There were tens of thousands of human victims of coerced medical research under the German National Socialist regime. An important approach to processing these crimes involves raising awareness of the individual fates of those affected and thus giving them back their names and histories. Professor Dr Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society, and Professor Dr Bettina Rockenbach, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, emphasised this point during a press conference to present the first online database that offers systematic access to the names and biographies of victims of unethical medical research under National Socialism. The database encourages remembrance, research, and historical reflection. It was developed as part of the joint research project “Brain Research at Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Context of National Socialist Injustices”, which is funded by the Max Planck Society.
“History shows us what human beings are capable of when an autocratic state rejects an established humanitarian value system in favour of racist ideology and fanaticism. Science must also remember this and recommit itself to ethical principles; today’s highly specialized research must not lose sight of the human dimension. This applies especially to the MPG, given its long history in the KWG”, says Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society.
“We can only approach our societal heritage responsibly once we have conducted historical research and if we continue to do this research. Thus, the aforementioned project contributes to a culture of remembrance which is based on scientific findings. This is predominantly the achievement of the scientists who worked to comprehensively uncover the connections between the obtaining, conservation of, and research on these tissue samples”, says Bettina Rockenbach, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
The database comprises around 16,000 profiles of victims of coerced medical research under National Socialism. It also comprises more than 13,000 profiles of individuals whose fates have not yet been conclusively researched. The database connects the individuals and events to primary and secondary sources, thus creating a foundation for further studies and analyses. Private persons can use the database to search for relatives. The database offers multi-level access: The victims’ names and key biographical dates are publicly visible, in line with the database’s important function as a platform for remembrance. Information on individual experiments and the institutions involved in them are also provided at this level. In order to make the data more tangible to the general public, selected biographies illustrate the fate of individual victims. An interactive map highlights the extent and geographical distribution of the crimes. Additional, sensitive data on the history of the illnesses and persecution suffered by the victims is not accessible to the general public. The website provides a contact form for those who wish to apply for access to this additional data for research purposes. Relatives can apply for access to all the data relating to their family members.
The database is based on the extensive research carried out by Professor Dr Paul Weindling and his team at the Oxford Brookes University in Oxford/UK. He researches the history of science and medicine under National Socialism. He focuses in particular on the victims of coerced biomedical research. This includes people who were victims of medical experiments in concentration camps as well as sick people who were murdered as part of “euthanasia” programmes. Paul Weindling aims to reconstruct and raise awareness of the individual fates of affected persons.
The database is also based on the results of the research project “Brain Research at Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Context of National Socialist Injustices”, funded by the Max Planck Society. During the National Socialist era, researchers from institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society – the predecessor to today’s Max Planck Society – collected samples of brain tissue from the victims of “euthanasia” murders as well as from other persecuted individuals, including prisoners of war, civilians from territory occupied by the German army, and victims of the National Socialist judicial system. Many of these samples were still used for scientific purposes long after 1945. The research project examines the historical connections between the obtaining, conservation of, and research on these brain tissue samples. The project was led by Paul Weindling, Professor Dr Herwig Czech (Medical University of Vienna/Austria), Dr Philipp Rauh (as successor to Gerrit Hohendorf (deceased), both from the Technical University of Munich), and, from 2021 as co-project leader, Professor Dr Volker Roelcke (University of Gießen/Germany).
The database is published in English and is available using the following link: https://ns-medical-victims.org/
An interview with Paul Weindling about the database has been published on the Leopoldina website: https://www.leopoldina.org/en/press/newsletter/interview-database-ns-coerced-research/
Further information on the research project “Brain Research at Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Context of National Socialist Injustices”: https://www.leopoldina.org/en/ueber-uns/zentrum-fuer-wissenschaftsforschung/projekte/hirnforschung/
The Max Planck Society’s project website: https://www.mpg.de/history/kws-under-national-socialism
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About the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
As the German National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina provides independent science-based policy advice on matters relevant to society. To this end, the Academy develops interdisciplinary statements based on scientific findings. In these publications, options for action are outlined; making decisions, however, is the responsibility of democratically legitimized politicians. The experts who prepare the statements work in a voluntary and unbiased manner. The Leopoldina represents the German scientific community in the international academy dialogue. This includes advising the annual summits of Heads of State and Government of the G7 and G20 countries. With around 1,700 members from more than 30 countries, the Leopoldina combines expertise from almost all research areas. Founded in 1652, it was appointed the National Academy of Sciences of Germany in 2008. The Leopoldina is committed to the common good.
About the Max Planck Society
The MPG is Germany’s leading non-university research institution with 84 institutes, around 26,000 employees, and an annual budget of approximately 2.3 billion euros. Founded in 1948 as the successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it conducts outstanding research in the natural, life, and social sciences, as well as in the humanities. 29 Nobel Prizes are evidence of its leading position among research institutes. The institutes work together with leading universities and research institutions around the world and are involved in numerous international joint research projects, including in the form of the Max Planck Centers in the USA and Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe. Examining what is now more than one hundred years of scientific history of the MPG and its predecessor the KWG is part of the organisational culture, which includes a historically informed remembrance culture. |