Zbrodnicze eksperymenty medyczne dotyczące układu kostno-szkieletowego kończyn dolnych, wykonywane na Polkach – więźniarkach w KL Ravensbrück oraz ich następstwa dla stanu życia, zdrowia i późniejszego funkcjonowania operowanych
Criminal Medical Experiments on the Skeletal System of the Lower Limbs Conducted on Polish Women – the Prisoners of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and Their Consequences for the Quality of Life, Health and Later Functioning of the Patients Operated

Summary/Abstract: This interdisciplinary article discusses the experiments conducted by German doctors at Ravensbrück concentration camp on Polish women and their impact on the fate of the operated patients. The experimental lower-limb bone operations conducted under a antiseptic regime and with intended contagion were discussed. Medical reports and recollections of the operated patients, the course of the operations and their consequences are presented based on evidence. After the war, these experiments were recognised as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Depending on the degree of mutilation caused by the operation and the lack of medical post-procedure care and rehabilitation, the war stress and the poor camp conditions, the state of the operated patients deteriorated. The authors considered the experiments to be criminal medical experiments. They were carried out by doctors, but in violation of medical ethics. They were carried out on healthy women. The experiments resulted in physical impairment, which even led to disability. In addition, they suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder, compounded by the post-experiment trauma and the harm associated with the experiments. Some women were excluded from social roles because of their ailments.

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