Mobilization in autumn 1939 resulted in the call- up of doctors and scientists for active service. This interrupted the momentum of research, which rapidly diminished in 1940. In contrast to the well co- ordinated Allied war research in biology and medicine, the German scientifi c planning appeared ill- prepared and fragmented in relying on traditional academic structures with all their rigidity and academic infi ghting. It has been argued that German scientifi c mobilization was relatively effective in natural science and technology. 41 By way of contrast, medicine became a battleground of
entrenched professional and scientifi c interests. The experiments show that even the expansive SS was divided over the imposition of an ideologically driven ‘New German Healing’. Academic factions were rife.
The use of concentration camp prisoners for scientifi c research evolved slowly. With the outbreak of war concentration camps became sporadically used for racial research. Erich Wagner, a Sudeten German and ‘illegal’ Austrian Nazi, was camp doctor at Buchenwald in 1939–41. He submitted a dissertation – partly written and researched by a prisoner, to the nearby University of Jena on 22 September 1940, earning him the title Dr. med. Entitled, ‘A Contribution to the Tattoo Problem’, this was a study of 800 prisoners with tattoos, which Wagner used as a basis for the study of links to criminality. Wagner described the topography and sentiments of the tattoo – such as ‘Auf zum Kampf’ on a penis, and photographed the many types of tattoos on his prisoner research subjects. According to the prisoner assistant Gustav Wegerer, many of the prisoners were killed in the sick bay so that their skin could be exhibited. 42 Buchenwald established a macabre
museum of murderous artefacts. The collection of tattooed skin became notorious, appealing to Ilse Koch, the camp commandant’s wife.
Sachsenhausen came to be used for war- related experiments. 43 The
camp’s Oranienburg location on the northern outskirts of Berlin was the centre of SS administration and where the Auer Company was developing
VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF NAZI HUMAN EXPERIMENTS
60
scientifi cally based armaments production. Reichsarzt SS Grawitz demanded research on ‘defensive’ (the term was often a euphemism for offensive) measures against mustard gas. He ordered the camp surgeon, Hugo-Heinz Schmick, in association with the camp doctor Walter Sonntag to experiment on fi fty camp prisoners at Sachsenhausen. The aim was to test powders known as F1000 and F1001 as preventively applied to the skin against mustard gas poisoning. Schmick claimed that he selected fewer prisoners; thirty- one are known. Here, in late October or November 1939 experiments on the poison gas ‘Yellow Cross’ or Yperit (a type of mustard gas and lewisite combination) were conducted. The prisoners were Germans, apart from one Czech. Wolfgang Wirth, the poison gas expert of the Military Academy Berlin observed a fi lm of the procedures, and concluded that the military had conducted tests of better scientifi c quality. 44 The
experiments ceased when Schmick moved to work under Gebhardt at Hohenlychen.
Research on mustard gas and other chemical weapons for the army at the Spandau citadel involved self- experiments by Wirth and his staff, resulting in scars and sickness. The military researchers paid a premium to medical students and military volunteers for tests – for instance, a glass of schnapps and 50 marks for a mustard gas test. 45 Wirth’s extensive poison gas research
did not (at least at fi rst) involve coerced subjects.
August Hirt an anatomist and SS member since April 1933, worked under Wirth at the Institute for Pharmacology and Military Toxicology of the Military Medical Academy Berlin. Hirt researched on the use of Trypafl avin (or acrifl aviniumchloride) for mustard gas casualties, using fi rst animals and then two military cadets. Wirth regarded Hirt’s experiments as unnecessary and unfounded. Indeed, Wirth tried to have Hirt’s experiments stopped much to the latter’s frustration. Hirt transferred to the Ahnenerbe SS which meant he radicalized lethal experimental practices. 46
In 1941 Hirt researched on mustard gas using rats, but both Hirt and his assistant Anton Kiesselbach were injured. Hirt had ideas on preventing the effect of the gas by means of vitamin A. 47 Around July 1942 Hirt began
research at Natzweiler in Alsace supported by Himmler and Karl Brandt. Hirt clashed with the camp commandant Josef Kramer over allocating an improved diet to his research subjects. 48 Experiments by Hirt with the
airforce doctor Karl Wimmer and the anatomist Anton Kiesselbach began on 25 November 1942. Fifteen prisoners (including the Kapo Ferdinand Holl, an anti-Nazi from Alsace) had higher rations for a month so they could serve as experimental subjects. The liquid was applied to the prisoners’ underarm. Burning, pain and blindness resulted. After fi ve days came the fi rst death and seven more died. The wounds were photographed, and the internal organs were taken out and examined. 49
From 25 January 1943 Sievers decided to upscale the experiments – four series of experiments were conducted at Natzweiler on 240 detainees. 50
Two prisoner nurses noted prisoner numbers, and Hendrik Nales noted the names of those killed. 51 Holl described how the gas was placed on
FIRST SS EXPERIMENTS, 1939 TO 1941 61
their upper arm, and some hours later the prisoners experienced burning, and some became partially blind. The injuries were documented and photographed. By day 5, some died. The bodies were dissected in Strasbourg by Wimmer, the anatomical assistant. 52 Two groups of fi fteen were subjected
to the gas in an improvized gas chamber. The gas warfare experiments continued until September 1944. 53