Dr Carl Clauberg (1898-1957) was a German medical doctor who made medical experiments with human beings in Nazi concentration camps during World War Two. He worked with Horst Schumann in X-ray sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.

Carl Clauberg was born in 1898 in Wuppertal, Germany into a family of craftsmen. During the First World War he served as an infantryman.

Clauberg studied medicine and eventually reached the rank of chief doctor in University gynecological clinic in Kiel. He joined the Nazi party 1933 and, possibly because of this, was appointed professor for gynecology at the University of Königsberg. He received the rank of SS-Gruppenführer of the Reserve.

In 1942 he approached Heinrich Himmler and asked him to give him an opportunity to sterilize women en masse for his experiments. Himmler complied and Clauberg moved to Auschwitz concentration camp in December 1942. Part of the Block number 10 in the main camp became his laboratory.

Clauberg looked for an easy and cheap way to sterilize women. He injected liquid acids into their uterus - without anesthetics. Most of his test subjects were Jewish or Roma women who suffered permanent damage and serious infections. Damaged ovaries were then removed and sent to Berlin for additional research. Sometimes subjects were bombarded with x-rays. Some of the subjects died because of the tests and other were killed so they could be autopsied. Estimate of those who survived but were sterilized is about 700.

When the Red Army approached the camp, Clauberg moved to Ravensbruck camp to continue his experiments. Soviet troops captured him therein 1945.

After the war in 1948 Clauberg was put in trial in Soviet Union and received 23 years. Seven years later he was released due to arrangement of exchange of prisoners of war between Soviet Union and West Germany and returned to West Germany, where he boasted of his "scientific achievements". After groups of survivors protested, Clauberg was was soon arrested in 1955 and was put into trial. He died of a heart attack in his cell before the trial could start.

External links

• International Auschwitz committee on Carl Clauberg (in German)