The use of executed Nazi victims in anatomy: Findings from the Institute of Anatomy at Gießen University, pre- and post-1945

There is increasing evidence that both during the time of National Socialism, and in the post-World War II-period, the corpses of executed victims of the Nazi regime, as well as body parts taken from them were used for teaching and research purposes in German anatomical institutes. The paper addresses the related issues by looking at the case of the Institute of Anatomy at Gießen University whose director, Ferdinand Wagenseil, is documented to have had certain political reservations towards the Nazi regime, but at the same time used the situation to get access to more corpses, most likely for teaching purposes. On a second level, new archival sources are used to explore to what extend corpses and body parts of Nazi victims were used in the post-WW II period. One central aim in this context is the reconstruction of the identities of these victims for the purpose of acknowledgment of the atrocities committed to them, appropriate remembrance, and to possibly enable the respectful burial of the remaining body parts. Further, the case raises the question how anatomists during and after the Nazi period justified for themselves the use of corpses from executed political prisoners, and what might be potential explanations for their reasoning. The historical evidence documents an attitude and value hierarchy which is aware of the disregard of dignity or human rights in the case of the Nazi victims, but which perceives this disregard as of minor relevance compared to the needs of medical teaching, or medical research. It is argued that this mental attitude is not specific for the Nazi period, but that it has been brought to an extreme manifestation in this specific context.