User:Btorra01/Doctors' Trials

Human Experimentation
1933-1945 marks a time throughout history where German doctors developed their reputation and record for being the worst of all professional groups. During the Second World War, the Nazi doctors performed very brutish and inhumane experiments on those in the concentration camps. One of the very common experiments that they performed was the hypothermia tests. Young and healthy Jewish and Russian men were selected and forced into ice tubs of water or were stripped and left outside in the brutal winter to freeze. The purpose of this was to examine how long it took for the body temperatures to lower before death occurred and how to resuscitate the frozen bodies. Most victims passed out from the cold and died when their body temperatures lowered to 25 C. Other various forms of freezing the inmates were also conducted. Quite the opposite of the previous experiments but just as excruciatingly painful was the warming experiments. Victims were placed under a hot sun lamp which burned their skin. They were then cooled down and had the process repeated Genetic experiments were also a crucial role for the Nazi’s as this was their main goal, to racially cleanse the society from impurities. The Arian race was seen as superior to all others and the Nazi’s worked to exterminate all other races that were seen as inferior and ‘unfit’. The Nazi doctors were convinced that all other races had different blood and were likely to partake in criminal behaviours Once the concentration camps had begun, the genetic experiments were practiced vastly. Doctor Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death”, would group the prisoners as they arrived at the camps. They were stripped and then assessed and sorted into male, female and children. Most were sent directly to the gas chambers or sent off to work hard labour. Meanwhile, twins and dwarfs were set aside to be experimented on The inmates who were gassed had a terrible fate but those that were chosen as experimental subjects were deemed an even longer, horrific fate. Dr. Mengele was known for his experiments on twins. After twins had been identified and selected, they were very carefully examined, a process which took several days. Every physical aspect was noted and compared. Tests such as taking samples from the kidney, prostate and testicles was performed on certain sets of twins Then, once many painful tests were completed, the twins were taken to the dissection room where they were given a single injection into their heart, which resulted in death. The bodies were then dissected and the organs were sent off to research centres.

Sterilization
When mass sterilization had been decided upon, three methods were considered: by medication, intrauterine irritation and by x-rays Dr. Pokorny proposed the idea of medicated sterilization, caladium sequinum by mouth. The military tribunal had a difficult time developing strong evidence to support that sterilization by means of medication had occurred. However, during the trial, defendant Brandt confessed that the experiments had been performed In 1942, a new method was tested on female prisoners in the camps. Dr. Claudberg developed the procedure which entailed an injection of an irritable solution into the area of the uterus These experiments were performed without the person’s consent, as they did not know what was being done to them. This method was meant to be more efficient, with the estimated amount of 700-1000 women being sterilized daily. Thousands of women had been sterilized through this means in Auschwitz by Doctor Claudberg

Euthanasia Program
Hitler started the euthanasia program in 1939 when he signed a decree. This gave certain doctors the consent and authority to make diagnosis of individuals and kill those who were deemed ‘unfit’ to live. The real means of this program was concealed from the public by the names of the three institutions which carried it out. These were the Reich Association, Hospital and Nursing Establishment. Patients were identified in ways such as the use of questionnaires and the non-profit patient transportation company which transported the patients to the euthanasia institute. The defendants Karl Brandt, Brack, Hoven and Blome were accused of taking part in this crime. Physicians processed more than a hundred cases daily Hitler started the euthanasia program in 1939 when he signed a decree. This gave certain doctors the consent and authority to make diagnosis of individuals and kill those who were deemed ‘unfit’ to live. The real means of this program was concealed from the public by the names of the three institutions which carried it out. These were the Reich Association, Hospital and Nursing Establishment. Patients were identified in ways such as the use of questionnaires and the non-profit patient transportation company which transported the patients to the euthanasia institute. The defendants Karl Brandt, Brack, Hoven and Blome were accused of taking part in this crime. Physicians processed more than a hundred cases daily

Eventually, the programs grew to target and include those who were deemed as being insane, the disabled children, those socially ‘undesirable’, the elderly, those incurably ill and other minority groups and so on. Jews and other minorities in the concentration camps were the main targets of this crime. They were euthanized without examination or reason. Due to protests and letters from the church the euthanasia program was stopped temporarily. But when it was continued it came back with much more force and proficiency and was used for the mass murders of Jewish and other people in the concentration camps after 1941. Many doctors played crucial parts in the euthanasia program. The systematic murders were done by means such as gas and lethal injection. The amount of those victimized by death range from 40, 000 to over a million

The Nuremberg Code
The Nazi Doctors who performed the human experimentations on victims of the Holocaust were brought to trial and judged by The US military courts. The trials known as the “Subsequent Nuremberg Trials” proved that these gruesome murders and means of torture were indeed inflicted on innocent and unwilling patients. The Nuremberg code has laws outlined to ensure that something as horrific as this never takes place again. The Nuremberg code recognizes that clinical experiments are important but also provides rights to those taking part in the experiment. The American judge and two American physicians who prosecuted and witnessed the trials, created the code which served a guide which scientists conducting experiments must follow. The Nuremberg Code enforced the following: (1) it emphasized that experiments must only be performed on willing subjects, by voluntary consent. (2)All research and experiments must be conducted to produce helpful results that will benefit society as a whole. (3) All research must be based on animal experimentation and the nature of the disease (being tested for) must be known.(4) Experiments must evade any physical and mental pain to the subjects. (5) Experiments where disabling injury or death may occur must not be conducted These, along with other laws, were the basis by which scientists were enabled to conduct experiments and research. Overall, the Nuremberg code was created to end abuse and unfair treatment of the subjects during research studies and experiments.

The Defendants
In total, 23 defendants were being tried on various counts of the following: war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership in a criminal organization. Half of the German doctors were active members of the Nazi party as well. These physicians were conducting ruthless, unnecessary experiments on prisoners of the concentration camps. Their goal was to purify the Arian race. There was evidence to link each of the doctors to specific experiments which they had carried out on hundreds and thousands of innocent lives, resulting in severe injuries and death. Some experiments included: inducing disease such as malaria and spotted fever without anaesthesia, and testing things such as mustard gas on the inmates In part of the doctors defence argument was the claim that the subjects whom the experiments were performed on were prisoners in the concentration camps and were going to eventually die, regardless. The physicians tried to convince the judges and those present at the trial hearing that the lives of some could be pardoned if it resulted in research that could save many people Robert Proctor, professor of the History of Science at Penn State University and author of Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis, said that some of the experiments were conducted in part of health initiatives such as the screening for tuberculosis. Also, the tests lead to the first link between smoking and lung cancer However, all of these experiments were created with the intent of exterminating those of “undesirable” descent and were in part of a racial cleansing genocide. In total, the ‘Subsequent Nuremberg trials’ involving the fate of 23 German physicians took place over the course of 139 days, where 85 witnesses gave their testimony and 1,500 documents were presented. Sixteen of the defendants were found guilty. Seven of which were sentenced to death by hanging, five received life imprisonment and four were sentenced between ten to twenty years imprisonment. The other eight were acquitted

Typhus Disease
Along with many other diseases, and viruses, the Nazi’s used Typhus as a means of mass genocide in the concentration camps. Typhus disease is always present when large amounts of people are contained in small, unsanitary quarters. It’s carried by lice which infest hair and clothing. The Nazi officials took advantage of this epidemic and used it as an excuse to restrain the Jews to one area, claiming that they were diseased and infectious people. Instead of trying to treat this disease, the Nazi doctors and officials tricked the inmates into believing that they were going to be deloused and treated, so they could get them into the gas chambers without a struggle The German doctors did nothing to combat this illness, instead they did the opposite so the epidemic would grow and many inmates would die because of it. In fact, Nazi doctors pressured the officials to continue with ghettoization and containment. Despite the doctors’ immoral experiments and research they were unable to stop the spread of typhus. As a result of the negligence of the Nazi doctors, the epidemic continued to worsen and the Jews were left to their fate. Several thousand Jewish people died due to the typhus disease