Disability Awareness Month: “Science” That Maimed

A nurse converses with three Polish female survivors of the Ravensbrück concentration camp who had been subjected to medical experimentation during their imprisonment. Pictured from left to right are Maria Kusmierczuk, Wladislawa Karolewska, and Jadwiga Dzido in Poland, 1946.

In 1942, Nazi doctors subjected Jadwiga Dzido to barbaric “medical” experiments at the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. She was among more than 70 female prisoners, mostly Polish, treated as human guinea pigs. Survivors resisted in a number of ways, including using a camera smuggled into the camp to document their abuse. The secret photos and trial testimony from Jadwiga and others helped bring some of the perpetrators to justice.

In this discussion held during Disability Awareness Month, experts discussed how innocent women were subjected to experiments in the name of science.