Sterilization and medical experiments in Auschwitz | DW Documentary

As a foreigner we arrived at a transit camp in Vestiborg but we did not stay there, then they put us in freight cars and transported us to Auschwitz, the Germans came and asked if we were married. I was, but I didn't know what to say then. I admitted that I was married, I had to step aside, the others were immediately gassed, but little did we know that we finally arrived at a women's barracks, all with shaved heads, and then we arrived at the overseas testing block, they were painful treatments and frightening, bestial. The intense pain erased all feeling.

He could have just been happy and done his research, but he thought he should be in the front row. My name is Professor Carl Clauberg. I carried out forced

sterilization

s from March 1943 to January 1945. I subjected 280 women to tests. 150 were sterilized. According to my method, in 1955 Chancellor Conrad Adnauer negotiated the return of 10,000 German prisoners of war from Soviet captivity, causing a sensation in the young Federal Republic of Germany. Kia gynecologist Carl Klauberg was among those released and soon became the subject of the news. He hoped to start over in the new Republic, but the Central Council of Jews in Germany brought charges against him in November 1955 for carrying out

medical

tests on numerous prisoners in the Auschwitz trials that led to serious health consequences and even death; many victims could no longer be questioned.

Others were too embarrassed to speak Women who dared to testify were subjected to degrading procedures to

medical

ly verify their statements Foreign courts doubted their reports Professor Claubach had been a luminary in his field Kai Klaubach is Kyle Klauberg made medical history in the reproduction research that fits very well with Nazi ideology and policy and that allowed him to carry out these

experiments

in Auschwitz he enjoyed important advantages and obtained many personal privileges in exchange for the price of becoming a foreign criminal I was born on January 7, 1921 We were the first house on the street with a telephone and a telephone and a house because I was about to be born and my father was a merchant with the money for a telephone.

My mother had three children. I was born in Warsaw and I was very young when I arrived in Brussels. My parents emigrated. From Eastern Europe we were a very, very happy family. I have an ageless daughter. I had a very good childhood in Batman. We were very close back then. I was born in 1898 in Viperhof, near Zollingen. I started school in Keel when I was six. I graduated in November 1916 and was drafted the next day. I started college after being released as a prisoner of war. I studied medicine in Kiel, Hamburg and Graz. My thesis was about death by air embolism and was recognized as a very good scientific work abroad.

We lived in a very small country. Pre-war apartment in the 19th arrondissement, a working-class area of ​​Paris. My mother was in the resistance but she still took care of me until she could no longer do both. Back then there was an organization that took care of children and placed them with families. Thank you. for them I lived sometimes here sometimes there whenever it became too dangerous they took me further away in the end I lived in a small village near Chateau tiri called Mo sanper where I stayed until the end of the war I grew up in hiding I met my wife when I was 19 years.

She was taken to the women's hospital with swelling of the ovaries on both sides related to tuberculosis. At the end of his treatment, he told me that first he hated me, then he loved me and one day he knew that if he ever gave himself to a man, it would be me. They married five years later, but since his wife was infertile, Claubach began an affair. with her secretary Irza Gaia, she gave birth to two children and eventually lived with the Cloudbergs in a three-way relationship. My research during that period was very significant I studied female hormones and the menstrual cycle I published a progestogen test that could confirm fertility according to scientific practice the test was called the bag of clouds test medical history was certainly made with its research reproductive with the shared company those were exciting years I built the foundation to produce synthetic estrogen and progesterone together with Sharon Kalbaum of course yes, of course yes Hitler was already in power after my birthday in January.

I had to go back to school and the teacher told me to sit down and not talk to anyone. Hitler was already having an impact and there were fewer children in the class my aunt emigrated with me after I finished school at Easter Austin she found us an apartment in the Netherlands. I'm going to Holland on May 10, 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands Luxembourg Belgium and France the whole West on the same day people didn't realize the danger that Hitler represented but we had been dealing with it since 1933 because we were taking in German refugees and then to Spanish refugees after 1936.

For me, the resistance did not begin in 1940, when Belgium was invaded. But in 1933 there was a raid and they took away all the Jewish men. We heard terrible displays in our neighbor's yard. I had been researching fertility and infertility since 1925. I started with the assumption that a non-surgical method did not yet exist. infertility treatment or

sterilization

method Professor Clauberg is considered one of the most important researchers in the field of ovarian hormones. Most of Professor Clauberg's scientific research has been carried out in close collaboration with researchers in our Central Laboratory. Yes, he was one of the many gynecologists who was talented at recognizing a situation and making discoveries by being in the right place at the right time.

The support of the chemical industry certainly played a role in what developed. My successes were widely recognized and also rewarded. ​in the form of attractive fees for sharing the war was the only reason I did not manage to go to university. He certainly made a career out of it and even became medical director, but he had even bigger ambitions. Himmler had heard about my plans. I was summoned to Berlin on March 22, 1940, for a private talk. In the end I told him about my non-surgical sterilization problem, which I had been working on for 15 years. Himmler asked me if my clinics were sufficiently equipped with research facilities, if not, he would prepare them for me, that the Nazis were planning and executing in Eastern Europe without attempting to replace his decision.

I would like to suggest that the necessary

experiments

and facilities be carried out at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Heil Hitler, you are very respectful, Professor Klauberg, when I arrived at Auschwitz, the commander. He was not even 30 years old and was wearing a black uniform and cap. I was looking for women. I didn't realize it at the time, but my husband said he would never see me again. I told him to keep his chin up and not give up. he shook his head no, no, we didn't know where we were, we had no idea what was going to happen to us, what hit us was the terrible stench, not a single tree, not a single bird, total silence, we all had a number on our arms, no and then we were just numbers then they put us in the testing block, we remember the block, okay, the main purpose of block 10 was a secondary genocide or in other words, killing the unborn so that they wouldn't there were more undesirable races, we got clothes that were not ours. some of them were striped prison clothes.

By then I was already very thin, so they fit me well. I was glad to have found a dress instead of prison clothes. We entered block 10. They took us to the first floor and showed us the beds to which the women went up. We went to the top bunks and those who were 35 or 40 took the bottom beds. We each had our own bed, a mattress with a little straw and a blanket, and then we waited every day. They called ten women by their numbers. I was the one. number 62 501. a A special call came one day when we were standing in rows of five and Clauberg chose the ones he wanted.

He wasn't scary. He was short and stout with a Tyrolean hat, white stockings, and heavy walking shoes. He's not at all how you imagine an imaginary SS man. the rooms I needed for my planned activity as well as the hygienic facilities were on the lower floor of the Block the women were housed on the upper floor my assistance four or five of whom had been technical assistants were selected from among these 250 women they called us number um and then Claudberg or some other guy injected something into our vaginas and then said: no more children. I had no idea that he was in perfect health.

He had never seen an X-ray machine before. I remember exactly what a huge machine it was like. with two frames with wooden blocks, you stood between the two shelves with one wooden block in front and one behind, yes, non-surgical sterilization was just one of the methods the SS tried. Dr. Hoss Truman also experimented with x-ray radiation at the same time. For the first ones it happened very quickly I was the second I didn't notice anything wrong just a little redness the first woman didn't show anything but it started to take longer and longer The Third Woman had visible marks the fourth even more so the last Those who were bent by a severe pain, nausea and vomiting, almost everyone had to lie down on the table once that day.

You had to put your legs on the frame. You were naked from the waist down from the wrists down and had to be silent. I can't scream Dr. Clauber gave me an injection, he was a little fat man, as fat as he was tall or as small as he was fat. So they took out parts of the uterus, some of them sent to different labs in an attempt to do something. scientist that wasn't scientific at all it was a crime he gave me an injection in my ovary in my ovary and they sent me back to my bed I had to stay there for three days and three nights in terrible pain I explained the tasks the assistants took x-rays They did injections in the uterus but I never used the word sterilization I didn't take any of my Koenigsuter lab aids to the Auschwitz camp my secretary, Mrs.

Gaia, only went once to see the atmosphere I wanted her To see how attached they were to I, the women of block 10, also took my three-year-old daughter once so they wouldn't gas us. Dr. Claubach paid 50 fenugs a day for his guinea pigs abroad. All of these operations were done with spinal anesthesia, not In general the women were not told what was happening, they suddenly became numb as if they were paralyzed from the pelvis down, they did not know what was happening to them or if it was reversible but They were conscious, it must have been an immeasurable trauma um, we were just young women and they didn't even have a clue what a uterus was, even the nurses at Cloudberg couldn't explain it because they didn't know either, they said they would do all kinds of experiments on us and the point was that we couldn't have more. children were successful abroad it was cruel and sadistic a doctor is expected to have at least a little compassion it goes against what the medical profession is about it was a group of doctors who only thought about their careers they realized that it was the opportunity of a lifetime may not be possible in the future it is now or never during his university research claudback had worked with share to develop a drug to cure natural infertility the fallopian tubes often do not open enough for the egg to implant in the uterus he did the opposite by injecting formaldehyde into the fallopian tubes, correctly thinking that the resulting inflammation would bring them closer together Dear Professor Claubeg, we have sent you four samples of contrast dye.

We await with great interest his comments on the suitability of the compounds for his clinical trials Greetings in German signed Professor Schiller signed Dr. Von Berlin They brought me a woman who had already had children and was about 30 years old. I took a normal x-ray with iodinated contrast medium. I was injected into the uterus with a 30. centimeter canola tube commonly used for x-rays the contrast cast first fills the uterus and then enters the fallopian tubes. Then you can see if they are receptive. The woman I treated did not seem to have found the injection particularly painful.

Strange she asked me almost a year ago. she does, that is, how long it would take to sterilize a thousand women this way. Today I can safely answer that through a properly trained doctor and perhaps with 10 assistants, probably several hundred, if not even a thousand, on one day starting in 1929 I received 400 Reichsmarks. per month for sharing worker for research purposes in addition to these payments I once received a larger amount for sharing for an a Siemens claubach color X-ray machine that would be delivered to him at Koenig's hut and later used at Auschwitz. The order confirmation indicates that we acknowledge receipt of your order.

It will be delivered as soon as possible. Greetings German Siemens heinekaviraka abroad From the autumn of 1944, all prisoners whoThey were still able to work and were transferred to other concentration camps in the west. That's when the doctors started leaving, shortly before the war ended, we had to gather and walk in lines of five to five on their way and anyone who couldn't walk was shot we walked for three days and three nights and then I was free many prisoners were transferred to the West many women arrived in ravensburg where claubach also left there he resumed his experiments with much younger sensitive Romani children for testing when sterilization was possible even before the onset of puberty the foreigner Clauberg returned to kill since Ravensburg in early May 1945, but was arrested by Allied soldiers on June 8.

He was taken to the Soviet Union to stand trial at the trial. Clauber confessed. I confirm that From March 1943 to January 1945 I carried out four sterilization experiments on prisoners. 280 of the 400 women were put on trial. 150 of them were sterilized with my methods. Upon observing the facts I realized that my activity was a crime against humanity and I plead guilty. Claubach was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity just seven years later, in 1955, and was one of the first prisoners of war brought back from the Soviet Union as part of Arnowa Bulgani's prisoner exchange agreement, but There are voices abroad that oppose the release of such criminals.

The Auschwitz survivor recognized Carl Klauberg in a television interview when he announced that it is an indescribable feeling to be home again. I feel that Reborn, the doctor, was confident that he could resume his medical studies. practice quickly and placed an advertisement in the Keel newspaper urgently Professor Carl Klauberg MD requires several capable typists while this small Jewish community in Germany sought justice and demanded an investigation into the Claubach crimes at Auschwitz he was denounced almost daily new Witnesses came forward until that an investigation was finally opened. He was arrested in 1955. Although he had confessed to his crimes in the Soviet court, he now denied them.

I swear it under oath. I have never killed a person. I have not sterilized thousands of women. I have never committed atrocities or cruelties towards women. or he tortured them but he only helped them and saved them the only harm these women can have is foreign infertility he died in 1957. before the trial began, which of course was a bitter pill to swallow for the surviving victims, that's why they needed a trial to knowing what had been done to them means they spent the rest of their lives not knowing what had caused their medical problems. Trials like that allow medical experts to investigate, but victims were denied this opportunity.

No doctor from Block 10 was ultimately held responsible. the exact number of women who were tortured. and died in Block 10 his suffering was never determined unpunished nor shared nor Siemens were prosecuted although Siemens supplied the X-ray machine to Clauberg no representative was available for an on-camera interview an email from the company indicates that the Institute Siemens History is unable to accommodate your request for a personal statement because a review of our files shows that unfortunately there is no material available that will confidently answer your questions in a telephone interview. Siemens officials said that just as an automaker cannot be held responsible for accidents involving its cars, Siemens cannot be held responsible for crimes committed with its devices, which is part of the bio group and which to this day Today he profits greatly from the results of Clauberg's research.

The synthetic hormones he developed are available worldwide and are used for infertility treatments and sex reassignment surgery, by far the most widely used. The most common is the contraceptive pill of which Carl Claubach is considered the true father. Today, Bayer uses the slogan "Science for a Better Life" to highlight its scientific efforts, but the company sees no link to Clauberg's crimes at Auschwitz; despite intense negotiations, no representative of the buyer. instead, on camera, they wrote that Cloudberg's later experiments for Himmler at Auschwitz in 1943 and 1944 had nothing to do with his earlier hormonal research, in 1940 the earlier scientific interaction between Claudback and the exchange had stopped him, not They are complicit to the extent of the murderers or the doctors, but they helped them from the bottom up, but they made these crimes possible because without these companies, without their research funds, their support and the ability to subsequently sell products resulting from the research, these crimes would never have been committed, how can I reconcile the results of the experiments?

They may benefit us but they have been obtained under impossible, completely indisputable transgressive ethical conditions, the survivors have said that they want this to be used for the benefit of humanity but they also want the victims who paid for these results with their lives and health to be named. . and honored the duty to finally tell the truth is in my opinion the minimum that should be done for the women who were tortured and murdered the truth must come to light they cannot lie forever they cannot be foreigners and I was in my restaurant you were very happy baby very happy and I was happy you have a spoon here in your hands the woman who worked for me told me you are lucky she looks like you she was a young woman who wanted you to know help in the establishment of Israel and she believed in it she She was a Zionist but after the war it was because she met Yehuda Engel, she basically told me that he married her and knowing that she couldn't have children or thinking, you know, she thought she couldn't have children because she had been experimented on. and then it turned out that he was the one who couldn't have children, he was sterile, so my mom really wanted to have a child, one of the doctors said: "You know, if you have a good ovary, you can have a child why not You do artificial insemination and there were three doctors in this little house, they turned it into a hospital, you know, she said well, who is going to be the father and they said any of the three of us and she said, 'No, I'm not going to allow that, I'm going to choose the father and she did it.

My mother had this Cafe Renee and she was very, very happy with it, so she was in the cafe and my father came in and then he thought well. he's handsome, you know he could be a good prospect and then she said she asked him if he would help her have a child and with no strings attached they went to a field under the eucalyptus trees and they had boom boom and then she actually conceived right away, which It was amazing and then he came back three weeks later and said, well, do you want to try this again?

You want to see? Do we try to make sure? and she said no, I think I'm fine and she was. I can't believe she got pregnant right away. I think my mother was a very brave woman who made our own rules and was lucky to get pregnant, there were no guarantees but she did and he didn't win and she did. foreigner foreigner