Portrait of Herta Oberheuser

Birthday profile

Herta Oberheuser

Herta Oberheuser, German physician (died 1978)

Born
May 15, 1911
Died
January 24, 1978
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1911

About Herta Oberheuser

Herta Oberheuser (15 May 1911 – 24 January 1978) was a German Nazi physician and convicted war criminal who performed medical atrocities on prisoners at the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. For her role in the Holocaust, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the Doctors' Trial, but served only five years of her sentence. A survivor of Ravensbrück called Oberheuser "a beast masquerading as a human". == Education and Nazi Party membership == In 1937, Oberheuser obtained her medical degree at the University of Bonn, Germany, having specialized in dermatology. She had a residency in the department of dermatology of the University of Düsseldorf. Soon thereafter she joined the Nazi Party as an intern, and later served as doctor for the League of German Girls. During this period, she wrote a number of antisemitic tracts that would subsequently be entered into evidence at her trial. In 1940, Oberheuser was appointed to serve as an assistant to Karl Gebhardt, then Chief Surgeon of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and Heinrich Himmler's personal doctor. == War crimes == Oberheuser and Gebhardt were posted to Ravensbrück in 1942 in order to conduct experiments on its prisoners, with an emphasis on finding better methods of treating infection. The experiments were performed by a group of doctors and nurses known as the 'Hohenlychen group', so named because they had worked at the SS sanatorium at Hohenlychen.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Herta Oberheuser was born

Herta Oberheuser was born in 1911. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1911

  • Best-selling book"The Broad Highway" – Jeffery Farnol

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Indianapolis 500 race
  • Top headlineTriangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 workers
  • Technology milestoneFirst transcontinental airplane flight (49 days)
  • World population~1.71B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
  • U.S. population93.4M

1911 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Herta Oberheuser's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19112026
Population93.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

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