Sigmund Rascher

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Sigmund Rascher, born February 12, 1909 in Munich, executed April 26, 1945 in Dachau, was a German SS doctor.

To the public of the post World War II era, he represented, especially in the media of the United States, the archetype of the villainous Nazi doctor. His deadly experiments on humans, planned and executed in the Concentration Camp of Dachau, were judged inhumane and villainous during the Nuremberg Trials.

[edit] Biography

Rascher was born the third child of Hanns-August Rascher, a doctor, and made his Abitur in 1930 or 1931 (this is uncertain, as he himself did use both dates) in Konstanz, and in 1933 began studying medicine in Munich, where he also joined the NSDAP. Concerning the exact day of his joining, there are two dates: Rascher insisted that it was on March 1, whereas the documents show May 1.

After his practical, he was working with his now divorced father in Basel, Switzerland, also continuing his studies, there joining the Swiss Voluntary Work Forces, and in 1934 he moved to Munich to finish his studies, ending these in 1936 by receiving his degree and his doctorate.

In May the same year, he joined the SA, and when he changed to the SS in 1939, had reached the rank of Gefreiter.

In Munich, he was working with Prof. Trumpp in cancer diagnostics from 1936 to 1938, sustained by a stipendium, and was until 1939 an unpaid assistant at the university hospital.

[edit] Family

His later wife-to-be, the former singer Karoline Diehl proved to be an invaluable ally in nurturing Rascher's SS career, as she had very good relations with Heinrich Himmler.

It was reported that she hid Heinrich Himmler in the beginnings of the NSDAP, with contact being maintained in later years. After Karoline and Rascher had their second child, Himmler began sending packages containing 165 Reichsmark, fruit, chocolate and other treats for the growing family. Himmler later used a photograph of Rascher and Karoline's family as SS propaganda-material.

In 1945, a plot was discovered by which Rascher and Karoline were believed to be kidnapping children to claim as their own. Rascher was executed by the SS.

[edit] Way to the SS Scientist

April 24 1939 saw the first meeting of Himmler and Rascher and soon later Rascher handed over an expose on five scientific questions in cancer research on May 1. Following Himmler's wishes blood tests of Nazi concentration camps prisoners should be used. Rascher's project was included into the Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe e. V. (Scientific Community for German Ancestral Heir).