Inside of the concentration camps, the SS would make the lives of prisoners a misery
on a daily basis.
As well as the beatings and torture, there were many experiments which were conducted
on inmates which are considered completely barbaric.
Doctors such as Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death became notorious for their experiments
which often resulted in the deaths of the subjects.
One of the cruelest realities in the world is that there are many people who are dying
of thirst each day and dehydration, but the world is covered in oceans and water that
is deadly to drink.
Seawater can be deadly, but inside of the concentration camps the Nazis took part in
a number of disgusting experiments to push the limits of the human body, using sea water.
The Nazis were doing to to see if they could improve the conditions for their soldiers
and improve their chances of winning the war.
For example many prisoners would be during experiments be given wounds which were infected,
and then different treatment and agents would be introduced to see if they got better.
But of course these were performed in barbaric conditions and often resulted in the deaths
of the prisoners.
Join us today though as we look at the horrific sea water torture of Dachau, and remember
as always to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
As humans we are reliant on fresh water to deal with the salt in our bodies and to flush
it out, and the salt content of sea water is too high for our bodies to deal with it.
Consuming large amounts of sea water is of course incredible dangerous, but the Germans
and the Nazi SS doctors would experiment on many prisoners of concentration camps using
it.
The Nazis became fascinated with trying to find ways to make seawater drinkable, but
this obsession would be an excuse to treat prisoners inside of the concentration camps
terribly, and to make them incredibly ill.
One SS doctor who performed these experiments was Hans Eppinger, who had been a member of
the Nazi party from 1937.
Interestingly he has actually been to Moscow to treat Joseph Stalin a year before, however
like a number of doctors he was dispatched to different concentration camps to experiment
on prisoners.
In 1944, a group of 90 Romani prisoners of Dachau Concentration Camp had been selected
for salt water experiments.
This was led by Doctor Dr Hans Eppinger, and from July to September 1944 experiments at
Dachau took place using inmates.
The plan was to try to make sea water drinkable, and the victims were subject to a horrific
ordeal.
They were deprived of all food, and the only form of food or drink they received was sea
water which had been filtered.
The 90 Roman prisoners were starved and they were made incredibly sick by the sea water
they were consuming.
They became very dehydrated, and were so dehydrated that they resorted to licking the freshly
mopped floors to try and get any form of drinkable water or liquid.
A observer of the experiments explained what he saw, and said that whilst he was forced
to work on the medical experiment stations, he learned what some of the experiments were
about.
He said that the victims had trouble eating and would even lick old floor.
Rags.
He claimed that he could also not stop what was happening, but as he was tasked to work
in the facility he knew that any words he spoke out could result in his death.
Some prisonerss who caught glimpses or witnessed specific experiments were often sent to the
gas chambers to protect what was happening and to prevent the truth getting out.
Regarding the Salt water experiments, many of the subjects died from their treatment.
Drinking the saltwater was causing their bodies to become very thirsty and to urinate to excess,
and this was the bodies attempt to rebalance itself.
But there was no sustenance for the prisoners the replenish the fluids they were losing,
and because of this a number of prisoners suffered from organ failure and damage, and
some subsequently died inside of the experiment.
In December 1946, there was a war crimes trial known as the Doctors trial that took place,
and 23 doctors were found who were involved in experiments but also the sea water crimes.
16 of these were found guilty and seven of them were executed two years later for their
crimes.
But the Salt Water torture of Dachau was a tragic and horrific ordeal for many prisoners
to go through.
It was a death sentence, but a very long and prolonged painful death for the inmate.
Salt water torture is today a forgotten part of the concentration camps, and the victims
of this deserve to be remembered.
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