MAIMONIDES INSTITUTE FOR MEDICINE, ETHICS, AND THE HOLOCAUST
  • Home
  • ABOUT MIMEH
    • Our Who, Why, & How
    • Our Vision
    • Staff
    • Resources
  • Donate
  • Education
    • Webinars
    • Videos
    • Health Care Ethics, Humanities, and Social Justice Webinar Series
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Programs
    • References
  • GOC
    • CARE
    • Emerging Scholars Series
  • UNESCO
  • Blog
  • Galilee Declaration
  • Contact

Survivor's Testimony Revealed

3/15/2016

2 Comments

 
Testimony uncovered at the Central Zionist Archive in January revealed new details about the extent of the atrocities committed by Nazi physicians in the name of medical experimentation and scientific progress.  In an undated, three-page deposition Heinz Reimer, a survivor of Dachau, Mauthausen and other camps, described the torture he experienced at the hands of the Nazis.  According to Reimer's account, he was purposely infected with both malaria and syphillis so that the physicians could use him as a guinea pig for potential treatments.  Rather than inject him directly with malaria, Reimer testified that  "this inhuman Nazi locked me up every day for two hours in a glass cage" where he was forced to "endure thousands of Anopheles mosquitoes on my body."  He continued his description by stating, "Once I could no longer stand the pain I made an attempt of resistance against the mosquitoes while I assumed that this would not be seen.  But the doctor, if you want to call this beast like this, saw my attempt of resistance in the mirror.  For this I received seven days of strict detention.  But before I was led away to the detention, I received 25 lashes with a leather bullwhip." 

Reimer also describes being forced to take part in the Nazi hypothermia experiments at Dachau in which prisoners were first immersed in ice water and then placed in boiling water to study the rewarming process.  According to a 1990 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nazi physicians reported that only two prisoners who were subjected to the hypothermia experiments survived the war, "both of whom became 'mental cases.'"  Reimer's deposition stated that he was "misused as an object of experiments" and "as a vivisection object," further describing the process by which he was infected with malaria: "Dr. [Claus] Schilling infected me three times with malaria tropical bacteria.  He withdrew from my body one and a half liters of blood for serum experiments.  He infected me with syphilis by inflicting a 12-centimeter cutting wound to my leg.  After this I had to undergo cures - I counted 46 injections of Atebrin [a drug used in the treatment of malaria] and other injections."

Sources:

"Brutal Nazi Medical Experiments Uncovered."  1/26/16.  http://virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=19466

"Horror of Nazi Medical Experiments Emerges in Holocaust Survivor's Account." 1/26/16.  http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.699461
2 Comments
Alicia F.
1/2/2018 04:17:23 pm

Just when you think you have an idea of how truly brutal that time was, you discover it was much worse. These poor souls must have begged for death.

Reply
Melinda P.
1/2/2018 04:18:10 pm

Thank you for getting this information out there. It is so important that these stories are told and that future generations learn from them.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    Bioethics
    CANDLES
    Current Events
    Equality
    Eva Mozes Kor
    Guest Blogger
    Health Care
    Human Dignity
    MIMEH News
    Pledge
    Schindler

    RSS Feed

@ 2020 MIMEH.  All rights reserved.  The information contained herein or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of MIMEH.
  • Home
  • ABOUT MIMEH
    • Our Who, Why, & How
    • Our Vision
    • Staff
    • Resources
  • Donate
  • Education
    • Webinars
    • Videos
    • Health Care Ethics, Humanities, and Social Justice Webinar Series
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Programs
    • References
  • GOC
    • CARE
    • Emerging Scholars Series
  • UNESCO
  • Blog
  • Galilee Declaration
  • Contact