Despite how striking the title of this article «Mengele and Morell. evil geniuses. Experimental practices with living and dead people in pursuit of knowing the functioning of the human body have always occurred throughout history. Since Herophilus of Chalcedon (335-280 BC), the first recorded anatomist in the ancient city of Alexandria, passing through the Renaissance, all civilizations have been curious to know the ins and outs of the human body.
Already in contemporary times, advances in psychiatry and medicine gave way to new questions, which in turn gave way to new experiments. Since the Freudian experience of the centuries, some features of the functioning of the human brain had already been questioned.
On a more generic level, the aforementioned advances in general medicine had made the unknowns that had previously been ruled out more plausible. These old aspirations of medicine returned to the game board with the advent of totalitarianism. With what they knew in the 20th century, could the body be improved? Was there a way to achieve “the fountain of youth”?
Taking this history into account, the years between the wars, undeniably marked by the rise of totalitarianism, were a gold mine for those who believed in a superior race, in a biologically justifiable cause: the Nazis.
In the society led by Adolf Hitler, the issue of races, although they had always been an element of differentiation, at this historical moment, as in so many others, they would be crucial. For this reason, it is not surprising that the scientific team of the Third Reich rushed to find any stratagem to cling to in order to make sense of it.
This article unravels some of the most macabre practices of the Third Reich in search of racial supremacy and world domination. At this point, two currents must be differentiated, which will often converge.
A first branch of science was devoted to experimenting with Üntersmench or subhumans (gypsies, Jews, dwarfs…), investigations directed by the Doctor Mengele. While another branch of research focused on increasing the health and vitality of Nazi commandos, on this ship the helm is steered by the Doctor Morell
Joseph Mengele.
If we talk about Nazi medicine, as far as experimentation is concerned, there is no doubt that the key voice is Josef Mengele.
Mengele received doctorates in medicine and anthropology and soon joined the ranks of Nazism. Although many other scientists and doctors declared themselves Nazis in order to continue their careers and research, it is assured, even by the testimony of his own son, that the macabre doctor did so out of conviction.
As far as studies are concerned, Mengele was very close to his university professor Otmar Freiherr Von Verschuer a geneticist obsessed with eugenics. Following the example of his professor, Mengele focused on the study of genetics through experimentation with twins, although in reality, it is proven that he experimented with all kinds of humans, these seemed to be the ones that aroused the most curiosity (Posner, GL and Ware, J. 2000. 40).
“It was believed that their goal was to find the ultimate cause of twin births in order to repopulate Germany once the inferior races had been eliminated” (Moors, M. 2014. 345).
Dr. Mengele’s laboratory was Auswitz, in that concentration camp he carried out his heinous crimes for years. He experimented primarily with children; In the case of the twins, the procedure consisted of inoculating them with a disease and studying how they reacted to it. If one of them died, Mengele killed the other “out of compassion.”
One of the features that historians most highlight about the figure of Mengele is his attitude towards his victims. The people with whom he experimented in Auswitz seemed to be treated with greater benevolence than the rest, as is reflected in the sources:
“A doctor who was a prisoner in Auschwitz said: He was able to be very kind to the children so that they would like him, he would give them sweets, he would think about the daily details of their lives and he would do things that we would really like to admire… And then, the smoke from the crematoriums and, the next day or half an hour later, those children were sent there”
After years of terrible crimes including unnecessary amputations, inoculations of diseases in subjects of other races, and other barbarities, Mengele was imprisoned by the Americans once Nazism had fallen in Germany. It is not known for sure how, although everything points to a bureaucratic error, Mengele was released and managed to flee to Argentina with the help of former members of the SS and other organizations related to Nazism.
Despite the seriousness of the crimes he committed, the numerous testimonies of the survivors, and the evidence found, Mengele died of a stroke while swimming in Brazil, around 1979. Free. (Verdu. MV G, 2006. 78)
the fountain of youth
In the German case, the fountain of youth would have a double importance, on the one hand, in a more mystical than plausible way, it would ensure the permanence of Adolf Hitler as Nazi leader, taking into account that said leader had no offspring, the De Napoli’s phrase “After Hitler there is nothing. (From Napoli, 2018, 3)
On the other hand, intended for a popular purpose, it would be a resource for Aryan women, since keeping them young would increase their fertile age, thus guaranteeing the reproduction of the superior race. (From Napoli, 2018, 1)
But where to start? The scientists of the time thought that the key to eternal youth was found in the testicleshere begins the horror story.
They deduced it thanks to the French doctor Serge Voronov (1866-1951), who, a few years earlier, observed that castrated boys showed feminine attitudes and were less long-lived. Pulling that thread, he deduced that the source of virility and longevity was found in the testicles; in the same way and by principle of opposition, if young testicles were transplanted into old men, their youth would be “renewed”.
As Voronov could not find donors, he experimented with monkeys, since he considered them the most similar species to humans.
Mengele, the Angel of Death for the Nazis, severely criticized Voronov, firstly, because he was a Jew, and secondly, because he began to observe the spread of a well-known disease in our days, HIV (From Napoli , 2018. 5-8).
Although the Voronov method was reviled by Nazism, Mengele and his colleagues continued their experiments on the basis that the source of life was found in the testicles, therefore, in testosterone
testosterone
In the years just before World War II, European scientists studied male and female hormones, as well as the reproductive organs of both sexes.
In this context, two German researchers succeeded in isolating the hormone testosterone and later synthesizing it. Were Adolf Butenandt Y Leopold Ruzicka. Although this type of studies did not have to be born linked to Nazism, it is undeniable that late in the 30s, and especially in the 40s, they were placed at its service.
Adolf Butenandt
Leopold Ruzicka
Butenhold and Ruzicka. Although both won the Nobel Prize for their research on hormones. They were forced to reject the award since Nazism considered that the Aryan experiments should not be judged for other reasons. Both scientists would receive their Nobel Prize once the war was over
As the atmosphere in Europe became more strained and the outbreak of World War II approached, the idea that testosterone could help the performance of athletes and, above all, soldiers began to gain importance (Jácome, A 2019. 231-232). During those years, experiments were carried out by inoculating combatants and even Hitler himself in different ways, according to some sources.
the dwarfs the ovitz family
The 7 members of the Ovitz family, Jews, were dwarfs and lived off the show rolling around central Europe. Like many other Jews and dwarfs, they fell into the macabre hands of Doctor Mengele in Auswitz (Moros, M. 2014. 346).
Since most of the files and documents related to Mengele’s experiments have disappeared, a clear objective cannot be proven, but as mentioned before, it seems that the doctor was looking for that gene or characteristic that caused dwarfism or disabilities, with in order to isolate and eliminate them from the superior race.
This would explain why the atrocities suffered by the Ovitzes were mainly of a gynecological nature:
“The most terrifying experiments were the gynecological ones. They tied us to the table and then the systematic torture began. They injected things into our uterus, they took blood, they poked inside us, they poked us, and they removed tissue samples. It is impossible to express in words the unbearable pain we suffered and that lasted several days until the experiments ceased “ (Bios Foundation).
Despite everything, in a non-exclusive way, they also suffered other tortures such as the continuous extraction of blood and bone marrow and the extraction of hair and teeth for later investigation.
Reading the testimonies of the tormented family, it is practically a miracle that the seven members of the same endured more than half a year in the hands of Dr. Mengele and that they all came out of that experience alive.
Theodor Morell
Morell was born in 1886 in a German town called Tarsia. He studied medicine and specialized in gynecology and urology among other branches. Already in his youth he gained fame as a “venerologist” for the glucose injections he liked to do to his patients.
At this time, experimentation based on the inoculation of different substances was especially common, which, through intravenous injection, were believed to help the body improve its capacity and vitality.
In this regard, it should be noted that one of the characters who gave himself the most to the study of the new compounds and who in some way was their guinea pig, was Adolf Hitler. The Führer’s obsession with his health, added to the neurotic personality that characterized him, made him the perfect patient for experimentation. The one in charge of directing the peculiar patient was none other than the Doctor Morell (Kaplan, R. 2002. 391).
Morell became Hitler’s personal physician thanks to Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s photographer. Unlike the Mengele case, it does not seem that Morell wanted to diabolically experiment with different subjects. What camera doctor Hitler, Morell followed him wherever he went, frequently supplying him with numerous compounds intended to alleviate the gastrointestinal problems that shook the Führer’s health.
As the war wore on…