Viktor Brack’s letter is written in a calm and matter-of-fact tone. In it he describes the procedure for the sterilization and castration of Jewish prisoners. It was addressed to Heinrich Himmler, a senior Nazi official and one of the main masterminds of the Holocaust. Much of NSDAP’s history is gruesome. This anecdote is no exception. But over time, these stories must be repeated, lest we forget the potential for human atrocities. Criminal Doctor: Auschwitz recalls a particularly offensive episode of the story with bluntness and sophisticated force.
The film dramatically reads other letters and other correspondence from the instigators of these atrocities. In footage of the actual camp location, they talk about the subjects who were chosen to undergo these horrific medical experiments. Dr. Josef Mengele, Horst Schumann, and others took X-rays of each prisoner’s genitals, often resulting in severe intestinal burns, serious infections, and death. Apply current to other subjects. Then came the surgery to remove the genitals of the prisoners, which some doctors performed with great joy and enthusiasm. Many of those who did not die immediately during these experiments ended up dying of their injuries on their way back to work at the camp.
The message in the film effectively evokes the sense of desperation and humiliation these men endured. They are tales of dismemberment, agonizing deaths and haunted spaces marked by a deafening symphony of screams. We heard about the intricate process by which each prisoner was separated and housed. A note described a pleasant courtyard not far from the billowing pile of ash spewing from one of the many crematoriums. Another witnessed a medical dissection of a 2-year-old twin brother.
Criminal Doctors: Auschwitz just paints an unimaginable environment of carnage. The film eschews the emotional lift of the musical score or overly dramatic narration and presents the story in an honest and straightforward manner. This restraint makes the horror of his stories seem all the more intimate and powerful.
Directed by: Emil Weiss
