Once Upon A Time In War

German SS Dr. Sigmund Rascher (center) and Professor Ernst Holzlöhner (left) conduct a cold water immersion experiment with a Dachau prisoner wearing an experimental exposure suit planned for Luftwaffe use.

Rascher was known for his high altitude experiments, freezing experiments (one such of these seen here), and his blood coagulation experiments, all of which he tested on inmates of the Reich concentration camp system. Despite these ghastly experiments, Rascher wasn’t tried at Nuremberg with the Nazi scientists—he was executed in Dachau shortly before its liberation by American forces after being accused (and assumed guilty) by his superiors of financial fraud, scientific fraud, and the murder of one of his assistants. And because his wife was party to his scientific fraud (and the fact that she tried to kidnap a child) Mrs. Rascher was hanged somewhere in the Dachau camp area.

German SS Dr. Sigmund Rascher (center) and Professor Ernst Holzlöhner (left) conduct a cold water immersion experiment with a Dachau prisoner wearing an experimental exposure suit planned for Luftwaffe use.

Rascher was known for his high altitude experiments, freezing experiments (one such of these seen here), and his blood coagulation experiments, all of which he tested on inmates of the Reich concentration camp system.

Despite these ghastly experiments, Rascher wasn’t tried at Nuremberg with the Nazi scientists—he was executed in Dachau shortly before its liberation by American forces after being accused (and assumed guilty) by his superiors of financial fraud, scientific fraud, and the murder of one of his assistants. And because his wife was party to his scientific fraud (and the fact that she tried to kidnap a child) Mrs. Rascher was hanged somewhere in the Dachau camp area.

September 27, 2012, 3:57pm / 19