Hitler's Euthanasia Program
Hitler created the Euthanasia program and put it into effect in 1939. The Euthanasia program aimed to eliminate “life not worthy of life”, meaning those who are not worthy of living. It “targeted, for systematic killing, mentally and physically disabled or ill people” (“At the Killing Centers” 3). This program was secret at first, intended for kids under the age of three. It rapidly started to widen its scope to seventeen years, then to full blown adults. Children were “killed when they arrived at Auschwitz, in killing centers, immediately after birth or in institutions. Children who were over the age of 12, were used as laborers and as subjects of medical experiments” (4). The infamous physician Dr. Mengele used many young twins, infants,
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The main objective of conducting the experiments was to “find better medical treatments for German soldiers and airmen… As well as improving methods of sterilizing people the Nazis considered inferior” (“Nazi Medical Experiments” 1). There were three categories of experiments. The first category included facilitating the survival of military personnel. Physicians conducted high-altitude experiments using a low-pressure chamber, to determine the topmost altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety. Scientists there carried out so-called freezing experiments using prisoners to find an effective treatment for hypothermia (“Nazi Medical Experiments” 1). The second category aimed to develop treatments for diseases and infections. They gave the subjects illnesses, such as; malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis. They watched the affects it had on the human body. Then they would try different methods of treatment to see which was preeminent. Lastly, the third category of medical experimentation was to advance the racial and ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview. The infamous Josef Mengele performed experiments on twins and infants to see how different "races" withstood various contagious diseases. Often the subjects of the experiments would be killed due to the insufferable conditions, but sometimes they would be murdered. When they were killed, their bodies were dissected and
The main objective of conducting the experiments was to “find better medical treatments for German soldiers and airmen… As well as improving methods of sterilizing people the Nazis considered inferior” (“Nazi Medical Experiments” 1). There were three categories of experiments. The first category included facilitating the survival of military personnel. Physicians conducted high-altitude experiments using a low-pressure chamber, to determine the topmost altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety. Scientists there carried out so-called freezing experiments using prisoners to find an effective treatment for hypothermia (“Nazi Medical Experiments” 1). The second category aimed to develop treatments for diseases and infections. They gave the subjects illnesses, such as; malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis. They watched the affects it had on the human body. Then they would try different methods of treatment to see which was preeminent. Lastly, the third category of medical experimentation was to advance the racial and ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview. The infamous Josef Mengele performed experiments on twins and infants to see how different "races" withstood various contagious diseases. Often the subjects of the experiments would be killed due to the insufferable conditions, but sometimes they would be murdered. When they were killed, their bodies were dissected and