Victims of Human Experiments under National Socialism

This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with a duration from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2010.

Although coercive human experiments are among the most notorious features of Nazism, there is no overview as to their extent, or a guide to the fragmented literature and sources. Estimates of the overall numbers of experiments vary greatly. Recent historical opinion that the number of victims was relatively few is contradicted by the unexpectedly high number of compensation claimants by victims of experiments over the past five years.

This project aims to provide a biographical analysis of the persons who were experimented on, or otherwise abused for medical research in National Socialist Germany and in territories under German occupation 1938-1945. The basic tasks are to identify how many victims and perpetrators there were and to develop biographical profiles, through a comprehensive study of war crimes and Holocaust archives. The analysis will establish a structural history of the unethical experiments in terms of when and why they occurred.

The project covers all experiments and other coercive medical abuses for research in camps and prisons, and other situations where subjects were not at liberty. The analysis extends to cases of extracting body fluids and using body parts as anatomical specimens. It also includes the medical and psychological observation of groups in coercive situations (for example, studies of Sinti and Roma adolescents), establishing links to their subsequent deportation and murder.

The outputs of the project will be:
• a comprehensive database,
• a monograph on the perpetrators and victims of Nazi coerced experiments
• a biographical dictionary concerning the victims,
• An examination of records, and the political policies shaping institutions.
We are interested in any kind of collaboration, advice or information. Please contact us!
More information on the project at our website: http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/research/project/vhens