A war crimes investigation photo of Wladislava Karolewska, a survivor from Ravensbrueck, who was subjected to medical experiments with sulphonamide drugs in 1942.
Overview
- Caption
- A war crimes investigation photo of Wladislava Karolewska, a survivor from Ravensbrueck, who was subjected to medical experiments with sulphonamide drugs in 1942.
The experiments were conducted by Dr. Fritz Fischer, Prof. Karl Gebhardt, Dr. Stumpfegger and Ravensbrueck camp doctor, Herta Oberheuser. This photograph was entered as evidence for the prosecution at the Medical Trial in Nuremberg.
The disfiguring scars on the woman's right leg resulted from incisions made by medical personnel that were purposely infected with bacteria, dirt and slivers of glass, in order to simulate the combat wounds of German soldiers fighting in the war. The inflamed area was then treated with sulphonamide drugs. Many of the prisoners subjected to these treatments died from their wounds. - Date
-
1946 December 09 - 1947 August 20
- Locale
- Nuremberg, [Bavaria] Germany
- Variant Locale
- Nurnberg
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
- Event History
- On October 25, 1946, the U.S. Military Government for Germany created the Military Tribunal I, which conducted the first of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, the Medical Case trial. On November 5, indictments were served to 23 SS physicians, scientists, and officials. The defendants were indicted on four counts: participation in the common design or conspiracy, war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership in criminal organizations. The defendants were accused of committing "murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities and other inhuman acts" on German civilians and nationals of other countries through a series of specific medical experiments dealing with the effects of high altitude, low temperature, seawater, typhus, infectious jaundice, sulfa drugs, bone grafting, and mustard gas, as well as through the Euthanasia and forced sterilization programs. The defendants were arraigned on November 21 and the trial ran from December 9, 1946 to July 19, 1947. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on August 20, finding fifteen of the defendants guilty, seven not guilty and one guilty only of membership in a criminal organization. The sentences were announced on August 21. Seven were sentenced to death, five to life terms, and four to terms of between 10 to 20 years. Those sentenced to death were hanged on June 2, 1948 at the Landsberg prison.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-doctors-trial-the-medical-case-of-the-subsequent-nuremberg-proceedings.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Copyright: Public DomainSource Record ID: 238.5.3-Brandt Case, Pros. Ex. ?
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Wladyslawa Lapinska (born Wladyslawa Karolewska) is the daughter of Helena and Jakub Karolewski. She had two sisters Helena (later Piasecka) and Henryka (later Szawarin). A Polish Catholic, she was born on March 15, 1909 in Zuromin, Poland and worked as a pre-school teacher in Grudzidz before the war. When the war broke out, she moved to Lublin with her sister and began to work in the anti-German resistance movement as a courier. On February 13, 1941 the Gestapo arrested her together with her two sisters and brothers-in-law. Her brothers-in-law, Edward Piasecki and Wladyslaw Szawarin, were murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp in either 1941 or 1942. The sisters were sent to Lublin prison where they were interrogated and beaten. The Gestapo tried to get them to confess to the kind of work they did for the resistance and who worked with them. Henryka was eventually released. Wladyslawa and Helena were sent to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. On 23 September 1941 Wladyslawa arrived in Ravensbrueck concentration camp, where she was forced to perform hard physical labor at a construction site in addition to working in a workshop. On August 14, 1942 she was subjected to pseudo-medical experiments with sulfonilamides without her consent. She was given the injection in her leg and taken to the operating room. When she regained consciousness her leg was in the cast, she was in pain and had a very high fever. In all she was subjected to six different operations on the muscles and bones of both legs leaving her unable to walk until February 1944. For the rest of her life, Wladyslawa experienced chronic pain and swelling of both her legs, and from time to time her wounds would reopen. Wladyslawa returned to Poland on April 28, 1945 but was unable to work in her former profession as a pre-school teacher again. In 1948, she married Stefan Lapinski, a survivor of the Majdanek concentration camp. Her sister, Helena Piasecka, who also subjected to medical experimentation, immigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, OH.
- Record last modified:
- 2004-07-20 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa10043
