Connecticut Woman With Norman Cousins Helped Expose Nazi Experiments on Women, New Book

Bringing their story to light: Caroline Ferriday (far right) seen with four of the so-called Ravensbruck Rabbits after she flew them over from Poland to be treated for their horrific injuries inflicted in a concentration camp.

[From article]
It was one of the big secrets of the murderous Nazi regime: a camp of 72 female prisoners used as experiments to test torture techniques.
The girls, all high school-age Catholics from Poland, were dubbed the 'rabbits' since they were treated like laboratory animals, and their injuries meant many had to hop instead of walk.
When they war ended, they were rescued by the Red Cross along with the hundreds of other prisoners in Ravensbruck concentration camp - but all accounts of their 'treatments' had been destroyed.
It meant their ordeal paled into oblivion as the world grappled to deal with the aftershocks of the Holocaust, particularly the horrific obliteration of the Jews.
But the women were finally brought out of the shadows in 1958 by an unlikely fairy godmother: a socialite from Connecticut.



Caroline Ferriday, a philanthropist who split her time between New York City and Bethlehem, CT, Caroline Ferriday heard of their ordeal after the war.
She made it her mission to bring them to the States for medical treatment, a road trip across America, Christmas at her holiday home, and a dinner with senators in Washington, D.C.


Tortured: The girls (survivors pictured post-war), all high school-age Catholics from Poland, were dubbed the 'rabbits' since they were treated like lab animals, and their injuries meant many had to hop instead of walk.
The rabbits were not meant to survive; Heinrich Himmler planned to have them all murdered before word got out.
They were brought in to Ravensbruck, 50 miles north of Berlin, in August 1942 to test different kinds of surgical procedures.


The women were brought in to Ravensbruck, 50 miles north of Berlin, in August 1942 to test different kinds of surgical procedures. Ravensbruck (pictured) held prisoners from 30 different countries until 1945.In total, each underwent six operations, having bones broken, muscle tissue removed, limbs amputated, and more - all without painkillers.
The wounds were then deliberately infected so the surgeons could test whether sulfonamide - a kind of penicillin - would cure it.
It came after Himmler's personal doctor, Dr Karl Gebhardt, failed to save the life of a senior Nazi officer, Reinhard Heydrich.
Heydrich, one of Hitler's closest friends, died in a car bomb.
Gebhardt did not use sulfonamide, a drug similar to penicillin, to treat his gangrene.
Hitler believed that decision killed Heydrich.
To disprove Hitler's theory - and to save his own skin - Gebhardt designed a series of experiments: his team at Ravensbruck would wound prisoners and deliberately infect the wounds then see whether sulfa drugs could cure the infections.
At first they operated on male prisoners. Accounts differ on why they switched to women. Some historians say women were typically healthier prisoners. Others say Gebhardt assumed females would be more docile and submissive.


This is an internal view of Ravensbruck and the furnaces which burned gassed prisoners' bodies.

Word of the rabbits leaked outside the walls of Ravensbruck thanks to notes passed from prisoners to sympathetic guards to their families, and so on.
But for a number of reasons their cause did not receive widespread attention for more than a decade.
First, Ravensbruck was one of the last concentration camps to close, its leaders had more time than most to deal with their incriminating paperwork, which informed and dictated the schedule of the war trials.
Second, the world was reeling at the sheer scale of attacks on Jews. Women and Catholics were not immediately the primary focus.
Third, there was not very much that could be done to support the women without funds and connections.
Cue Ferriday, who had spent time in France before the war.
In the 1950s she joined the Association of Deportees and Internees of the Resistance, a group started by four French women, including General Charles de Gaulle's teenage niece, who were all political prisoners in Ravensbruck.
The women, like many of Europe's underground resistance workers, were passionate about the rabbits' cause - something Ferriday had never heard of.
Once she became aware of the story in 1957, she contacted her friend Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, who was paying to fly Hiroshima victims to the US to receive reconstructive surgery for their injuries.
Ferriday implored Cousins to also champion the rabbits of Ravenbruck. He agreed.
Fourteen of the women had either died of their wounds or were shot after their treatment.
The surviving 58 were taken to Sweden then back home to Poland after they were liberated.
Ferriday flew to Poland to meet with a prosecutor who represented Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and persuaded him to represent the rabbits too.
She then returned a number of times, with Norman Cousins, to meet the women and gain their trust.
Finally, she came back with an American doctor, who surveyed each of the victims and gave a prognosis for what could be done to treat them.
During that time, Ferriday publicized her cause, raising a hefty $5,000 (about $43,000 in today's money).
In December 1958, 35 of the women who wished to go flew to America. They stayed for a year.
They were spread about various cities across the US based on which hospitals were best for their medical needs.
Four of the women spent Christmas in Connecticut with Ferriday.
And all of them united in San Francisco at the end of the year to go on a road trip across America, stopping in Washington, D.C., to be hosted by senators for a dinner.
Cousins wrote three articles about the cause.
He said of Ferriday: 'Caroline Ferriday has an almost magical gift for inspiring confidence.
'Her first few days in Warsaw were not without their difficulties, but after awhile the project began to move.
'Then, at the end of the week, we received a cable saying that the Polish authorities were cooperative and gracious and that prospects were excellent.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3579886/How-American-socialite-helped-rehabilitate-dozens-young-Polish-women-endured-grotesque-experiments-Hitler-s-doctors-recreated-injuries-killed-henchman.html

How an American socialite helped rehabilitate the dozens of young Polish women who endured grotesque experiments as Hitler's doctors recreated injuries that killed his henchman
Caroline Ferriday flew 35 women to the US for treatment in 1958
The college-age Polish Catholic women were subjected to inhumane torture in the Nazi camp Ravensbruck, near Berlin
Nazi doctors broke their bones and amputated limbs without painkillers
It was all a test to see if they could recreate the injuries that killed Hitler's friend, then try to work out what drugs could have cured those injuries
When the women were liberated all documents had been destroyed
But Ferriday heard of their ordeal and championed their rehabilitation
By MIA DE GRAAF FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:47 EST, 8 May 2016 | UPDATED: 16:28 EST, 8 May 2016

Remains Found of Jews Killed In France By Nazis In Medical Research Experiments

July 20, 2015 - A plaque in memory of 86 Jews killed for Nazi medical experiments at the university of Strasbourg during World War II, at the entrance of the anatomy school in Strasbourg, eastern France. The remains of Jewish gas chamber victims subjected to Nazi anatomy experiments have been traced to a medical research facility in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. 

(AP)

[From article]

Raphael Toledano-- a researcher from Strasbourg— stumbled upon a 1952 letter from Camille Simonin, the director of the forensic science school at the University of Strasbourg, detailing the storage of tissue samples taken from some of the 86 Jews gassed for the experiments of August Hirt, a notorious Nazi anatomy researcher.
The letter’s brief reference to the samples began a hunt that finally ended this month, with the discovery of the jars and test tubes found behind a glass cupboard in a locked room at the Strasbourg Forensic Medical Institute in the eastern French city.
The autopsy samples were intended to be used to prosecute Hirt, who directed the construction of a gas chamber built specifically to provide victims for experiments carried out at the facility. At the time, Germans had replaced the French staff, which largely decamped elsewhere.[. . .]
The experiments were part of Nazi efforts to smear the Jews by 'proving' what the Nazis believed was their inferiority compared to other races.
[. . .]
Most of the victims’ remains were found by the allies when Americans liberated Strasbourg in 1945, and quickly buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Hirt ultimately committed suicide,
[. . .]
The samples were apparently forgotten until July 9, when Toledano and Raul cracked open the door at the Institute. The storage container and jar and test tubes were meticulously labeled just as the letter detailed, Toledano said.
"It was a shock to discover that these jars were still there, that we put in a museum display a part of these Jews who were murdered by the Nazis," Toledano said.
The Strasbourg mayor's office said Monday it hopes to return the remains to Strasbourg's Jewish community for eventual burial in the city, which sits on the border of France and Germany.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/07/20/remains-jewish-victims-nazi-anatomy-experiments-found-at-french-institute/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

Remains of Jewish victims of Nazi anatomy experiments found in France
Published July 20, 2015

FoxNews.com

Nuremberg Trials Mostly Doctors Prosecuted For Egregious Human Experiment Abuses

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Doctors%27+Trial

Doctors' Trial

The Doctors' Trial (officially United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.) was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of German doctors that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II. These trials were held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials", formally the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

Psychiatrists Lose Their Brains

Great to know that Harvard University researchers continue a tradition practiced by Nazi doctors, saving brains. How little the world has changed. The ruling classes of a fascist regime and a prominent University in an alleged democracy save human brains to study them. Is this for ethics studies or for control? The brains were damaged at a psychiatric hospital according to this report. How does this differ from what usually happens at these institutions, damaging brains in the name of healing?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/6/11/brain-melt/

Losing Their Minds
Brain samples accidentally thaw at Harvard research center
By PETEY E. MENZ,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, June 11, 2012
* * *


How is this a shocking revelation? Isn't that what psychiatric hospitals do all the time--damage 
brains in the name of healing? The Nazi doctors also collected brains from their victims in the name of science. How little things change from one era to another.

[From article]
Dr. Francine Benes, director of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center who is investigating the freezer failure, called it "a priceless collection."

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20120611boston-area_autism_brain_collection_damaged/

McLean Hospital’s autism brain collection damaged
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Monday, June 11, 2012

Nazi Doctors Apologize For Human Experiments On Jewish Subjects

Seventy years after the fact of depraved experiments using Jewish human subjects Nazi doctors apologize. Huh? How many decades will it take US doctors who used vulnerable American citizens for abusive experiments? The Nazis and the US doctors all use the defense that the benefit to society outweighs the harm to individuals. That is all well and good as long as you are not one of the human subjects. See, e.g., Michael D'Antonio's book, State Boys Rebellion. It is unlikely that any US citizens or government agencies will ever address such abuses. The 2006 book, Mind Wars by Jonathan D. Moreno says, "I believe those who think they have been victimized by government mind control experiments are misguided. Yet there are thousands of such persons. Many associate their ideas with conspiracy theories. I have worked for two presidential commissions and have been a member of several government advisory committees. During periods set aside for public comments in those meetings and in private conversations, I have heard many of these people provide seemingly lucid testimony about scenarios I find fantastic. Some of them are courageous and resolute in the struggle they perceive as having been foisted upon them; others are distraught and terrified of what horrors the next day may bring." 


 If there were presidential commissions when the Nazi doctors were conducting their experiments the members of those commissions would say what Moreno says. People like Moreno are chosen because they are unwilling to recognize how depraved some researchers are. They will not allow any thoughts that US doctors could be as depraved as the Nazi doctors. For Moreno US doctors and researchers have had their genes cleansed of mendacity, greed, and sadism. But even if someone who is aware of the criminal abuses of medical researchers was mistakenly chosen to be on any of those commissions, they are only advisory commissions. They have no power to do anything not even to subpoena witnesses and to take sworn testimony. They are an element of show business to make it appear that none of the abuses occur in the US, and if they did this is how they would be exposed. But see how Moreno ignored what the people tell him. He is the extremely superior kind of bureaucrat. Sadly that is why the criminal researchers can get away with their abuses over and over again and again.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150056/Germanys-medical-association-apologises-sadistic-experiments-Nazi-doctors-carried-Jews.html

Germany's doctors apologise for sadistic experiments Nazi doctors carried out on Jews
Body admits many doctors under Nazi-rule during WWII were guilty of 'scores of human rights violations'
By GRAHAM SMITH
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 12:44 EST, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 19:09 EST, 25 May 2012

Nooses Only for Some?

Nooses Only for Some?

In addition to the First Amendment protecting offensive symbolic speech
when did the noose become a symbol of hanging exclusively persons of color?
("FREE SPEECH LEFT HANGING," New York Post, Editorial, October 24, 2007) Saddam
Hussein and his sons were hanged. Is the noose a symbol of anti Iraqi hate? The
Nazi Doctors were hanged after the Nuremberg trials. Is a noose a symbol of
German hate? In Utah until recently or still hanging is a legal form of capital
punishment. In this country horse thieves were hanged. Why is this only an issue
for persons of color?

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

FREE SPEECH LEFT HANGING
New York Post
Editorial

October 24, 2007 -- The state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would make it
a class E felony to place, draw or otherwise display a noose - on public or
private property - and too bad about the First Amendment.

Now, the temptation for legislators to get tough on nooses has been
understandably strong recently - given the lawmakers' proclivity to pander, and
the uproar over the noose found on a black professor's door at Columbia's
Teachers' College earlier this month and the ensuing series of apparent copycat
incidents.

Disgusting occurrences, each and every one - but they're no excuse for an
end-run around free-speech rights.

Supporters of the bill assert that the measure merely includes the noose, a
symbol of racist lynchings in the Jim Crow south, in a legal category of
harassment that already covers swastikas and burning crosses. Threats - which
these things often are - are not typically considered constitutionally protected
speech.

Still, the bill remains problematic. What, for example, constitutes
"harassment"? And who gets to decide?

(The New York Civil Liberties Union - that self-proclaimed defender of
constitutional rights - punted yesterday, promising only to study the issue. How
timid - on a bill that poses a substantial threat to free-speech rights.)

The noose is a hateful symbol of a shameful chapter in American history. But
responding to it by doing violence to the First Amendment gives the bigots a
dangerous victory.