Transcript

Statements about the gynaecological experiments carried out in the Auschwitz concentration camp from March 1943 to August 1944. Made by the inmate doctor of block 9 in the Auschwitz men's hospital - Eduard de Wind, born 6th II. 1916 in The Hague, Holland.

In the Auschwitz men’s camp there was also a block /no. 10/, which was occupied only by women. These women were divided into the following groups and nationalities.

1./ About 50 women of different nationalities /transferred from Birkenau in March 1943/. Among them Irena Michel from Esso, daughter of a local doctor, came from Amsterdam, Neumann Margit and Friedmann Sylvia from ČSR. Neumann Margit was block senior, Friedmann Sylvia assistant to the experimenter 1Note 1: Carl Clauberg Prof. Klausberg.

2./ 100 Greek women from the Salonika transport in March 1943.

3./ 100 Belgian women arrived in April 1943, among them the doctor's wife Sonia Meisel.

4./ 50 French women each from June and August transports

5./ 40 Dutch women from August 1943 and 100 Dutch women from the transport of September 15, 1943. Among them the sculptor Margot Friedländer from Amsterdam.

6./ 100 Dutch women from the end of September 1943

7th/ 12 Poles from Bensburg (Bendzin).

From time to time smaller groups of women came there for fire brigade and air raid protection courses.

Prostitutes were temporarily quartered in block 10, who went through a quarantine period and were then transferred to brothel block 24 / This block was under the supervision of 2 SS guards during the day. It was closed at night so that the men could not visit the women.

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The experiments carried out are to be divided into 4 groups

1./ Cancer prevention experiments

2./ Experiments on the creation of infertility /sterilization/

3./ Experiments to explore the possibility of X-ray imaging.

4./ Haematological and serological experiments.

All of these women were of Jewish descent, and many of them were frequently experimented on. When the Red Army approached, all these women were deported from Auschwitz.

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details

Prof. Samuel, lecturer in the gynaecological faculty of the University of Cologne, SS-Hauptsturmanführer Dr. Wirth 2Note 2: Eduard Wirths had part of a cervix cut out under anaesthesia. The removed pieces of tissue were iced and examined under a microscope. The changes in tissue showing a predisposition to cancer formation should be studied. Prof. Samuel said that

he only cut out small parts of the mucous membrane from the cervix, because in further experiments it often happened that the probe could not penetrate the cervix due to severe scarring. Samuel’s work is burdened by the fact that he performed three or four operations with great zeal, while the French doctor Dr. Oval only performed one or two surgeries a week. In many women the operations were followed by disturbances of various kinds, such as long-lasting fever, bleeding and great exhaustion. The women who could no longer be used for further experiments were transferred to the Birkenau infirmary 6 weeks after the operation; since they were unable to work, they were gassed from there. This is how Kasman Jarina, born in France in 1907, died. Hermann Mina, born 27. XII. 1902 in Amsterdam, survived. Many experiments were made on her.

Ing. Max Ippe, an electromechanical engineer from Prague, who was in contact with Samuel, constructed an apparatus for intravaginal recordings. These recordings were very painful for the women, as they lasted an hour and had to be repeated very often. Ippe was of Jewish descent, a man of about 30 years. Prof. Samuel was later relocated to Birkenau. In truth, like everyone who knew too much, he was shot.

2./ Prof. Schuhmann 3Note 3: Horst Schumann /German/…

He made experiments with X-rays. The victims were 15 girls from Thessaloniki aged 17-18. Among them were Shimshi Bella and Buyenn Dora from Salonika. Only a few of them survived and are in the hands of Germans. The experiments were made as follows. The girls were placed in ultra-high-wave fields by attaching electrodes to their stomachs and buttocks, with radiation directed at the ovary, which was thus burned. As a result of incorrect dosage, severe burns and ulcers developed on the abdomen and buttocks. A girl died from these wounds. Others were transferred to the Birkenau infirmary. After three months they were brought back to Auschwitz and two control operations were carried out. The girls had their genitals removed to check their condition. The girls were completely changed and looked like old women, probably due to a lack of sex hormones. It was not seldom that the girls suffered from the surgical wounds for months and some went on to perish from them......

3./ The main experimenter was Prof. Klauberg, a German gynecologist from Katowice. He worked in association with the chemist Dr. Möbel from Berlin. The aim of their experiments was to find new contrast media for X-ray photography to replace iodipine, which could no longer be produced in Germany due to a lack of iodine. Klauberg was primarily a businessman, he worked on behalf of the German chemical industry and received a considerable sum of money for every woman used for experiments.

On the X-ray table, cement-like thick liquid was introduced into the women’s uterus and vagina with an electric pump under X-ray control, and then the photograph was taken. The women suffered greatly from these injections and felt as if their stomachs were about to burst. After injection, the women then excreted what had been injected into them, with severe pain and often heavy bleeding. Such experiments were carried out 3-6 times on the same women with breaks of 3-4 weeks. Those women on whom the experiments had already been concluded were sent to Birkenau to be exterminated.

Among many others Mrs. Retia Watermann from Amsterdam, born 1924 and Mina Lieber from France, were experimented on. In total, such experiments were carried out on about 400 women. As a result of the high pressure with which the liquid was pressed into the uterus, perhaps also as a result of the chemical properties of the contrast mass, inflammation of the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and also the peritoneum often arose, and even if sterilization was not the purpose of these experiments, it undoubtedly arose as a result of this inflammation.

4./ SS-Obersturmfuhrer Weber in cooperation with SS-Oberscharfuhrer Münch made haemato-serological experiments. They were experiments

a./ for blood type determination using standard serum /deep serum/.

b./ to determine the level of sulfonamides and salicil preparations in the blood.

c./ to determine the reaction of the organism to injections of malaria blood. Rosa Rabinowicz from Amsterdam, born 17th III. 1998 (sic!)

In addition to the above experiments, models of women’s sexual organs were made of plaster. Once 20 women were sent to Berlin for further experiments. Attempts at artificial insemination were also made, as well as tests to determine whether adequate sterilization had been achieved with a given dose of X-rays. If it turned out that a woman was pregnant, then an abortion was initiated, but not before the end of the third month, as is medically prescribed, but here too one had to experiment and instead of an abortion, a premature birth was induced in the 7th month. The child, of course, if alive, was killed. I don’t know what they wanted to achieve or purportedly researched.

As already mentioned, I was a doctor in Block 10, next to Block 9, and so sometimes had the opportunity to secretly get in touch with the victims of the experiments and to obtain information.

Za Dokumentační akci přijal: Weinberger

For archive přijal: Tressler

Prague, March 31, 1946