Introduction

By the time Jewish women arrived in Auschwitz they had gone through traumatic experiences such as months spent in Ghettoes, work or concentration camps. Majority were rubbed or forced to sell they belongings. Some females along with their families had to hide or buy false papers neglecting their national identity. There were also women who in order to save their children left them with strangers hopping that they will survive. Finally, Jewish women were captured, gathered with other Jews then loaded onto wagons. They travelled for days many times without food and drink to arrive at their final destination-Auschwitz.

When Jewish women arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau exhausted, hungry, and dirty they had to go through selection. The vast number of them perished still holding hands of their children or parents. Those who survived were striped from their possessions, and dignity to become a prisoner, a number, a subhuman. Their fate, extermination, had been already decided by Nazis. However, before their life would have come to an end their body was exposed to medical or simply sadistic exploitation.

This paper presents the issue of violating the sexual nature of Jewish female prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Firstly, I will illustrate the purpose, the process, and the side effects of sterilisation experiments and its final stage- castration. Secondly, I will present further physical abuse such as forced abortion. Lastly, I will present the circumstances that lead Jewish women to abort their unborn babies.

Sterilisation Experiments and Castrations of Jewish female prisoners in Auschwitz and in Birkenau: definition, purpose, and process 

The definitions of terms sterilisation and castration have been falsely interpreted by many scholars therefore it is necessary to begin with a precise terminology of these words.

According to the Oxford Dictionary sterilisation of women means preventing the woman from becoming pregnant by means of various different operations in which her Fallopian tubes are blocked or cut through – thus making it very difficult for her eggs to reach her womb[1]. Sterilisation of men is called vasectomy is a simple and straightforward operation that stops sperm entering semen[2]. Castration on the other hand means destruction, or removal of testicles or ovaries[3]. Castration, unlike sterilisation, has serious side effects on human body such as: affecting the hormonal balance; gaining weight; lacking hair on certain parts of body; or loosing libido.

Sterilisation and castration as medical procedures have been practised for medical or religious reasons for centuries however sterilisation became broadly propagated by eugenicists across the world in the early Twenty century. Eugenics as a science had its beginning in the UK and it focus was on limiting the number of ‘weaker elements of society’ meaning people with physical or mental disabilities such as schizophrenia, hereditary epilepsy, hereditary blindness, and many more^[4]. The first country to legalise forced sterilisation of people physically disabled and mentally ill was the Usa in 1907 when the Eugenics Record Office was established^[5]. Within years other European countries introduced forced sterilisation such Great Britain, Weimar Germany and Sweden^[6].

The major political changes in Germany in early 1930s such as: winning the election to the Bundestag by the Nsdap in 1932 followed by choosing Adolf Hitler as the chancellor in 1933, opened a new chapter in eugenics in the Third Reich. In July 1933 the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was proclaimed. It meant the legalisation of forced sterilisation which was initiated in psychiatric institutions. At that point sterilisation, according to the law, could be conducted only with an approval of the patient, a member of their family, or by approval of their local physician. A person chosen to be sterilised had to face the Court for Heredity Health. The sterilisation procedures were performed in selected hospitals by experienced medics. The same process was carried out on inmates of prisons and concentration camps.^[7] The Nazi ideology had a great influence on German eugenicists which appeared in adding the factor of ‘purity of the race’ to their theory. As a consequence, among forcibly sterilised were not only hereditary and mentally ill people, but also other residents of the Third Reich who did not fit into the Arian type such as Roma and Sinti,  and recruited to the German army African and Arab soldiers.

The Nazi ideology put Aryans on a pedestal leaving other human physical types such as Jews, Sinti and Roma, and Slavs at much lower position in society. As it was later revealed, the fate of Jews was to be entirely exterminated. The destiny of Sinti and Roma was to be similar. According to the Generalplan Ost [8] only few millions of Slavs would be spared as sterilized slaves of the superior race. That meant death for millions of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, and others.  Firstly, an effective method of sterilisation for mass scale had to be elaborated. To do so, the Nazi officials chose two physicians, Carl Clauberg and Horst Schumann who were carrying their research at Auschwitz- Birkenau.

Carl Clauberg had an established position as a professor in gynaecology thanks to his treatment of infertility, which he proved to be successful by curing a childless wife of Himmler’s colleague. Himmler being impressed by Clauberg’s achievements took this opportunity and asked him to conduct medical research on sterilisation of women on mass scale. Clauberg accepted this offer. At first, in 1941, his research centre was to be located in Ravensbrück concentration camp. However Clauberg had a private clinic in Königshütte near Auschwitz therefore he thought that Ravensbrück was too far to commute. From December 1942 Clauberg worked in Birkenau but after persuading the authorities that his important research required an individual block, he was transferred to a specially prepared for him experimental Block 10 in Auschwitz. Clauberg wanted to be sure that his experiments were kept in secret therefore the windows of the Block 10 were always closed and shuttered or boarded to cut off any kind of communication with the outside world. In addition, he kept women who he had already injected separately from the ones still waiting to be experimented upon. It is impossible to tell if the women were aware of what was actually going to happen to them^[9].

Professor Clauberg chose for his experiments mainly young Jewish females between 20 and 40 years old, who, firstly had already conceived, secondly still menstruated and thirdly were of good health. Many of them were selected upon arrival at the camp. According to the original prisoners employment register of the camp between 30 April and 31 October 1943 in Block 10 there were permanently between 200 and 395 women ‘prisoners for the experimental purpose’[10]. After a short interview women were seated on a gynaecologic chair. Then, about 10 mil of a milky caustic liquid was injected into their womb. The next step, was to check it the fallopian tubes were permeable by X-raying the abdominal part of their body. If the result was positive, women were instructed to get off the chair and run around or jump up and down. Then, they were put back on a chair and injected with a different liquid that it is believed to be formalin but its actual composition is still unknown. The injections were repeated up to six times in several stages over a few months followed by an X-ray check up, and its purpose was to block the fallopian tubes to prevent sperm from reaching the ovaries[11].

A Czech Jew named Margita Neumann told of being taken into a dark room with a large X-ray machine:

Dr. Clauberg ordered me to lie down on the gynaecological table and I was able to observe Sylvia Friedmann who was preparing an injection syringe with a long needle. Dr. Clauberg used this needle to give me an injection in my womb. I had the feeling that my stomach would burst with the pain. I began to scream so that I could hear through the entire block. Dr. Clauberg told me roughly to stop screaming immediately, otherwise I’d be taken back at once to Birkenau concentration camp […] After this experiment I had inflammation of the ovaries^[12].

According to the testimony of former prisoner physician in Birkenau, Dr Lorska, these injections were extremely painful, and had very serious side effects such as peritonitis, a very high fever and horrible abdominal pain.

This is how Clauberg himself described the process of his research:

The method I contrieved to achieve the sterilization of one female organism without any operation is as good as perfected. It can be performed by a single injection made from the entrance of the uterus in the course of the usual custonary gynecologic examinations as known to every physician [...] One adequately trained physician in one adequately equipped place, with perhaps ten assistants (the number of assistance is conformity with the speed desired) will most likely be able to deal with several hundred, even if not 1000 per day^[13].

Other way of sterilisation of women experimented in Auschwitz was x-raying[14]. In 1941 Victor Brack presented his plan of mass sterilisation of Jews by X-raying.

[The] experiment at this stage has been finished. The following results can be presented as undoubted and scientifically supported. If some people should be permanently infertile, so it can be done with a high dose of radiation, which will cause castration with all its consequences. High doses of radiation destroy the internal secretion of ovaries and testicles. Lower doses caused temporary infertility only. The consequences with could be pointed out are: missing menstruation, changes in metabolism, loosing hair etc[…] the dose for males should be between 500 and 600 and for a females between 300 and 350 and it should last for males about 2 minutes and for females about 3 minutes. It should be also mentioned that if the X-raying is carried without necessary care it could cause visible burns on the human body^[15].

At this time, his plan was rejected by Hitler who was absolutely against that form of sterilisation. Anyhow, Brack Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Führer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party did not give up and continued his work engaging another Luftwaffe physician named Horst Schumann.

Schumann arrived to Birkenau in November 1942 where he began his experiments in Block 30.  In February 1943 Schuman moved his station to Auschwitz and was experimenting in block 10 which was divided into two parts totally independent from each other. Similarly to Clauberg, Schumann chose for subjects of his research young healthy prisoners of all variety of nationalities, although the majority of them were Jews. Schumann’s experiments, like others, were top secret therefore no one was allowed get in to Block 30 including SS officers. All employed staff had to sleep inside the block. At the first stage of the experiment both staff and the victims didn’t know the nature of his research. An average day at the Block 30 began with gathering certain number of prisoners and registering their nationality, age and other necessary information[16].

Testimony of female prisoner physician who worked as Schumann’s assistant.

The victims of Schumann’s experiments were girls in age between 17 and 18. The experiments were made as follows: Girls had electrodes put on their belly and fundament. The radiation caused horrible burns of the skin. One of the girls died shortly after. The rest of them were taken to the hospital in Birkenau. After three months they were taken back to Auschwitz where their ovaries were removed probably to check the effect of radiation. The result of that was horrifying. The appearance of these girls was changing incredibly fast. After few weeks they looked like elderly woman and some of them died^[17].

In April 1944 the experiment with X-ray as a form of sterilisation was abandoned. Both Schumann and Himmler realised that this form of birth control was too expensive. Surgical castration was more effective, faster, because the average operation lasted no more than 10 minutes (in normal circumstances it takes between 30 and 40 minutes), and much cheaper. It is believed that in Auschwitz I Clauberg used for his experiments somewhere between 700 and 1000 women. About 300 of them were sent to the gas chambers^[18]. It is impossible to estimate the number of X-rayed people but it was definitely in excess of a 1000. In 1964, it was revealed that Dr Władysław Dering who was employed by Schumann to remove X-rayed testicles and ovaries had, in just over a year managed to castrate about 130 people^[19].

The damage caused by sterilization experiments and particularly by castrations was for vast woman were irreversible. Despite the evident criminal activity of both Prof. Clauberg and Dr Schumann none of them were punished for the pain and trauma they caused to their victims. Professor Carl Clauberg managed to run away to Ravensbrück before the liberation of Auschwitz but was shortly after captured by the Russians^[20]. In 1948 he stood a trial and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1955 he returned to Germany having already planned further research. Shortly after he was arrested but did not make it to the trial since he died in prison two years later. Horst Schumann, on the other hand, worked as a sport doctor until 1951 when recognized he left Germany and went to Africa. In 1966 he was finally extradited to Germany. The trial began in1970 but was discontinued because Schumann pretended to be sick. After six years in prison was released. He died May 1982^[21]. 

Forced and voluntary abortions

Forced abortions were commonly practised in several medical institutions in the Third Reich and in Austria during the war. Mainly it concerned forced labour workers brought from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere[22]. Considerable number of those women was already pregnant when transported to their place of work. However, there were also females that became pregnant in the Reich either by voluntary intercourse or by rape[23]. In majority of cases they weren’t given any choice but abortion.

The precedent of forced abortions at Auschwitz-Birkenau had an entirely different source. Majority of pregnant Jewish women were sent to gas chambers upon arrival. The Nazis were seeking strong workers not those that in a short period of time would need a medical assistance and an extra portion of food for the baby who wouldn’t be able to work for several years. Jewish women who somehow managed to hide their pregnancy at the time of selection or become pregnant having an intercourse with a man for food or for other goods delivered their baby in highly unhygienic conditions at the camp. After the childbirth the newborn was taken away and left to die either from lack of necessary medical help, hypothermia, or from starvation. Devastated, and still in shock, mothers were sent straight from the infirmary to work. Thus, as a result a great number of them bled to death.

A small number of pregnant Jewish women were chosen by SS doctors for a medical research. They were given all sorts of injections and pills to officially induct the labour but in practice that meant abortion because hardly any child survived. Zofia F. a Polish Jew from Chranów testified after the liberation of Auschwitz:

On 23 July 1944 I was brought to concentration camp in Auschwitz along with several other people. After we arrived we were separated in two groups: female and male. There were a lot of women with children. Furthermore, from the female group Germans made another two groups: in one- were young and healthy, in other older, children and pregnant and that group went straight to gas chambers. I could see it because we were in a bathroom not too far from there. When I arrived in Birkenau I was seven months pregnant but I was able to hide behind others. After 8 weeks Dr Koenig was inspecting us once again and this time he took me to a special block for pregnant women. There were 65 women. On the third day of my occupancy I had received 3 injections in my hip to create a fake labour. I was getting these injections for about 3 days. Apart from that I had a chemotherapy, which should give me a fever. On a fourth day my child was taken out of my cervix with a use of some instruments. My baby boy didn’t cry and was immediately taken away. Later I found out that he had been dead for days^[24].

There were also voluntarily abortions conducted in the female camp in Birkenau by prisoner physicians. However, taking the circumstances into consideration it is questionable how voluntarily those operations were. Aborting kids in mean by no force in concentration camp is a taboo subject. The reason for that have been fear of being judged both of women who made this very hard decision of not keeping their child and of doctors who were actively involved in conducting abortions.  The fact is that a pregnant Jewish woman had a very small chance of surviving and her child if born would have been most likely killed. In that case it was not a matter of choosing who will survive and who will die. It was a desperate attempt to save at least one human being. Dr. Alina B. A Polish Jew from Warsaw who was a key witness against Professor Clauberg and Dr. Dering denied any involvement in aborting babies of Jewish prisoners in Birkenau during her two year long stay in the camp. After she died it was revealed that she was indeed involved in aborting that, however, were understood as the act of mercy on tens of desperate and afraid for their life Jewish women.

Hundreds thousands Jewish females from all Europe were sent to Birkenau. Majority of them were killed. The scale of sterilisation experiments, castrations, forced and voluntarily abortions in Auschwitz-Birkenau is unknown. One of the reasons is the fact that approximately eighty per cent of documentation was destroyed by Nazis whilst Soviets were approaching the camp. But more importantly, majority of survivors did not wish to share their experiences with anyone. Our knowledge about those horrific medical procedures comes from a group of very brave Jewish women who despite their fear looked for justice therefore travelled from Israel, the US, Holland, and elsewhere end testified in post war trials against Nazi doctors.[25]