Dying of disease on the battlefield during World War II is a grim reality for thousands of soldiers. The Germans, like other belligerent nations, were keenly aware of the dangers of disease after World War I, so when they tested humans as guinea pigs in the Second War, the story was terrifying.
It is difficult to say how many soldiers died of various diseases during the First World War. At that time, more than 2 million military personnel in all countries died of disease. It is not surprising, therefore, that this was a major problem that the Nazis faced and solved in the ensuing war. To reduce the number of deaths from the disease, they are working on a vaccine. As you know, under normal circumstances, vaccines are rigorously tested before being delivered to a large population. However, the Nazis considered their prisoners of war to be completely depleted, and they did not care about the human rights of their test subjects.
We will start with the disease malaria, which, as you know, is carried by mosquitoes. After a person is bitten, symptoms usually begin to appear after about 10 to 15 days. This usually means starting a severe fever, headache, and worse, dying after a coma. Even today, about 400,000 people die from malaria each year.
From 1942 to 1945, the Nazis used prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp to try to understand how malaria was treated in their own troops. This includes giving medication to people who intend to be infected after infection and testing preventive measures, i.e. taking medication before infection. German doctors extracted the disease from the mosquito's mucus glands and injected it into prisoners. One of the main figures behind these experiments was a professor of tropical diseases named Klaus Schilling. He was a highly educated man, but he didn't seem to have any qualms about passing the disease on to unsuspecting people. Before the outbreak of World War II, he participated in malaria vaccine experiments against Italian prisoners in a psychiatric hospital. It is therefore not surprising that he attracted the attention of the Nazis during the war.
Now let's look at the testimony of the Nuremberg trials, after which Schilling was sentenced to death by hanging. During the trial, most of the malaria victims in the camps were said to have been Poles, Russians and Yugoslavs. A total of 1200 prisoners were selected, but none of them were voluntary. In case you know, sometimes prisoners volunteer to participate in experiments because they are rewarded. Unfortunately, they don't always get such rewards. The testimony said pastors were often the subject of choice for these malaria experiments. The Nazis not only persecuted the Jews; they were also anti-Christian, a religion hitler said was only suitable for slaves. One of the test subjects was Father Koch. He explained that in the camp he was told to put his hand in a box. That box was full of mosquitoes. For 7 days, he had to do it every day.
During the trial, someone explained: "Every afternoon, when he was lying in bed, a box of mosquitoes would be placed between his legs. A blood smear is taken from his ear every morning and his body temperature is measured every day and night. He also took the quinine drug, which is still used today to treat malaria. Father Koch contracted malaria and had a high fever and pain in his joints after he was discharged from the hospital. He was one of the lucky ones because he survived the battle against a deadly disease. Others weren't so lucky. The trial testimony stated that "others took apyropyridopyrine, a drug numbered 92516, and several combinations of these drugs." Some people died as a result of these experiments. ”
When someone died, Dr. Schilling understood that patients could not afford such a large dose of the drug. According to testimony, deaths from those drug overdoses are very similar to deaths from arsenic poisoning. Two young Russians received malaria after contracting it, and soon after they died. The cause of death was blood cell breakdown.
Of course, some people simply die from malaria itself. The figure is said to be 30, although 300 or 400 people have died from complications of malaria. We know from the same testimony that there was an outbreak of typhus in the camp. The drugs given to patients with this disease are neosalwasen, altaline and quinine. During the trial, Schilling denied he knew about beating prisoners and said he believed he was working for the benefit of humanity.
In fact, one woman who worked for him for 30 years testified that "his intentions at Dachau were good." "Other witnesses spoke of how professional he was. Still, he went to the gallows. Dr. Schilling should have been clearer that this was the verdict. One judge explained it this way: "As an educated and erudite man, Schilling had undoubtedly realized the way his work suited the needs of the Nazis. Although his personal motivation may stem from his desire to help humanity.
Now let's move on to typhus. The Nazis created jewish ghettos in part because they tried to contain the typhus epidemic and prevent its spread to the wider public. It's really just an excuse to isolate some people they see as a threat to their homeland. Once the Jews were sent to concentration camps, many of them were told they would receive an "insectical bath," but in reality this bath was a gas chamber. The book also notes that the Nazis kept Jews in quarantine because doctors "preferred overcrowded and unhygienic conditions to allow the epidemic to rage and kill as many people as possible." ”
Typhus is also a terrible form of death, usually starting with a high fever and then leading to a psychotic state. Still, it wasn't just Jews who died of typhus. This disease, transmitted by lice or fleas, frightened the Nazis. Scholars have since pointed out that the Nazis viewed the disease as if they were Jews, believing that Jews were parasites in their country, just as lice were parasites for humans. Many Nazi troops died of typhus on the Eastern Front, so they needed to be vaccinated. They also need someone to test it. Most importantly, dealing with tiny creatures carrying disease was a dangerous job, so the Nazis once again needed to recruit volunteers who could sacrifice. Some people do volunteer for this, but only because another option could be gas chambers and incinerators. One of the people responsible for making the vaccine was Joachim Mrugowsky, a bacteriologist and director of the Nazi Health Institute in Berlin. He already knew that Polish biologist Rudolf Weigel had successfully developed a vaccine, but that involved the use of typhus bacteria taken from the intestines of lice.
The Nazis didn't want millions of lice into the camp, so they needed a solution. By the way, Weigel eventually saved the lives of thousands of Jews with his vaccines. In terms of experimentation, thanks to a man named Paul. French scientists at Giroud discovered that typhus bacteria can grow in the lungs of rabbits, as long as the rabbit's immune system is very weak. The growing bacteria can then be used in vaccines.
Mrugowsky wrote in a memo: "This vaccine has been tested among concentration camp inmates and the results are very good. "Still, making a vaccine is a serious matter. It was difficult for even French experts, let alone Nazi scientists who worked with prisoners from all walks of life. Typhus bacteria usually only live in lice and humans, so bringing them into rabbits is a problem. In short, the blood of an infected person is injected into the body of a real guinea pig. Their infected brains or testicles were mashed up and the resulting infected fluid entered the mice. The mashed lungs of the mice were then injected with fluid into the poor rabbits. But keep in mind that rabbits must be immunocompromised. This is the only way for bacteria to survive. Many steps are taken to damage the rabbit's immune system. Soaking them in ice-cold water after shaving seems to solve the problem. Eventually, two types of vaccines were made. One works, one doesn't. The one that didn't seem to work was eventually injected into the arms of many German soldiers on the front lines.
Of course, Nazi scientists and soldiers knew it wouldn't work. It also does not apply to people in camps, although an effective vaccine was used for those forced to work in camps. During the postwar trial of Mrugowsky, it was said that typhus was just one of many diseases the Nazis had experimented with. Other diseases include cholera, yellow fever, parrot fever, plague, smallpox and typhoid fever. The testimony covering these experiments is hundreds of pages long, much of which is about infecting humans with these diseases. They are given drugs to cure them, and if the drugs don't work, the disease tends to kill these people.
The Nazis also conducted experiments involving so-called "contagious jaundice," the hepatitis virus. These experiments mainly used Polish prisoners from the Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler concentration camps and were conducted between June 1943 and January 1945. Herman Friesen was one of those involved, though there are few details about what he actually did. Years later, he actually ended up working for the U.S. Space Medicine Program. Kurt Bloom was another man who went to the United States, though he apparently committed many heinous crimes. He worked on some top-secret projects in the United States, which is why he was exempt from long prison sentences or hangings. More than 300 Nazi scientists were poached by the United States. In the camp, Blom conducted experiments involving "the artificial mass transmission of malaria parasites to humans: he also infected prisoners with hepatitis and the Black Death." At the Nuremberg trial, a witness said he was present when prisoners carrying the hepatitis virus were tested. He talked about seeing doctors give patients "liver punctures," though he didn't explain exactly what they were used for. He was probably referring to liver biopsies, a procedure that people receive today under local anesthesia. When asked if he thought the patient was suffering, he replied: "Here we are concerned with the operation that lasts only a few seconds, but, judging from the patient's demeanor, we can see that we do not care about any small things, this operation must be painful." On page 733 of a manuscript, it reads: "Subjects were deliberately infected with epidemic jaundice, and some of them died as a result, while others suffered great pain and suffering." ”
As for the plague, Mr. Blom is trying to weaponize it. Part of his work involves dealing with the plague, such as if you want to turn it into a weapon. As we all know, this is called biological warfare. This was Blom's specialty, so he was hired by the United States and evaded the death penalty. By the way, Hitler opposed the use of biological weapons. Blom is also working on developing a plague vaccine, for which he needs to test subjects. He is said to have imposed plague and tuberculosis on thousands of prisoners. One resource noted that the United States "withheld evidence of guilt in his role as overseer of such horrific experiments." ”