Primary Sources: The Holocaust: Experiments

"In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Doctors Trial, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents excerpts from the official trial record, with accompanying photographs"

Eva Kor was 10 when she and her family stepped off the train in Auschwitz in the fall of 1944. Minutes later an SS officer took her and her twin sister, Miriam, away from their mother, father and two older sisters. The twins never saw the others again. Awaiting the girls was Josef Mengele, "the Angel of Death" who performed unspeakably sadistic experiments on roughly 1,500 sets of twins. When the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, Eva and Miriam were among the fewer than 200 survivors of Mengele's atrocities. Kor talks about her ordeal at the hands of Mengele and her decision to forgive. Recorded on 05/05/2016. [7/2016] [Show ID: 30962]

Eva Kor and her twin sister Miriam were experimented on by infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. She describes how one experimented had nearly killed her but she promised herself she would survive. Eva’s testimony is featured in the IWitness activity Growing Up Behind the Barbed Wire. iwitness.usc.edu

The Doctors Trial considered the fate of twenty-three German physicians who either participated in the Nazi program to euthanize persons deemed "unworthy of life" (the mentally ill, mentally retarded, or physically disabled) or who conducted experiments on concentration camp prisoners without their consent. The Doctors Trial lasted 140 days. Eighty-five witnesses testified and almost 1,500 documents were introduced. Sixteen of the doctors charged were found guilty. Seven were executed.

Entry includes documents and photographs.

The following are testimonies of living individuals who were subjected to Nazi medical experiments and who were identified by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). These testimonies and those of the other identified individuals will be turned over to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (in Washington, D.C.), Yad Vashem (in Israel) and other Holocaust institutions. The individuals listed below want their experiences to become part of the historical record, but asked to keep their names private because of the sensitivity of the material.