why modern humanity is shocked by the blatant medical experiments of the Nazis.

The wartime priorities were not only rescue, but also the preservation of people’s working capacity in extreme conditions, the possibility of blood transfusions with different Rh factors, and new drugs were tested. Great importance was attached to experiments to combat hypothermia. The German army, which took part in the war on the eastern front, turned out to be completely unprepared for the climatic conditions of the northern part of the USSR. A huge number of soldiers and officers suffered serious frostbite or even died from the winter cold.

Doctors under the leadership of Dr. Sigmund Rascher dealt with this problem in the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps. Reich Minister Heinrich Himmler personally showed great interest in these experiments (the Nazi experiments on people were very similar to the atrocities of the Japanese Unit 731). At a medical conference held in 1942 to study medical problems associated with work in the northern seas and highlands, Dr. Rascher published the results of his experiments conducted on concentration camp prisoners. His experiments concerned two aspects - how long a person can stay at low temperatures without dying, and in what ways he can then be resuscitated. To answer these questions, thousands of prisoners were immersed in icy water in winter or lay naked and tied to stretchers in the cold.

To find out at what body temperature a person dies, young Slavic or Jewish men were immersed naked in a tank of ice water close to “0” degrees. To measure a prisoner's body temperature, a sensor was inserted into the prisoner's rectum using a probe that had an expandable metal ring at the end, which was pushed open inside the rectum to hold the sensor firmly in place.

It took a huge number of victims to find out that death finally occurs when body temperature drops to 25 degrees. They simulated the entry of German pilots into the waters of the Arctic Ocean. With the help of inhumane experiments, it was found that hypothermia of the occipital lower part of the head contributes to faster death. This knowledge led to the creation of life jackets with a special headrest that prevents the head from immersing in water.

Sigmund Rascher during hypothermia experiments

To quickly warm up the victim, inhuman torture was also used. For example, they tried to warm up frozen people using ultraviolet lamps, trying to determine the time of exposure at which the skin begins to burn. The method of “internal irrigation” was also used. At the same time, water heated to “bubbles” was injected into the test subject’s stomach, rectum and bladder using probes and a catheter. All victims died from such treatment, without exception. The most effective method turned out to be placing a frozen body in water and gradually heating this water. But a huge number of prisoners died before it was concluded that the heating must be slow enough. At the suggestion of Himmler personally, attempts were made to warm the frozen man with the help of women who warmed the man and copulated with him. This kind of treatment had some success, but, of course, not at critical cooling temperatures….

Dr. Rascher also conducted experiments to determine from what maximum height pilots could jump out of an airplane with a parachute and survive. He conducted experiments on prisoners, simulating atmospheric pressure at an altitude of up to 20 thousand meters and the effect of free fall without an oxygen cylinder. Of the 200 experimental prisoners, 70 died. It is terrible that these experiments were completely meaningless and did not provide any practical benefit for German aviation.

Research in the field of genetics was very important for the fascist regime. The goal of the fascist doctors was to find evidence of the superiority of the Aryan race over others. A true Aryan had to be athletic with correct body proportions, be blond and have blue eyes. So that blacks, Latin Americans, Jews, gypsies, and at the same time simply homosexuals, could in no way prevent the accession of the chosen race, they were simply destroyed...

For those entering into marriage, the German leadership demanded that a whole list of conditions be met and full testing be carried out in order to guarantee the racial purity of children born in marriage. The conditions were very strict, and violation was punishable by up to the death penalty. No exceptions were made for anyone.

Thus, the legal wife of Dr. Z. Rascher, whom we mentioned earlier, was infertile, and the married couple adopted two children. Later, the Gestapo conducted an investigation and Z. Fischer’s wife was executed for this crime. So the killer doctor was overtaken by punishment from those people to whom he was fanatically devoted.

In the book by journalist O. Erradon “Black Order. The Pagan Army of the Third Reich" talks about the existence of several programs to preserve the purity of the race. In Nazi Germany, “mercy death” was used everywhere on a massive scale - this is a type of euthanasia, the victims of which were disabled children and the mentally ill. All doctors and midwives were required to report newborns with Down syndrome, any physical deformities, cerebral palsy, etc. The parents of such newborns were pressured to send their children to “death centers” scattered throughout Germany.

To prove racial superiority, Nazi medical scientists conducted countless experiments measuring the skulls of people belonging to various nationalities. The task of scientists was to determine the external signs that distinguish the master race, and, accordingly, the ability to detect and correct defects that do occur from time to time. In the cycle of these studies, Dr. Joseph Mengele, who was involved in experiments on twins in Auschwitz, is infamous. He personally screened thousands of arriving prisoners, sorting them into "interesting" or "uninteresting" for his experiments. The “uninteresting” ones were sent to die in gas chambers, and the “interesting” ones had to envy those who found their death so quickly.

Horrible torture awaited the test subjects. Dr. Mengele was especially interested in pairs of twins. It is known that he conducted experiments on 1,500 pairs of twins, and only 200 pairs survived. Many were killed immediately so that a comparative anatomical analysis could be carried out during autopsy. And in some cases, Mengele inoculated various diseases into one of the twins, so that later, having killed both, he could see the difference between the healthy and the sick.

Much attention was paid to the issue of sterilization. Candidates for this were all people with hereditary physical or mental illnesses, as well as various hereditary pathologies, these included not only blindness and deafness, but also alcoholism. In addition to the victims of sterilization within the country, the problem of the population of enslaved countries arose.

The Nazis were looking for ways to sterilize large numbers of people as cheaply and quickly as possible without causing workers long-term disability. Research in this area was led by Dr. Carl Clauberg.

In the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and others, thousands of prisoners were exposed to various medical chemicals, surgical operations, and x-rays. Almost all of them became disabled and lost the opportunity to procreate. The chemical treatments used were injections of iodine and silver nitrate, which were indeed very effective, but caused many side effects, including cervical cancer, severe abdominal pain, and vaginal bleeding.

The method of radiation exposure of experimental subjects turned out to be more “profitable”. It turned out that a small dose of X-rays can provoke infertility in the human body; sperm ceases to be produced in men, and eggs are not produced in women's bodies. The result of this series of experiments was radioactive overdose and even radioactive burns for many prisoners.

From the winter of 1943 to the autumn of 1944, experiments were conducted in the Buchenwald concentration camp on the effects of various poisons on the human body. They were mixed into the prisoners' food and the reaction was observed. Some victims were allowed to die, some were killed by guards at various stages of poisoning, which made it possible to conduct an autopsy and monitor how the poison gradually spreads and affects the body. In the same camp, a search was conducted for a vaccine against the bacteria typhus, yellow fever, diphtheria, and smallpox, for which prisoners were first vaccinated with experimental vaccines and then infected with the disease.

Buchenwald prisoners were also experimented with incendiary mixtures in an attempt to find a way to treat soldiers who received phosphorus burns from bomb explosions. The experiments with homosexuals were truly horrific. The regime considered non-traditional sexual orientation a disease and doctors were looking for ways to treat it. The experiments involved not only homosexuals, but also men of traditional orientation. Treatment included castration, removal of the genital organ, and transplantation of the genital organs. A certain doctor Vaernet tried to treat homosexuality with the help of his invention - an artificially created “gland” that was implanted into prisoners and which was supposed to supply male hormones to the body. It is clear that all these experiments did not bring results.

From the beginning of 1942 to the middle of 1945, in the Dachau concentration camp, German doctors under the leadership of Kurt Pletner conducted research to create a method of treating malaria. For the experiment, physically healthy people were selected and infected with the help of not only malaria mosquitoes, but also by introducing sporozoans isolated from mosquitoes. Quinine, drugs such as antipyrine, pyramidon, and also a special experimental drug “2516-Bering” were used for treatment. As a result of the experiments, about 40 people died directly from malaria, and more than 400 died from complications after the disease or from excessive doses of medications.

During 1942-1943, in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the effects of antibacterial drugs were tested on prisoners. Prisoners were deliberately shot and then infected with anaerobic gangrene, tetanus and streptococcus bacteria. To complicate the experiment, crushed glass and metal or wood shavings were also poured into the wound. The resulting inflammation was treated with sulfanilamide and other drugs, determining their effectiveness.

Experiments in transplantology and traumatology were conducted in the same camp. Intentionally mutilating people's bones, doctors cut out sections of skin and muscle down to the bone, so that it would be more convenient to observe the healing process of bone tissue. They also cut off the limbs of some experimental subjects and tried to reattach them to others. Nazi medical experiments were led by Karl Franz Gebhardt.

At the Nuremberg trials, which took place after the end of World War II, twenty doctors stood trial. The investigation showed that they were, at their core, true serial killers. Seven of them were sentenced to death, five received life imprisonment, four were acquitted, and another four doctors were sentenced to prison terms ranging from ten to twenty years in prison. Unfortunately, not everyone involved in the inhumane experiments received retribution. Many of them remained free and lived long lives, unlike their victims.

The medical experiments of the Nazis on people in concentration camps, even today, terrify the most resilient minds. A whole series of scientific experiments were carried out by the Nazis on prisoners during the Second World War. Typically, most experiments resulted in the prisoner's death, disfigurement, or incapacitation. Experiments were conducted not only for technological breakthroughs that were being developed to help German soldiers in combat situations, but also to create new weapons and methods of treating wounded German soldiers. The goal was also to confirm the racial theory that the Third Reich adhered to.

Doctor Devil

January 30, 1933, Berlin. Professor Blots Clinic. An ordinary medical institution, which competing doctors sometimes call the “devil’s clinic.” Alfred Blots is not liked by his medical colleagues, but they still listen to his opinion. It is known in the scientific community that he was the first to study the effects of poisonous gases on the human genetic system. But Blots did not make the results of his research public. On January 30, Alfred Blots sent a congratulatory telegram to the new Chancellor of Germany, in which he proposed a program of new research in the field of genetics. He received the answer: “Your research is of interest to Germany. They must be continued. Adolf Hitler."

In the 1920s, Alfred Blots traveled around the country giving lectures on what “eugenics” was. He considers himself the founder of a new science, his main idea is “racial purity of the nation.” Some call it the struggle for a healthy lifestyle. Blots argues that the future of man can be simulated at the genetic level, in the womb, and this will happen at the end of the 20th century. They listened to him and were surprised, but no one called him “the devil doctor.”

In 1933, Hitler believed German geneticists. They promised the Fuhrer that within 20-40 years they would raise a new person, aggressive and obedient to the authorities. The conversation was about cyborgs, biological soldiers of the Third Reich. Hitler was excited about this idea. During one of Blots' lectures in Munich, a scandal broke out. When asked what the doctor proposed to do with the patients, Blots answered “sterilize or kill.” In the mid-30s, a new symbol of Germany appeared, the glass woman. After Hitler came to power, the Fuhrer actively supported the development of German medicine and biology. Funding for scientific research increased tenfold, and doctors were declared the elite. In the Nazi state, this profession was considered the most important, since its representatives were responsible for the purity of the German race. According to Blots, the world was originally divided into “healthy” and “unhealthy” peoples. This is confirmed by genetic and medical research data. The goal of eugenics is to save humanity from disease and self-destruction. According to German scientists, Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, Chinese, and blacks are nations with an inadequate psyche, weak immunity, and an increased ability to transmit diseases. The salvation of the nation lies in the sterilization of some peoples and the controlled birth rate of others. In the mid-30s, on a small estate near Berlin, a secret facility was located. This is the Fuhrer's medical school, its activities are patronized by Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy. Every year, medical workers, obstetricians and doctors gathered here. You couldn’t come to school of your own free will. The students were selected by the Nazis, the party. SS doctors selected personnel who took advanced training courses at the medical school. This school trained doctors to work in concentration camps, but at first these personnel were used for the sterilization program in the second half of the 30s.

In 1937, Karl Brant became the official boss of German medicine. This man is responsible for the health of the Germans. According to the sterilization program, Karl Brant and his subordinates could use euthanasia to get rid of mentally ill people, disabled people and children with disabilities. Thus, the Third Reich got rid of “extra mouths”, because military policy does not imply the presence of social support. Brant completed his task - before the war, the German nation was cleared of psychopaths, disabled people and freaks. Then more than 100 thousand adults were killed, and gas chambers were used for the first time.

In 1947, there were 23 doctors in the dock at Nuremberg. They were tried for turning medical science into a monster that was subservient to the interests of the Third Reich. Here are a number of those terrible and bloody experiments on people that were carried out within the walls of the concentration camps:

Pressure

The German SS-Hauptsturmführer Sigmund Rascher was too concerned about the problems that Third Reich pilots could have at an altitude of 20 kilometers. Therefore, as the chief physician at the Dachau concentration camp, he created special pressure chambers in which he placed prisoners and experimented with pressure. After this, the scientist opened the skulls of the victims and examined their brains. 200 people took part in this experiment. 80 died on the surgical table, the remaining 120 were shot. After the war, Sigmund Rascher was executed for his inhuman crimes.

Homosexuality

Homosexuals have no place on the planet. At least that's what the Nazis thought. Therefore, for this purpose, by secret decree of the SS, led by Dr. Karl Wernet, a series of hormonal experiments were carried out on homosexual prisoners. In 1943, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, having learned about the research of the Danish doctor Werneth on the “cure of homosexuality,” invites him to conduct research in the Reich at the Buchenwald base. Experiments on humans were started by Wernet in July 1944. Some of the prisoners entered into the experiment voluntarily, in the hope of being released from the camp after “healing”; the rest were forced. Capsules with a “male hormone” were sewn into the groins of gay prisoners, then the healed were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which housed many women convicted of prostitution. The camp leadership instructed the women to approach the “healed” men and have sexual intercourse with them. History is silent about the results of such experiments.

Sterilization

Carl Clauberg was a German doctor who became famous for sterilization during World War II. From March 1941 to January 1945, the scientist tried to find a way to make millions of people infertile in the shortest possible time. Clauberg succeeded: the doctor injected prisoners of Auschwitz, Revensbrück and other concentration camps with iodine and silver nitrate. Although such injections had a lot of side effects (bleeding, pain and cancer), they successfully sterilized the person. But Clauberg’s favorite was radiation exposure: a person was invited to a special chamber with a chair, sitting on which he filled out questionnaires. And then the victim simply left, not suspecting that he would never be able to have children again. Often such exposures resulted in serious radiation burns.

It is also known that fascist doctors, on orders from the highest circles of Nazi Germany, sterilized more than four hundred thousand people.

White phosphorus

From November 1941 to January 1944, drugs that could treat white phosphorus burns were tested on the human body in Buchenwald. It is not known whether the Nazis managed to invent a panacea, but these experiments took away many of the lives of prisoners.

Poisons

The food in Buchenwald was not the best. This was especially felt from December 1943 to October 1944. At this time, the Nazis carried out experiments with poisons on the postmortem in the Bachenwald concentration camp, where approximately 250 thousand people were imprisoned. Various poisons were secretly mixed into the prisoners' food and their reactions were observed. Prisoners died after poisoning, and were also killed by concentration camp guards to perform autopsies on the body, through which the poison did not have time to spread. It is known that in the fall of 1944, prisoners were shot with bullets that contained poison, and then the gunshot wounds were examined.

In September 1944, the Germans got tired of messing around with experimental subjects. Therefore, all participants in the experiment were shot.

Malaria

These Nazi medical experiments took place from early 1942 to mid-1945, in Nazi Germany at the Dachau concentration camp. Research was carried out during which German doctors and pharmacists worked on the invention of a vaccine against an infectious disease - malaria. For the experiment, physically healthy experimental subjects aged from 25 to 40 years were specially selected, and they were infected with the help of mosquitoes that carried the infection. After the prisoners were infected, they were prescribed a course of treatment with various drugs and injections, which in turn were also at the testing stage. Over one thousand people were forced to participate in the experiments. More than five hundred people died during the experiments. The German physician, SS Sturmbannführer Kurt Plötner, was responsible for the research.

Mustard gas

From the autumn of 1939 to the spring of 1945, near the city of Oranienburg in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, as well as in other camps in Germany, experiments were carried out with mustard gas. The purpose of the research was to identify the most effective methods of treating wounds after skin exposure to this type of gas. Prisoners were doused with mustard gas, which, when it reached the surface of the skin, caused severe chemical burns. Afterwards, doctors studied the wounds to determine the most effective medicine against this type of burn.

sea ​​water

Scientific experiments were carried out in the Dachau concentration camp, approximately from the summer to autumn of 1944. The purpose of the experiments was to identify how fresh water could be obtained from sea water, that is, one that would be suitable for human consumption. A group of prisoners was created, which included about 90 Roma. During the experiment, they did not receive food and drank only sea water. As a result, their bodies were so dehydrated that people licked the moisture from the freshly washed floor in the hope of getting at least a drop of water. The person responsible for the research was Wilhelm Beiglböck, who received fifteen years in prison at the Nuremberg doctors' trial.

Sulfanilamide

From the summer of 1942 to the autumn of 1943, research was carried out on the use of antibacterial drugs. One such drug is sulfonamide, a synthetic antimicrobial agent. People were deliberately shot in the leg and infected with anaerobic gangrene, tetanus and streptococcus bacteria. Blood circulation was stopped by applying tourniquets on both sides of the wound. Crushed glass and wood shavings were also poured into the wound. The resulting bacterial inflammation was treated with sulfonamide, as well as other drugs, to see how effective they were. The Nazi medical experiments were led by Karl Franz Gebhardt, who was on friendly terms with the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler himself.

Experiments on twins

Nazi medical experiments on children who were unlucky enough to be born twins and end up in concentration camps at the time were carried out by Nazi scientists to detect differences and similarities in the DNA structure of the twins. The doctor involved in this kind of experiment was named Joseph Mengele. According to historians, during his work Joseph killed more than four hundred thousand prisoners in gas chambers. The German scientist conducted his experiments on 1,500 pairs of twins, of which only two hundred pairs survived. Basically, all experiments on children were carried out in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The twins were divided into groups according to age and status, and were placed in specialized barracks. The experiments were truly monstrous. Various chemicals were injected into the twins' eyes. They also tried to artificially change the color of children's eyes. It is also known that the twins were sewn together, thereby trying to recreate the phenomenon of Siamese twins. Experiments on changing eye color often ended in the death of the experimental subject, as well as infection of the retina and complete loss of vision. Joseph Mengele very often infected one of the twins, and then performed an autopsy on both children and compared the organs of the affected and normal organisms.

Frostbite

German soldiers on the Eastern Front had a hard time in winter: they had a hard time enduring the harsh Russian winters. Therefore, Sigmund Rascher conducted experiments in Dachau and Auschwitz, with the help of which he tried to find a way to quickly resuscitate military personnel after frostbite. To this end, at the very beginning of the war, the German air force conducted a series of experiments on hypothermia of the human body. The method of cooling a person was the same; the experimental subject was placed in a barrel of ice water for several hours. It is also known for sure that there was another mocking method of cooling the human body. The prisoner was simply thrown outside in cold weather, naked, and kept there for three hours. Most often, experiments were carried out on men to study ways in which fascist troops could easily endure severe frosts on the Eastern European front. It was the frosts, for which the German troops were not prepared, that caused Germany’s defeat on the Eastern Front.

A German physician and part-time Ahnenerbe employee, Sigmund Rascher, reported only to Reich Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler. In 1942, at a conference on oceanic and winter research, Rascher gave a speech from which one could learn about the results of his medical experiments in concentration camps. The research was divided into several stages. At the first stage, German scientists studied how long a person could live at a minimum temperature. The second stage was the resuscitation and rescue of an experimental subject who had suffered severe frostbite.

Experiments were also conducted to study how to instantly warm a person. The first method of warming up was to lower the subject into a tank of hot water. In the second case, the frozen man was settled on a naked woman, and then another one was settled on him. Women for the experiment were selected from among those held in the concentration camp. The best result was achieved in the first case.

Research results have shown that it is almost impossible to save a person exposed to frostbite in water if the back of the head is also exposed to frostbite. In this regard, special life jackets were developed that prevented the back of the head from falling into the water. This made it possible to protect the head of the person wearing the vest from frostbite of brain stem cells. These days, almost all life jackets have a similar headrest.

After the war, all these experiments carried out by the Nazis on people served as the reason for the Nuremberg Medical Tribunal, as well as the impetus for the development of the Nuremberg Code of Medical Ethics.

Colorless Coca Cola in World War II

Recently, the world-famous Coca-Cola company introduced a transparent drink with lemon flavor in Japan. But did you know that this is not the first time that Coca-Cola has released a transparent one? The first colorless Coca-Cola was produced back in 1940

Special Operation "Tracer"

During World War II, the British seriously feared that the Germans would be able to seize control of Gibraltar, cutting off Britain from the rest of the British Empire. It was decided to develop Operation Tracer.

The Mystery of the Terracotta Army

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The tragedy of one child prodigy

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Charging drones in the air

Co-founder of wireless technology company Global Transmission Energy (GET), William Kalman said his company has developed technology to charge drones in flight by creating an electromagnetic energy cloud.

A “planetary health diet” has been developed

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Plants hear the buzzing of bees

Scientists at Tel Aviv University have published research showing that flowers of the Oenothera drummondii plant produce sweeter nectar within three minutes when exposed to sound cues reproducing the buzzing sound of a bee.

Caterpillar imitating a snake

The publication talks about a funny example of mimicry when a harmless caterpillar of the Hemeroplanes Triptolemus butterfly from the hawk moth family, in order to scare off its enemies and not get to the birds for lunch, transforms into a formidable rattlesnake.

MAZ-2000 “Perestroika”

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How to deal with rudeness?

How to deal with rudeness? At the bus stop, in a nearby store, in the office, on an airplane, at a parent-teacher meeting, and even in line for theater tickets - it seems that we are being rude everywhere. Rudeness has long been a characteristic feature of society, but how to deal with it?

Nazi Germany, in addition to starting World War II, is also notorious for its concentration camps, as well as the horrors that happened there. The horror of the Nazi camp system consisted not only of terror and arbitrariness, but also of the colossal experiments on people that were carried out there. Scientific research was carried out on a grand scale, and its goals were so varied that it would take a long time to even name them.

In German concentration camps, scientific hypotheses were tested and various biomedical technologies were tested on living “human material”. Wartime dictated its priorities, so doctors were primarily interested in the practical application of scientific theories. For example, the possibility of maintaining people’s working capacity under conditions of excessive stress, blood transfusions with different Rh factors were studied, and new drugs were tested.

Among these monstrous experiments are pressure tests, experiments on hypothermia, the development of a vaccine against typhus, experiments with malaria, gas, sea water, poisons, sulfanilamide, sterilization experiments and many others.

In 1941, experiments were carried out with hypothermia. They were led by Dr. Rascher under the direct supervision of Himmler. The experiments were carried out in two stages. At the first stage, they found out what temperature a person could withstand and for how long, and the second stage was to determine ways to restore the human body after frostbite. To conduct such experiments, prisoners were taken out in winter without clothes for the whole night or placed in ice water. Hypothermia trials were conducted exclusively on men to simulate the conditions experienced by German soldiers on the Eastern Front, as the Nazis were ill-prepared for winter. For example, in one of the first experiments, prisoners were lowered into a container of water, the temperature of which ranged from 2 to 12 degrees, wearing pilot suits. At the same time, they were put on life jackets, which kept them afloat. As a result of the experiment, Rascher found that attempts to bring a person caught in ice water back to life are practically zero if the cerebellum was overcooled. This was the reason for the development of a special vest with a headrest that covered the back of the head and prevented the back of the head from plunging into the water.

The same Dr. Rascher in 1942 began conducting experiments on prisoners using pressure changes. Thus, doctors tried to establish how much air pressure a person can withstand and for how long. To conduct the experiment, a special pressure chamber was used, in which the pressure was regulated. There were 25 people in it at the same time. The purpose of these experiments was to help pilots and skydivers at high altitudes. According to one of the doctor's reports, the experiment was carried out on a 37-year-old Jew who was in good physical shape. Half an hour after the start of the experiment, he died.

200 prisoners took part in the experiment, 80 of them died, the rest were simply killed.

The Nazis also made large-scale preparations for the use of bacteriological agents. The emphasis was mainly on fast-moving diseases, plague, anthrax, typhus, that is, diseases that in a short time could cause mass infections and death of the enemy.

The Third Reich had large reserves of typhus bacteria. In the event of their mass use, it was necessary to develop a vaccine to disinfect the Germans. On behalf of the government, Dr. Paul began developing a vaccine against typhus. The first to experience the effects of vaccines were the prisoners of Buchenwald. In 1942, 26 Roma, who had previously been vaccinated, were infected with typhus there. As a result, 6 people died from progression of the disease. This result did not satisfy the management, since the mortality rate was high. Therefore, research was continued in 1943. And the next year, the improved vaccine was again tested on humans. But this time the victims of vaccination were prisoners of the Natzweiler camp. Dr. Chrétien conducted the experiments. 80 gypsies were selected for the experiment. They were infected with typhus in two ways: by injection and by airborne droplets. Of the total number of test subjects, only 6 people became infected, but even such a small number were not provided with any medical care. In 1944, all 80 people who were involved in the experiment either died from the disease or were shot by concentration camp guards.

In addition, other cruel experiments were carried out on prisoners in the same Buchenwald. So, in 1943-1944, experiments with incendiary mixtures were carried out there. Their goal was to solve problems associated with bomb explosions, when soldiers received phosphorus burns. Mostly Russian prisoners were used for these experiments.

Experiments with the genitals were also carried out here in order to identify the causes of homosexuality. They involved not only homosexuals, but also men of traditional orientation. One of the experiments was genital transplantation.

Also in Buchenwald, experiments were carried out to infect prisoners with yellow fever, diphtheria, smallpox, and also used poisonous substances. For example, to study the effect of poisons on the human body, they were added to the food of prisoners. As a result, some of the victims died, and some were immediately shot for autopsies. In 1944, all participants in this experiment were shot using poison bullets.

A series of experiments were also carried out at the Dachau concentration camp. Thus, back in 1942, some prisoners aged 20 to 45 were infected with malaria. In total, 1,200 people were infected. Permission to conduct the experiment was obtained by the leader, Dr. Pletner, directly from Himmler. The victims were bitten by malaria mosquitoes, and, in addition, they were also infused with sporozoans, which were taken from mosquitoes. Quinine, antipyrine, pyramidon, and also a special drug called “2516-Bering” were used for treatment. As a result, approximately 40 people died from malaria, about 400 died from complications of the disease, and another number died from excessive doses of medication.

Here, in Dachau, in 1944, experiments were carried out to convert sea water into drinking water. For the experiments, 90 gypsies were used, who were completely deprived of food and forced to drink only sea water.

No less terrible experiments were carried out at the Auschwitz concentration camp. So, in particular, throughout the entire period of the war, sterilization experiments were carried out there, the purpose of which was to identify a quick and effective way to sterilize a large number of people without much time and physical investment. During the experiment, thousands of people were sterilized. The procedure was carried out using surgery, x-rays and various medications. At first, injections with iodine or silver nitrate were used, but this method had a large number of side effects. Therefore, irradiation was more preferable. Scientists have found that a certain amount of X-rays can prevent the human body from producing eggs and sperm. During the experiments, a large number of prisoners received radiation burns.

The experiments with twins conducted by Dr. Mengele in the Auschwitz concentration camp were particularly cruel. Before the war, he worked on genetics, so twins were especially “interesting” to him.

Mengele personally sorted the “human material”: the most interesting, in his opinion, were sent to experiments, the less hardy to labor, and the rest to the gas chamber.

The experiment involved 1,500 pairs of twins, of which only 200 survived. Mengele conducted experiments on changing eye color by injecting chemicals, which resulted in complete or temporary blindness. He also attempted to "create Siamese twins" by sewing twins together. In addition, he experimented with infecting one of the twins with an infection, after which he performed autopsies on both to compare the affected organs.

When Soviet troops approached Auschwitz, the doctor managed to escape to Latin America.

There were also experiments in another German concentration camp - Ravensbrück. The experiments used women who were injected with bacteria of tetanus, staphylococcus, and gas gangrene. The purpose of the experiments was to determine the effectiveness of sulfonamide drugs.

The prisoners were given incisions, where shards of glass or metal were placed, and then bacteria were planted. After infection, subjects were closely monitored, recording changes in temperature and other signs of infection. In addition, experiments in transplantology and traumatology were conducted here. Women were deliberately mutilated, and to make it more convenient to monitor the healing process, sections of the body were cut out to the bone. Moreover, their limbs were often amputated, which were then taken to a neighboring camp and reattached to other prisoners.

Not only did the Nazis abuse prisoners of concentration camps, but they also conducted experiments on “true Aryans.” Thus, a large burial was recently discovered, which was initially mistaken for Scythian remains. However, it was later established that there were German soldiers in the grave. The discovery horrified archaeologists: some of the bodies were decapitated, others had their shin bones sawed off, and others had holes along the spine. It was also found that during life people were exposed to chemicals, and incisions were clearly visible in many skulls. As it later turned out, these were victims of experiments by the Ahnenerbe, a secret organization of the Third Reich that was engaged in the creation of a superman.

Since it was immediately obvious that such experiments would involve a large number of casualties, Himmler took responsibility for all deaths. He did not consider all these horrors to be murder, because, according to him, concentration camp prisoners are not people.