--- description: It has been rumored that Nazi scientists have used civilian prisoners as guinea pigs for macabre biological experiments. Last week the rumors were documented. A French investigating commission... title: Science: Nazi Research image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Science: Nazi Research by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 15, 1945 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 15, 1945 4:00 AM CUT It has been rumored that Nazi scientists have used civilian prisoners as guinea pigs for macabre biological experiments. Last week the rumors were documented. A French investigating commission reported on a huge prison camp in Alsace where hundreds of men & women had been tortured and killed under carefully controlled conditions in order to supply data for Nazi science. The camp, known as Struthof-Natzweiler, was found in a thick wood in the Vosges foothills, 30 miles from Strasbourg. Near its rows of dark green huts was a “laboratory” equipped with gas and torture chambers, a crematorium, a vivisection room. There some 20,000 people (mostly Jews) were used and killed. Some were inoculated with plague and leprosy germs. Thirty women were deliberately blinded, then given a 15-day “treatment” during which they screamed incessantly. (At the end a few recovered their sight, but all were put to death.) In another experiment, a white-uniformed doctor led 84 young women in batches to the gas chamber. German professors watched their dying reactions through a window. The investigators got this sickening story from captured German assistants in the laboratory and French peasants who lived nearby. Director of the Nazi researchers was a Professor August Hirt of Frankfurt, an SS officer. Reported Sonia Tamara, New York Herald Tribune correspondent: “The French have a picture of Hirt—a quiet, thoughtful-looking man.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6898287/science-nazi-research/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6898287/science-nazi-research/"},"headline":"Science: Nazi Research","datePublished":"1945-01-15T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T13:31:44.182Z","description":"It has been rumored that Nazi scientists have used civilian prisoners as guinea pigs for macabre biological experiments. Last week the rumors were documented. A French investigating commission...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6898287/science-nazi-research/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6898287/science-nazi-research/","name":"Science: Nazi Research"}}]}] ```