Carl Værnet
Carl Peter Værnet (April 28, 1893 – November 25, 1965) was a Danish doctor at Buchenwald concentration camp.[1] He experimented extensively with hormones and other experiments to "treat" homosexuality by implanting an artificial hormone gland into male prisoners.[2] Most of the victims died shortly thereafter.[3][4] His research was under the authority of Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.[5]
Carl Værnet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 April 1893 |
| Died | 25 November 1965 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Alma mater | Copenhagen |
| Occupation | Physician |
Civilian career
Værnet had trained as a doctor in Copenhagen and set up his first practice there. He took further courses in Germany, France and Netherlands where he acquired a special interest in hormone treatments. Although he had joined the National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark in the late 1930s, his medical career waned due to the dubious quality of his research and also because he was considered a collaborator in his native country. In order to further his hormone research, he was introduced to the leading SS doctor Ernst Grawitz by the operatic tenor Helge Rosvaenge. He was then introduced to Heinrich Himmler and given a medical post in Prague in early 1944.
Life as a fugitive
After the war, he was arrested in Copenhagen and interrogated at Alsgades School. Although the Danish authorities wanted to press charges for his SS involvement, he feigned heart trouble and escaped. It appears he tried to sell the hormone research to DuPont in 1946. He later fled to Brazil and then Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he died in 1965.
References
- Olivier Charneux, Les guérir, biography of Carl Vaernet in French, Robert Laffont, 2016 (ISBN 2221190211)
- David A Hackett (1995). The Buchenwald report. ISBN 0813317770.
- Whisnant, Clayton J. (2016). Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History. Columbia University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-939594-10-5.
- Weindling, Paul (2015). Victims and Survivors of Nazi Human Experiments: Science and Suffering in the Holocaust. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4411-7990-6.
- Louis-Georges Tin (2008). Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay and Lesbian Experience. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1551522296.