Anatomy in National Socialism: stages of an ethical transgression

Abstract

Systematic research on the history of anatomy in National Socialism (NS) has only started in recent years. It has shown that anatomists used the bodies of NS victims for anatomical teaching and research purposes. In this they became complicit with the NS regime. There was a high percentage of Nazi party members among the anatomists, but at the same time there were anatomists whose careers were disrupted for so-called "racial" and political reasons. Decisive aspects of this history are first, the fact that traditional sources of anatomical body procurement included increasing numbers of NS victims and second, the gradual change of the traditional anatomical paradigm of working with the dead to a new paradigm of working with the "future dead" in human experimentation. This history has importance for the development of new ethical guidelines in anatomy.