Nazi sulfanilamide experiments

The Nazi sulfanilamide experiments were nonconsual experiments on humans conducted between July 1942- September 1943. The intention was to give information, to the German armed forces, on the efficacy of treatment, with sulfanilamide and other drugs, for infected wounds inflicted on non-consenting prisoners at Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp

Participants were tried in the Medical Case (NMT): Charged against Hermann Becker-Freyseng, Kurt Blomer, Karl Brandt, Rudolf Brandt, Fritz Fischer, Karl Gebhardt, Karl Genzken, Siegfried Handloser, Josef Mrugowsky, Herta Oberheuser, Helmut Poppendick, Paul Rostock, and Oskar Schroeder.

Charges against Becker-Freyseng, Blomer, and Schroeder were withdrawn. No judgment was reached concerning Rudolf Brandt. Genzken, Poppendick, and Rostock were acquitted; Karl Brandt, Fischer, Gebhardt, Handloser, Mrugowsky, and Herta Oberheuser were convicted.

The prosecution carged the late Ernst Grawitz with directing the experiments, which were actually performed by Fischer and Oberhauser. After the first series of experiments, Grawitz directed the injuries be made even more serious, to better simulate battlefield conditions. In the second series, "bullet wounds were simulated on the subjects by tying off the blood vessels at both ends of the incision. A gangrene-roducing culture was then put placed into the wounds. Severe infection resulted within 24 hours." Surgery was then performed, and the wounds of some victims were treated with sulfanilamide, while others were used as controls and were not treated.