On Friday, when we heard the presentations in class, I thought the topic of Nazi medical experiments was particularly interesting. I was aware that experiments had taken place during the Holocaust, but I guess I was unaware of the sheer barbarity. This weekend I was research some of the particular experiments that took place. To understand hypothermia, the Nazis put their victims through a painful process in order to help the Nazi soldiers who were suffering on the Eastern Front from the harsh Russian winters. In the experiments, they would freeze their victims to death in a tub of ice and then attempt to revive them with a sun lamp. A large amount of Nazi medical experiments were done in the area of genetics, in Hitler’s attempt to prove to people that there was indeed a superior race and certain people, like Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and mentally unstable people were genetically inferior. Much of these experiments were done simply as propaganda to fuel the Nazi war cause and keep up the faith in Hitler’s radical ideals. For example, it was discovered by Nazi doctors that gypsies had bad blood and that they were prone to criminal activity. The medical experiments that took place during the holocaust were done without informed consent and though they may have had some lasting effect on medicine, they were justifiable forms of torture. Most of the test subjects were killed and their body parts and organs used afterwards to see the effects the various diseases and chemical injections had on the body. Those who actually survived the experiments were left severely maimed and disabled. They may have discovered many great medical advances, like for example modern knowledge of hypothermia comes from these Nazi experiments, but the manner in which they went about seeking these discoveries was completely unethical. I do not think it is excusable for the Nazis to have treated their test subjects in such a barbaric manner, but then they were the Nazis and these experiments were only a portion of the horrible, inhumane things they did during the Second World War.