Even after 80 years of one of the most horrible wars that humanity had to suffer, we are still
uncovering the layers of atrocities that were committed in the name of nationalism, science, and
progression. World War 2 had a creepy, horrid side of it that you wouldn’t learn about in the history
textbooks. Welcome to Nutty History, and today let’s find out a few of the creepiest things
that were normal during the second world war. Case K is one of those horror stories of World
War 2 which may sound like creepypasta that gets reposted on Reddit every week or so but this one
is true! In 2003, newspapers reported on the discovery of the name of the 5-month-old baby
previously known as "Case K." His real name was Gerhard Kretschmar, and he died after his parents
wrote to Hitler for permission to euthanize him. When Hitler's personal doctor, Karl Brandt,
testified at Nuremberg, he talked about Case K. He was sent to personally examine the boy,
who had been born blind and missing a leg and part of his arm. After the doctor administered
a drug that eventually led to a drawn-out death, Brandt says the incident was the catalyst for
the euthanasia program called T4. Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler’s Euthanasia Department,
and yes there was an entire department, oversaw the creation of the T4 program in 1939.
We know, that may sound like creating a program to manufacture time-traveling robots to terminate
John Connor and other heroes of humanity, but it was more significant than some people may think.
The objective of the T4 program was not to create machines that can eliminate babies in the
past or future. Instead, it aimed at annihilating babies who were born at that very time and deemed
“mentally defective.” Yes exactly, like a product thrown away because of a failing quality test.
Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department to be
eliminated. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They
had to be “certified” mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working for one reason or another.
Jewish children already in mental hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis,
were automatically subject to the program. The victims were either injected with lethal
substances or were led to “showers” where they sat as gas flooded the room.
The program was then expanded to adults. Social Darwinism was a major contributing factor in the
creation of the ideology of Nazism. Add a pinch of pseudo-science to an already disastrous recipe
and you are creating a feast that would put the Red Wedding to shame.
What came out of this was a concept of racial hierarchy that made Nazis believe that Germans
were part of this made-up Nordic master race called Aryans. At the core of this ideology,
there was the unreserved notion of the “survival of the fittest”, not only at the community and
race level but also down to the level of individuality as well. By deeming every
non-Aryan race and states weaker, Nazis declared all opposing religions and humanitarian views
unnatural. They also proclaimed it was utterly necessary that racial hygiene must be conducted,
the promotion of the "genetically healthy" and the elimination of the "sick." All those with
hereditary illnesses or who were severely mentally and physically handicapped were classified
as "lives unworthy of life." Hitler himself announced in 1929, “an average annual removal of
700,000-800,000 of the weakest of a million babies meant an increase in the power of the nation and
not a weakening." But Hitler was not the only one with a gruesome agenda; other countries too
had kids courting the afterlife by throwing them into the thick of the war as soldiers.
We have already told the heart-wrenching story of Russian kid Sergei who joined the
Red Army after becoming an orphan thanks to the German army invasion of his village. Sergei was
merely 6 years old when he donned the Soviet military uniform specially tailored for him.
However, war was no child’s play and despite his brave accomplishments, Sergei did come really
close to dying many times during the horrid war. If you want to learn more about the amazing life
of Sergei, check out our video here. But Sergei wasn’t the only minor who participated in the
second world war. Germany's war against the Soviet Union raised a small army of child soldiers.
Thousands of those below the enlistment age served with regular and paramilitary formations,
even though they were not formally mobilized or allowed at the front. Back in Germany,
Nazis were also forcibly training young boys and girls militant rhetoric, that implored young
subjects to devote themselves to the strength and defense of the ‘Fatherland.’ The Hitler Youth
received only quasi-military training as part of their political program, learning how to march,
drill, throw grenades, dig trenches and escape through barbed wire reels under pistol fire. And
when they were ordered to join the fight against Allied forces in the final months of the war, the
boys were woefully inexperienced and ill-prepared. These kids were thrust into the military to serve
a kamikaze role. Fifteen-year-old Heinz Schuetze was put in an SS uniform and sent to fight Soviet
forces on the front line after being given just half a day’s training. He was armed
with a panzerfaust, an anti-tank rocket! As much as youngsters enjoy Call of Duty this was real
warfare and peoples lives were at stake. What makes this tale sadder is that tragically, many
of these children lost their lives in battle after the fate of the war had effectively been decided.
After more than four years of Nazi occupation, the liberation of France bodes festivities and
celebrations for most of the French citizens. But for some women, it was an ominous occasion
for retribution for their actions. These women were accused of “collaboration horizontale.”
And as punishment, they were paraded through the streets while people hurled curses at them.
They were dragged to the town squares where people forcefully shaved their heads while many of these
women were rocking babies in their arms. Many of these women were further shamed by covering
them with tar or had Nazi symbols painted on their bodies. France was a hotbed of rumors during and
after the occupation, and women were accused of acting as undercover operatives and even snipers
for their German lovers. However, the truth was far different and an estimated 20,000 innocent
women were essentially victimized for their role in the war. Most of these women who ended up in
a physical relationship with German soldiers were victims of consequences and had no better choice
in the perilous time of war. But people were out for vengeance and had no care for their sob story.
In a biblical fashion, these women were shamed, chastised, and persecuted similar to people living
in the Middle Ages. And it wasn’t just France, German women suffered the same fate for similar
reasons. The Nazi state had issued orders that German women accused of sleeping with
non-Aryans or foreign prisoners employed on farms should also be publicly punished in this way.
During the final days of the war, a B-29 Superfortress with a crew of 12 American soldiers
crashed near Fukuoka. Four of the crew did not survive but some say they were not the
unfortunate ones out of twelve. The other eight were captured and taken to Fukuoka’s pathological
department of the medical school. According to Toshio Tono, the only surviving eyewitness
testified the horrible details of gruesome experiments carried on these poor eight souls.
These experiments would be carried out to get a better understanding of how the body functions.
Seawater was injected into these men to find out if it can be used as a saline drip, and organs
were removed with vivisections to see how long it would take before these men would pass away.
One of these prisoners had a part of their brain removed to figure out if such a procedure could be
an effective treatment for epilepsy. Japanese military doctors were not done with them even
after they passed, their bodies were originally preserved in formaldehyde for further study,
but evidence of the crimes was destroyed as the war came to a close. These doctors stood
trial,however did not receive punishment. The crimes committed by these professionals were
heinous but dwarfed under the shadows of the atrocities committed in the creepy labs of Unit
731. More than 10,000 people were persecuted and experimented on by Japan's mysterious Unit 731.
Until now people do not know the full extent of their crazy, horrible experiments. Along with
vivisection, victims were infected with horrible diseases, including plague, anthrax, cholera,
venereal diseases, and a dozen other pathogens which were candidates for biological warfare.
Victims were forced to submerge their limbs in a tub of water filled with ice until they froze
and a coat of ice would form over the skin. Some might be used for target practice while others
might be put through pregnancy experiments. Nazi Germany had their own counterpart medical
institute to Unit 731 in where mad scientists ran similar horrible experiments. Even back in the US
of A, sixty thousand US soldiers were exposed to mustard gas testing.
It started with a group of white soldiers who were deemed the "control group," exposed to various
levels of mustard gas to see what would happen. What followed was careful selection of candidates
based on race as thousands of soldiers from minor communities were experimented on with the gas.
Decades after these soldiers were exposed to chemicals, they suffered from afflictions like
leukemia, cancers, and emphysema. World War II was one of the darkest periods of our times
when Humanity abandoned pretty much all sorts of morality. Tell us which period would you
like us to cover next in this series and as always thanks for watching Nutty History.