Throughout the Second World War, several physicians and surgeons committed war crimes
against humanity by experimenting on Jews along with several other minorities that were
held within the concentration camps around Europe. This dissertation will aim to dive deep
into the trial, some of the defendants and the experiments themselves. Some of the
experiments that were committed have since been used for medical and scientific use such as
the freezing experiments by Sigmund Rascher. This has caused dispute by scientists and
historians alike. Robert Pozos, a physiologist who specializes in hypothermia has advocated
for the use of the results deeming that they could advance research on hypothermia and thus
save lives.2 However due to the way these results were achieved it begs the question as to
whether these should be used and if they are, is it ethical to do so? Arnold Relman, editor of
the Journal, stated that the Nazi experiments “are such a gross violation of human standards
that they are not to be trusted at all". As Relman states, it is hard to ignore the conditions that such experiments were held in and thus makes it difficult to use them ethically speaking even
if they may contain any sort of research that could be useful. This study will then focus on
other experiments4 and aim to theorize as to whether these experiments directly impacted
Aktion-T4 and the final solution as a whole, using the evidence used within the doctors’ trial
at Nuremberg.