BACKGROUND

How did experiments at Ravensbrück begin?

In 1942, Adolf Hitler's friend, SS agent Reinhard Heydrich, was in a car bombing and died after the fact from his injuries. However, when Heydrich was being operated on, his doctor, Karl Franz Gebhardt, had refused to treat him with the drug sulfonamide. Dr. Gebhardt had not believed that the drug would work or that it would save his patient. When Adolf Hitler learned of the doctor's refusal he insisted on Dr. Gebhardt's execution for the supposed killing of his friend. In the hopes of proving Hitler wrong, Dr. Gebhardt turned to concentration camp Sachsenhausen. There, he began cutting men's legs open with glass and rubbing bacteria into the wounds, exposing the legs to sulfonamide. These impromptu experimentations ultimately failed when the men became too difficult to control. 74 women served as their replacements and became known as "Ravensbrück Rabbits."

Dr. Karl Franz Gebhardt. Courtesy of Dirk de Klein.

Reinhard Heydrich. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Aerial view of Ravensbrück. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Crematory in Ravensbrück. Courtesy of allthatsinteresting.com.

Ravensbrück's sleeping quarters. Courtesy of allthatsinteresting.com.

Women of Ravensbrück forced to cobble shoes. Courtesy of allthatsinteresting.com.

Heavy roller pushed by the female inmates of Ravensbrück to pave the camp's roads. Courtesy of Stew Ross.

Women of Ravensbrück forced to make rugs. Courtesy of allthatinteresting.com.

Women of Ravensbrück forced to dig trenches. Courtesy of allthatsinteresting.com.

Inmates working in their striped uniforms at Ravensbrück. Courtesy of Martha Hall Kelly.

500 enslaved men from the Sachenhaussen prison camp were tasked with the construction of the Ravensbrück camp in November of 1938 under the order of SS Heinrich Himmler. The camp held exclusively women, however, they were from many backgrounds with many Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians, Ukrainians, and many more. Over 80% were political prisoners.

The first 867 prisoners arrived in 1938, only a fraction of the eventual total amount, as ultimately, over 130,000 prisoners would pass through the camp. Slave labor was induced on many inmates, but for the others, they were instead used to test experimental medicine against their will.

Map of Ravensbrück. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Museum.

Dr. Ali Erdem Bagatur. Courtesy of Doctorhealthturkey.com.

“In Ravensbrück, the Nazis conducted three sets of experiments. The first experiment was with the first ever antibiotic sulfanilamide (or sulfonamide) in the world to fight bacterial infections. The second set of experiments studied bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration, and the possibility of transplanting bones from one person to another. The third set of experiments on women studied sterilization techniques.”

~ Interview with Dr. Ali Erdem Bagatur, 2021

Essentially, in these gruesome experiments, their legs were cut open, allowing doctors to remove muscle and break bone. Exposing their legs to hazardous chemicals only added to the immense physical pain these women endured, and those who were lucky enough to survive were left permanently disabled.

Prisoner Jadwiga Dzido’s legs. Courtesy of AHRP.

Leg sewn following the expirements. Courtesy of AHRP.

Ravensbrück survivor, Jadwiga Dzido. Courtesy of Stewross.