10 of the Most Shocking Nazi Experiments

#1 Introduction

The Nazis are possibly the most infamous political party in history, as the ruling party of Germany during World War II. In power from 1933 until their defeat by Allied Forces in 1945, the Nazi Party has become notorious for its involvement in some of the most inhumane, cruel practices ever committed by an organised group.

Racism was a key part of the Nazi Party's regime, believing that the Nordic race were the master race. In particular, Adolf Hitler and his party had a hatred for the Jewish people, who were widely murdered and persecuted during the Nazi reign.

It was in the aftermath of World War II that the full extent of the Nazi's crimes against humanity became apparent. Famously, the Nuremberg trials were conducted to convict the surviving officials responsible for ordering the many atrocities. It wasn't only Nazi officials that were made to answer for what they'd done. The Nazi party were also behind a number of chilling human experiments, and several of the doctors involved were convicted in a series of trials for their war crimes.

This list takes a look at some of the most shocking of these Nazi experiments, that resulted in the death, mutilation and psychological torture of millions of people. Please note that the majority of these entries contain some highly disturbing text and imagery, so read ahead with caution.

#2 The Twins

Identical twins made for human test subjects that were highly valued by the Nazi doctors. After being meticulously measured, examined and harvested for living data, twins would then typically be killed at the same time, before having their organs being sent off to Nazi research centres.

In 1943, two Hungarian twins were made to endure some particularly horrific Nazi experiments. The two were noted as being young, handsome and athletic. After weeks of examination, the twins were forced into vats filled with hot water until they passed out. Doctors then plucked out their head hair and completely shaved their bodies.

Following this, each twin was given a painful two litre enema, then strapped onto a bench table, where their rectums were opened up for intestinal examination. No anaesthesia was used, and both twins were recorded as crying so loudly that they were gagged. Further living samples were forcibly taken from their prostates and testicles, with more and more painful, intrusive parts removed over the course of almost a month. At the end of this torture, they were sent to a dissection laboratory and given a lethal injection, with their organs to be sent to a research institute in Berlin.

#3 The Jewish Collection

The Jewish collection was a chilling example of the Nazi belief that the Jewish people were inferior to the Aryan or Nordic races. August Hirt, chairman of the Reich University's anatomy department, created a collection of Jewish skeletons in order to ‘scientifically' prove that the Aryans were a superior race.

The disturbing collection included the remains of 115 people, made up of 79 Jewish men, 30 Jewish women, 4 Soviet prisoners of war, and 2 Poles. Each victim was brought into a medical chamber under the pretence of a physical examination, then gassed to death.

Each body was sent to Hirt at the Strasbourg University Hospital, where he would remove the flesh for the skeleton collection. French troops later discovered the collection, which contained many unprocessed corpses that had their faces completely burnt off to avoid identification.

#4 Epidemic Jaundice

Between the years of 1943 to 1945, experiments were held at the Natzweiler and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, design to experiment on the causes and effects of epidemic jaundice. Victims were injected with the disease, then studied during their prolonged period of suffering.

Epidemic jaundice is now known as Hepatitis A, and is still highly endemic in many areas of the world. Illness from a Hepatitis A infection can cause jaundice, abdominal pain, fever and extreme nausea.

The majority of the victims at the Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler camps were Polish, and many died as a result of the infection, while others experienced underwent high levels of pain. Only one charge against those involved with the epidemic jaundice experiments led to a successful conviction. Karl Brandt, head of the Nazi euthanasia program, was found guilty of working to enable the inhumane tests.

#5 High Altitude Chamber

During the year of 1942, victims at the Dachau concentration camp were subjected to experiments that were designed to test the absolute limits of human endurance. The tests were supposed to benefit the German Air Force, by investigating the effects of atmospheric conditions at extreme altitudes.

A special low-pressure chamber was built, in which high altitude conditions could be simulated. Victims were placed inside the chamber, and Nazi doctors would gradually increase the simulated altitude within.

The conditions inside the chamber were similar to those experienced by a pilot falling from 68 thousand feet, and the experiment was highly dangerous for the subjects. Almost every victim of the high altitude chamber died as a result of injuries related to extreme atmospheric exposure.

#6 Incendiary Experiments

Near the end of World War II, the Nazis became further interested with the effects of incendiary weapons, which were capable of extremely high levels of destruction. The incendiary bombs contained phosphorus matter, a substance that can cause horrific burns and serious injury.

White phosphorus can harm humans by being inhaled in smoke form, being ingested, or by burning into the body's tissue. The initial explosion of an incendiary weapon containing phosphorus can produce deep third degree burns, due its properties that allow it to stick to the skin. Phosphorus burns also carry a greater risk of death than most other burns, as absorption of the element into the body can result in multiple organ failure.

While researching the incendiary weaponry, the Nazis decided to test the effects at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Victims were purposefully burned with phosphorus matter, causing deep wounds and prolonged suffering.

#7 Mass Malaria Infections

During World War II, well over 1,000 victims were a part of the Nazi malaria experiments. Healthy subjects were purposefully infected with a strain of malaria, either by being bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes or through malaria-infected blood being injected directly into the victim's veins.

"All of a sudden my heart felt like it was going to be torn out," writes victim Father Leo Miechalowski, who was subjected to the Nazi malaria experiments. "I became insane. I completely lost my language my ability to speak." Malaria's symptoms include prolonged fevers and headaches, which can lead to comas and death.

Once the effects of the malaria were felt, doctors would continue to inject malaria into the victims, to ensure the disease would stay in their blood. These experiments directly or indirectly resulted in the deaths of almost half of the total victims.

#8 Sea Water Desalinization

A topic of interest for the Nazi party was the ability to make sea water drinkable. Due to naval warfare's tendency to leave sailors offshore in ships for long stretches at a time, being able to drink the water around them would allow for lengthier trips at sea.

For the sea water desalinization experiment there were 44 subjects, primarily made up of European Gypsies, that were placed into four different testing groups that could only drink one type of water. The groups were made up of sea water, sea water processed by the ‘Burka' method, sea water without salt, and no water at all.

The horrific experiment was made even worse by the fact that each victim was punctured in their liver or spinal cord for data gathering purposes, and they were not allowed any food or other rations during the testing. Most victims that were made to drink sea water died, following tortuous convulsions and diarrhea, hallucinations and madness.

#9 Freezing Experiments

The freezing experiments were conducted due to a desire by the Nazi high command to prepare for the cold temperatures of the Eastern front. The experiments were supposed to simulate the conditions that German soldiers underwent when facing Russian forces, where thousands had died of freezing and other cold-related injuries.

One of the methods of freezing the human subjects was to drop healthy Russians or Jews into a vat of cold water. The Nazi doctors discovered that most of the victims would lose consciousness and die once their body temperature reached 25°C or less.

The horrors didn't stop with the freezing though. The Nazi doctors utilised a number of inhumane methods to resuscitate victims that hadn't died to the freezing vats. These included hot baths, forcing females to copulate with unconscious male victims, and burning sun lamps. The worst though, was the internal irrigation. Water would be heated to near boiling temperatures, then forced into the bladder, intestines and stomach. No victims survived this treatment.

#10 Bone Grafting Experiments

The bone grafting experiments were an attempt by Nazi doctors to see if it was possible to speed along the body's regeneration process. The means by which they tried to accomplish this were absolutely savage, and would often result in the death of both the donor and receiving victim.

Sections of a healthy patient's bone would be removed from their shoulders, arms or hips, then transferred to a mutilated victim. Occasionally, entire limbs would be harvested from victims, before being killed by Evipan injection.

Muscles and nerves were also of interest to doctors, resulting in deep grafts that would heavily mutilate the victim. "A blanket was put over my eyes, and I did not know what was done with my leg but I felt a great pain and I had the impression that something must have been cut out of my leg," reads one account from survivor Vladislava Karolewska. "Two weeks later we were all taken to the operating theatre again, and put on the operating tables. The bandage was removed, and that was the first time I saw my leg. The incision went so deep that I could see the bone."

#11 The Final Solution

The largest, most infamous part of the Nazi plan was their genetic engineering. The plot was referred to by the Nazi party as the "Final Solution", but it has since become known as the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler wanted the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Blacks, and almost every other ethnic minority to be wiped out in favour of an Aryan super race.

The plan began with an attempt to prove that other races were inferior, through propaganda and many of the aforementioned experiments that would take victims' measurements and tissue samples. For example, Nazis supposedly discovered that Gypsies were more inclined to criminal behaviour due to a different type of blood to other races.

Huge killing operations began in 1941, with police units wiping out entire Jewish communities. Later, mobile gassing vans were introduced, which would pump poisonous gas into a small space that was locked with victims inside. Concentration camps were also set up, designed to not only contains and conduct experiments on the inhabitants, but also slaughter them en masse.

By the end of World War II, it was estimated that a total of 17 million people were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. This included approximately 6 million Jews, 3 million Ukrainians, and 2.5 million Poles. Vast numbers from other ethnic groups also make up the 17 million figure, as well as people with mental disorders, the physically disabled, gay men, transgender people, and those with opposing political views to the Nazis.