When Germany started the European phase of World War II in 1939, it decided upon a final solution for “the Jewish problem”. In occupied Eastern Europe, the solution was to send out the Einsatzgruppen to carry out massacres of Jews, in some countries with local assistance. But the Einsatzgruppen, though monstrous, was not fast enough in its work, so a more “scientific” solution was developed.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference on January 20, 1942 sketched out the plans for a coordinated extermination of Jews in Europe. Jews would be collected into ghettos (if they already were not), then deported from the ghetto to Poland for extermination. The healthier victims were used as slave labor and given enough food “to die more slowly” as the narrator in the comic Maus puts it. The young, the old and infirm were sent to the gas chambers, after being told that they were merely going to the showers. Periodically, the Nazis and their minions would conduct a “selection” in the barracks, condemning those who failed the physical test to the gas chambers.
Miriam and Eva Mozes were twins from Port, Romania. The Mozes family were the only Jewish family in Port, which was occupied by Hungarian Nazis in 1940. Their teachers encouraged fellow students to bully them, but the Kors avoided deportation until 1944, first to the ghetto and later to Auschwitz. While in the lines determining their fate, a Nazi guard asked Eva’s mother if the girls were twins. “Is that a good thing?”, said her mother.
While the twins were spared “selections”, the indignity of the striped uniforms and maybe got a bit more food, they spent six days per week as the subjects of “scientific research”, that is, sadists playing the role of mad scientist. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they were examined closely by “doctors” and “medical personnel” with little respect for their bodies. Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays were worse: a child would be injected with a mystery substance in one arm and a blood sample would be taken from the other arm. The substance could be drugs, vitamins or pathogens — the injections were painful and debilitating. After one “experiment” Eva was sent to her deathbed, but decided not to die and her body agreed.
A fuller story of these “experiments” can be found in this VICE story…which also describes Eva Mozes’ imprisonment, liberation from the Nazis, and as she might put it, the self-liberation that came from forgiving her guards and “doctors”.
The Lafayette Sentinel 