Summary
Highlights
The term 'Muselmänner' referred to concentration camp prisoners suffering extreme starvation and apathy, often marked for execution or cruel experiments. The Nazis viewed Soviet men, like Jews, as subhuman, leading to brutal treatment and a significantly higher death rate for Soviet POWs compared to Western Allies.
The Nazis operated over a thousand concentration camps for forced labor and extermination. Buchenwald, established in 1937, was a large-scale camp where communists, Poles, Slavs, Jews, Roma people, and others were subjected to terrible conditions, leading to approximately 60,000 deaths. It was also used by German companies for slave labor, particularly for armament production.
In Block 46, known as 'The Division for Typhus and Virus Research of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS,' prisoners, including homosexuals, Soviets, and political prisoners, were intentionally infected with typhus, erysipelas, scarlet fever, and paratyphoid to test experimental vaccines. Shockingly, the conditions within Block 46 initially appeared luxurious, offering better food and accommodations, deceiving prisoners into a false sense of security.
From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Erwin Ding-Schuler led nine series of typhus vaccine tests on 988 prisoners, resulting in one-quarter dying and the rest suffering serious injuries. The Buchenwald experiments also involved the testing of neurotoxic substances like tabun and sarin, and alkaloid poisons, sometimes mixed into food or administered via poisoned bullets, often followed by autopsies.
When American forces liberated Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, they discovered horrific scenes of emaciated bodies, mass graves, and living skeletons. The sight traumatized many soldiers. Liberators had to carefully reintroduce food to prevent further deaths among the severely starved survivors. The Doctors' Trials after the war brought some perpetrators to justice, with doctors like Joachim Mrugowsky and Waldemar Hoven facing execution for their roles in the atrocities.