Doctors from Hell

The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans

By: Vivien Spitz

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

This is the account of torture and murder by experiment in the name of scientific research and patriotism.

The author describes the experience of being in bombed-out, dangerous, post-war Nuremberg, where she lived for two years while working on the trial. Once a Nazi sympathizer tossed bombs into the dining room of the hotel where she lived moments before she arrived for dinner. She takes us into the courtroom to hear the dramatic testimony and see the reactions of the defendants to the proceedings. The witnesses tell of experiments in which they were deprived of oxygen; frozen; injected with malaria, typhus, and jaundice; subjected to the amputation of healthy limbs; forced to drink seawater for weeks at a time; and other horrors.

This landmark trial resulted in the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which sets the guidelines for medical research involving human beings. Doctors from Hell is a significant addition to the literature on World War II and the Holocaust, medical ethics, human rights, and the barbaric depths to which human beings can descend.

Contains mature themes.

©2005 Vivien Spitz (P)2021 Tantor

Mostly for researchers

I would recommend this book only to persons doing research on the Holocaust subject. Definitely NOT a book for everyday listening.

Heartbreaking as it is informative

The detail Vivien captures reminds us of the ghastly violations the Nazis committed against their fellow man. A book that all should read to remind the world that mankind can be as evil as it can be good.

How Evil Professionals Can Be

I just finished the whole book. It really stunned me to see how some of the most professional people who said they were doing what they intended to be very good resulted in so much destruction. There are some graphic details in this book that made me pause. It shows how true evil can present itself and function within humanity

Wow..

I have been interested in the holocaust my whole life, not in a bad way but in the way this book is written. I find it so crazy that these things could happen. And I never ever want to be ignorant or blind to them. And this book is amazing in telling the one of the most tragic and chilling historical events ever to take place. I really highly recommend this book if you enjoy fact and history. Thank you! :)💜

Lesser known chapter, not to be forgotten

These lesser known individuals of the Third Reich are in many ways more terrifying. It is important to remember that it was not uneducated people who committed many of these crimes.

If we forget our history, we are doomed...

This book is a stark and painful record of so many of the atrocities that were executed by the Nazi doctors tried at Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity. If you are like me and you saw Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster in "Trial at Nuremberg", you may be thinking that this read is nothing new and you might be saying to yourself that you already know all about it. I, myself, was saying such things. But you and I would both be wrong. The movie was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. But the movie was about the Nazi judges of Germany. This book is about the Nazi doctors who were, just by the nature of their crimes, much more hands-on and closely related to the atrocities they performed and their victims. The movie had nothing to do with these doctors. And the really scary thing is, much of the German eugenics theories, experiments, and policies were rooted in racist policies, practices, and laws that were in place here in the United States of America as much as 300 years earlier. The idea of "dirty or impure blood" was an American made idea. The idea that some people are less than human? Yup, we started that. And, sadly, these ideas are still festering just below the surface of our nationalistic ideals. The only difference? The Germans, as a nation behind the leadership of one man, carried this idea out to its logical conclusion... genocide and racial extermination. They were, to a degree, held responsible. To date, we in the United States have not. But you don't have to travel very far from home to meet and hear the views of racist motivated hatred and holocaust denial. That is the biggest reason every American needs to listen to this book. I will never forget the shock I had when my son (who is now 40 years old) came home from grade school and told me that his history teacher told his class that the holocaust was just propaganda...a story made up by the Jews and the allies to vilify the Germans. The whitewashing of history is even worse than just "forgetting our past". It is the erasure of our past. Go ahead and listen to this book, but be prepared for how close to home it hits! Also, be prepared for the veracity of the information contained in this book. After all, it was written by Vivien Spitz, no less than one of the court reporters of the trials of these monstrous "doctors". She heard it all first hand. She wrote it all in shorthand. She created the court record. You'll feel like you have a front row seat!

Clear and concise

While the topic is difficult to listen to, the author does an excellent job of providing background and context.

Excellent. Everyone should read/listen

This was very hard to listen too. It took me a while, I did not know about any of these experiments. It made my blood turn cold. But we cannot forget what happened. Everyone needs to read/listen to this.

A great book

An interesting and detailed book that i found to be developmental and maturative for a young man coming of age such as myself. I further highly recommend this book.

Everyone needs to listen to this

This audiobook is captivating and gut wrenching. It described events that happened during the holocaust that are ignored or forgotten.