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Dead bodies for the anatomical institute in the Third Reich: An investigation at the University of Jena
Abstract
During the period of 2004-2005, a group of anatomists and historians investigated the origin of dead bodies received by the anatomical institute of the University of Jena in the Third Reich. Between 1933 and 1945, the institute received the bodies of 203 executed persons, most of whom had been sentenced to death for relatively minor offenses or opposition to National Socialist (NS) regulations. Moreover, the institute received about 200 bodies of possible "euthanasia" victims from nearby nursing homes and mental institutions, and several dozen dead bodies of forced laborers from Eastern Europe. Many of these persons must be considered victims of NS injustice. One of the central questions of the investigation was whether any remains of NS victims were still present in the anatomical collections of the institute. At their own initiative, members of the anatomical institute initiated the investigation after a change of leadership at the institute. The investigation was characterized by (1) a scholarly approach thanks to the participation of expert historians, (2) transparency, including early and full information of the press, (3) documentation and publication of the results at the national and international level, (4) appropriate consequences for the anatomical collections, and (5) commemoration of the victims. This and other recent investigations demonstrate that a new generation of German anatomists has begun to uncover the role of their institutes during the Third Reich, finally overcoming the phase of silence in postwar German anatomy.
... After their use in research and teaching some of these bodies ended up in anatomical collections, many were buried, cremated and forgotten. Various anatomical collections in Germany have been investigated intensely in the last 20 years in the effort to identify the remains of victims of the National Socialist regime (Angetter, 2000;Aumüller and Grundmann, 2002;Blessing et al., 2012;Brehm et al., 2015a,b;Buddecke, 2011;Czech, 2015;Forsbach, 2006;Hildebrandt, 2016a,b;Kaiser, 2013;Kaiser and Gross, 2015;Noack, 2012;Oehler-Klein et al., 2012;Redies et al., 2012;Rothmaler, 1990;Schönhagen, 1992;Schultka and Viebig, 2012;Schütz et al., 2017;Sommer, 2006;Ude-Koeller et al., 2012). The bodies of children are rarely mentioned in these studies. ...
... The nearby "euthanasia site" in Bernburg, where psychiatric patients were murdered, has been investigated, but there is no evidence that victims from Bernburg were brought to the Institute of Anatomy in Halle (Hoffmann, 1996;Hoffmann and Schulze, 1997). For Jena, it has been reported that at least one child who was probably killed in a "euthanasia" program was sent to the Institute of Anatomy (Redies et al., 2012). To date, the fate of forced laborers and inmates of the satellite camps of the concentration camp Buchenwald in Halle has not yet been investigated in detail. ...
... To date, the fate of forced laborers and inmates of the satellite camps of the concentration camp Buchenwald in Halle has not yet been investigated in detail. It remains unclear whether the bodies of children of forced laborers or concentration camp inmates were used at the Institute of Anatomy in Halle, as has been documented for the Institutes of Anatomy in Freiburg, Göttingen and Jena (Hildebrandt, 2016b;Redies et al., 2012;Schwarze, 1997;Speck, 2002;Ude-Koeller et al., 2012). ...
At the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology in Halle (Saale) 74 children's bodies of unknown historical provenance are being held in storage. The aim of this study was the evaluation of their identities, the circumstances of their acquisition, as well as the documentation of their individual characteristics. For these purposes, all bodies were comprehensively examined and photo-documented. Furthermore, CT-scans of 29 bodies were performed and information was collected from various local and national archives. Although most of the bodies were found to be those of stillborn children and infants, five children were between two and twelve years old, according to an age estimate by body-length and carpal bone analysis. The CT-scans revealed the cause of death for some of the children. The embalming method indicates that the bodies date from the first decades of the 20th century, and archival sources containing documents from 1920 to 1960 strongly suggest that these children's bodies were acquired by Institute of Anatomy between 1920 and 1942. During that period, a total of 2,602 children's bodies were delivered to the Institute of Anatomy and registered in the communal burial records. At this point, there is no evidence that these children might have been victims of National Socialist crimes. It is planned to give them a dignified burial.
... Beheading with a guillotine was still a common practice in France, even until 1977. However, a much larger number of this type of execution was performed by the Nazi regime in the Third Reich [10,25]. ...
... As for the judicial, i.e. capital, beheading, it has been performed in criminals, and political, ethnical or religious opponents [10,17,21,22,25]. It was a common way of execution for centuries in, among others, England, France, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and Japan. ...
The aim of our study was to examine all types of decapitation from forensic literature, including our own case, and to analyze the presentation of beheading in fine art, popular literature, and music. To do this, over 200 scientific articles in regard to decapitation were analyzed, as well as more than 10,000 artworks, and several hundreds of literary works and music pieces. In addition, a macroscopic examination of a decapitated victim was performed. Finally, a multislice computerized tomography (MSCT) examination of the cervical spine in two live volunteers was undertaken to present the osteological relationships. The forensic and criminal investigation revealed that a female victim was murdered by her jealous husband by applying several strikes with an axe, which resulted in an incomplete decapitation. All the main neck structures were transected, including the cervical spine, except a smaller part of the skin and soft tissue in the nuchal region. The mentioned MSCT examination in both the neutral position and flexion showed that the mandible can also be injured in a higher cervical location of the severance line. Various types of beheading were mentioned, including a homicidal, suicidal, accidental, judicial, internal, pathophysiological, and foetal ones. The status of consciousness and emotions in individuals just before and after decapitation was discussed. Finally, it was found that decapitation was the subject of many artists, and some writers and musicians. In conclusion, we presented a rare case of a homicide beheading performed with an axe. In addition, forensic importance of decapitation was discussed, as well as its great medical, social, anthropological, and artistic significance.
... Another question that arises is whether bodies of victims of the National Socialist "euthanasia" programs from psychiatric institutions were delivered to the Dr. Senckenbergische Anatomie (see Blessing et al., 2012;Redies et al., 2012). ...
... In Gießen and Marburg this rise may -in part -have been driven by a drastic increase in student numbers. In Jena (Redies et al., 2012) andin Bonn (Forsbach, 2006), on the other hand, the total number of incoming bodies actually dropped after 1939, even though the percentage of bodies obtained from prisoners and executed people rose sharply. ...
... While the role of Max Clara during the Third Reich, i.e. the NS-regime, has been addressed in many previous publications (Aumüller and Grundmann, 2002;Hildebrandt, 2009aHildebrandt, , 2009bHildebrandt, , 2009cWinkelmann and Noack, 2010;Woywodt et al., 2010;Redies et al., 2012;Winkelmann, 2012;Hildebrandt, 2013aHildebrandt, , 2013bHildebrandt, , 2013cSchütz et al., 2013;Hildebrandt, 2014;Schütz et al., 2014;Schütz et al., 2015;Winkelmann, 2015;Schütz et al., 2017;Winkelmann, 2017), much less is known about his early career in the years before his appointment to Leipzig in 1935. The obituary by Ferner (1967) reveals only little about this time: ...
This investigation aims to summarize hitherto scattered pieces of evidence of the early biography of Max Clara, especially considering his connections with the Histological Institute of the University of Innsbruck.
Max Clara was born in 1899 in South Tyrol, at that time part of the Habsburg Empire. After high school in Bozen and his participation in World War I, Clara studied medicine in Innsbruck, Austria and Leipzig, Germany, graduating from Innsbruck University in 1923.
He joined the Corps Gothia, a German Student Corps, at the start of his studies and became socialized as a German nationalist. When the Tyrolean Parliament conducted an illegal referendum in 1921, in which a majority voted for the merger of Tyrol with Germany, the active members of the Gothia spontaneously removed the border barriers between Austria and Bavaria in the municipality of Scharnitz. They brought them to Innsbruck to be deposited in the statehouse. Clara’s participation in this activity is not documented but is very likely. Seventy-four per cent of the members of this corps joined the Nazi party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), even before the annexation of Austria by National Socialist (NS) Germany in 1938. Clara likely met Maximinian de Crinis, an SS officer and high-ranking member of the NS health administration, through contacts within their respective corps. De Crinis supported Clara decisively in the anatomist’s appointments as chair of anatomy at the University of Leipzig and later at the University of Munich.
Initially, Clara began his academic career at the Institute of Histology and Embryology in Innsbruck as (student) demonstrator, and in 1923 as an assistant. In December 1923 Clara had to leave Innsbruck for Blumau, South Tyrol to take over the medical surgery of his father, who had passed away unexpectedly. Back in Italy, he continued his histological research in his spare time and published a large number of scientific papers. His connections with Innsbruck and especially with histologist Jürg Mathis never ceased.
... An important prerequisite for the proper acknowledgement of the victims is the detailed investigation of each anatomical institute-a task that has seen considerable progress during the last few years (Blessing et al., 2012;Redies et al., 2012;Schultka and Viebig, 2012;Schütz et al., 2013;Holtz, 2015;Alvermann and Mittenzwei, 2016;Hildebrandt, 2016aHildebrandt, , 2016bToledano, 2016). By comparison to other institutes, the bodies used at the Innsbruck Anatomical Institute are well documented, with a detailed body register available for research. ...
Since Vienna University’s 1997/98 inquiry into the background of Eduard Pernkopf’s anatomical atlas, German and Austrian anatomical institutes have been forced to confront their past, particularly the widespread procurement of bodies of victims of National Socialism. This paper focuses on the Anatomical Institute in Innsbruck, which received bodies from an unusually broad array of sources: from prisoners executed at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, prisoners of war from three different camps, military personnel sentenced to death by martial courts, patients from a psychiatric hospital, and several bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims. As in other comparable cases, these bodies were used for scientific publications and medical teaching until long after the war. The Anatomical Institute’s collection is currently undergoing a detailed analysis in order to identify any human remains dating from the Nazi period. At the Institute of Histology and Embryology, recent research has led to the discovery of approximately 200 histological slides pertaining to at least five individuals who had been executed under the Nazi regime. In a number of cases, the specimens had been provided by Prof. Max Clara, head of the Leipzig Institute of Anatomy. This study is based on an analysis of the Innsbruck Anatomical Institute’s unusually detailed records and numerous documents from various archives, including files pertaining to an inquiry into the institute held after the war by the French occupation authorities.
... Systematic research focusing on German anatomical institutes and especially on their body supply during the Third Reich began largely in the 2010s (e.g. Hildebrandt, 2013;Schütz et al., 2013;Oehler-Klein et al., 2012;Redies et al., 2012;Schultka and Viebig, 2012;Ude-Koeller et al., 2012). However, detailed studies on more than half of the anatomical institutes in the then German Reich are still missing. ...
The Anatomical Institute of the University of Cologne was founded in 1925. This paper highlights its institutional development and the sources from which it procured bodies for dissection. A comparison is drawn between the first years of the institute's existence during the Weimar Republic (1925-1932) and its rebuilding after war damage in the early post-war period (1947-1954). The institute and its procurement of bodies have not previously been investigated for these two time periods. The Third Reich, for which a detailed study already exists, will be mentioned as well to allow better evaluation of the periods before and after National Socialism. Based on newly evaluated archival material and body journals which will be examined both quantitatively and qualitatively, it becomes apparent that the Cologne institute experienced a chronic shortage of bodies both during the Weimar Republic and the first post-war decade (even though the delivery facilities were mostly the same). However, the situation of the institute in terms of structure, organization and personnel as well as body supply in the aftermath of World War II proved much more challenging than during the time of the Weimar Republic.
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... Between 1939 and 1941 the anatomical departments in T € ubingen and Marburg, and from 1940 to 1942 in Jena, experienced an increase in the delivery of bodies from psychiatric institutions. This was probably due to the NS regime's intent to eliminate psychiatric patients through malnutrition, neglect and over-or under-medication within the framework of decentralized "euthanasia" programs (Sch € onhagen, 1992;Grundmann and Aum€ uller, 1996;Aum € uller und Grundmann, 2002;Eckart, 2012;Redies et al., 2005bRedies et al., , 2012. In the case of Jena these bodies included children. ...
Research on the history of anatomy in the Third Reich has often focused on anatomists who collaborated with the National Socialist (NS) regime. Only recently has attention shifted to investigations of the victims, of which there are two groups: anatomists whose careers were disrupted by NS policies, and victims of the NS regime whose bodies were used for anatomical purposes. No systematic approach has yet been undertaken toward the identification of all the different groups of victims and the individuals' fates. This overview of currently available data on NS victims whose bodies were used for anatomical purposes reveals that an estimated total number of all bodies delivered to departments of anatomy lies at more than 40,000, and the so far documented number of executed persons among them at a minimum of 3,749. The traditional sources of body procurement and their significant changes in character during the NS period can be traced. Postwar attempts on finding the fate and identity of bodies of NS victims in anatomy can be divided into three phases. Most investigations focused on the removal of remaining "material" from NS victims from the anatomical collections, while identification and remembrance of individual victims was not a priority. So far, about 500 NS victims' names and biographies have been at least partially identified. Existing memorials rarely name individuals. New approaches to the identification of victims and the potential of a databank for these victims' biographies as an appropriate manner of remembrance are examined in this study. Clin. Anat., 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The display of human remains is a controversial issue in many contemporary societies, with many museums globally removing them from display. However, their place in genocide memorials is also contested. Objections towards the display of remains are based strongly in the social sciences and humanities, predicated on assumptions made regarding the relationship between respect, identification and personhood. As remains are displayed scientifically and anonymously, it is often argued that the personhood of the remains is denied, thereby rendering the person ‘within’ the remains invisible. In this article I argue that the link between identification and personhood is, in some contexts, tenuous at best. Further, in the context of Cambodia, I suggest that such analyses ignore the ways that local communities and Cambodians choose to interact with human remains in their memorials. In such contexts, the display of the remains is central to restoring their personhood and dignity.
Issues relating to the euthanasia killings of the mentally ill, the medical research conducted on collected body parts, and the clinical investigations on living victims under National Socialism are among the best-known abuses in medical history. But to date, there have been no statistics compiled regarding the extent and number of the victims and perpetrators, or regarding their identities in terms of age, nationality, and gender. "Victims of Unethical Human Experiments and Coerced Research under National Socialism," a research project based at Oxford Brookes University, has established an evidence-based documentation of the overall numbers of victims and perpetrators through specific record linkages of the evidence from the period of National Socialism, as well as from post-WWII trials and other records. This article examines the level and extent of these unethical medical procedures as they relate to the field of neuroscience. It presents statistical information regarding the victims, as well as detailing the involvement of the perpetrators and Nazi physicians with respect to their post-war activities and subsequent court trials.
While it is well documented that German anatomists used bodies of victims of the National Socialist (NS) regime for teaching and research purposes in all German anatomical departments, the gradual transformation of traditional and accepted anatomical methods to inhumane acts committed by anatomists and facilitated by a criminal government has not been explored in detail. However, the development of atrocities in anatomy in NS Germany can be traced through several stages of ethical transgression.
Scientific anatomy is based on the initial transgression of the invasion of the intact dead human body for the purposes of science and depends on societal permission for its methods. The NS period brought new and specific transgressions, which ranged from the inclusion of NS victims in the traditional sources of body procurement to an escalation of transgressions in anatomical research, and finally to the ultimate transgression in which anatomists performed medical experiments on still living victims and contributed to their death.
The data reveal that by late 1942 some, but not all, German anatomists were willing to contemplate and, indeed, enact a change of the traditional anatomical paradigm, which holds that anatomists work with the dead human body. They accepted the final transgression of anatomists’ transition from the land of the dead to the land of the living but “future dead,” made possible under the auspices of a criminal regime. The history of anatomy in NS Germany emphasizes once more the interdependence between medical science and politics in the maintenance of a humane society.
August Hirt (1898-1945) was director of the Institute of Anatomy of the Reichsuniversität Strassburg from November 1941 to November 1944. During this period, he was involved in many criminal activities: mustard gas experiments on prisoners of KL Natzweiler-Struthof, creating a collection of Jewish skeletons by gassing 86 Jews from KL Auschwitz in the Struthof-Natzweiler gas chamber, and involvement in experiments on phosgene gas performed by Otto Bickenbach. Extensive literature exists on these crimes. However, there has been very little work completed on the so-called normal activity of the Institute of Anatomy of which he was head and in particular the question of deliveries of corpses. We estimate that between 244 and 724 bodies were delivered to the Anatomical Institute of the Reichsuniversität Strassburg between 1942 and 1944. In the course of our investigations, we have determined the identity of 232 corpses received between 1942 and 1944, the vast majority of Soviet prisoners of war from two hospitals for prisoners of war (Strassburg and Mutzig). Other sources of dead bodies have been found, such as hospital patients and French citizens who had been executed by shooting. Most of the corpses were used for dissection by medical students, but many anatomical preparations were also made from the bodies. The bodies were buried during and after the war, but the fate of the anatomical and histological specimens is unknown. Newly discovered archival record allowed us to identify and find three jars with tissues from the 86 gassed Jews. These pieces were in the Museum of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Strasbourg. At this point the following proposals are made: (1) opening of the Medical Faculty of Strasbourg archives, (2) creation of an historical commission, (3) identification and publication of the complete inventory of all preparations at the Strasbourg Anatomical Museum, (4) research of the fate of the dry and wet preparations made under National Socialism, (5) verification of histological slides, embryological specimens and the tissues from the institutes already existing under National Socialism, (6) verification of the pieces of the Museum of Forensic Medicine, (7) publications of these results and information of the press and (8) creation of a memorial for the victims of the NS delivered to the Institute of Anatomy.
This is the first comprehensive account of body procurement at the Anatomical Institute at Greifswald University during National Socialism (NS). As in all other German anatomical departments, the bodies received during this period included increasing numbers of victims of the NS regime. Prior to 1939, 90% of all bodies came from hospitals, state nursing homes and mental institutions (Heil- und Pflegeanstalten), but dropped to less than 30% after 1941. While the total catchment area for body procurement decreased, the number of suppliers increased and included prisons, POW camps, Gestapo offices and military jurisdiction authorities.
Among the 432 documented bodies delivered to the institute, 132 came from state nursing homes and mental institutions, mainly from Ueckermünde. These were bodies of persons, who probably were victims of “euthanasia” crimes. The Anatomical Institute also procured 46 bodies of forced laborers, of whom at least twelve had been executed. Other groups of victims included 21 bodies of executed Wehrmacht soldiers and 16 Russian prisoners of war from the camp Stalag II C in Greifswald, who had died of starvation and exhaustion. From 1941 onwards, the number of bodies delivered from prisons and penitentiaries greatly increased. In total, 60 bodies of prisoners, mainly from the penitentiary in Gollnow, were delivered to the Anatomical Institute.
Greifswald Anatomical Institute was not just a passive recipient of bodies from all of these sources, but the anatomists actively lobbied with the authorities for an increased body supply for teaching and research purposes.
While it is known that all German anatomical institutes that have been examined made use of the bodies of victims of the National Socialist (NS) regime for teaching and research between 1933 and 1945, detailed investigations on many institutions are still missing. Among these is the anatomical institute of the University of Cologne. This university was the first university to voluntarily self-align with the policies of the new regime and was therefore often called a 'model NS university'. In addition, Cologne was the site of a NS special court and a central place for executions. Based on archival sources, this study investigates the interaction between the anatomical institute of the University of Cologne with the NS authorities and the origin of the body supply for dissection and research. The documents reveal that the institute continued to receive bodies from traditional sources like the public morgue and hospitals, but with the beginning of World War II (WWII) an increasing amount of bodies of victims of the NS regime became available. Thus, the anatomical institute of Cologne collaborated and benefited from the policies of the NS regime, especially during WWII, like all other already explored anatomical institutes in Germany to varying degrees.
While research into the history of German anatomy under National Socialist rule has increased during the last decade, the story of one of the most important anatomical institutes of the time, the Anatomische Anstalt Munich, has not yet been explored. This study presents the results of an ongoing, cooperative research project at the universities of Halle and Munich and focuses on the history of the institution, its personnel and organization, and its interactions with the National Socialist regime. It reveals continuity and disruption within the institute following Munich anatomists' involvement with the regime's policies and ideology as well as their becoming victims to these policies. Also documented is the manner in which the Munich anatomy benefited from the massive increase in executions, especially during the Second World War, by receiving and using the bodies of prisoners executed at the Stadelheim prison in Munich for scientific purposes. Finally, an outlook is presented regarding planned research aiming to fully understand the history of the Anatomische Anstalt during National Socialism.
For more than 15 years, the memorial site "Roter Ochse (Red Ox)" in Halle/Saale, Germany, has studied documents of special and military courts in Mitteldeutschland (central Germany). Hundreds of death sentences have been executed during the last years of the war in the former state prison of Halle. The resulting dead bodies were used in biomedical research and teaching. The number of executions was marginal before 1933 but increased steadily after the Nazis seized power. The judiciary delivered an increasing number of death sentences against political opponents and persons who were to be eradicated from the "Volksgemeinschaft" (national community) according to racist ideology. However, the dead bodies were not distributed evenly to each of the anatomical institutes. The distribution depended on factors such as the distance of the institute to an execution place, the court responsible for the sentence, and whether the state or relatives had the right to dispose of the bodies. At the beginning of the year 1939, the Reichsjustizministerium (department of justice) issued a decree that changed the distribution process of dead bodies. As a rule, after the responsible ministry informed the anatomical institute of a pending execution, the institute confirmed the pick-up day of the body. Details of the actual delivery of bodies can be found in execution protocols, reports by execution overseers, receipts of body deliveries, body registers of the institutes, etc. This paper will review the historical progression of ministerial decisions and demonstrate how administrative documents can be used as a point of departure for current research projects.
The history of anatomy in the Third Reich is still insufficiently explored, especially concerning its victims. These include not only the victims of the NS regime whose bodies were used in anatomical dissection, but also the Scholars of Anatomy whose careers were disrupted by NS policies. The spectrum of career disruption spanned from short-term suspension from work to death in concentration camps. In this study, the biographies of 462 Scholars of Anatomy were examined. 414 were members of the Anatomische Gesellschaft (Anatomical Society). Eighty-six persons (80 men, 6 women) were identified whose anatomical careers were disrupted by National Socialist policies. Sixty-two of them were members of the Anatomical Society. Their subsequent fate was dependent on the stage of the scholars' careers, their field of expertise, reason for dismissal (i.e. so-called Jewish descent or political dissent), nationality, country of residence or exile. Forty-three scholars emigrated, of whom 6 returned to positions in Germany and Austria after the war. Twenty-one remained in their home countries, of whom 17 were later reinstated in their positions. Twelve scholars were imprisoned, and 5 died in concentration camps. Five fates remain unresolved. As diverse as this group of scholars was, all of them had in common that a criminal regime forced them, being innocent of any crime, out of their position and work. Further work including the exploration of potential archival sources is necessary before a detailed and complete recounting of each individual life is possible.
In the period from 1933 to 1945 the Anatomical Institute in Halle (Saale) received bodies of persons, among them politically persecuted women and men, who had been sentenced to death and executed. In this article, we attempt to answer two important questions: (1) What happened to the bodies of those executed; i.e. which anatomical “purposes” did they serve? (2) Were anatomical specimens from these bodies added to the institute’s anatomical collection and are they still present today? If so, can they be traced back to the bodies of politically persecuted people? So far we have discovered that between 1933 and 1936 the institute received 30 bodies, among them the bodies of two politically motivated death sentences. From 1937 until the end of 1942, only a few bodies arrived at the institute, and from November 1942 until the end of the war in 1945 the institute documented the transfer of 64 bodies of executed people. The death sentences pronounced during those early years were usually based on severe criminal acts (e.g. murder). During the war, special courts sentenced people to death mostly because of theft, looting, etc. The bodies of those executed were used in anatomical education, anatomical research, and in preparations of anatomical specimens to be added to the anatomical collection. There are eight macroscopic preparations which can definitely be associated with the bodies of people executed during the Nazi regime. Trial by jury sentenced those people to the maximum penalty because of the severity of their criminal acts. Up to now we have found no evidence that specimens of the anatomical collection were removed from bodies of victims whose execution was politically motivated.
All anatomical departments of German universities used bodies of the executed and other victims of the National Socialist (NS) regime for their work. Many of these victims had been executed in prisons and were members of the German political opposition; others had perished in camps for prisoners of war or forced laborers and concentration camps, and were of various European and other descent. Anatomists generally welcomed the increased influx of "fresh material" for purposes of research and education of the growing numbers of medical students. No anatomist is known to have refused work with the bodies of NS victims. Other medical disciplines also made use of these bodies, among them were racial hygienists and neuropathologists. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the fields of anatomy, physical anthropology, and racial hygiene (eugenics) were closely related in their subject matter. Anatomists were involved in the biological foundation of racial hygiene, most prominently among them Eugen Fischer. The discipline was established as part of the medical curriculum after 1920. Racial hygiene became the scientific justification for NS policies that led to racial discrimination, involuntary sterilization and ultimately mass murder. Anatomists taught racial hygiene throughout the Third Reich and did research in this area. Some were actively involved in NS policies through propaganda and evaluations for the so-called Genetic Health Courts, whereas others became victims of their own science in that they were dismissed for racial reasons.
Although it is known that anatomists working in Germany during the Third Reich have used bodies of victims of the National Socialist (NS) regime for dissection and research, a comprehensive history of the anatomy in the Third Reich has not yet been written. Recent studies of the history of German anatomy departments during this time period provide material for a first outline of the subject matter. A historical review can help with the formulation of ethical foundations in modern anatomy. From the outset, the NS regime sought to reorganize German universities according to NS leadership principles and political goals. Many German academics, especially physicians and among them anatomists, followed these intentions with a voluntary "self-alignment" that encompassed their professional actions as well as their ethics. Currently, political information is available for 111 of 178 anatomists. Thirty-eight of the anatomists were dismissed for racial or political reasons, among them 10 chairmen of anatomy, whereas 35 of the anatomists were politically active members of one of the NS organizations. Over 70% of the chairmen of anatomical departments in the time period from 1941 to 1944 were members of NS organizations. Anatomists, as so many other physicians and academics, belonged both, to the group of victims of the regime, i.e., those being dismissed from their positions for racial and political reasons, and to the group of supporters and sometimes active perpetrators of NS policies.
Anatomists in National Socialist (NS) Germany did research on materials from animals and humans, including tissues from the bodies of NS victims. The research was competent but rarely innovative. This may be due to the isolation of the German research community from international developments, as well as to the dismissal of a great number of successful anatomists for racial or political reasons. Other research was unproductive because of its foundation in the pseudoscience of racial hygiene. Anatomists in the Third Reich acted according to a new set of medical ethics favored by the NS regime. Not the individual human being but the "body of the people" as a whole was the object of this ethics. Every action was ethical that ensured the health of the German people, including sterilization, so-called euthanasia, and finally mass murder. Anatomists made use of the opportunities given to them by the NS regime, which led to the postmortem utilization of the bodies of NS victims. After the war, most anatomists retained their positions and NS history was not discussed until the later 20th century. Since then, historical research and public discussions have led to an increased awareness of questions of ethics in anatomy. The history of anatomy in the Third Reich illustrates that the theory and practice of a science is dependent on the political system it exists in, and that the scientists' competence not only in their science but also in politics and ethics is a prerequisite for the freedom of science.
Hermann Stieve (1886-1952) was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 to 1952. His research on the female reproductive system is controversial, as some of his scientific insights derived from histological investigations on the genital organs of executed women. These investigations were made possible by the sharp increase in executions during the "Third Reich." Stieve's research was methodologically accurate and contributed significantly to contemporary scientific debates. Nevertheless, his use of the organs of execution victims, some of them resistance fighters, benefited from the Nazi justice system. He thus indirectly supported this system of injustice. The allegation, however, that Stieve "ordered" the death of prison inmates according to their menstrual cycle, appears to be incorrect. An appraisal of Stieve's research should avoid traditional black-and-white classifications of research during Nazi times. In our opinion, Stieve was neither a murderer nor a fervent Nazi. Nevertheless, his research results were flawed by their ethical and political context. Stieve will remain a somber footnote in the biographies of many execution victims.
During the Nazi regime (1933-1945), the anatomical institute at the University of Jena received 2,224 corpses, of which approximately 200 originated from executions. The available data clearly suggest that a large portion of these 200 executed persons must be considered victims of Nazi crimes. Approximately an equal number of bodies were delivered from state nursing homes and mental institutions in the state of Thuringia during the same time period. The available data suggest that it is highly likely that many of them were victims of decentralized "euthanasia" programs. The remains of many prisoners of nearby labor camps, mostly from Eastern Europe, are listed in the body register at the institute as well. A group of anatomists and historians has investigated the institute's association with Nazi crimes. Apart from documenting the association, the aim of the investigation is to clarify the whereabouts of the corpses. In particular, it must be ascertained that none of the specimens publicly displayed in the anatomical collection of the Friedrich Schiller University originated in the context of Nazi crimes.
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