Each day the twins were awakened at 6 o’clock for roll call when they would each be called for a number of experiments (61). Almost every twin was subject to daily blood withdrawals and X rays (Josef Mengele par.2). These were quite painful and usually led to fainting and on occasion even death, but these were the experiments the children looked forward to. They knew of the children that went for surgery and returned paralyzed or didn’t return at all.Dr. Mengele would often perform experimental surgery without using anesthesia. He would remove organs and limbs, sterilize the female twins and castrate the males, he even attempted to change the sex of some twins (Dekel 70). Moshe Offer remembers, of her twin brother Tibi, that one surgery on his spine left him paralyzed, then his sexual organs were taken out, and on the fourth operation he did not return (71). Moshe is lucky to have survived his brother’s death; as a rule, if one twin dies the other is killed. This would allow for an autopsy of both bodies simultaneously (Astor 96). Alex Dekel recalls a stomach operation in which pieces of the specimens stomach were removed and another were the heart was removed without anesthesia (Dekel 70). Many children also died from brain operations or were paralyzed by spinal operations. If the specimen were to die, their organs would be sent to Verschuer for further examination. There were a few cases were the head of a victim was sent (Astor 101). As cruel and painful as these operations were, the result was often a fairly quick death – other experiments did not have the same effect.The most notorious of Mengele’s research was with eye coloration. Mengele wanted to create the perfect Aryan race – children with striking features possessing blond hair and blue eyes. To do this, he needed to understand the genetics behind eye coloration. Mengele would try to alter the color of the twins’ eyes b...
