Sigmund Rascher ( Munich , Bavaria , December to February of 1909 - Dachau , Germany , 26 of April of 1945 ), third son of the German doctor Hans-August Rascher , was a German physician of the SS . His mortal experiments with humans, planned and executed in the concentration camp of Dachau and Auschwitz , were judged as inhuman and cruel during the Nuremberg trials .
Race in the SS
In 1933 he followed in the footsteps of his father and began to study medicine in Munich , where he also joined the NSDAP . He said he joined March 1 , while some documents show that it took place on May 1 , two months later.
He worked with his father, and divorced in Basel ( Switzerland ), also continuing his studies. There he joined the Swiss voluntary labor forces, and in 1934 he moved to Munich to finish his studies, finishing them in 1936 with a doctorate .
In May 1936 he joined the SA , and when he was changed to SS in 1939 he had reached the degree of Gefreiter. Most likely it was then that he met Josef Mengele .
In Munich , helped by a scholarship , between 1936 and 1938 worked with Professor Trumpp in the diagnosis of cancer , and was until 1939 assistant without pay at the university hospital. His late wife, retired singer Karoline Diehl was a close friend of Heinrich Himmler and proved to be an invaluable ally in the consolidation of Sigmund Rascher’s SS career as he had very good relations with Himmler. It is said of her that she hid her friendship with Himmler in the NSDAP principles , although years later such friendship was popularly known.
In 1942 , Sigmund Rascher was sent to the Dachau concentration camp where he was in command of the experiments with the Luftwaffe subjecting the prisoners to changes of pressure to study the behavior of the pilots in extreme altitudes. In a chamber of pressure the individuals perished in the midst of horrific convulsions by excessive intracranial pressure, all this with the approval and in the name of the same Himmler.
He also teamed with Josef Mengele to study the effects of hypothermia in water using some Auschwitz prisoners . The condemned were submerged in ponds with water and ice wearing different clothes and using a naked prisoner as a control.
This activity opened the doors to the academic career. In 1944 he was already teaching at the University of Strasbourg .
Deception to Himmler and death
To demonstrate the superiority of the Aryan race and to further please Himmler , he decided to form an example of the “Aryan family.” The problem was that his wife was 15 years older than him and could not have those longed for children. The solution was to make known to the world the children of his maid and carpenter Fritz Meyerhold as the children of Sigmund Rascher and Karoline Diehl. This caused that Karoline was recognized by the German press of the moment as the “German exemplary mother”.
With the arrival of the second of Rascher’s three children, Himmler began sending packages with 165 fruit brands, chocolates and other treats for that “exemplary” family. Proud of them, in addition, used a photo of this family as propaganda of the SS .
But the lie lasted until 1945 , when Himmler discovered the deception of his “friends”.
It was he who ordered the SS to execute Sigmund Rascher and Karoline Diehl at the Dachau concentration camp .
It was the 26 of April of 1945 and at the same Himmler , without knowing it , he had less than a month old.