As a History major, I am supposed to choose a subject that I am interested in and prepare a research paper, which I am supposed to deliver during my Senior Seminar/Capstone class. After a great deal of thought, I have decided that the subject of my research paper is whether Nazi medical data was used in Western medical discoveries after 1945 without being acknowledged. I have begun to plan out my research project over the next two years, culminating in my delivering of said paper in Spring 2008.

My first order of business was developing a thesis from which my research would stem. After discussing various ideas with Dr. Carls, I finally hammered out a basic thesis that I was pleased with. My thesis states that medical discoveries by the Nazi scientists and doctors were used in Western medicine surreptitiously after World War II, even as Western scientists condemned the way they were discovered. Furthermore, certain scientific and medical discoveries after 1945 could not have been found without using information accumulated by Nazi scientists. This hypothesis brings something new to the table, for as far I know, this hypothesis has never been suggested before.

What do I want to accomplish with this paper? Well, I want to accomplish quite a few things; some are more important than others. On a personal level, I want to finish this paper so I can graduate. I also want to learn more about the types of experiments the Nazis performed on their prisoners and whether any of the data

collected was actually used by anyone else. On an educational level, I want to contribute something to the field of History. Since I plan to be a museum curator, I don’t think I will have numerous opportunities to submit papers to academic associations. In essence, this is a one-shot deal for me.

After developing my thesis and figuring out what I wanted to accomplish with this paper, I devised a game plan, so to speak. I had to figure out what sources I would use, what I would be investigating and in what order, and a skeleton timeline so that I could plan out my research.

First, I will attempt to gather information from books and the Internet. Obviously, my subject matter isn’t something most 20^th century scientists would admit having done.  I hope that from bibliographies in the back of books and articles that I’ve read that I will be able to branch off from there. Some books that I have begun browsing include The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton and The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation by George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin. For instance, Lifton’s book cites 47 other books, perhaps giving me another 47 sources I may not have run across. I’m very excited about where my first tentative research attempts are leading me.

 I am also investigating the Nazi doctors themselves and what they were “discovering.” In order to do this, I will have to document the names of doctors I find in books, articles, and the Internet. The Internet so far has been my greatest tool, with numerous sites listing doctors, the camps they were working at, and some of the

experiments that they were involved in. Most of these sites also give links to books and other sites where more information can be retrieved. A vast majority of information I’ve run across on the Internet, however, is about Josef Mengele, who ran experiments on twins at Auschwitz. Even this abundance on one doctor is helpful because it has led to links on broader subject matter, such as Nazi doctors as a general subject. One source that I am attempting to find is a book by Klaus Dörner called The Nuremberg Medical Trial, which gives basic biographical information about the doctors.

For my third avenue of research, I have begun looking at the concentration camps themselves to give me a general direction. For instance, in investigating the Ravensbruck concentration camp on the Internet, I came across a site that listed the three main groups of experiments that were done at the camp. Under the headings of the experiments were the doctors who were involved in the experiments. Once you clicked on their name, it took you to a page which covered a brief biography of their life, whether they were condemned by the Nuremberg tribunal, and when they died. In addition to this information, the bottom of the page told me where the biographical information had come from, giving me another piece of information to look for. This same site also had a listing of the people used in the experiments at Ravensbruck and a brief description of what was done to them, along with yet another citation at the bottom, telling me where they had received their information. Once again, Mengele and Auschwitz favor prominently in the search results, but as previously stated, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

My next line of investigation is first-hand accounts from survivors, witnesses, and the doctors themselves. Numerous amounts of survivors have published their accounts of what they went through. Even the ones who didn’t publish their accounts may have left evidence in their letters, diaries, and papers. Of course, two difficulties of these types of primary sources are finding them and translating them. I will address these two problems in depth later on. The first-hand accounts I’m most interested in, however, are the witnesses to the experiments and the doctors themselves. At this point, I’m looking for Nuremberg transcripts where some of the doctors were on trial. In addition, I’m also looking for published accounts.

After that, I’ll have to begin investigating Western medical discoveries after World War II. I will probably begin focusing on American discoveries because it is easier to investigate from my location. The basic biographical information of the Nazi doctors will help tremendously at this point. As is well known, some of the doctors escaped Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, while others were acquitted at the Nuremberg trial. For the ones that escaped and were later discovered, I plan to take a look at what they had been doing in the meantime. It would not surprise me to discover that they did nothing but attempt to stay hidden, but it’s still an avenue I need to pursue.

As for the ones that were acquitted, I plan to see which ones ended up being employed by Western countries for their expertise in a certain field or continued to practice in the field of medicine. Even the ones found guilty and executed still had a

purpose; after all, most documented their experiments and their “discoveries.” I’m interested to find out where their papers went after they died. For instance, if one doctor’s collection of papers fell into the hands of another doctor who went on to discover something worthwhile, would it be coincidence or something more sinister?

Of course, if I’m going to present the argument that Western scientists used Nazi experiments without acknowledging them, I have to be knowledgeable about counter-arguments as well. Without the other arguments, I would not know whether my thesis was valid. While I haven’t found any other arguments yet, that is probably because I haven’t really started going in depth with my research. I presume that once I really get started, I will encounter numerous arguments that may puncture holes in my thesis, in which case, I will have to go back and revise. Of course, if my thesis is totally off-base, then I will have to choose a different topic.

My biggest weakness and my greatest asset for this paper is time. While I have two years to complete my research project, the in-depth research itself presents a problem. Since this paper has different aspects of European and American history, it will be more difficult to gather some first-hand accounts from local archives. However, once I have gathered enough secondary sources to know exactly what kind of primary sources I’m looking for, I will begin to contact other library archives from my own hometown library and the University library. In addition, I will be contacting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to see if they have any materials to help me or if they can recommend places where I can get sources.

 

Another problem that I plan to run across is that most of the first-hand accounts will be in Polish or German, two languages that I am not proficient with. While I will begin taking German in Spring 2006, that still does not help with my Polish deficiency. I will have to depend on translations for that area of research. More problems stem from the fact that at this point, I cannot afford to travel overseas during the school year because of the things required of me in my academic work. Therefore, most of my hands-on research will have to be done during the Christmas Break, Spring Break, and during the summer. But, there is a glimmer of hope in all of this because I do have two more years in which to research this information and assemble it.

With all of this figured out, I have configured a basic timeline in which I plan to have my project completed. By the end of Spring 2006, I plan to have my second-hand research completed, with a little wriggle room for more sources that I may not have run across. By the beginning of Fall 2006, I will have contacted other libraries through my local library, which I will have also ransacked for information. In addition, I will have contacted the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in order to get some suggestions on where I should look for information. By Christmas Break 2006, I hope to have a rough draft of my paper together, which I will submit to my research project advisor for evaluation. By the end of Spring 2007, I will have completed the University’s requirements for understanding foreign languages and hopefully will be able, with help, to begin translating some first-hand accounts. By

Fall 2007, I hope to be able to resubmit my paper to my research project advisor with the translated accounts included. In Spring 2008, I will take my Senior Seminar/Capstone course and present my paper then.

Of course, in order to write this paper, I need to figure out who my intended audience is. I assume my audience will be my peers, my research paper advisor, and maybe my primary major advisor. Because of this, I hesitate to go so far in depth that it becomes tedious to read, but in some cases, it may be required. I suppose I’ll leave the final decision of how far in depth I go to my research paper advisor.

The reason I chose a subject like this is because of the moral and social questions it raises. If Western science used Nazi medical data in their research and discovered medical breakthroughs, was it still ethical to use the data? If the medical community had no problems using Nazi data, why would they hide it, unless they felt it was wrong to use it? And if it was wrong to use it, why would they do so? Does it tarnish the discovery itself if it used Nazi data? Should the Western medical community acknowledge the medical discovery if it was found using unethical data? It’s fascinating to ponder the implications of such questions.

Why is this research paper important to the study of History? At its most extreme effect, it could open up debate among historians over whether it was necessary to use Nazi medical data in Western medical communities. At the very least, it’s an undergraduate paper that will look good on my vita and may help somebody else out if they want to research the same thing. I honestly think it will be

the latter other than the former. While I do not know the benefits of bringing this kind of information up, I think that it would stir up a lot of dust that may not need to be stirred up. If nothing else, it would add a different perspective of the Holocaust’s effects in our society today.

This paper isn’t important just to the study of History, however. It’s also intriguing from a philosophical standpoint; the ethical ramifications of such a discovery could be debated about for years. Also, it would be interesting to the medical field. After all, that’s the main part of my paper, discussing the Western medical field. I suppose it could have some appeal to the field of Psychology, but not very much. Still, the point remains that this research paper could be of interest to more than one discipline.

In conclusion, this research project promises to be interesting, to say the least. If I find anything to back up my thesis, then that means that the Western medical community has used Nazi data in its discoveries. Of course, there are probably numerous counter-arguments out there that will sink my thesis before I invest a lot of time in it, but if there aren’t, I may have stumbled on to something huge. It would bring up the question of ethics once more to 20^th Century medical history. Perhaps it’s all a conspiracy! Or perhaps my theory isn’t valid at all. Or course, that brings up the question of the location of the papers of the Nazi doctors. Either way, I’m excited and cannot wait to dive into researching this project.

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Astor, Gerald. The "Last" Nazi: The Life and Times of Dr. Joseph Mengele. New York: D.I. Fine, 1985.

Benz, Wolfgang.  The Holocaust: a German historian examines the genocide.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Berenbaum, Michael. A MOSAIC OF VICTIMS, Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York University Press, 1990

 

Caplan, Arthur L., editor. When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press, 1992.

 

Chaikin, Miriam. A Nightmare in History: the Holocaust, 1933-1945. New York: Clarion Books, 1987.

 

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“RAVENSBRUCK MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS IN THE WOMEN'S CONCENTRATION CAMP-Nazi Doctors” [Online] Available http://individual.utoronto.ca/jarekg/Ravensbruck/NaziDoctors.html, November 15, 2005

 

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