Research Paper Roe 1 

Wartime Clinical Data and the Ethics of it’s Use

Maddie Roe
Dr. Roseman
H323: History of the Holocaust
April 19, 2019
Research Paper Roe 2 

Doctors are constantly put on a pedestal and are seen as similar to a god in some cultures.

We as humans are the most vulnerable when we are sick or injured and historically, we know

that doctors will have the answers and trust they are infallible. We are raised to believe that these

humans in white as snow coats are intellectually adept and hardworking individuals because of

the training and dedication that is required with the title. Sadly, during the Holocaust Era this

widely-held belief about doctors was far from the truth. Medicine was practiced not to heal but to

harm, not to fight off death but to serve it. Human Guinea pigs, prisoners both young and old,

weakened or still in good health, were subjected to unspeakable suffering and agony in
1
laboratories managed by these assassins in lab coats. After the war, the majority of these doctors

got away with these heinous crimes. Most continued to practice and use their new findings from

experiments during the war to further enhance their research to ​“​benefit​” ​society. The Nazi​’​s

medical experimentation continues to be the source of major controversy today. After millions

have suffered and endured turmoil, is it ethical to use this data for the further enhancement and

knowledge in the medical field?

The Nazi doctors conducted numerous experiments on prisoners in the concentration

camps. The first experiments were done by Dr. Sigmund Rasher at the Dachau Concentration

Camp and were designed to test the limits of human stamina at extremely high altitudes. These

experiments were set up to further advance the German war effort, in that they confirmed with

data how high a pilot could fly before the altitude would kill him. Atmospheric conditions that a

German pilot might encounter in battle were duplicated when falling high distances through

space without a parachute and without a source of oxygen. The experiments would involve

1
​Elie Wiesel, ​“​Foreword​”​, in Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans,​  
(Columbus:Sentient Publications, 2005), pp.xvii-xxii, here p. 
Research Paper Roe 3 

locking an individual in an airtight chamber then simulating the pressure that existed at altitudes

as high as 68,000 feet above sea level. Four different type of experiments took place, slow

descent without oxygen, slow decent with oxygen, rapid descent without oxygen, rapid descent

with oxygen. Around two hundred prisoners of various nationalities were selected for these
2
experiments, however no more than 40 had been given the death penalty. ​Many Nazis argued

that these experiments were justifiable because some of the prisoners had already received death

sentences.

Along with testing altitude, the army wanted to test what was the best way to rewarm an

individual suffering from hypothermia, because soldiers often fell out of their planes into

freezing waters or the German military would be fighting on the battle field in subfreezing

temperatures. Nazi doctors placed prisoners into freezing water (3 degrees celsius) for hours to

see how their bodies would react to the temperature and how long the human body could

withstand hypothermia. Prisoners would either be fully naked or dressed in aviation suits. Each

prisoner reacted differently, but after being in the water for an hour the prisoner​’​s body

temperature would reach between 27-32 degrees Celsius. Nazi Doctors would take prisoner​’​s

temperatures via the rectum and the stomach. The prisoner would then either stay in the water

and freeze to death or be warmed up by various methods such as heating lamps, warm baths,

blankets and women.3 Most of these experiments ended in fatalities, usually because the

individual’s heart would stop during the rewarming process. Out of the countless medical

experiments the Nazi​’​s performed, the data generated from these experiments is most coveted by

2
​Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans,​ (Columbus:Sentient 
Publications, 2005), pp. 65-70 
3
​Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans​, (Columbus:Sentient 
Publications, 2005), pp 85,86,89,​94-96
Research Paper Roe 4 

doctor​’​s today, because hypothermia is still a major complication faced by both the military and

civilian population.

Medical experiments were not only carried out for war purposes, and men were not the

only ones operated on. At Ravensbruck, Hitler​’​s only major concentration camp exclusively for

women, sulfa drug experiments were performed on 74 Polish women known as the ​“​Rabbits​”​.

These women were called ​“​Rabbits​” ​for two reasons, they hopped about the camp after they

were operated on and they were also the Nazis​’ ​experimental rabbits. The experiments were

known as ​“​the sulfonamide operations​”​. These medical experiments were started because Hitler​’​s

close friend, Reinhard Heydrich, died of gas gangrene. Dr. Karl Gebhardt did not treat Heydrich

with sulfa drugs and Hitler accused Gebhardt of letting his friend die. Dr. Gebhardt wanted to

use these experiments to prove to Hitler his decision not to use sulfa had been correct. He used

the legs of the ​“​Rabbits​” ​to replicate traumatic injuries and then added bacteria cultures and other

foreign objects to the wounds to produce gas gangrene. He would administer sulfa drugs to some

woman and not to others, and those who got the sulfa would have gotten significantly less food

and harsher living conditions. Each sulfa patient that died proved Gebhardt​’​s case. These

experiments were not scientifically successful and were utterly unnecessary. (Foot note lilac

girls! I Don't Know what page ) (ask mom )

Perhaps out of all the Nazi experiments, the experiments conducted by Joseph Mengele

were the most notorious. Mengele, also known as the ​“​Angel of Death​”​, oversaw the

experiments the Nazis carried out to breed a superior race and to further enhance Aryanization.

Mengel mainly operated on twins, because he was fascinated by means by which Germany could

produce a larger Aryan race at a faster pace. ​He did countless experiments on twins and other
Research Paper Roe 5 

minorities such as drarfs, and deformed individuals. These indivuals came to be know as

“Mengele’s children”. His experiments included, non-anestetic sugeries, eye color changes, and

injection of various diseases such as, turbolceuosis. Mengele was profoundly deceptive, with his

“angelic” appearance, he was able to seduce everyone he met. He treated the children in the

camp like “his”own (often giving the kids bon bons and luxurious gifts), although, his intention

for them was always death. He was a master destroyer, a Satanic figure brimming with evil

without regard for the value of a human life 4. Alex Dekel, one of Mengele’s twins recalls and

experiment he saw Mengele do while imprisoned, “ Mengele ran a butcher shop-major surgeries

were performed with-out anesthesia. Once, I witnessed a stomach operation- Mengele was

removing pieces from the stomach without any anestesia. The next time it was a heart that was

removed”. 5 The fact Mengele could behave in such friendly demenor even while performing

these unspeakable acts, made him the most notorious of all the Nazi doctor’s and the most feared

man at Auschwitz. 6 Mengel was a failed doctor and a narcassist, nothing else. Like Gebhart, he

conducted medical experiments selifshily for his own sake. He conducted innumerable, painful

experiments to enhace his position in the medical field. Horrifying practices such as these make

examining Nazi research data difficult, yet some data may hold valuable information that could

benefit people who suffer today. 7

4
​Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel. ​Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of
Auschwitz.​ (New York: Morrow, 1991), pp 71-76 here p 76
5
​Alex Dekel in ​Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel, ​Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the
Twins of Auschwitz.​ (New York: Morrow, 1991), pp 69-70
6
​Lucette Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel. ​Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of
Auschwitz.​ (New York: Morrow, 1991), pp 71-76 here p 69
7
​ arah Wilson, “ e Nazi Research Data: Should We Use It?," CedarEthics: A Journal of Critical inking in Bioethics: Vol. 10: No.
S
2, Article 1. DOI: 10.15385/jce.2011.10.2.1 pp 1-2
Research Paper Roe 6 

Why the data should be used

One argument in support of using this research data is that using the data may eventually

benefit civilization, whether it be through saving a life or to better understand certain medical

conditions and their prevention. Some people think that because the data may be beneficial, the

atrocities experienced during the Holocaust can be justified. After all, if the data is already

recorded, and if it can be used to help people better understand the disease state or carry out

treatments more effectively, why shouldn't scientists use it to benefit the population as a whole?

Although using the data might benefit many today and contribute to the betterment of

society, it would be far less noble to the millions who had to endure the torture and the extreme

suffering that came with the experiments used to generate the data. Millions died during these

“​tests​” ​and even more went on to have severe psychological and emotional disabilities as a result

of the procedures.

However, despite these atrocities, the Holocaust is in the past, and no one can take the

brutality back. Perhaps if the data exists, scientist should use it in situations where it could save a

life? Maybe saving lives by using the data can begin to redeem the Holocaust deaths in some

small way. 8 Along with saving a life, using the data also prevents those that deny the Holocaust

took place from strengthening their claim. If we use the data, we can not only prove that these

8
​J Katz, in ​Arthur L. Caplan, ​When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust, (​Totowa, N.J.:Humana Press,1992), pp
233-270
Research Paper Roe 7 

cruelties happened, but by remembering them we are helping to prevent the situation from

happening again. Dr. Howard Spiro from Yale supports this argument with his personal

statement in ​“​Holocaust on Trial,​” “ ​As long as the data are available, evidence that at least some

people did some bad things in Nazi Germany cannot be denied​”. 9 Despite the lives it might

save today, in the end it might result in just the opposite. If we accept the data as reliable and

ethical because it has the possibility to save lives, who’s to say that other physicians or scientists

in the future won​’​t do similar things to what the Nazi’s did to answer their own scientific

curiosities, which would also likely cause others to suffer. In the words of Robert Pozos:

Using the data places a greater degree of importance on scientific inquiry than on ethics and
consequently, could lead to a debasing of humankind​. ​The world must decide that ethical
considerations should always come before scientific progress. Rejecting every dishonest and
unethical scientific study encourages the scientific community to not engage in unethical
research in the future.10

Why the evidence should not be used.

Despite the contentions stating that the data is beneficial to society, many argue that the

data should not be used because it is morally wrong. Various compelling ethical theories and

arguments support this idea suggest that the data should be destroyed forever. 11

The first argument that supports this is the concept of the data​’​s validity. Many think the

data yields nothing of value, as they did not (in most cases) follow sound experimental method.

These experiments were almost always altered and the testing subjects were all malnourished

9
​Howard M. Spiro,”Results of Death-Camp Experiments: Should They Be Used? All 14 Counterarguments,” NOVA website,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html (accessed April 19, 2019).

10

​Robert .S. Pozos, “Scientific Inquiry and Ethics: The Dachau data”, In A.R. Caplan, ​When medicine went mad​: ​Bioethics and the
Holocaust​, (Totowana, NJ.:Humana press, 1992), pp. 95-108

​ arah Wilson, “ e Nazi Research Data: Should We Use It?," CedarEthics: A Journal of Critical inking in Bioethics: Vol. 10:
11
S
No. 2, Article 1. DOI: 10.15385/jce.2011.10.2.1 p 2
Research Paper Roe 8 

and emaciated, so they were not a representative sample of the general population. A sick,

malnourished individual is not as fit as a healthy human and will have a harder time fighting off

disease and preserving their core temperature in frigid waters when they have limited to no body

fat. Dr. Katz, a professor at Yale, has studied the experiments and states, ​“​They​’​re of no

scientific value​”. 12 The data​’​s validity is also questionable because of the Nazi doctor​’​s

reputations. Some of the doctors that performed these experiments were not even licensed

physicians. Most of them did not go through specialized training or have the proper backround

for their field of study, which ultimately calls into question the validity of the data. One doctor

specifically stated that Dr. Heismeyer, the doctor who oversaw the tuberculosis studies, was

incognizant. He states, ​“​He did not then, nor does he now, possess the necessary expertise

demanded in a specialist of tuberculosis. He does not own a bacteriology textbook and is not

familiar with the various work methods of bacteriology​”. 13 Along with not having the expertise,

the doctors frequently altered the final data in order to benefit themselves. An example of this is

Gebhardt altering his sulfamonide experiments to illustrate that the sulfa drug would be useless

in saving Reinhard Heydrich. Gebhardt made sure all his subjects who got the sulfa drug died,

either by giving them less food or dangerous diseases. Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, chief counsel

in the Nuremberg trials, stated, ​“ ​These experiments revealed nothing which civilized medicine
14
can use​”​. These experiments were utterly unnecessary and corrupt. They prove to have no

scientific validity and should be burned like its victims.

12
​Cohen, Baruch C C. "The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments." Jewish Law Articles: Examing Halacha,
Jewish Issues and Secular Law. Accessed April 19, 2019. http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html.

13
​Cohen, Baruch C C. "The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments." Jewish Law Articles: Examing Halacha,
Jewish Issues and Secular Law. Accessed April 19, 2019. http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html.

14
​Kristine Moe. "Should the Nazi Research Data Be Cited?" The Hastings Center Report 14, no. 6 (1984): 5-7. 
Research Paper Roe 9 

An ethical theory that supports this argument is the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic

Oath is the Golden Rule for medical professionals. It states all the rules a practicing physician

must promise to follow when treating patients and experimental subjects. He/she should treat
15
them as though ​they​ were serving as the subject or how he/she would like to be treated if ill.

The Nazi Doctors violated the most important rule listed in the Oath, ​“​First, ​Do No Harm​”​.

These scientific procedures caused millions to go through torture and die a slow, excruciating

death. At times, prisoners would plead for the guards to shoot them because of the immense pain

they went through in these experiments. A quote from Walter Neff, a concentration camp

prisoner assigned to be Rascher​’​s assistant, states, ​“​Approximately during the third hour in the

water, one Russian said to the other,​”​Comrade, tell that officer to shoot us​”. 16 ​Because of the

violation of the Hippocratic Oath, the data is void, and therefore should not be used.

Although all these arguments and ethical theories support a good point, the last and most

important argument for why the data should not be used is for the sake of the millions who died

from these experiments. Not only did the victims not give their consent to be subjected to

experiments, but the outcome of these tests was often death. The millions the data can save does

not justify the millions who died during the process. Eva Kor, one of Josef Mengele​’​s “twins

experiments” states, ​“​To use the Nazi data is obscene and sick. One can always rationalize that it

would save human lives; the question should be asked, at what cost​”. 17 ​In a way, we are

contributing to the victims death by using the data. We are promoting the way they died. It is not

worthwhile to bring up the pain and suffering of these victims or their families by using the data

15
Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans​, (Columbus:Sentient 
Publications, 2005), pp 253 
16
​Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans​, (Columbus:Sentient 
Publications, 2005), p 90
17
Eva Kor​,”Results of Death-Camp Experiments: Should They Be Used? All 14 Counterarguments,” NOVA website,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html (accessed April 19, 2019).
Research Paper Roe 10 

to benefit others or further science. By using this data we are emphasizing science is more

important that the lives that were loss. Killing one person for the purpose of saving others is

never ok. If the data is continually used, we are encouraging others in the future to perform

similar experiments they deem “beneficial.” There is no prevention in the situation from

happening again. Dr. Howard Spiro, Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Internal Medicine

at the Yale School of Medicine, expressed the ethical issue succinctly in a Letter to the Editor of

the New York Times:

No one honors the memory of the dead victims by ''learning'' from experiments carried out on
them. Instead, we make them our retrospective guinea pigs. Any data obtained in the Nazi
concentration camps seems unlikely to be irreplaceable except in their horror. It will put us at
risk of retrospectively participating in their torture and death. If expressing revulsion means
losing something of value, then we should continue to express our revulsion, particularly if we
want to teach our children, and our students, what they should not do. 18

The fact is, we can not seperate the data from it’s victims. Rod Martel, whose grandmother died

in a concentration camp expostulates the use of the data in his personal statement:

I offer this challenge to the hypothermia researchers. As you page through the research, have
next to it actual photos of Jews being tortured in the name of research and see how long you are
able to analyze data. Better yet, think of your mother or father floating in that tank and see if
your beliefs about this subject hold up​.19

Any one that fails to see realistically the Nazi data as a blood soaked document fails to

comprehend fully the magnitude of the issue. 20 ​We all have a moral obligation to remember the

victims, and since some victims, and since some survivors believe that the data should not be

18
Howard M Spiro MD. “Let Nazi Medical Data Remind Us of Evil.” Let Nazi Data Remind Us of Evil, 1988,pp.
A0030,www.nytimes.com/1988/04/19/opinion/1-letnazi-medical-data-remind-us-of-evil-915488.html.
19
Rod Martel​,”Results of Death-Camp Experiments: Should They Be Used? All 14 Counterarguments,” NOVA website,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html (accessed April 19, 2019).

20
​Cohen, Baruch C C. "The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments." Jewish Law Articles: Examing Halacha,
Jewish Issues and Secular Law. Accessed April 19, 2019. http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html.
Research Paper Roe 11 

used, we should respect theirs wishes and that should be it. However, to some, that is not

enough. If one does not feel morally obligated in respecting a survivor’s wishes, they should not

use the data out of the risk for the future. Using the blood soaken documents puts our society at

more risk for something terrible to happen. By disregarding the data, we are losing nothing. 21

Although there are significant arguments to both sides, the data should not be used out of

ethicality. It should be burned just likes it’s subjects. None of the data was found in a moral

manner and there is very little to no scientific validity. It is fraudulent data that could potentially

sabotage the future. Eva kor, one of Mengele’s twin studies advocates this, she states:

To declare the use of the Nazi data ethical, as some of the American scientists and
doctors advocate, would open a Pandora's box and could become an excuse for any of the
Ayatollahs, Kadafis, Stroessners, and Mengeles of the world to create similar circumstances
whereby anyone could be used as their guinea pig. 22

(Come up with a good few closing sentences)(Ask dad)

21

Dyal, Elizabeth S., "Nazi Medical Experimentation: Should the Data Obtained be Used?" (2001). Honors eses. Paper 4.

22
Eva Kor​,”Results of Death-Camp Experiments: Should They Be Used? All 14 Counterarguments,” NOVA website,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html (accessed April 19, 2019).
Research Paper Roe 12 

Stop here!

Bibliography 

Secondary Literature 

Wiesel, Elie, ​“​Foreword​”​, in Vivien Spitz, ​Doctors from Hell. The Horrific Account of Nazi 
Experiments on Humans.​ Columbus:Sentient Publications, 2005. 
 

Citations: Doctors from hell book 

Vivien spitz, 2005 

Lilac girls 

Lilac girls ​– February 28, 2017 

by ​Martha Hall Kelly​ ​(Author) 

Dyal, Elizabeth S., "Nazi Medical Experimentation: Should the Data 

Obtained be Used?" (2001). Honors eses. Paper 4. 

 
Research Paper Roe 13 

http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html 

Cohen, Baruch C. (2001, June). The Ethics of Using Medical Data From 

Nazi Experiments. A vailable at: 

http://www.jlaw.com/articles/NaziMedEx.html 

Katz, J. (1992). Abuse of human beings for the sake of science. In A.R. 

Caplan (Ed.), When medicine went mad (pp. 233-270). Totowana, NJ: 

Humana. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experifull.html​ (NOVA) 

Pozos, R.S. (1992). Scientific Inquiry and Ethics: The Dachau data. In A.R. Caplan (Ed.), 

When medicine went mad (pp. 95-108). Totowana, NJ: Humana. 

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter

_7_Human_Experimentation/Reading-Nazi-experimentation.htm 

jOURNAL ARTICLE 
Research Paper Roe 14 

Should the Nazi Research Data Be Cited? 

Kristine Moe 

The Hastings Center Report 

The Hastings Center Report 

Vol. 14, No. 6 (Dec., 1984), Published by: The Hastings Center 

Previous Item | Next Item 

DOI: 10.2307/3561733 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3561733 

Holocaust survivor Susan Vigorito found the use of the word "data" a sterile term. She was 3½

when she and her twin sister, Hannah, arrived at Auschwitz. They were housed for an entire year

in Mengele's private lab in a wooden cage a yard and a half wide. Without anesthetic, Mengele

would repeatedly scrape at the bone tissue of one of her legs. Her sister died from repeated

injections to her spinal column. She claims that she is the real data, the living data of Dr.

Mengele.