Carl Clauberg

Carl Clauberg
Carl Clauberg
Born	September 28, 1898(1898-09-28) Wupperhof, German Empire
Died	August 9, 1957(1957-08-09) (aged 58) West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel

Carl Clauberg (September 28, 1898 – August 9, 1957) was a German medical doctor who conducted medical experiments on human beings in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. He worked with Horst Schumann in X-ray sterilization experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Biography

Carl Clauberg was born in 1898 in Wupperhof (now part of Solingen), Rhine Province, into a family of craftsmen. During the First World War he served as an infantryman. After the war he studied medicine and eventually reached the rank of chief doctor in the University gynaecological clinic in Kiel. He joined the Nazi party in 1933 and later on was appointed professor of gynaecology at the University of Königsberg. He received the rank of SS-Gruppenführer of the Reserve.

In 1942 he approached Heinrich Himmler and asked him to give him an opportunity to sterilize women en masse for his experiments. Himmler agreed and Clauberg moved to Auschwitz concentration camp in December 1942. Part of the Block number 10 in the main camp became his laboratory. Clauberg looked for an easy and cheap way to sterilize women. He injected liquid acid into their uteruses - without anesthetics. Most of his test subjects were Jewish or Roma women who suffered permanent damage and serious infections. Damaged ovaries were then removed and sent to Berlin for additional research. Sometimes subjects were bombarded with X-rays. Some of the subjects died because of the tests and others were killed so they could be autopsied. Estimates of those who survived but were sterilized are around 700.

When the Red Army approached the camp, Clauberg moved to Ravensbrück concentration camp to continue his experiments. Soviet troops captured him there in 1945.

After the war in 1948 Clauberg was put on trial in the Soviet Union and received 25 years. Seven years later he was released due to arrangement of exchange of prisoners of war between Soviet Union and West Germany and returned to West Germany, where he boasted of his "scientific achievements". After groups of survivors protested, Clauberg was soon arrested in 1955 and was put on trial. He died of a heart attack in his cell before the trial could start.

Bibliography

• Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer. 3. Auflage. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, ISBN 3-596-14906-1.
• Alexander Mitscherlich, Fred Mielke: Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit: Dokumente des Nürnberger Ärzteprozesses, 1. Aufl., Heidelberg: Fischer 1960. ISBN 3-596-22003-3, Taschenbuch wird 2008 in der 16. Auflage vertrieben.
• Jürgen Peter: Der Nürnberger Ärzteprozeß im Spiegel seiner Aufarbeitung anhand der drei Dokumentensammlungen von Alexander Mitscherlich und Fred Mielke. Münster 1994. 2. Auflage 1998.
• Till Bastian: Furchtbare Ärzte. Medizinische Verbrechen im Dritten Reich. Originalausgabe, 3. Auflage, Verlag C. H. Beck, München 2001, Becksche Reihe; Band 1113, ISBN 3-406-44800-3.
• R. J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors. Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York 1986), ISBN 3-608-93121-x.
• Hermann Langbein: Menschen in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2.

External links

• Carl Clauberg at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Carl Clauberg at Jewish Virtual Library