One of the most recognized methods of torture used in those days was the sonic torture. This specific one were used in the first concentration camps; like Dachau. This one was focused in put music on the speakers, but this wasn´t any kind of music; the things that they put in those megaphones were with the purpose of mentally weaker the prisioners. Like, for example: military march music and the German national anthem. The nazis try manipulate and intimidate them with very specific music and playing some speechs trying to make them feel uncomfortable.
In this image we can see how prisioners were in the yard, and some of them in the roof of the buildings; this with the objective of hear the things that were saying on the speaker. In this particulare case, it was a Hitler speech.
Another type of torture that was widely used was The political Reeducation of the prisioners. In this case, the nazis try with public radio broadcasts in where they used to put very controversial speechs about how german people is better than the others. This was also with the purpose of adversely affect the mental health of prisoners.
In this case, freezing was also committed as torture. A fatal hardship suffered by airmen when they fell into the water. The problem was that most of them, despite being rescued, died soon after due to hypothermia. The doctor Sigmund Rascher tried to find out the most effective way to warm the human body in these cases to avoid death. Rascher began to introduce the prisoners in a tank of icy water that had a temperature between 2 and 12 degrees.
The prisioners were left there for 1 hour, after which time they lost consciousness due to hypothermia. Some had to endure the trauma of being sedated, a method by which their muscles were relaxed. The objective, in this case, was to test the body's response under these conditions.
After the period of time had passed, the prisoners were taken out of the water so that they could be revived in different ways. The most common were the following:
1-Injecting boiling water into their stomachs.
2-Submerging their bodies in hot water.
3-Introducing them in previously warmed sleeping bags.
4- Covering them with blankets.
5-Feeding them alcohol.
6-Making them take drugs.
Only was proven again that the best way was to put the pilots in a bath
heated to 40 degrees. Something already known since the 19th century. Those
experiments only served to generate a gigantic amount of suffering (in addition
to collecting data that, curiously, were later used by the United States).
UItimately, these tortures used by Nazis aimed to inflict immense physical and psychological suffer on the prisoners. Techniques such as sonic torture through manipulative music and speeches, political reeducation through controversial broadcasts, and chilling experiments involving freezing water demonstrated the cruel nature of Nazi's regime. Martyrdom methods served no other purpose than cause pain, leaving a dark stain on human history.
UItimately, these tortures used by Nazis aimed to inflict immense physical and psychological suffer on the prisoners. Techniques such as sonic torture through manipulative music and speeches, political reeducation through controversial broadcasts, and chilling experiments involving freezing water demonstrated the cruel nature of Nazi's regime. Martyrdom methods served no other purpose than cause pain, leaving a dark stain on human history.
- Fackler, Guido: Musik im KZ Dachau. In: Focht, Josef / Nauderer, Ursula K. (Hg.): Musik in Dachau. Dachau 2002, S. 179-192. https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/es/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/sonic-torture-dachau0/
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