The Eyes of the Angel of Death: Ophthalmic experiments of Josef Mengele. Survey of ophthalmology Halioua, B., Marmor, M. F. 2020

Abstract

The infamous SS doctor Josef Mengele was known as the Angel of Death for choosing and condemning Jews, gypsies, and other prisoners to the gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Less known was his active participation in ophthalmic research with equal disregard for life and ethical principles. Mengele was not an ophthalmologist, but he worked in close collaboration and complicity with two genetic researchers at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Karin Magnussen and Otmar Von Verschuer. The objective of the Eye Colour Protocol was to demonstrate hereditary differences in iris structure determined by race, and ostensibly to "cure" heterochromia. Mengele sent heterochromous Gypsy eyes to Magnussen, extracted from the bodies of inmates who died (or he killed). Mengele injected adrenaline into children's eyes in an attempt to change eye color, and to study environmental influences. Mengele was undoubtedly influenced to conduct these human experiments by his great ambition to publish to obtain academic promotion. These ophthalmologic experiments not only solidify Mengele's reputation as an angel of death, but also show the symbiosis that existed between the concentration camp physicians and others in the Nazi medical establishment. Ophthalmology, like all of medicine, has had its share of unethical experimentation, but none with more disregard for life and ethical principles than that of Mengele at Auschwitz.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.survophthal.2020.04.007

View details for PubMedID 32387532