Chris Ritter

English 1102
4/03/2014

Holocaust Medical Operations
During the late 1930s to 1945 one of historys deadliest times occurred. In this time
period more than 6 million Jews and non Germans were ruthlessly executed by what was then
Nazi controlled Germany and Adolf Hitler, while others suffered in hazardous labor camps.
Among these millions who were killed and held captive, handfuls were chosen to take part in
unwilling human experimentations. The very thought of someone being worked on like a
laboratory mouse really peaked my interest and is where I began my research to build a nest of
inquiry information. Initially my research began solely on the experiments themselves, but the
deeper I got into my sources the more questions begged to be answered. Such as did these
doctors feel they were doing the right thing? Did any good come out of these horrifying
experiments? In order to answer these questions I first had to find a basis for my research and so
I hit the library with human experimentation during the Holocaust on my mind.
Once I was sure of the direction I wanted to move towards I searched the library high and
low until I found a book by the name of Cleansing the Fatherland Nazi Medicine and Racial
Hygiene. This book covered a variety of topics from the types of experiments conducted to the
personal letters of a doctor who performed these horrible acts. One thing that really intrigued my
interest was in the first chapter Medicine against the Useless. It was there where I learned of a
Mass Killing organized and executed in Berlin codenamed Operation T-4. Operation T-4 was
named for its street location and number, 4 tier gartenstrasse. (Gotz 22) This was a
inconspicuous office aryanized into a urban villa. Immediately I questioned how mass murder of
this scale was possible in a bustling countries capital. It was here where the killing of about two
hundred thousand psychiatric patients, camp inmates who had fallen ill, people suffering from
Chris Ritter
English 1102
4/03/2014

major depression, and nonconformist was organized. (Gotz 22) On October 9
th
1939 this
operation began and was originally set for the extermination of sixty to seventy thousand
people. However by April 1941 the program was suspended with a hefty 273 people over their
intended mark. Stopping of this program was by no means the end rather a break to reorganize.
(Gotz 23) The more I read the more I pondered how these countless beings were chosen.
According to Gotz the basis for deciding whose life gets exterminated came down to ones
ability to work. How could you as a leader like Hitler decide what the value of life is? I couldnt
fathom being ordered by one man to kill thousands of innocent people and possibly even old pre
war friends. Did these doctors and/or officers morally agree with the orders they were to fulfill
for the Reich? This is where my next area of interest picked up. The more I read into the
operation T-4 the more I had to know what the doctors were thinking as they committed these
atrocious acts.
In my quest to find out more about the doctors and how they felt I stumbled across Josef
Mengele, an infamous SS doctor. Josef got his start in 1937 when he became the assistant of Dr.
Otmar von Verschuer, a leading scientific figure widely known for his research with twins. (US
Holocaust Memorial Museum). After serving a stint on the frontlines for the Nazi party Josef
was wounded on the line of fire and sent back to the heart of Germany to recover. It was here I
began to see Josefs career take off. In April of 1943, he received a promotion to the rank of SS
captain. That promotion sent Dr Mengele to the notorious Auschwitz, where he, along with 30
other Doctors in a quest for racial hygiene (US Holocaust Memorial Museum). Each doctor had
their own section of the camp they ran while still taking orders from one man. Josef Mengeles
work never went unnoticed. He was the one responisble for Birkneaus Gypsy camp. (US
Chris Ritter
English 1102
4/03/2014

Holocaust Memorial Museum) However what really took me by surprise was how Mengle and
his fellow doctors held the fate of human life on their hand. These group of doctors were
responsible for the sorting of the mass influx of Jews, prisoners, etc entering the camp and
deciding whether they would go to work or straight to the gas chambers chambers to parish. (US
Holocaust Memorial Museum) I couldnt help but to wince at the mere thought of deciding
whether or not this innocent person would live or die.

Having thought about enough death for ones liking I shifted my research efforts to a
section of Mengeles career. While reading about The Doctors journey I came across an area of
his expertise, twins. This seemed very peculiar to me and I wondered what he possibly did in the
name of medicine to these twins. I came across a German website dedicated solely to Auschwitz.
Up until this point I had never met anyone so ruthless. During his 21 month stay at the
Auschwitz camp Mengele was known as the Angel of Death for his barbaric murderous plots,
such as when he drew a line on the wall of the children's block between 150 and 156 centimeters
Chris Ritter
English 1102
4/03/2014

from the floor and those whose height couldnt surpass the line were sent to the gas chambers.
(Blow) He was described as a stoic man fixed with a death face and on rare occasions would
you see excitement in his eyes and feelings in his hands. This when he had a set of twins come
into his office. (Blow) Twins were Mengeles favorite subject to work on at the camps,
whether it was drawing blood out of them or dissecting them he couldnt get enough. The simple
thought of blood is enough for me to drop it, but I kept digging. Mengele had a reputation
amongst the children in Auschwitz as smiling Uncle Mengele who always had candy and
clothes. (Blow) However it was all a ploy in his game as the next day these visited children
would be taken the next day to his labs.(Blow) Right when I thought this topic of the twins was
going nowhere I stumbled across an interesting quote from an unknown boy who remembered
his twin brother being taken and operated on. The boy recollected:
"Dr. Mengele had always been more interested in Tibi. I am not sure why - perhaps
because he was the older twin. Mengele made several operations on Tibi. One surgery on his
spine left my brother paralyzed. He could not walk anymore. Then they took out his sexual
organs. After the fourth operation, I did not see Tibi anymore. I cannot tell you how I felt. It is
impossible to put into words how I felt. They had taken away my father, my mother, my two older
brothers - and now, my twin ..." (Blow)
Appalled by this, I nearly shoved my laptop off my desk. He took Tibis live and made his
hard life come to a slow and painful end. He strung this kid out for weeks doing lab rat
experiments on him. One experiment was that of injecting some type of fluid into the boys eyes
to see if it would change colors. This experiment yielded little results and was a huge failure as
its files along with countless other were sent away and destroyed before the camps were
Chris Ritter
English 1102
4/03/2014

liberated. (Blow) The fact that a grown man could willingly end a childs short life in an instant
was truly baffling. Its one thing to do an experiment, but to do back to back operations each
leading to its own catastrophic ending is out of lines. Mengele had no remorse and studied these
kids nonstop till his fleeing to South America in 1948, where he was never seen again (Blow)
My Research took me on a wild ride thorough various medical aspects of the Holocaust.
Although not all of my original questions coming into this research were answered I found
myself with a influx of knowledge regarding T-4, Jose Mengele and a few of the experiments he
conducted. Josef was a terrifying man through words, killing and mutilating children and twins
during the holocaust. He wanted his research to yield good yet all he gave us was a crazy old
man. He and his experiments paled in comparison however, to those involved in the somewhat
secret T-4 operation which ordered the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jew and prisoners
alike. It was truly refreshing to go back in time and learn of such a dark time in history.








Chris Ritter
English 1102
4/03/2014

Works Cited
Blow, L.. N.p.. Web. 3 Apr 2014.
<http://www.auschwitz.dk/mengele.htm>.
Gotz, Aly. "Medicine against the Useless."
Cleansing the Fatherland. Baltimore, MD: 1994.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, . N.p.. Web. 3 Apr 2014.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060>.