Herta Oberheuser Nazi doctor Date of Birth: 15.05.1911 Country: Germany

1. Biography of Herta Oberheuser
2. Early Life and Education
3. Work at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
4. Nuremberg Trials and Aftermath

Biography of Herta Oberheuser

Herta Oberheuser was a Nazi doctor who conducted medical experiments at the Ravensbrück concentration camp from 1940 to 1943. She was born on May 15, 1911, in Cologne and died on January 24, 1978, in Linz am Rhein.

Early Life and Education

Herta Oberheuser was born into a modest family and had to support herself during her medical studies at the University of Bonn and the University of Düsseldorf. At the age of 26, Oberheuser earned her medical degree and began working at a physiological institute. In 1937, she became a member of the ruling Nazi party, NSDAP.

Work at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

In 1940, Herta Oberheuser volunteered to work at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In the summer of 1943, she was transferred to the Hohenlychen hospital, where she worked under the supervision of Karl Gebhardt, the personal physician of SS leader Heinrich Himmler, until the end of World War II.

Oberheuser took part in horrifying medical experiments aimed at studying the human body under conditions that occur during combat. She performed extremely painful and gruesome medical procedures, sometimes substituting for her colleagues who found it difficult to conduct experiments on living subjects.

Under Karl Gebhardt's guidance, experiments were conducted on healthy Polish women who were political prisoners at Ravensbrück. They were wounded and foreign objects such as dirt, sawdust, rusty nails, and shards of glass were placed in their wounds. Oberheuser also administered lethal injections to healthy children and then removed their limbs and vital organs while they were fully conscious, which lasted for three to five minutes.

Oberheuser also participated in late-term abortions and forced sterilizations of prisoners, aiming to develop methods for mass sterilization with minimal time and resources.

Nuremberg Trials and Aftermath

Herta Oberheuser was the only woman to stand trial at the Doctors' Trial of the Nuremberg Trials. Surprisingly, she was sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment instead of being executed, due to the leniency of the judges. In 1951, her sentence was reduced to ten years, and in April 1952, she was released for good behavior.

After her release, Oberheuser resumed her medical practice. However, in 1956, she was recognized by a former prisoner of Ravensbrück at the Johanniter hospital where she worked. Consequently, her medical license was revoked in 1958, and she faced new charges from numerous former prisoners under pressure. The case gained significant public attention, leading Oberheuser to change her place of residence and cease her medical activities.