Herta Oberheuser

Herta Oberheuser
Oberheuser in 1946 or 1947
Born (1911-05-15)May 15, 1911
Cologne, German Empire
Died January 24, 1978(1978-01-24) (aged 66)
Linz am Rhein, West Germany
Nationality German
Occupation Physician
Medical career
Institutions Auschwitz and Ravensbrück concentration camps
Oberheuser is sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment at the Doctors' Trial.

Herta Oberheuser (15 May 1911 in Cologne, German Empire – 24 January 1978 in Linz am Rhein, West Germany) was a Nazi physician and a war criminal who worked at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrück concentration camps from 1940 until 1943.

Education and Nazi Party membership

In 1937, Oberheuser obtained her medical degree in Bonn, having specialized in dermatology.[1] Soon thereafter she joined the Nazi Party as an intern, and later served as doctor for the League of German Girls.[1] In 1940, Oberheuser was appointed to serve as an assistant to Karl Gebhardt, then Chief Surgeon of the Schutzstaffel and Heinrich Himmler's personal doctor.[1]

War crimes

Oberheuser and Gebhardt came to Ravensbrück in 1942 in order to conduct experiments on its prisoners, with an emphasis on finding better methods of treating infection.[1] They conducted gruesome medical experiments (treating purposefully infected wounds with sulfanilamide, as well as bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and transplantation) on 86 women, 74 of whom were Polish political prisoners in the camp.[2] She killed healthy children with oil and evipan injections, then removed their limbs and vital organs. The time from the injection to death was between three and five minutes, with the person being semi conscious until the last moment. She performed some of the most gruesome and painful medical experiments, focusing on deliberately inflicting wounds on the subjects. In order to simulate the combat wounds of German soldiers fighting in the war, Oberheuser rubbed foreign objects, such as wood, rusty nails, slivers of glass, dirt, or sawdust into the cuts.

Trial

Herta Oberheuser was the only female defendant in the Nuremberg "Doctors' trial", where she was sentenced to 20 years in prison – a sentence later reduced to five years.

Later life

Oberheuser was released in April 1952 for good behavior and became a family doctor in West Germany. She lost her position in 1956, after a Ravensbrück survivor recognized her, and her license to practice medicine was revoked in 1958. However, she appealed and regained the right to practice medicine in April 1961, after which she worked in a laboratory at the Bodelschwing Institute.[3] She died in January 1978.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Mikaberidze, Alexander (2013-06-25). Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598849264.
  2. ↑ Dawson, Mackenzie (2016-05-08). "After Hitler's pal died, Nazis recreated his injuries in a sick experiment". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  3. ↑ Cymes, Michel (2015-01-14). Hippocrate aux enfers - Chapitre 13 - "Elle n'était pas mauvaise" - Herta Oberheuser (in French). Éditions Stock. ISBN 9782234078413.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.