To help with his creation of a perfect Aryan race, Mengele did experiments on eye and hair color. The perfect Aryan race were people with blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Mengele injected methylene blue into they eyes of his prisoners, usually children. He hoped it would change their eye color. However, the only change the injection had was a decline in health of the victims. Countless children lost partial eyesight, and some even went blind. Children also died, but in extreme rare cases, the injection had no permanent effects, and their eyesight returned to normal. Mengele was interested in Heterochromia, or when a person's eyes are two different colors. He did experiments on these types of people, which usually resulted in surgeries to remove the eyes. Some of the eyes were then sent to Racial Biology in Berlin for further study. Others were kept in Mengele’s office. Vera Kriegel, a witness of Mengele’s experiments, stated, “They [the eyes] were pinned up like butterflies” (Posner & Ware 34). Hair color was also an interest to Mengele. He tried to use chemicals to change children's hair color. Most of these chemicals had little effect, usually washing away. All the experiments did was harm the children. If the chemicals got in their eyes or mouth, they got sick and sometimes died. The chemicals could also cause blindness. In conclusion, Mengele’s experiments on hair and eye color were unsuccessful, painful, and unnecessary.
This is a photo of Josef Mengele (far left) with other Auschwitz Officers.
"Mengele was trying to change the color of our eyes. One day, we were given eye-drops. Afterwards, we could not see for several days. We thought the Nazis had made us blind." -Hedvah and Leah Stern