Experimenting in War

Experimenting in War

Mackayla Harris

Why did Hitler experiment on the Jews? During World War 2, Nazi scientists began medical experiments on large amounts of Jewish prisoners. In some cases they would experiment on other races. The prisoners were forced to participate, and they did not inform the prisoners of what was going to happen. According to “Nazi Medical Experiments,” “The first category consists of experiments aimed at facilitating the survival of Axis military personnel… The second category of experimentation aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for injuries...The third category of medical experimentation sought to advance the racial ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview.”

The first category of experiments performed on Jews was mainly to learn how to protect Hitler’s men. The experiments that the Nazi scientists performed often killed the Jews. If they did not kill them, it left them disfigured or disabled. Vivien Spitz states in “Doctors from Hell” that, “the human experiments included “high-altitude” experiments in which concentration camp inmates were forced, without oxygen, into high-altitude chambers that duplicated conditions at up to 68,000 feet.” The high-altitude tests were used to see when a person could safely jump out of an aircraft in case of an emergency.  Hitler had the scientists perform a multitude of dangerous experiments on the Jews. The scientists would also perform experiments where they would put the Jews in ice baths for hours to find treatment for hypothermia. The scientists wanted to see if they could extend the time a person could remain in freezing water. Hypothermia was an issue for the German pilots when they would be shot down over the North Sea. The “Nazi Medical Experimentation” states that, “the Nazi doctors considered “military necessity” adequate justification for their experiments.” The first set of experiments were done so that more of Hitler's men would survive.

The second category of experimenting was to find methods of treating wounds caused during battle. The Nazis needed better pharmaceuticals to apply to their wounds, and to find new ones that worked they tested them on the Jews. The scientists would use mustard gas on the Jews to find ways to treat the wounds created by the gas. “Nazi Medical Experimentation” states that, “Wartime wounds were recreated and inflicted on healthy Jews designated to be treated by the new drug.” The Nazi scientists  also needed to find new antibiotics to treat the soldiers with when they would have illnesses. They conducted experiments to find out if there were any immunizations for Tuberculosis. They needed a vaccination for it. They would inject the Tuberculosis bacteria straight into the lungs of the helpless Jews.

The third category of experiments were purely for racial reasons. Hitler and his army wanted to create the perfect Aryan race. Peter Tyson states in “The Experience” that, “ in an effort to find ways to more effectively multiply the German race, Josef Mengele performed experiments on twins at Auschwitz in hopes of plumbing the secrets of multiple births.” The scientists wanted to learn how to make women give birth to multiples every time. Hitler thought this would be a great way to expand the German population. The Nazi scientists also figured that if they sterilized the Jewish men and women that it would help in removing the impurities from their Aryan race. They would inject substances into Jewish women that they believed would prevent them from giving birth. It did cause horrible pain and internal bleeding.  

As surprising as it seems, Hitler had a reason for doing those experiments. The things they did were sick and twisted, but to them they had a reason. The Nazi’s performed their experiments in order to try to learn cures for things they would experience themselves. Such as the mustard gas experiments where they tested the wounds caused by mustard gas. They wanted to find the best way to treat the burns. Hitlers’ experiments were to help learn how to protect the Nazi soldiers, and to help cleanse the world of the his view of an undesirable race. However, the fact that Hitler had reasons for experimenting on the Jews still does not justify what he did. He had so much hatred for any other race than his own. He wanted to make sure nothing would harm his perfect Aryan race. So all though the experiments his people performed were awful, he did not care. He wanted to protect his Nazi men so that they could go on killing the undesirable races.