Nazi Experimentation on the Women of Ravensbrück
Nazi Experimentation on the Women of Ravensbrück
Human Experimentation is one of the most vile and degrading experiences to force upon a person. Treating a person as nothing more than a science experiment is more demeaning than any words can convey, but that research is still used today. It is important that we never allow human experimentation again. This is a question that many researchers and historians wrestle with - should unethical research be accepted in scientific circles?
Ravensbrück drew my attention due to the fact that it was a women's only camp. K-12 Holocaust education in the United States is subpar at best, it is heartbreaking that the next generation is blissfully unaware of the tragedies endured by those who a dictator decided was "other". The question I will be wrestling with is whether human experimentation is ever ethical, as well as examining the results of experimentation in order to provide a contrary argument.
Professor Karl Gebhardt - Nazi Scientist leading Ravensbruck Experiments
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/karl-gebhardt
Sources from the Ravensbrück trials reveal the extensive horrors of the experimentation. "Doctors" would take women, bring them into locked bunkers, and create wounds to be infected. Once artificially infected with foreign bodies such as wood or glass, but there was little to no scientific reasoning for these experiments, they were just sadistic.
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/kentmedhist/human-experimentation-at-ravensbruck-concentration-camp/
Auschwitz and Ravensbrück were the two leading camps in sterilization - what a terrible category to lead. Sterilization is the practice of preventing somebody's ability to reproduce. Surprisingly, the inmates weren't the only people forced to be sterilized, around 400,000 Germans were sterilized in order to "purify the Aryan race" during the 1930s.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-medical-experiments
Women of Ravensbruck working in their encampment
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5b47d997d28664328c7785de/master/w_1920,c_limit/450505_ra544.jpg
While I was looking to form a positive and contrary viewpoint to present, I could not discover an ethical manner to conduct human experimentation. The trauma endured by those who experience human experimentation is unrivaled by anything most of us could imagine. While in an ideal world we could ignore the Nazi research, it's crucial to human development to accept truths even from horrendous messengers.
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, Germany's campaign of eugenics and other harmful "health" practices was justified under the guise of cleansing Germany society. The othering that the government took part in for years leading up to this point led this standpoint to being widely accepted rather than wholly disregarded. The policies began with sterilization, both mass sterilization and scientific research used in order to discover more effective means of sterilization.
While this explanation does account for the violence, it doesn't accurately explain it. While the public may have believed what was going on was acceptable, the government knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they were doing was evil, yet they continued.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-medical-experiments
Nazi Experimentation Map
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/f13d8379-e3ed-44cc-aa7f-2667ddba4888.gif
While the Nuremberg Trials addressed the scientists (to a degree), the science itself was left unchecked. In today's society, scholars and scientists wrestle with the concept of using accepted Nazi science, but unfortunately it has been instrumental in fields like medicine, anatomy, and aviation. To make a blanket decision would be incredibly difficult, but I implore you to continue thinking about it in the future.
The scientists that were not addressed by the Nuremberg Trials were absorbed by the United States Government under CIA Operation Paperclip.
While the legitimacy of the research may not be questionable, the ethics undoubtedly are. The women affected by the Nazi experimentation usually died, but family members and witnesses lived to tell the horrifying stories of what happened.
The testimony of Ms. Weiss is instrumental in understanding the trauma and weight of the Nazi control and violence. While the video is long, 1:56:52 is where she details Josef Mengele and the Nazi experiments. Rest in Peace Marta Weiss.