The Theory and Practice of Hell (41 page)

A report by Brack to Himmler on the completed preliminary work contained the somewhat premature con clusion:

The following results can claim certainty and an ap propriate scientific foundation: if persons are to be ren dered permanently sterile, this can be accomplished only by X-ray dosages so high that castration with all its con sequences ensues. These high X-ray dosages destroy the in ner secretions o f the ovaries and the testicles.. . .

Theoretically, with top voltage, thin filter and close proximity, an exposure o f two minutes for men and three minutes for women should be sufficient. But another disadvantage must be taken into account. Since it is im possible to screen other parts o f the body with lead without attracting attention, the tissues are affected and radiation sickness ensues. I f the radiation has been too intense, the skin reached by*the rays will, in the ensuing days or weeks, show symptoms o f burning, varying with the individual.

One practical method, for example, would be to have the persons to be processed step up to a window where they would be asked certain questions or have to fill out certain

1Brack was sentenced to death in the Nazi Medical T ria l.—
Tr.

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forms, detaining them for two or three minutes
.
The of ficial behind the window could operate the equipment in such a way that the switch simultaneously turned on two X-ray tubes, since exposure must be from two sides
.
A two-tube installation thus could sterilize ISO to 200persons a day, twenty installations some 3,000 to 4,000 persons a day
.
A larger daily load is out o f the question anyway, in my estimation
.

The method was to be applied primarily to the two to three million European Jews, both men and women, who were still “ well able to work,” the report concluding

that even now it has become a matter of small moment whether the persons affected know from the effects in a few weeks or months that they have been castrated. Ifyou, Reich Leader, in the interests o f preserving manpower should decide to choose this way, Reich Leader Bouhler is prepared to place at your disposal the physicians and other personnel required to do the work
.

Dr. Schuhmann, on the other hand, on the basis of his ex periments at Auschwitz and Ravensbriick, insisted that in all likelihood castration of men was not feasible by this method, besides being far too expensive. Castration by operation, he said, was cheaper and took no more than six to seven minutes. The method, however, could not be adapted to large numbers of subjects, nor was it really “ fast and inconspicuous.” Yet it was precisely mass sterilization in which Himmler, the “ Com missioner for the Strengthening of the German National Character,” was interested.

In 1942 Professor Clauberg, an SS brigadier-general of Konigshlitte in Upper Silesia, had suggested a third method for rendering women sterile—the injection of chemical irritants into the uterus. On July 7, 1942, in the presence of Himmler, a conference took place between Professor Gebhardt, SS Lieutenant-General Glucks, PohPs deputy in the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, and Professor Clauberg. Auschwitz concentration camp was “ made available” to the latter for his “ experiments on humans and animals” (these were the very words used!). It was also

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proposed to assign the German X-ray specialist Professor Hohlfelder, chief of the so-called SS X-ray Battalion, so that work on men could be included in the program. Only three days later Clauberg was notified that Himmler “ desired” him to go to Ravensbrtick to conduct sterilizations by his method on Jewish women.

Before you start with your work, the Reich Leader SS would appreciate learning from you the approximate time that would be required to sterilize one thousand Jewesses. The Jewesses themselves are to know nothing about it. In the opinion o f the Reich Leader SS, you should be able to administer the injections in the course o f a general examination. Extensive tests would have to be made to show the effectiveness o f the sterilization. For the most part, these could perhaps consist o f X-ray photographs, to be made after a certain period o f time, to be determined by yourself, which would establish what changes had taken place. In some case or other, however, there might have to

*

be a practical test, conducted in such a way that a Jewess is

locked up with a Jew for a certain period o f time, any suc cess attained to be observed.

Clauberg went to work. On June 7, 1943, he reported that his method was “ virtually complete.” A “ single injection into the cervix” was sufficient, and it could be administered “ during the usual gynecological examination familiar to every physician.” To Himmler’s question he replied: “ An ap propriately trained physician, using appropriate equipment and perhaps ten assistants (the number depending on the speed to be attained), can very probably handle several hun dred women a day, if not, indeed, one thousand.”

To work out the last “ refinements” in his method, he had another three hundred women shipped from Ravensbrtick to Auschwitz. Those who did not die of the experiment were sub sequently gassed. X-ray photographs made during certain preliminary tests at Ravensbrtick showed that Clauberg’s in jections “ penetrated to the end of the ovarian duct; in several cases even to the abdominal cavity.”

In 1944, as the Nazi regime began to disintegrate, the whole SS sterilization program came to a halt in a welter of

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documents that refused to admit failure and hoped for better results. The actual results were hundreds of dead and maimed.

I believe it will be sufficient to give a mere enumeration of other “ scientific experiments” conducted by the SS on de fenseless prisoners.

In Buchenwald and Neuengamme, “ Experimental Section V” conducted work in counteracting homosexuality by gland implants and synthetic hormones. These experiments were suggested and executed by the Danish SS Major Dr. Vaernet, who was stationed at Prague. The report went to SS Colonel Poppendick. In Buchenwald a total of fifteen inmates were treated, of whom two died. Vaernet also tried his hand with men who had been castrated. The matter became the butt of many jokes on the part of the SS Medical Officers as well as the prisoners. No positive results were obtained.

In Buchenwald, experiments were conducted with yellow fever (results reported to the Behring Works, Marburg-on- Lahn, and the Army Medical Inspection Service, Berlin), smallpox, typhoid, paratyphoid A and B, diphtheria, combat poison gases, other poisons and phosphorus-rubber in cendiary bombs. Tests were also made for the Academy of Military Medicine at Berlin, to show whether blood stored for some time could still be transfused; and typhus convalescent serum was prepared for the SS from the blood of patients in Ward 46. Further experiments were conducted on “ the ex perimental physiology of nutrition” (SS Major H.D. Ellenbeck) and on the preservation of blood for the SS base hospital at Berlin. At intervals of three or four weeks, two SS medical noncoms would arrive to bleed hundreds of hospital inmates. A slice of bread and a piece of sausage were offered in return for 200 cc. blood; but often as much as 400 cc was taken.

At the Natzweiler concentration camp, experiments with typhus and yellow fever were conducted by Dr. Eugen Haagen, Professor of Hygiene at Strassburg University. His liaison man to the Institute for Military Scientific Research of the
Waffen SS
was Professor Hirt, Strassburg anatomist, to whom Haagen on one occasion complained that of one hun dred prisoners transferred to Natzweiler for the experiments

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eighteen had died in transport, while only twelve were in a condition that made them suitable for the tests.

Professor Hirt, on his part, late in 1942 suggested to Hitler that a collection of skulls and skeletons of “ Jewish-Bolshevist commissars” be created. The SS Main Economic and Ad ministrative Office immediately instructed Auschwitz to make concentration-camp inmates available for this purpose, and

115 persons were selected—seventy-nine Jewish men, thirty Jewish women, two Poles and two Asiatics. They were shipped to the Natzweiler camp, where they were gassed with cyanide which Professor Hirt gave the Camp Commandant for the purpose. Some of the male victims had the left testicle removed (evidently a private project at Natzweiler). The bodies were shipped to the Institute of Anatomy at Strassburg University for Professor Hirt. There they were preserved in basins containing a fifty-five per cent alcohol solution and stored for a year, until the approach of the Allied front caused Hirt to order the bodies dismembered and burned.

At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, blood was banked regularly from 1944 on, for the SS base hospital at Berlin (SS Major H.D. Ellenbeck). From 1942 to 1945 there were various experiments with combat agents. For this pur pose Dr. Mrugowsky, Chief Hygienist to the SS, in company with other SS officers, actually inflicted gunshot wounds on Russian prisoners of war with poisoned bullets. From 1939 on tests were made in this camp with liquid war gases (mustard or yellow cross). The substance was applied to the skin of in mates and the symptoms recorded until death supervened. Reports on these tests went to Himmler, who had similar ex periments on a large scale—up to 150 prisoners—conducted at Natzweiler by Professors Hirt and Bickenbach (the latter an internist at Strassburg University). Some of the victims went blind before they died in agony.

At the Dachau concentration camp in 1942 and 1943 ab scesses were artificially induced, in order to test the efficacy of allopathic and homeopathic drugs. The subjects were chiefly Catholic clerics and Poles. SS Chief Surgeon Wolter selected them, while Dr. Laue, another SS physician, set the in fections. Mortality was high and no cures were effected. Of one group of fifty priests a report to Himmler from Dr.