Josef Mengele And The Impact Of His Experiments

Bright lights, daily injections, hours of measuring, suffering, and pain turned into forgiveness, regained control, and a life filled with meaning. Josef Mengele gathered three thousand Jewish twins during World War Two in Auschwitz concentration camp and used them for experiments in hopes of creating an Aryan race. Unfortunately, Mengele, had no hesitation to harm and even kill his Jewish patients due to this process. Whereas Hitler was a powerful and abusive leader one twin, Eva Kor, stood up and shared her experiences of the war and her suffering. World War Two Holocaust survivor, Eva Kor, was impacted by Dr. Mengele, his experiments, and the power of forgiveness.

Born of Karl and Walburga Mengele, Josef, was the oldest of three sons born on March 6, 1911 in Günzburg Germany. “In 1935, he earned a PhD in physical anthropology from the University of Munich. He also held a doctoral degree in genetic medicine”. With this education, Mengele knew about human biology, physical developments, and characteristics. Having this knowledge easily could have sparked Mengele’s curiosity in wondering how to alter human biology and genetics, therefore allowing himself to harm innocent people. After joining the Nazi party in 1937, Mengele, went on campaign which injured him, causing his return to Germany in 1943. He was later promoted to SS captain and transferred to Auschwitz shortly after. After traveling to Auschwitz, Mengele, was able to start working on the ramp. At concentration camps, this is where they would divide up the citizens and force them into grueling, laborious work or being taken into the gas chamber. “Mengele, in distinctive white gloves, supervised the selection of Auschwitz’ incoming prisoners for either torturous labor or immediate extermination, shouting either “Right!” or “Left!” to direct them to their fate”. While notorious for harsh behavior on the ramp, this foreshadows his barbarous treatment of his patients and the experiments.

Mengele was prompted by Hitler's idea of a superior race therefore conducting horrific experiments on innocent and mostly juvenile patients. Very painful and often severe procedures would be conducted without the use of anesthetics or any pain relieving medications, these procedures included spinal taps, organ removal, castration, and amputations. Along with intensive surgeries, patients were given many injections and had blood drawn daily. Mysterious injections cause pain and permanent illnesses if patients were able to survive long enough to suffer the effects. Diseases such as tuberculosis and typhus were injected into one twin and not the other when the infected twin would die, Mengele and his associates, would murder the other twin and compare and contrast the affects. In attempt to change eye color to blue, Mengele, would “Some of the twins had been stabbed with a needle that pierced their heart and was then injected with chloroform or phenol, which caused near-immediate blood coagulation and death” (Rosenberg). Menegle ruled over his laboratories with an iron fist not caring about his patients, their pain levels, and what experiments he would inflict among them. After having approximately only two hundred survivors out of three thousand victims is clear evidence Mengele abused his power and his patients.

One twin, Eva Kor, decided to stand up against and discuss her experience with both Dr. Mengele and his experiments. Eva Moses Kor and her twin Miriam were one of three thousand patients who were forced into these horrific experiments. Kor had to suffer through daily injections, hours of measuring every inch of her body, feeling vulnerable, useless, and afraid until she regained control of her life and stopped allowing the past to affect and harm her future. Due to suffering through years of less that human treatment from Mengele and his staff, Eva Kor, had a near death experience. Unable to walk, eat, drink, see Miriam, and fearing death Eva felt crippled due to Mengele and useless. “If I had died, Mengele would have given Miriam a lethal injection in order to do a double autopsy. When I didn’t die, he carried on experimenting with us and as a result Miriam’s kidneys stopped growing” (Goldstein). Mengele would leave painful and often permanent effects due to his experiments. When one twin would die, Mengele would often do double autopsies in order to compare and contrast the effects on each twin. Mengele would continue to leave his impact on these patients lives by giving them diseases and altering the way their body works for the rest of their life. By altering a humans life forever this can not only change them physically but can even alter them mentally. “Powered by a never-give-up attitude, Eva emerged from a trauma-filled childhood as a brilliant example of the human spirit's power to overcome”. Eva Kor was a brave woman, she was able to forgive the man who harmed her and left her and her twin sister abandoned, and with lifelong health issues.

Mengele wanted to alter human genetics to go along with Hitler’s ideology of a master race. By attempting to change the way our bodies were intended to function, Mengele put his patients at a high risk for obtaining incurable diseases, increasing their risk for infections, and left their children with the possibility of inheriting a multitude of things. Eva Kor was able to forget about all of the things Mengele had done to her and was in a place for forgiveness. At the beginning of this excruciating journey, Kor, saw Mengele as someone in no place for forgiveness but slowly learned over time that without forgetting him, he was still a part of her life. What went from feeling scared and helpless turned into power, regained control, and a new view on life due to forgiveness.

Eva Kor, World War Two Holocaust survivor, was affected by Josef Mengele, his experiments, and the power of forgiveness. Some may say that a man who inflicted pain and suffering upon thousands of innocent people does not deserve forgiveness, however, God says we must forgive even our enemies. Currently, we use animals for experimental purposes, very similar to how Jewish people were experimented on during World War Two, these animals are innocent and are forced into experiments which are harmful and potentially lethal.