Herta Oberheuser : the sadistic doctor at Ravensbrück who experimented on people. Part one of three.
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Published 2024-02-02
Herta Oberheuser was born here in Cologne on 15 May 1911. Her father was an engineer. She grew up slightly further north in Düsseldorf , where she graduated from high school in 1931 . She then studied medicine in Bonn and Düsseldorf . The Oberheuser family was wealthy enough to be able to consider sending their daughter to university but not wealthy enough to completely pay for it, so Oberheuser had to partially finance her studies herself by working her way through university. She was fortunate enough to start her studies at a time when the education of women was still encouraged. Nonetheless she was able to continue her studies through the initial period of National Socialist rule and passed her state examination in 1936 and received her doctorate ithe following year. Her first job was as an assistant doctor at the Physiological Institute in Bonn, then worked at the Medical Clinic in Düsseldorf. She then decided to undergo specialist training as a dermatologist and moved to the Düsseldorf Dermatology Clinic. She received her specialist title in dermatology in 1940, a large part of which used experiments on live animals and vivisection. From that year she worked at the health department in Düsseldorf.
During the National Socialist era, communal activities were encouraged, if not virtually obligatory. The point of this was to create a Volksgemeindschaft – a peoples community. The idea behind it is to subvert the will of the individual to that of the mass which in turn is controlled by the people at the top. It is exactly the same methodology in communism. Herta Oberheuser joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) National Socialist Association of German Girls in 1935, where she became a community doctor who was also supposed to teach basic medical skills. In 1937 she became a member of the NSDAP , and later also of the National Socialist Nursing Sisters' Association , the Nazi Medical Association and the Nazi Air Raid Defence Association .
Concentration camps advertised for staff in the press, as any other organisation would do. However, they did not state precisely what they did, nor who the employer was. Usually the applicant would only find out what the job was on arrival at the camp, there are cases from Ravensbruck for example where the applicant was informed and given a chance to think about it. If the applicant did not want to go ahead, then a return train ticket might be issued or, the applicant might have to pay her or his own way back. As an aside, the Ravensbruck museum has a very interesting exhibition on recruitment for staff.
In 1940 a job advertisement was placed in a medical magazine for the position as a camp doctor in a “women’s retraining camp”. Herta Oberheuser applied, was given three months training and then drafted into service at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. As from the beginning of 1941, she worked there and reported to the site doctors Walter Sonntag and Gerhard Schiedlausky .
In May 1942, elements of the Czech resistance were parachuted into that country from the UK with the aim of assassinating the Nazi protector, Reinhard Heydrich. The attempt failed to kill him and Heydrich was rushed off to hospital. His health improved and he even started to eat solid foods, very soon after major stomach surgery which I understand, is not a good idea. Very soon, he relapsed and died. Karl Gebhardt, a protegee of Himmler had been sent to Prague, to assist him. Gebhardt had refused to administer sulphonamides, which was then one of the standard procedures to help those who had injuries similar to those of Heydrich. Hitler’s personal physician, Theodor Morell had a factory which produced sulphonamides and was thus keen to promote their use. Speer wrote in Inside the Third Reich that Hitler had told him that they were a miracle cure. A dispute erupted between the two, which Karl Gebhardt decided to settle by proving that they would not have saved the life of Heydrich.
Gebhardt was based at the clinic at Hohenlychen which you can see in this video. Hohenlychen is very close to Ravensbrück and so Gebhardt chose to perform pseudo experiments on concentration camp prisoners at Ravensbrück.
In this case, it needs to be remembered that Gebhardt already knew what he wanted to prove – that he was not responsible for the death of Heydrich.
Bacteria, putrefactive pathogens, wood splinters and glass were placed in specially inflicted wounds on the victims of the experiments, imitating injuries caused by bomb splinters. The course of the wound and the effect of the tested medications were documented and analyzed. Many victims died during the experiments, others died years later from the consequences.
All Comments (13)
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Another informative and well presented video. Nice one
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Excellent Channel!!
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Always enjoy your content always great indebt history. Thank you
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hi Alan thanks for your time in making this history of Germany so that i & people like myself feel so much closer to what my Grandparents lived through did mention that Grandad flew a Spitfire ? Ritchie
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well, huh....thx muchy for another upload 🇨🇦 😁
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Really enjoy learning about Ravensbruk and Herta, as far as I know none of my family were ever sent there so Im not as well educated about Ravensbruk as I am on Belzec.
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See a video from this guy have to watch it. thx
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Apply for a job and the employer dosent advertise what the job is or does equals weird.
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Another wonderful historical coverage video about ( Herta Oberheuser is that sadistic female doctors & and brutality and inhumanity are acting by Nazism regime. Video shared by an amazing( History on YouTube) channel and produced by 🙏( Sir Alan)
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Yagoda? Molotov? Kociolek?
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Find the worst picture of Herta Oberhauser Then make up horrific things about her So as to slander and demonize her
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Many people make mistakes in their youth. Everyone is entitled to a second chance, and it is possible that Dr. Oberhaueser became a valuable member of society in the postwar period. Christianity teaches forgiveness and ‘turning the other cheek’, we must judge a person according to their own culture and lived experiences. It’s time to end the cycle of Hate. Forgive and forget.
