Jadwiga Dzido was a member of the Polish resistance who was subjected to Nazi medical experiments during World War II. Born on January 26, 1918, in Sokolola, Poland, she grew up in Lukow in eastern Poland.
Her father died during World War I, after which her mother worked in a pharmacy run by Teodozya Niewienska. Dzido began studying pharmacy at the University of Warsaw in 1938.
When she was in her second year, war broke out. Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. On September 1, 1939, German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west. On September 17, the Soviet Red Army invaded eastern Poland.
The war ended on October 6 with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing Poland entirely under the German-Soviet Boundary Treaty.
Dzido joined the resistance movement known as the Union of Armed Struggle. The Union was a secret army formed in Poland and was part of the Polish Armed Forces. It was later renamed the Home Army. Its mission was to fight the two occupying powers.
Dzido worked as a courier in the resistance movement, helping to distribute news articles. She was arrested by the Gestapo on March 28, 1941, and sent to Lublin Castle.
The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany in German-occupied Europe. Dzido was interrogated by the Gestapo and subjected to beatings, stripping, and torture in an attempt to obtain information and the names of resistance members. She refused to provide any information about the members of her group and was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp on September 21, 1941.
Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office, was one of the chief architects of the Holocaust and of the deportation and extermination of all Jews in German-occupied Europe. On May 27, 1942, Heydrich was wounded in an assassination attempt.
Himmler ordered Dr. Karl Gebhardt to treat Reinhard Heydrich. Despite serious injuries, Heydrich appeared to be recovering well. Hitler's personal physician, Theodor Morell, suggested using the new antibacterial drug sulfonamide. But Gebhardt believed Heydrich would recover and rejected the suggestion. Heydrich died on June 4, 1942.
Gebhardt was accused of refusing to prescribe sulfonamide drugs to treat Heydrich, leading to the latter's death. Himmler suggested that Gebhardt conduct experiments to prove that sulfonamide was not useful in treating Heydrich.
To justify his decision not to prescribe sulfonamide drugs to treat Heydrich's wounds, Gebhardt carried out several experiments on prisoners at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
In November 1942, Dzido underwent forced medical experiments along with several women to investigate the effects of sulfonamide drugs on wounds and bone grafting experiments. Nazi doctors made incisions in her leg and injected it with bacteria, dirt, and glass shards, just like real war wounds.
This caused her to suffer excruciating pain, severe fever, muscle atrophy, and long periods of loss of consciousness. The experiments were carried out by the Nazi doctors Herta Oberheuser and Fritz Fischer. Many prisoners who underwent these medical experiments died from their injuries.
Dzido survived death because other prisoners hid her under the floorboards. The camp was liberated and the remaining prisoners were released.
After the war ended, she returned home using crutches and learned that her mother had been killed in a bombing. Niewienska, who had encouraged her to study pharmacy, died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
At the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial against defendants including senior Nazi officials and doctors, Dzido was a witness for the prosecution. Jadwiga Dzido showed the court her leg bearing the scars. Medical expert witness Dr. Alexander explained the nature of the medical experiment performed on her at the Ravensbrück camp.
She returned to Warsaw and completed her studies, graduating as a pharmacist. In 1951, she married Józef Has, an officer in the Polish Army. They had two children.
Despite receiving medical treatment in America, Dzido continued to suffer from a permanent disability. Jadwiga Dzido died in Warsaw on December 10, 1985, at the age of 67.