Nazi Human Experiments In the 1930’s, in Nazi Germany, thousands of people were forcefully imprisoned inside concentration camps. This mass imprisonment began with political rivals of Adolph Hitler, and anyone who tried to resist the growing authority of the Nazi Party. Throughout the 1930’s Criteria for imprisonment slowly expanded to include all types of population subgroups including gypsies, homosexuals, catholic clergy, anyone who is viewed as being asocial, and most notably Jewish people. These groups of people were considered to be subhuman or inferior beings, by the Nazi party. By the time WWII began, there were millions of people imprisoned in these concentration camps. This mass imprisonment was one of the first steps of the Nazi’s plans for the systematic mass extermination of entire subgroups of the population. In these camps, prisoners were starved, enslaved and most often killed. By the end of the war, nearly eleven million …show more content…
The doctors and other medical professionals who played a role in these gruesome experiments were subsequently brought to trial for their crimes. These trials were a few of many that took place in what is known, collectively, as the Nuremberg trials. The Nuremberg trials tried anyone who committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, or crimes against peace throughout the duration of WWII. An International Military Tribunal was established, specifically for these trials, to form fair and just verdicts. ("The Nuremberg Trials") The doctor trials lasted a total of 140 days and included eighty-five witnesses and over 1,500 documents of evidence. There were a total of twenty-three physicians that were tried. Of the twenty-three, seven were acquitted and sixteen were found guilty. Of the guilty, seven were sentenced to death and the rest were given various prison sentences ranging from ten years to life imprisonment. ("The Nuremberg Trials: The Doctors