Sigmund Rascher Sigmund Rascher ( 12 February 1909 – 26 April 1945 ) was a German SS doctor . His deadly experiments on humans , which were carried out in the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau , were judged inhumane and criminal during the Nuremberg Trials . Early life and career . Rascher was born the third child of Hanns - August Rascher ( 1880 – 1952 ) , a physician , and completed his secondary education in Konstanz in 1930 or 1931 ( this is uncertain , as he himself used both dates ) . In 1933 he began studying medicine in Munich , where he also joined the NSDAP . The exact day of his joining is also uncertain , as there are two dates given : Rascher insisted that it was on March 1 , whereas the documents show May 1 . After his " Praktikum " ( internship ) , he worked with his now divorced father in Basel , Switzerland , and also continued his studies there , joining the Swiss Voluntary Work Forces . In 1934 he moved to Munich to finish his studies , and received his doctorate in 1936 . In May 1936 year Rascher joined the SA . In 1939 he transferred to the SS with the rank of Gefreiter ( Private ) . In Munich Rascher worked with Prof . Trumpp from 1936 to 1938 on cancer diagnostics , supported by a stipend , and until 1939 was an assistant physician at Munich ' s Schwabinger Krankenhaus hospital . Career with the SS . In 1939 Rascher denounced his father , joined the SS , and was conscripted into the Luftwaffe . A relationship and eventually marriage to former singer Karoline " Nini " Diehl gained him direct access to Reichsführer - SS Heinrich Himmler . Rascher ' s connection with Himmler gave him immense influence , even over his superiors . Diehl may have been a former lover of Himmler ; she frequently corresponded with him and interceded with him on her husband ' s behalf . A week after first meeting Himmler , Rascher presented a paper , " Report on the Development and Solution to Some of the Reichsfuehrer ' s Assigned Tasks During a Discussion Held on April 24 , 1939 " . Rascher became involved in testing a plant extract as a cancer treatment . Kurt Blome , deputy of the Reich Health Leader ( Reichsgesundheitsführer ) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council , favoured testing the extract on rodents , but Rascher insisted on using human test subjects . Himmler took Rascher ' s side and a Human Cancer Testing Station was established at Dachau . Blome worked on the project . High altitude experiments . Rascher suggested in early 1941 , while a captain in the Luftwaffe ' s Medical Service , that high - altitude / low - pressure experiments be carried out on human beings . While taking a course in aviation medicine at Munich , he wrote Himmler a letter in which he said that his course included research into high - altitude flight and it was regretted that no tests with humans had been possible as such experiments were highly dangerous and nobody volunteered for them . Rascher asked Himmler to place human subjects at his disposal , stating quite frankly that the experiments might prove fatal , but that previous tests made with monkeys had been unsatisfactory . The letter was answered by Rudolf Brandt , Himmler ' s adjutant , who informed Rascher that prisoners would be made available . Rascher subsequently wrote back to Brandt , asking for permission to carry out his experiments at Dachau , and plans for the experiments were developed at a conference in early 1942 attended by Rascher and members of the Luftwaffe Medical Service . The experiments were carried out in the spring and summer of the same year , using a portable pressure chamber supplied by the Luftwaffe . The victims were locked in the chamber , the interior pressure of which was then lowered to a level corresponding to very high altitudes . The pressure could be very quickly altered , allowing Rascher to simulate the conditions which would be experienced by a pilot freefalling from altitude without oxygen . After viewing a report of one of the fatal experiments , Himmler remarked that if a subject should survive such treatment , he should be " pardoned " to life imprisonment . Rascher replied to Himmler that the victims had to date been merely Poles and Russians , and that he believed they should be given no amnesty of any sort . Freezing experiments . Rascher also conducted so - called " freezing experiments " on behalf of the Luftwaffe , in which 300 test subjects were used against their will , one third of them dying . These were also conducted at Dachau after the high - altitude experiments had concluded . The purpose was to determine the best way of warming German pilots who had been forced down in the North Sea and suffered hypothermia . Rascher ' s victims were forced to remain outdoors naked in freezing weather for up to 14 hours , or kept in a tank of icewater for 3 hours , their pulse and internal temperature measured through a series of electrodes . Warming of the victims was then attempted by different methods , most usually and successfully by immersion in hot water . Himmler attended some of the experiments , and told Rascher he should go the North Sea and find out how the ordinary people there warmed victims of extreme cold . Himmler reportedly said he thought " that a fisherwoman could well take her half - frozen husband into her bed and revive him in that manner " and added that everyone believed " animal warmth " had a different effect than artificial warmth . Four Romani women were sent from Ravensbrück concentration camp and warming was attempted by placing the hypothermic victim between two naked women . A medical conference was held in Nurembers in October 1942 , at which the results of the experiments were presented under the headings " Prevention and Treatment of Freezing " , and " Warming Up After Freezing to the Danger Point " . Rascher , who had by now been transferred to the Waffen - SS , was eager to obtain the academic credentials necessary for a high - level university position . A Habilitation which was to be based on his research failed , however , at Munich , Marburg , and Frankfurt , due to the formal requirement that results be made available for public scrutiny . US investigators later concluded that Rascher had been merely a convenient front for Luftwaffe chief surgeon Erich Hippke , who had been the true source of the ideas for Rascher ' s experiments . Similar experiments were conducted from July to September 1944 , as the Ahnenerbe provided space and materials to doctors at Dachau to undertake “ seawater experiments ” , chiefly through Wolfram Sievers . Sievers is known to have visited Dachau on 20 July 1944 , to speak with Kurt Plötner and the non - Ahnenerbe Wilhelm Beiglboeck , who ultimately carried out the experiments . While at Dachau , Rascher developed the standard cyanide capsules , which could be easily bitten through , either deliberately or accidentally . Blood coagulation experiments . Rascher experimented with the effects of Polygal , a substance made from beet and apple pectin , which aided blood clotting . He predicted that the preventive use of Polygal tablets would reduce bleeding from gunshot wounds sustained during combat or during surgery . Subjects were given a Polygal tablet , and shot through the neck or chest , or their limbs amputated without anaesthesia . Rascher published an article on his experience of using Polygal , without detailing the nature of the human trials and also set up a company to manufacture the substance , staffed by prisoners . Personal life and execution . In an attempt to please Himmler by demonstrating that population growth could be accelerated by extending the childbearing age , Rascher publicized the fact that his wife had given birth to three children even after becoming 48 years of age , and Himmler used a photograph of Rascher ' s family as propaganda material . However , during her fourth " pregnancy " , Mrs . Rascher was arrested for trying to kidnap a baby and an investigation revealed that her other three children had been either bought or kidnapped . Himmler felt betrayed by this conduct , and Rascher was arrested in April 1944 . As well as complicity in the kidnappings of the three infants , Rascher was accused of financial irregularities , the murder of an assistant , and scientific fraud . He and his wife were executed . Rascher was executed in Dachau shortly before Allied forces liberated it , and his wife was hanged at an unknown location .