Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS
The hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS was founded in 1939 as a bacteriological investigation center of the SS , based in Berlin . In 1940 the hygiene institute of the Waffen SS was created from this . Among other things, it was responsible for the experiments on people in concentration camps , but also for numerous other inhumane investigations. The later SS-Oberführer Joachim Mrugowsky had been in charge of the hygiene institute of the Waffen SS since 1941 .
Organizational classification
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Essential matters of the Waffen SS were processed in the main SS offices . Among other things, the SS Leadership Office and the SS Leadership Office as the command post of the Waffen SS were responsible. In special cases this was assigned to the chief of medical services of the Waffen-SS or the medical office of the SS, to which the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS was subordinate. This emerged in 1940 from the SS's hygienic and bacteriological investigation center.
tasks
The hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS took on numerous tasks, only a few of which can be selected here as examples.
The threat to health of the army and the SS from epidemics became a critical matter in the first years of the war . The devastation in the conquered areas resulted in extreme health risks for the population. Epidemics broke out and this created an increased risk of infection for both soldiers of the Wehrmacht and members of the SS. Vaccines were extremely scarce or even non-existent. Since only doctors were allowed to be vaccinated due to a lack of efficient drugs, the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS was brought in.
On December 29, 1941, the Reich Ministry of the Interior held two meetings that dealt with this topic. Participants were Professor Eugen Gildemeister from the Robert Koch Institute and Albert Demnitz from IG- Behringwerke , Marburg / Lahn . It was decided to test a newly developed vaccine from Behringwerke for its suitability, along with other active ingredients. In addition, it was decided that Demnitz should contact the head of the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS, the SS-Standartenführer Mrugowsky. Both decided to have experiments carried out with prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp immediately . The coordination, but also the implementation of the experiments, should be done by or with the help of the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS.
On December 29, 1941, an experimental laboratory was set up in isolation block 46 of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The facility and the bacterial cultures were procured by the Hygiene Institute. Experiments with prisoners began, the first being experiments with spotted fever pathogens. Since the middle of April, the Hygiene Institute has maintained a test station in which human tests were carried out without interruption until spring 1945. Even two weeks before the camp was liberated, test series were still running. Healthy prisoners were pathogens injected. The Red Cross later determined that the experiments to test the effectiveness of typhus vaccines, dysentery vaccines , typhoid therapeutics , ointments against phosphorus - rubber burns, to investigate the compatibility of vaccines against smallpox , typhoid, paratyphoid fever A and B, cholera , typhus, diphtheria and yellow fever , should serve as a test field for sex hormones , blood plasma , poisons, hunger edema ( avitaminosis ), typhus convalescent serum and for the control of blood serum . The development of the disease was observed until the death of the prisoners. In many cases, the goal was to only preserve the infected blood of the infected. From August 1942 to October 1944, the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen-SS in Buchenwald carried out 35 series of tests with epidemic pathogens, in which 1,100 people died.
In addition to Buchenwald, the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen-SS also set up laboratories in other concentration camps. There was a very intensive collaboration with the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele in Auschwitz , which some observers interpreted as a friendship between doctors. There the Hygiene Institute had set up a “test laboratory” in Raisko , which is adjacent to the storage area, under the direction of Bruno Weber . Here, too, there was close cooperation with industry. For example, there was an exchange of letters between the camp commandant and Bayer Leverkusen about the sale of 150 female prisoners, the truth of which, however, is contested by Bayer Leverkusen.
In addition to Buchenwald and Auschwitz, Mauthausen was also the scene of human experiments carried out by SS doctors on behalf of the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS. In 1943, vaccines against paratyphus and tetanus were tested here on 1,700 prisoners . Between 1943 and 1944, several hundred people were tested with nutritional substitutes. Further series of experiments with "Ostkost" consisting mainly of grain claimed numerous lives.
A typical tabular overview of the results of human experiments with the preparations acridine granules and ruthenol, which the Hygiene Institute presented, looked as follows after 39 prisoners were infected with severe typhus and 21 prisoners died:
| Number of cases | symptom | Number of cases | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30th | flushed face | 2 | Vomiting (control) |
| 37 | puffy face | 15th | constipation |
| 39 | Conjunctivitis | 12 | diarrhea |
| 9 | chills | 1 | Intestinal bleeding |
| 38 | a headache | 13 | Tracheal catarrh |
| 39 | Rash | 15th | bronchitis |
| 38 | Hemorrhagic rash | 1 | Bronchopneumonia (pneumonia) |
| 33 | Yellowing of the hands | 1 | Subcutaneous phlegmon over the larynx |
| 1 | Inflammation of the kidneys and urethra | 8th | tinnitus |
| 11 | Hearing loss | 1 | Inflammation of the kidneys |
| 16 | swollen tongue | 2 | Lower back pain |
| 6th | Epistaxis | 17th | Body aches |
| 4th | Speech disorders | 5 | Numbness of extremities |
| 4th | Fainting spells | 39 | insomnia |
| 10 | Muscle twitching | 16 | Muscle aches |
| 2 | cramps | 10 | Hand tremors |
| 2 | Signs of paralysis | 3 | Exophthalmos |
| 10 | Drowsiness | 9 | apathy |
| 36 | Delirium | 2 | catatonic stupor |
The inhumanity of the experiments clearly shows the following overview, which is also included. In addition to a list of the secondary diseases observed, reports contained information on the mortality of the test subjects in these experiments and the untreated control group, which the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS passed on.
| mortality | percentage |
|---|---|
| at the control | 55.5 |
| with acridine granules | 53.3 |
| at Rutenol | 53.3 |
Many of the concentration camp doctors had no specialist knowledge of vaccines. It was only towards the end of the war that the Hygiene Institute therefore included concentration camp prisoners , who, like Ludwik Fleck, were specialists themselves, in the role of doctors. They sabotaged the work and filled ineffective preparations into the ampoules intended for the treatment of the SS, and prisoners were given usable serum. In this way it was possible to save the lives of numerous test subjects.
If tuberculosis was suspected , routine blood counts were carried out by the laboratories of the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS. They reported the results to the doctors in charge of the Waffen SS.
It is documented that the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS received cut off children's heads from the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele to make histopathological sections. The children had previously been consciously infected.
After the end of the war, many of those responsible were indicted in the Nuremberg medical trial. Many were found guilty and sentenced to death.
Web links
literature
- Heinrich Wieland: natural scientist, Nobel Prize winner and Willstätters watch . Edited by Sibylle Wieland, Anne-Barb Hertkorn, Franziska Dunkel Contributors Sibylle Wieland, Anne-Barb Hertkorn, Franziska Dunkel. Wiley-VCH-Verlag, Weinheim 2008. ISBN 978-3-527-32333-3 .
- Erhard Geißler : Biological weapons - not in Hitler's arsenals. Biological and toxin weapons in Germany 1915–1945 . Lit, Münster 1998. ISBN 3-8258-2955-3 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Entry on Joachim Mrugowsky in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis (accessed on July 28, 2015).
- ↑ Landshut Medical District Association. Retrieved December 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from aniline to forced labor
