From Routine to Murder – Anatomy in Nazi Germany and its Legacies for Today

Speaker: Prof. Sabine Hildebrandt, Harvard Medical School

Host: Elisabeth Binder

Summary: The history of anatomy in Nazi Germany highlights the consequences to humanity when the destructive potentials immanent to all science and medicine are enabled by an anti-democratic, totalitarian regime. Anatomy presents an example of ethical transgressions by scientists and health care professionals that were amplified in the criminal political climate of the Nazi regime. This can happen anywhere, as science is never apolitical. This presentation gives a short account of anatomy in Nazi Germany, which is followed by an outline of the tangible and intangible legacies from this history, to then discuss implications for anatomy today. While Jewish and politically dissident anatomists were forced out of their positions and country by the Nazi regime, the majority of the remaining anatomists joined the Nazi party and used bodies of Nazi victims for education and research. Some anatomists even performed deadly human experiments. Patterns and legacies that emerge from this history can be traced into the present and concern research ethics in general and anatomical body procurement specifically. They shed light on current practices and controversies in the anatomical sciences and have informed new recommendations on managing legacy collections of human remains.

About the speaker: Sabine Hildebrandt MD FAAA is a researcher and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She teaches anatomy and history and ethics of anatomy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College. Among other publications on anatomy, medicine, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, her 2016 book "The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich" is the first systematic study of anatomy in Nazi Germany. As co-chair of "The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow", she co-authored this commission’s report published on Nov 8, 2023. As member of various institutional committees, Prof. Hildebrandt is involved in formulating recommendations on how to ethically approach work with human remains in historical collections. She serves as associate editor of "Anatomical Sciences Education" for the areas of history and ethics.