The Priest Barracks by Guillaume Zeller

Author:Guillaume Zeller [Zeller, Guillaume]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781681497662
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2017-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Phlegmon Research

As inhumane as these experiments were, they were nevertheless “benign” compared with the research conducted on phlegmon in Dachau, for which the priests were the guinea pigs of choice. Phlegmon was then a high-priority medical challenge for the Reich. This infectious pathology, which develops in the area of wounds that are poorly treated or poorly disinfected, affected many of the war wounded. Besides the unbearable pain that it causes, it can degenerate into gas gangrene. In the absence of appropriate treatments, it is one of the chief causes of mortality on the battlefield. In addition to these military reasons, there was a more personal reason in the mind of Heinrich Himmler: indeed, Reinhard Heydrich had died on June 4, 1942, of violent septicemia following the grenade attack in Prague by the Czech resistance.13 His injuries had not been fatal, but particles of the upholstery in the seats of his car, having penetrated his body, caused the deadly infection. Annoyed by this turn of events, the SS boss unreservedly encouraged research into phlegmons and septicemia in the concentration camps.

As of July 1940, the first experiments began in several camps, including Dachau. The subjects being studied were afflicted with natural phlegmons, resulting from wounds sustained during work in the commandos. But the initial results did not suit Himmler, who thought that the guinea pigs were being treated with too much respect, and he remained convinced of the effectiveness of biochemical therapies, whereas the first studies established the relevance of surgery instead. In autumn 1942, the methods changed. Coordinated by Doctors Rudolf Kiesswetter and Heinrich Schütz, the new protocols—conducted in the Biochemische Versuchsstation—were designed to compare the effectiveness of different treatments. On November 10, 1942, twenty priests whose last names began with the letters K, L, or M were selected by the kapo of the Revier, Karl Zimmermann. After a series of tests, eight of them were judged suitable to join the experimental station, where they met twelve other guinea pigs. In all, the group included eighteen Polish priests; one Czech priest, Jaroslav Zámečník; and a Dutch Lutheran pastor, Jan Willem Tunderman. Three groups were formed. The first, made up of eight men, was to be treated with shots of Tibatin, a sulfa drug of already-proven effectiveness, and the second group, of the same size, was to receive Albucid tablets, so as to determine the therapeutic potential of that drug. The four remaining subjects served as the control group and received no treatment at all.

Several hours after inoculation in the thigh with several cubic centimeters of the purulent exudate, the first symptoms of infection promptly appeared—fedness, intense pains, fever—before turning into gigantic phlegmons. Indifferent to the sufferings, the SS doctors, assisted by the orderlies of the Revier, administered the treatments methodically and had no intention of refining them, even when the “patient’s” death was imminent. The subjects from the control group provided the first victims; one of them, Father Jaroslav Zámečník, died several hours after the inoculation. He had been detained in Dachau for only a few weeks.

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