Hello Poison Friends! We are carrying on with our series on Human experimentation during WWII and we are still discussing that done by Nazi doctors and the like.
This episode is specifically on the diseases that were intentionally spread to prisoners and experimental subjects being kept at concentration camps, mainly Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, and Auschwitz (not that it did not happen elsewhere). The main studies were those concerning Malaria, Epidemic Jaundice (or Hepatitis A), and Typhus. The excuse behind such horrific actions was the study of possible testing, diagnosing, and treating these illnesses for the benefit of Nazi soldiers. They subjected originally healthy people (apart from the recent issues of starvation and malnutrition also caused by the Nazi's disregard for human life) to terrible diseases and many died as a result, some from the disease and some from the treatments.
For the malaria experiments, prisoners were often cut on the arm (sometimes superficially, sometimes deep) and malaria from cultures would be applied to the area. Some were also infected by being made to hold small cages of infected mosquitoes or by being forced to keep their hands in infected mosquitoes cages. Still others were directly injected with malaria infected blood from others who had specifically been exposed to the illness for such a purpose as to provide the infectious blood.
Hepatitis A was also intentionally given to prisoners to see the effects and the outcome was brutal, also leading to deaths. The resulting liver disease in many of these patients was a slow and painful death. Some also died during testing procedures or when given experimental drugs.
Epidemic Typhus is spread via lice, and this had become a problem for Nazi soldiers who had invaded the Soviet Union. War is a dirty business in many ways. Prisoners were exposed to infected lice, but more often they were injected with infected blood. Victims often suffered great illness and pain before death, again from the illness or experimental treatments.
We will be mentioning the doctors indicted and convicted of such horrors as well as those not at the Nuremberg Medical trials simply because they had already been charged and convicted and sentenced to death in previous trials.
Main trigger warnings for this episode include mentions of torture and death (including mentions of suicide). There is nothing graphic, but the crimes themselves are despicable.
Thank you to all of our listeners and supporters! Please feel free to leave a comment or send us a DM for any questions, suggestions, or just to say, "hi."
Support us on Patreon:
patreon.com/thepoisonersalmanac
Merch-
https://poisonersalmanac.com/
Follow us on socials:
The Poisoner's Almanac on IG-
https://www.instagram.com/poisoners_almanac?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
YouTube-
https://youtube.com/@thepoisonersalmanac-m5q?si=16JV_ZKhpGaLyM73
Also, look for the Poisoner's Almanac TikTok-
https://www.tiktok.com/@poisonersalmanacp?_t=ZT-8wdYQyXhKbm&_r=1
Adam-
https://www.tiktok.com/@studiesshow?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Becca-
https://www.tiktok.com/@yobec0?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc