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Medicine and Murder in the Third Reich
By William E. Seidelman, M.D.
The medical professions of Germany and Austria, including academic medicine, played a
critical role in the evolution of Nazism's programs of human destruction, programs that
culminated in genocide and the exploitation of the dead.
The past few months have seen a number of revelations concerning hitherto-hidden
secrets of the Holocaust: gold plundered from corpses; the corporate theft of life savings
placed for safekeeping in Swiss banks;
Every captive of the Nazi state was considered to be a potential subject for inhuman
research. Helpless victims, the inmates of psychiatric hospitals and concentration camps,
were available for exploitation while alive.
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looted art displayed in distinguished galleries;
and the expropriation by insurance companies of the unclaimed insurance policies of
Holocaust victims. The beneficiaries -- prestigious banks, elite galleries, wealthy
insurance companies -- are not the sort of institutions one ordinarily associates in any
way with genocide.
There is another perturbing category of eminent exploiters. It includes illustrious
universities, research institutes and, in one documented instance, an eminent museum --
whose quarry were the cadavers of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazi terror. These
macabre spoils of Nazi slaughter remained in these institutions' collections (anatomical,
pathological and anthropological) for decades after the end of the war. More of this kind
of grim booty is probably yet to be found in collections in Germany, Austria and other
countries that were once part of the Third Reich. The specimens are tangible evidence of
the role played by medicine and medical science in the crimes of the Nazi regime.
The medical professions of Germany and Austria, including academic medicine, played a
critical role in the evolution of Nazism's programs of human destruction, programs that
culminated in genocide and the exploitation of the dead. Nazi medical science, through the
application of egregious eugenics (the study of heredity) and racial hygiene, created
classes of inferior human beings. Individuals consigned to these classes were selected for
enforced sterilization, medical killing (in the so-called euthanasia operations), and
destruction in the death camps. Indeed, killing by gas chamber evolved from medicine.1-6
Academic medicine not only provided the "scientific" rationale that legitimized
eugenic and racial selection, it also exploited human victims for inhuman research. By
defining some human beings as "subhuman," Nazi medical science placed them in
the category of "scientific specimens," without protection from German law
(which defended animals such as dogs and cats against the same fate7). Medical
science also plundered the remains of murdered individuals in order to acquire specimens
for university institutes of anatomy and pathology and neuropathology, as well as for
prestigious research institutes such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm (now the Max Planck) Society.
Every captive of the Nazi state was considered to be a potential subject for inhuman
research. Helpless victims, the inmates of psychiatric hospitals and concentration camps,
were available for exploitation while alive. Leading scientists and professors took an
active part in this ruthless abuse. Every university anatomical institute in Germany --
and probably Austria -- was the recipient of the cadavers of victims of Nazi terror, in
particular, political victims executed by the Gestapo.
Doctors and Medical Atrocities
In the Third Reich, medical depravity was ubiquitous. The following are some
representative examples of those involved in medical atrocities:
Professor Dr. Carl Schneider (1891-1946), Professor and Chairman of the Department of
Psychiatry of the University of Heidelberg, used the Nazis' euthanasia program for his own
depraved research. Schneider conducted psychological assessments of children he knew were
doomed to die, and had their brains collected and dissected after they were murdered.8
Schneider committed suicide after the war.
Professor Dr. Hermann Stieve (1886-1952) was a leading anatomist at the University of
Berlin and the Berlin Charité Hospital who exploited the killing programs of the Third
Reich to conduct studies on the female reproductive system. When a woman of reproductive
age was to be executed by the Gestapo, Stieve was informed, a date of execution was
decided upon, and the prisoner told the scheduled date of her death. Stieve then studied
the effects of the psychic trauma on the doomed woman's menstrual pattern. Upon the
woman's execution, her pelvic organs were removed for histological (tissue) examination.
Stieve published reports based on those studies without hesitation or apology.9
After the war, Stieve lectured medical students on studies he had conducted on the
migration of human sperm, studies performed on women raped before their deaths in Gestapo
execution chambers. Stieve discussed this research before an audience of appalled but
silent medical students in East Berlin. (Russian scientists reportedly sought out Stieve's
research after the war.10) Stieve served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine of
Humbolt University, the East Berlin successor to the University of Berlin. A lecture room
and a sculpture of his bust were dedicated in his honor at the Berlin Charité Hospital.
The neuropathologist Dr. Julius Hallervorden (1882-1965), who directed the famed
Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute of Brain Research (KWIBR) in Berlin-Buch, seized the opportunity
afforded by the murder of psychiatric patients at Brandenburg to acquire hundreds of brain
specimens for what was probably the foremost neuropathological collection in the world.
Renamed the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (MPIBR), the institute and its
neuropathological collection were relocated from Berlin-Buch to Frankfurt. Hallervorden,
who was actually present at the "euthanasia" killing center in Brandenburg, had
a congenital neurological condition conamed for him: Hallervorden-Spatz Disease. His
laudatory biography is included in a 1990 anthology of the founders of child neurology.11-13
Reporting on the Role of Universities
The execution chambers of jails throughout the Third Reich were virtual
slaughterhouses, and the remains were delivered to every university institute of anatomy
in Germany (and probably Austria). Many of the victims were Polish and Russian slave
laborers executed for such acts as socializing with German women.14 In 1942,
the Reich Ministry of Justice declared that the corpses of executed Poles and Jews would
(contrary to existing German law) ". . . not be released for burial by the
relatives."15 Their destination would be a university anatomical
institute.
Thus far only the universities of Tübingen and Vienna have held formal investigations
into anatomical practices at their respective institutions during the Nazi era. Both
universities issued reports that are in the public domain.16-17
In 1988, it was revealed that the Tübingen anatomical institute still had in its
collections the remains of victims of Nazi terror. Despite the assertions of the then
director of the anatomical institute that only two microscopic slides may have been
derived from "possible" victims of the Nazis,18 inquiries revealed
that the Institute of Anatomy had received the cadavers of over 400 victims. The names of
all the foreign workers executed by the Nazis whose bodies were sent to the anatomy
institute are listed in the records of the institute. All suspect specimens or specimens
of uncertain origin were buried in a special section of the Tübingen cemetery reserved
for the remains of subjects used for the teaching of anatomy. On July 8, 1990, a
commemorative ceremony was held.19
The Institute of Anatomy of the University of Vienna was headed by the noted anatomist
-- and Austro-Fascist -- Professor Dr. Eduard Pernkopf. Pernkopf, who was appointed dean
of medicine at the university after the Anschluss,20-21 was the founding editor
of a major text on human anatomy, a text that is still considered a
"masterpiece" and the "standard by which all other illustrated anatomic
works are measured."22 The book continues to be published under the
imprint of the original publisher, Urban and Schwarzenberg. In the book's illustrations,
artists graphically expressed their Nazi sympathies: The artists Franz Batke, Eric Lepier
and Karl Entresser incorporated Nazi iconography (swastikas or SS symbols) into their
signatures.23-24 More disconcerting are questions concerning the subjects in
those paintings. The age, appearance and crude haircut of one of the subjects raises
questions as to whether the real-life model may have been a prisoner.25-27
The 1964 two-volume English-language edition included original unaltered signatures,
complete with Nazi symbols.28 Current editions of Pernkopf's Anatomy
include paintings from the original editions, but Nazi iconography has been airbrushed out
-- with two exceptions. In March 1995 the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance
Authority of Israel, Yad Vashem, formally requested that the Universities of Vienna and
Innsbruck undertake an independent inquiry, with outside experts, into the backgrounds of
the subjects in Pernkopf's Anatomy.30-31 The request was made of the
University of Innsbruck because it was believed that many of the original Pernkopf
specimens were still in the university's anatomical institute.32
The initial request from Yad Vashem was denied.33-37 However, in February
1997, the Rector of the University of Vienna, Professor Alfred Ebenbauer, formally
announced a university commission of investigation;38 a report was issued on
October 1, 1998.39 The investigation revealed that the Institute of Anatomy
received almost 1,400 cadavers from the Gestapo execution chamber in the Vienna Regional
Court (Landesgerichte). While the anatomical institute and its collection were
destroyed by a bomb near the end of the war, the investigation did identify approximately
200 institute specimens from the Nazi era that were still in other universities'
collections.
The University of Innsbruck has refused to undertake any investigation.
Following the 1988 revelations that anatomical and pathological specimens from the Nazi
era were still to be found in institutions in West Germany, the government of Israel made
a formal complaint to the West German government on this matter. In response to the
Israeli complaint, inquiries were made through the Standing Conference of the Ministers of
Culture and Education of the Länder. The initial inquiries focused on institutions in
West Germany.40 A subsequent report covered institutions in East Germany.41
No German institution at that time, except for the University of Tübingen, conducted a
formal self-examination.
Since then, there have been two attempts to initiate formal investigations into the
collections of two German universities: the University of Heidelberg and the
Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich. The University of Heidelberg was asked to
undertake an inquiry into the matter of the Schneider collection of the brains of murdered
children. The Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich was asked to conduct an inquiry into
allegations that the university's Institute of Anatomy contained cadavers of circumcised
males identified as "prisoners from wartime." Both institutions demurred.42-44
In addition to the universities, investigations are required of other scientific
institutions, such as the Max Planck Society. While the Max Planck organization did remove
specimens from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and the Max Planck
Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, no formal investigation of its collections and wartime
conduct has ever been conducted by that organization.
There has been no investigation by Humbolt University or the Berlin Charité Hospital
into the research, or the anatomical collection, of Professor Hermann Stieve. Stieve's
experiments represent some of the worst examples of evil perpetrated on women in the name
of science.
In addition to investigations into prestigious academic and research institutions,
there should be public inquiries into the two medical schools instituted by the Nazi
regime at Strasbourg in Alsace and Pozen in Poland. Given the designation Reichsuniversität,
their goals were to implement Nazi ideals and policies. The Strasbourg institution was
part of the SS research organization known as the Ahnenerbe.
The anatomy department of Strasbourg's medical school was headed by the renowned
Professor Dr. August Hirt. Hirt, who was the coinventor of the fluorescent microscope,
intended, at Strasbourg, to acquire a "collection of skulls of all races and
peoples." Nazi authorities, cooperating with Hirt, gassed approximately 86 Jewish
prisoners from Poland at the Natzweiler concentration camp in German-occupied France, and
transferred the bodies to Hirt's institute. After the war, unsuspecting French medical
students dissected some of these remains. Hirt, who was also involved in horrific
experiments with mustard gas and phosgene, committed suicide in 1945.45-46
The dean of the medical department of the Reichsuniversität of Pozen was the
German anatomist Professor Dr. Hermann Voss (1894-1987). Voss derived great personal
satisfaction from the death of Poles who were either cremated in the oven of his
anatomical institute or dissected in his anatomy lab. Voss used the bodies of the executed
prisoners for the preparation of skeletal remains that he then sold for profit. Voss's
institution also prepared death masks and busts from the bodies of Jews sent from a nearby
concentration camp. These were sold to the Vienna Museum of Natural History, along with
the skulls of Jews and non-Jewish Poles. The specimens were ordered by Dr. Josef Wastel,
the head of the anthropology department of the Vienna museum. The skulls, masks and busts
were displayed in the museum's Race Gallery. In 1991, most of these items were turned over
to the Austrian Jewish community. The skulls were buried. In 1997, the Vienna Jewish
Museum displayed the masks in an exhibit entitled "Masks: An Attempt About the
Shoah."47
The skulls of the non-Jewish Polish victims and the gypsum death busts of two Jews
remain in the collection of the Vienna museum. The museum also possesses extensive
documentation on its specimen collection (including the account books and inventory), as
well as on the role played by the museum in the Nazi regime's racial programs.
A formal investigation of the Vienna Museum of Natural History is presently under
consideration.
Professor Hermann Voss continued his anatomy career after the war. He had appointments
in Halle (1948-1952), Jena (1952-1962) and subsequently, as professor emeritus at the
Greifswald anatomical institute. Voss also coauthored a textbook of anatomy, Taschenbuch
der Anatomie; it was probably the most popular anatomical textbook ever published in
Germany. The book appeared in 17 German-language editions, as well as in Spanish and
Polish editions.
Conclusion
Over a century ago the universities, museums, clinics and research institutes of
Germany and Austria gave birth to modern medicine and medical science. These achievements
were rooted in the rigorous application of academic and scientific principles of research,
documentation and publication. Six decades ago many of those institutions participated in
some of the greatest crimes in the history of humanity. These institutions now have a
moral obligation to explore their own past, and to do so by applying the same scholarly
principles they continue to espouse. Moreover, given the current evidence, investigations
into the use of the remains of victims of Nazi terror must be implemented in those
countries and territories that were once controlled by Nazi Germany. Justice and simple
decency demand nothing less.
1. Mitscherlich, A., Mielke F. Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the Nazi Medical
Crimes. Henry Schuman, 1949.
2. Lifton, R.J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide.
Basic Books, 1986.
3. Kater, M. Doctors Under Hitler. University of N. Carolina, 1989.
4. Proctor, R. Racial Hygiene. Harvard, 1988.
5. Friedlander, H. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final
Solution. U. of N. Carolina, 1995.
6. Müller-Hill, B. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of
Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933-1945. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
1998.
7. Seidelman, W.E., 1996. "Animal Experiments in Nazi Germany." The Lancet
1:1214.
8. Burleigh, M. Death and Deliverance: 'Euthanasia' in Germany 1900-1045.
Cambridge, 1994.
9. Aly, G. "The Posen Diaries of the Anatomist Hermann Voss," in: Aly, G.,
Chroust, P., and Pross, C. (eds.). Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial
Hygiene. Johns Hopkins, 1994.
10. Letter from Prof. Friedrich Vogel of Heidelberg to Prof. Jürgen Peiffer of
Tübingen dated Sept. 12, 1997 quoted (with the stated permission of Prof. Vogel) in a
letter from Prof. Peiffer to William Seidelman dated Dec. 3, 1997. Author's Personal
Files.
11. Alexander, L. "Neuropathology and neurophysiology, including
electroencephalography, in wartime Germany." Combined Intelligence Objectives
Sub-Committee G-2 Division SHAEF (rear) APO 413. National Archives. Washington D.C.
Document No. 1-170 cont'd. July 20, 1945.
12. Richardson, E., "Julius Hallervorden," in Ashwal, S. (ed.), The
Founders of Child Neurology. Norman Publishing,: 1990.
13. Shevell, M., "Racial hygiene, active euthanasia, and Julius Hallervorden."
Neurology, 1992:42:2214-2219.
14. Peiffer, J., "Neuropathology in the Third Reich: Memorial to those Victims of
National-Socialist Atrocities in Germany who were Used by Medical Science." Brain
Pathology, 1:125-131 (1991).
15. Evans, R.J. Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany 1600-1987.
Oxford, 1996.
16. Berichte, Berichte: der Kommission zur Überprüfung der Präparatesammlungen in
den medizinischen Einrichtungen der Universität Tübingen im Hinblick auf Opfer des
Nationalsozialismus. Herausgegeben vom Präsidenten der Eberhard-Karls-Universität
Tübingen Abdruck - auch auszugweise - nur mit Genehmigung des Herausgebers. 1990.
17. Senatsprojekt der Universität Wien, Untersuchungen Zur Anatomischen Wissenschaft
in Wien: 1938-1945. Wien, 1998.
18. Letter from Professor Arnold, Der Direktor, Anatomisches Institut, Universität
Tübingen, to William Seidelman. October 5, 1989. Author's Personal Files.
19. See Peiffer (1991).
20. Weissmann, G., They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: Tales of Medicine and
the Art of Discovery. Times Books: 1987.
21. Ernst, E. "A Leading Medical School Seriously Damaged: Vienna 1938." Ann.
Int. Med. 1995:122:789-92.
22. Williams, D.J. "The History of Eduard Pernkopf's Topographische Anatomie des
Menschen." J. Biomed Commun, Spring 1988l 2-12.
23. Pernkopf, E. Topographische Anatomie des Menschen: Lehrbuch und Atlas der
regionär-stratigraphischen Präparation. Urban & Schwarzenberg: Berlin und Wien:
1943.
- For the signature of Erich Lepier with swastika see:
II Band: Erst Hälfte: Tafel 2 Abb. 13, Tafel 33 Abb. 14, Tafel
14 Abb. 25, Tafel 15, Abb. 26, Tafel 16 Abb. 27, Tafel
17 Abb. 28, Tafel 18, Abb. 29, Tafel 32 Abb. 43, Page 351 Abb.
108, and Tafel 65 Abb. 4.
- For the signature of Karl Entresser with "SS" symbol see:
III Band: Tafel 9 Abb. 14, and Tafel 10 Abb. 15.
24. Pernkopf, E. Topographische Anatomie des Menschen: Lehrbuch und Atlas der
regionär-stratigraphischen Präparation. Urban & Schwarzenberg: Wien und
Innsbruck: 1952.
- For the signature of Franz Bratke with "SS" symbol see:
III Band: Tafel 9 Abb. 14, and Tafel 10 Abb. 15.
25. Pernkopf, E. Topographische Anatomie des Menschen: Lehrbuch und Atlas der
regionär-stratigraphischen Präparation. Urban & Schwarzenberg: Wien und
Inssbruck: 1952. Tafel 44 Abb. 50.
26. Israel H., Seidelman, W. "Nazi Origins of an Anatomy Text: The Pernkopf
Atlas." JAMA 1997 276(20) 1633.
27. Israel, H. "The Nazi Origins of Eduard Pernkopf's Topographische Anatomie
des Menschen: The Biomedical Ethical Issues." The Reference Librarian
61/62, 1998, 131-146.
28. Pernkopf, E. Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy in 2 volumes.
Ferner, H., editor. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1964.
29. Platzer, W. (ed.), Pernkopf Anatomy: Atlas of Topographic and Applied Human
Anatomy. Volumes I & II. Urban & Schwarzenberg: Baltimore-Munich; 1989.
- For the signatures of Karl Entresser with "SS" symbol see Volume 2: Figure
336, Page 338, Figure 337, Page 339.
30. Letter from Amb. R. Dafni, Vice-Chairman of Yad Vashem to Univ. Prof. Dr. Alfred
Ebenbauer: Rector, University of Vienna. March 23, 1995.
31. Letter from Amb. R. Dafni, Vice-Chairman of Yad Vashem to Univ. Prof. Dr. Hans
Moser: Rector, University of Innsbruck. March 23, 1995.
32. See Williams, D.J. (1988).
33. Prof. W. Platzer. Report to Univ. Prof. Dr. Hans Moser; Rector de
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck. Date: April 3, 1995.
34. Prof. Dr. A. Gisel. Report to Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebenbauer; Rector, University of
Vienna. April 26, 1995.
35. Prof. Dr. W. Firbas of the Anatomical Institute of the University of Vienna. Report
to Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebenbauer; Rector, University of Vienna. March 30, 1995.
36. Dr. K. Muehlberger, Director of the Archives of the University of Vienna. Report to
Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebenbauer; Rector, University of Vienna. May 18, 1995.
37. Prof. Dr. med. W. Krause. Report to Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebenbauer; Rector, University of
Vienna. April 13, 1995.
38. Presse-Konferenz der Universität Wien zu den Rechcerchen über den Anatomieatlas
Topographische Anatomie des Menschen von Eduard Pernkopf (1937, 1989) und das dazu
eingeleitete Forschungsproject, Untersuchungungen zur Anatomischen Wissenschaft an der
Universität Wien 1938-1945." Vienna, February 12, 1997.
39. See Senatsprojekt der Universität Wien (1998).
40. Report of the Secretary-General of the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education
and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn, 19, July
1989, and supplemental report of February, 1991 (English translation).
41. Secretariat der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der
Bundesrepublic Deutschlandl IIIA - 4630/2. Abschlussbericht. "Präparate von Opfern
des Nationalsocialismus in anatomischen und pathologischen Sammlungen deutscher
Ausbildungs - under Forschungseinrichtungen. Bonn, den 25.01.1994.
42. Confidential report to Ambassador Dr. Bartold Witte, Foreign Office, Federal
Republic of Germany from W. Seidelman. April 29, 1991. Author's Personal Files.
43. Correspondence between W. Seidelman, Amb. Bartold Witte (Der Leiter der
Kulturabteilung Auswärtiges Amt, FRG) Dr. Wiprecht von Treskow (successor to Amb. Witte)
and Prof. Dr. Peter Ulmer, Rektor; Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg. 1991-1992.
Author's Personal Files.
44. Correspondence between W. Seidelman, Amb. Dr. Barthold Witte (Der Leiter der
Kulturalbteilung Auswärtiges Amt, FRG) Dr. Wiprecht von Treskow (successor to Amb.
Witte), Dr. Vincenz C. Frank-Steiner (Basel Switzerland) and Professor Reinhard Putz
(Anatomische Anstalt; Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München). 1991-1993. Author's
Personal Files.
45. Kasten, F. "Unethical Nazi Medicine in Annexed Alsace-Lorraine: The Strange
Case of Nazi Anatomist Professor Dr. August Hirt" in Kent G.O. (ed.), Historians
and Archivists: Essays in Modern German History and Archival Policy. George Mason
University Press, 1991.
46. Lachman, E. Anatomist of Infamy: August Hirt. Bull. Hist. Med. 51(4) 594-602.
1977.
47. Elon, A. "Death for Sale." The New York Review of Books. Nov. 22,
1997.
William E. Seidelman, M.D., is a professor in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Seidelman, together with Dr.
Howard Israel (of Columbia University) and Yad Vashem, was responsible for the efforts
that resulted in the recent investigations by the University of Vienna into anatomical
practices in Vienna during the Nazi era.
This article originally appeared in Dimensions, Vol 13, No 1, 1999
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