Hertha Oberhuiser is one of the most famous defendants of the Nuremberg trials of doctors. Her name inspired fear in many people, and her photographs "adorned" the pages of newspapers throughout the 46th year. Contemporaries still wonder how a simple doctor from the province could participate in terrible experiments on people.
Nazi crimes are terrifying even after 70 years.
Hertha Oberhuiser: biography
Hertha was born in Cologne in 1911. Her parents were ordinary workers. The First World War and its consequences for Germany hit the budget of the Oberheuser family very hard. My father got an engineer position, which at the beginning of the 20th century, when the industrial industry was only expanding, was a very prestigious job. Nevertheless, there was no money to train Hertha. Therefore, she had to earn money on her own, combining her studies with work. In 1937, Hertha graduated from the Medical University in Dusseldorf. The diploma allows her to continue her scientific activities. After the outbreak of war, he gets a job as a doctor.
People who personally knew Oberhäuser argue that during training and practice she repeatedly applied experimental methods to animals.
Fellow students describe Hertha as a closed and uncommunicative person. She behaved rather strangely, was petty, envious, vile. Like many people with a similar type of character, in 1937 she joined the Nazi party of Adolf Hitler.
Joining the NSDAP
Hertha Oberheuser enrolled in the Nazi party 2 years before the start of World War II. At that time, participation in the NSDAP was mandatory for all people who wanted to move up the career ladder in any field. But Hertha also, apparently, was an ideological Nazi. She did not show political activity. At the moment, there is no evidence of her speeches at party meetings or similar activities. She was in a sister society, where the rules and charters were professed, which every "real German woman" had to follow.
After a short career, Hertha saw an announcement on the recruitment of medical staff at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She filed an application and in 1941 began to work.
Concentration camp
After the occupation of a number of territories, the first fierce battles began in Poland. The Third Reich approached the borders of the USSR and controlled a significant part of Europe. From all lands the local population and prisoners of war were hijacked to Germany. There were no places in prisons for a long time (they ended when the Nazis first came to power), so the prisoners were sent to concentration camps. One of these - Ravensbrück, was located almost 100 kilometers from Berlin. He was female. In addition to women, their children were also kept there.
Initially, Germans drove here to “disgrace the nation”. With the outbreak of war, Gypsies and Jews were brought to the camp. After the occupation of Poland and Yugoslavia, the number of prisoners increased several times. A huge percentage were Polish. Also Serbs and representatives of other Slavic peoples. In 1942, Soviet women of the Red Army captured in battles for Crimea began to be sent here.
Prisoners of the camp were obliged to work at the enterprise. These were mainly textile factories, and later they were sent to military production. Also, women had to build the huts of the camp itself and the guard house. On the day the prisoners received several pieces of bread and potato or beetroot peeling. Due to malnutrition, hard work, terrible conditions of detention, torture and bullying, up to 92 thousand women and children died in the camp by 1945.
Experiments on people
Many of them died as a result of medical experiments. The main objective of such experiments was to study the behavior of the human body in various non-standard situations that could arise during hostilities. These are burns, cooling, wounds and other injuries. Hertha Oberhuiser was personally involved in such procedures. The experiments were carried out over several years and almost always ended in death.
First, the selection was made of prisoners who, according to the Nazis, were most suitable for the experiment. Then they were deliberately maimed, imitating the injuries sustained in battle. Further observation was carried out. Doctors recorded the reaction of the body and the development of the disease. Most procedures were performed without anesthesia. At the treatment stage, prisoners were injected with experimental preparations to study their effect.
Infections
For example, various objects like rusty metal, earth, wood were introduced into the body of prisoners of the camp. Then there was an infection, which was treated in various ways. According to the testimonies of various people, Hertha Oberheuser not only took a direct part in the experiments, but also enjoyed her work. She even took on the responsibilities of other doctors who could not perform such monstrous operations. Most of the women who were tested were Polish. In 1943, Oberhuiser Hertha was transferred to Gerbhardt Hospital, where she worked until the end of the war.
Ravensbrück prisoners underwent experiments until the fall of the Nazi regime. In 1945, units of the Red Army released the last prisoners. Many of them were sent to the Scandinavian countries under the Red Cross program.
Nuremberg trial of doctors
Hertha Oberheuser was captured at the end of the war and imprisoned. In 1946, a famous trial of doctors took place.
He was widely covered in the media. The public was shocked by the terrifying facts of bullying people. During the trial, Hertha stated that she was only a performer. Moreover, she used the facts of killing the “experimental” as an act of goodwill as a defense. All the leaders of the "experimental department" Ravensbrück were sentenced to death.
Hertha Oberheuser was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but left after 10.
After her release, she worked in various medical institutions. In the process, Ravensbrück's former prisoner found out that Hertha Oberheuser was one of the doctors. Nazi photos appeared in many local newspapers. Public protests forced the German government to ban Herte from working in medicine. Oberhuiser died on January 24, 1978.