History is full of dark secrets, but few are as disturbing — and downright bizarre — as the covert projects run by Nazi Germany. From twisted medical experiments to occult research and outlandish superweapon plans, these programs reveal just how far the regime was willing to go in pursuit of power. In this list, we uncover 10 shocking secret Nazi programs that actually existed, exposing the strange, terrifying, and unbelievable truths hidden behind closed doors during World War II.
00:00They were gruesome, painful treatments. Beastly. The intense pain erased all feeling.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo. And today we'll be discussing the most disturbing and infamous political implementations of the Nazi regime.
00:13Wie lange dauert das?
00:14Das dauert sieben Stunden. Vier bis fünfhundert.
00:18Ja, fünfhundert.
00:20Testing seawater.
00:21Hitler insisted that the struggle would have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness.
00:31The doctors and scientists of Nazi-era Germany had various reasons for conducting their experiments.
00:36One of their foremost objectives was to enhance the strength and resilience of the German army.
00:41As a result, doctors such as Hans Eppinger conducted experiments in prison camps like Dachau,
00:46In an attempt to devise a means by which common seawater could be made drinkable for German soldiers,
00:52they force-fed prisoners diets consisting solely of seawater, without giving them any food.
00:58The end results were quite predictable, with every test subject so desperate for fresh water
01:02that they'd seek out any source for relief from their pain.
01:11Chemical exposure.
01:12With the victims packed inside the gas chamber.
01:16SS guards dropped Cyclone B capsules down through four wire mesh columns from holes in the roof.
01:23The threat of chemical warfare was still very much a valid concern during World War II.
01:27As such, Germany often sought out ways to dampen or avoid the potential impacts of such attacks on its soldiers.
01:34Prisoners in the concentration camps were unfortunately made the guinea pigs
01:38for unethical experiments involving chemicals like phosgene.
01:42No, it's just a shot.
01:44This dangerous gas, which was previously used in World War I, was deliberately administered to some prisoners to allow German doctors to observe its effects.
01:55Many of these individuals died as a result of this phosgene exposure, especially due to the fact that they were already dehydrated and malnourished.
02:03Battle wound simulation.
02:05Due to the injuries and resulting infections German soldiers constantly faced on the front lines during the war, Nazi doctors sought ways to effectively curb these infections.
02:16One major example of this occurred at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where physicians replicated battlefield-like wounds on prisoners.
02:24They would then embed glass shards and wood shavings into the wounds, an intense and painful process.
02:31Injuries of this sort often became gangrenous and sometimes led to the deaths of the prisoners.
02:36However, this was all intentional, as the doctors aimed to study the spread of these infections and develop the right medicine to treat them on the battlefield.
02:44When the Soviets arrived on April 30th, they found 2,000 women judged by the Nazis to be too feeble to march in dreadful condition.
02:53Bone grafts.
02:54This was yet another chilling example of the extreme length Nazi physicians would stoop to in order to facilitate their grim research.
03:02Ravensbrück was a notorious prisoner camp that primarily housed women, yet it was also a complete house of horrors.
03:09This was due to the gruesome transplants and grafts that took place within its walls.
03:14Prisoners were forced to have their limbs amputated, so that other body parts could be transplanted in their place, and many were left with permanent disabilities.
03:28These horrific experiments were conducted to determine whether proper regeneration would occur in wounded soldiers returning from battle.
03:35It's a truly perverse situation, one where the person who infected you with a sickness is also administering treatment.
03:51Prisoners at the Nazi concentration camps were often infected with diseases such as malaria, hepatitis, or typhoid.
03:57This was done so that Nazi doctors could then test the efficacy of certain antibiotics.
04:02Of course, the fact that many of these subjects died before any real recovery could take place was of little consequence to these quote-unquote doctors.
04:10Heinrich Himmler himself reportedly had his Nazi physicians artificially inseminate women at the Auschwitz death camp in the hopes of discovering a cure for infertility.
04:20High altitude testing.
04:22Prisoners selected to be part of Nazi experiments held out little hope that participation might lead to their release.
04:28More often than not, they were right.
04:30One particularly infamous experiment was the high altitude testing conducted to simulate the pressure experienced by German pilots upon ejection.
04:39These tests would quite often lead to the death of the subject, thanks to the immense physical pressure and pain.
04:44Those who survived were killed anyway and a new group of test subjects would be introduced.
04:49In addition, further gruesome tests were conducted on prisoners of color in order to determine whether specific races held any innate immunity to diseases such as tuberculosis.
04:59Hypothermia tests.
05:12Doctors at prisoner camps such as Dachau conducted harrowing experiments on prisoners in an attempt
05:17to replicate the freezing conditions German soldiers might encounter on the front lines.
05:22These victims would essentially be put into a state of forced hypothermia, usually by icy water or being left outside in the cold.
05:30Doctors would then attempt to reverse the prisoners' condition via hot water baths or even sex in order to increase body temperature and heart rate.
05:38Liebensborn.
05:39In the Bundesarchiv in Berlin are hundreds of documents that show the gradual development of Himmler's strategy for the organized abduction of children.
05:48The Nazi party was constantly seeking ways to increase the Aryan population in Germany, and Heinrich Himmler's Liebensborn program sought to expedite the process.
05:57This was a state-funded association that focused on promoting as many Aryan births as possible within Germany's borders.
06:04It was achieved in a number of ways, from the provision of welfare services to struggling unwed mothers to prestigious awards being offered to the most fruitful families.
06:13Liebensborn birth houses were even constructed to properly care for these Aryan children and their mothers, while abortions were encouraged for those with disabilities or physical traits of a non-Germanic nature.
06:26Like at a chicken farm. I want that chicken. That one doesn't look so good. But I like that one. And that's how they did it with the children, too.
06:35T4 program.
06:37He takes part in the T4 program. People who are crippled or mentally handicapped are gassed to death.
06:45Forced euthanasia. This was essentially the motive behind Germany's T4 program.
06:50The Nazi-era initiative was only officially on the books from 1939 to 1941, but reports allege that it continued to be implemented until Hitler's downfall.
07:00T4 was framed as delivering a mercy killing for the sick, old, or mentally infirm.
07:06However, the Nazi party's interest in eugenics would further widen T4 to target anyone deemed by the state as, quote, unfit to live.
07:14The Nazis referred to disabled people as life unworthy of life. To persuade the nation of this, they made a series of propaganda films.
07:23It's a shockingly brazen and subjective move. One that was labeled by Hitler as a wartime measure.
07:28Modern lenses, however, simply see it as yet another attempt by the Nazi party at total control of the germanic populace.
07:36Dasein ohne Leben. Es klingt allerdings nach Weltanschauung.
07:40Ja. Es ist eine Menschheitsfrage, die alle anbiet.
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08:01Propagation Experiments.
08:03Mengele is accused of being involved in the deaths of 400,000 Auschwitz prisoners.
08:08But his notoriety comes from the experiments he carried out on victims subjected to injections, electrocution, radiation, and horrific surgery.
08:18The name Josef Mengele is another that's been entered into the unhallowed halls of Nazi-era cruelty and infamy.
08:25This angel of death was one of the architects of the Holocaust, alongside Heinrich Himmler, and tragically evaded the hands of justice after the war.
08:34Mengele's brutal prison camp experiments knew no bounds of decency or morality, as evidenced by his demonic propagation procedures.
08:42Mengele was coming, so everybody had to stand still, and he would notice that one of the bunk beds, the twin, was dead.
08:50His so-called research at Auschwitz largely focused on twins, with the intent of uncovering any connections between fertility and multiple births.
08:59After he was through collecting data from the experiments, Mengele would then discard the innocent lives as if they were mere refuse.
09:06These horrific actions have immortalized him as one of history's most monstrous figures.
09:12He was always immaculate in his sharply pressed uniform, and he was always unruffled as he decided each person's fate.
09:20How do we come to terms with pure evil?
09:23What do you think influenced the mindsets of these wartime atrocities?
09:27Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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