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Many prisoners were wounded on purpose to find out the quickest and easiest way of healing these wounds. They also examined how these wounds reacted to different substances. Poison too was rubbed on the wounds as well as being put in the food of the prisoners to see how long it took them to die and if the poison was really deadly. Many people of course died as a result of these experiments as these poisons were indeed as deadly as suspected.
At camp Dachau experiments with high pressure, and how the human body reacted to these, were carried out. By locking some victims up in a pressure cabin and turning up the pressure the doctors tried to find out how much pressure a human body could take. Most people died of high pressure. Out of curiosity the doctors often went on so long, even with a dead body, that the organs and bones of the victim were totally crushed. Another terrible destiny was the following: some prisoners were taken separately and did not get any food or drink just sea water. In this way the Nazi-doctors tried to find out if you can make sea water drinkable. But the only thing they found out was that organs are not really immune to so much salt and that most of the organs became damaged.
They said that these experiments were carried out in the name of science. But actually this was just an excuse to murder Jews, gays, gypsies and other people whom the Nazi considered less worthy. Now we might think that is an incredible thing to do but people at that time really believed that those people were of less value anyway, and these experiments were useful for the whole mankind.
Although these experiments were cruel, inadvertedly and unwillingly new drugs were found out. Of course a lot of people died during and after these horrible investigations but there were experiments which were, and still are, of value to science. Some of these tests were the ones which were done for the sake of the German army.
1) The test which was done to see if you can drink sea water is one such experiment. Nowadays we all know you cannot drink sea water. A high quantity of salt is namely deadly, because when it comes inside the body it soaks up water, via the process of osmosis, and you die as a result of dehydration. People tried to find out if you could drink sea water to see if it is necessary to take water with you on each journey, for example if the army went to face a war. You can as well drink sea water on your way, then you did not have to carry a lot of water and if you became thirsty just drink some water out of the sea, they thought.
2) By testing which method of healing wounds was the best, they provided a lot of information to science. They tested to find out the fastest way of healing wounds. In this way a lot of lives were saved during the years which followed. Now more is known on how to treat wounds.
3) And there were of course the experiments to find out how the human body reacts to high and low pressure. This turned out to be useful to the people who had to cross high mountains or had to go very deep below sea level. These experiments showed precisely how high or low a person could go before the body gave up.
The results of these tests have been used in many wars. In addition, the results of experiments concerning the development and testing of medicines and treatment methods for wounds and diseases, such as antibiotics against malaria, the yellow fever and typhoid have had an influence on life after the Second World War.
Though as bad as it seems, the Nazi doctors unwillingly helped mankind, without realising it. But this does not ignore or excuse the fact that it was just terrible what the prisoners went through in the concentration camps.
It is terrible what the doctors did and we can never change that fact. It is unacceptable and it should have never happened. Yet some positive aspects can be found in these horrible facts of history. Without realising it the Nazi doctors inadvertedly helped mankind, by finding solutions to many kind of problems. But this does not exclude the fact that what the prisoners went through in the concentration camps was terrible and unforgivable.
Bibliography
- www.vivat.be/00-00.asp?articleID=1328
- www.go2war2.nl/nld_print.asp?artikelid=821
- www.remember.org/educate/medexp.html
- http://members.chello.nl/p.vanaert/geschiedenis/kampen.html
- www.auschwitz.dk/index.htm
Iconography
- http://members.chello.nl/p.vanaert/geschiedenis/kampen.html
- http://home8.inet.tele.dk/aaaa/Mengele.htm
- www.mengele.dk/images/exp4.jpg
- www.panorama.it
