Carl Clauberg (28 September 1898 – 9 August 1957) was a German

gynecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined ...

who conducted medical experiments on human subjects (mainly Jewish) at

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

. He worked with

Horst Schumann Horst Schumann (1 May 1906 – 5 May 1983) was an ''SS-Sturmbannführer'' (major) and medical doctor who conducted sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means o ...

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

sterilization Sterilization may refer to: * Sterilization (microbiology), killing or inactivation of micro-organisms * Soil steam sterilization, a farming technique that sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses * Sterilization (medicine) rende ...

experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1945, near the close of WWII, he was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released in 1955 under a prisoner exchange agreement, and he returned to Germany and continued to practice medicine. Due to public outcry from

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally acce ...

, Clauberg was arrested in 1955, but died before he could be tried.

Early life

Carl Clauberg was born in 1898 in Wupperhof (now part of Leichlingen),

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

, into a family of craftsmen.Carl Clauberg (1898 - 1957)
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Medical career

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

he served as an infantryman. After the war, he studied medicine and eventually reached the rank of chief doctor in the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

gynaecological clinic. He joined the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1933 and later was appointed associate professor of

gynaecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined ar ...

at the University of Königsberg. He carried out research on female fertility hormones (particularly

progesterone Progesterone (P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the majo ...

) and their application as infertility treatments, obtaining a

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

for this work in 1937.Robert Jay Lifton, "The Nazi doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide", Basic Books, 2000, ; pp. 271–278 of the online edition and references there, http://www.holocaust-history.org/lifton/LiftonT271.shtml He received the rank of '' SS-Gruppenführer'' of the Reserve.

Human experiments at Auschwitz

In 1942 he approached

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

, who knew of him through treatment of a senior SS officer's wife and asked him for an opportunity to perform mass sterilizations on women for his experiments. Himmler agreed, and in December 1942 Clauberg moved to Auschwitz concentration camp. His laboratory was in a part of the

Block 10 Block 10 was a barrack at the Auschwitz concentration camp where men and women were used as experimental subjects for Nazi doctors. The experiments in Block 10 ranged from testing bodily reactions to relatively benign substances and sterilizat ...

in the main camp. Clauberg's goal was to find an easy and cheap method to sterilize women. He injected

formaldehyde Formaldehyde ( , ) ( systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula and structure . The pure compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde (refer to section ...

preparations into their

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The ...

es without

anesthetics An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...

. His test subjects were

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish and

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

women who suffered permanent damage and serious infections. Some of the subjects died because of the tests. Estimates of those who were sterilized are around 700. Himmler wanted to know how much time it would take to sterilize 1000 Jewish women in that way. Clauberg's answer was satisfactory: One doctor with 10 assistants should be able to conduct sterilization of a few hundred, or even a few thousand, Jews in one day.

POW, 1945–1955

When the

approached the camp, Clauberg moved to

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure ...

to continue his experiments on

women. Soviet troops captured him there in 1945. After the war in 1948, Clauberg was put on trial in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1955, he was released (but not pardoned) by the Soviet Union under the Adenauer-Bulganin prisoner exchange agreement, with the final group of about 10,000 POWs and civilian internees.

Medical career, arrest and death, 1955–1957

He returned to West Germany, where he was reinstated at his former clinic based on his prewar scientific output. Bizarre behavior, including openly boasting of his "achievements" in "developing a new sterilization technique at the Auschwitz concentration camp", destroyed any chance he might have had of staying unnoticed. In 1955, after public outcry from groups of survivors, Clauberg was arrested. He died before trial on 9 August 1957 in Kiel, Germany.

Clauberg test

The Clauberg test is an obsolete bioassay to assess progestational activity based on the conversion of proliferative

endometrium The endometrium is the inner epithelial layer, along with its mucous membrane, of the mammalian uterus. It has a basal layer and a functional layer: the basal layer contains stem cells which regenerate the functional layer. The functional layer ...

to secretory endometrium in immature

rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

References

Bibliography

* Ernst Klee: ''Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer''. 3. Auflage. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, . * Alexander Mitscherlich, ''Fred Mielke: Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit: Dokumente des Nürnberger Ärzteprozesses'', 1. Aufl., Heidelberg: Fischer 1960. , 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, . * R. J. Lifton, ''The Nazi Doctors. Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide''. New York 1986), . * Hermann Langbein: ''Menschen in Auschwitz''. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, . * Hans-Joachim Lang: ''Die Frauen von Block 10. Medizinische Experimente in Auschwitz.'' Hamburg 2011. .

External links

Carl Clauberg
at

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust h ...