“Reason for Dismissal? — Jewish Faith”: Analysis of Narratives in the SPSL Immigration Applications by German-Speaking Neurologists

Two months after Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) had been proclaimed the Reich chancellor, the first anti-Jewish law was passed in Nazi Germany, based on which “non-Aryan” academics and researchers were dismissed from their state-supported positions. These scholars were desperate to flee Germany, due to the appalling treatment they had been subjected to regardless of their academic status and scientific achievements. The growing socio-political tensions in Germany attracted considerable attention from British scientists, who — led by Sir William Beveridge (1879–1963) — established the Academic Assistance Council (later known as the Society for Protection of Science and Learning; SPSL). Between 1933 and 1945, the SPSL assisted several thousand scholars in need by providing stipends and placements at universities or research institutions in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Among the fortunate émigrés were world-renowned professors as well as upcoming young scientists. Regardless of their level of expertise, these young academics and physicians were equally distressed by the way they were treated and desperate to flee Germany. The SPSL immigration questionnaires and other supporting materials provide an insight today into the events, which the applicants experienced at the time. They furthermore present their hope to rebuild their lives and careers in their new host country in considerable detail. This article analyses the work and family life of German-speaking neuroscientists as well as the political context and SPSL responses to Nazi and British policies. It focuses on applicants’ social and scientific context at the time, by also emphasizing how the drastically worsening situation in the Third Reich affected refugees’ morale and increased their efforts in escaping the country. The case of émigré neuroscientists is particularly insightful, as this group encompassed an interdisciplinary and heterogeneous group of psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and experimental biologists, which allows for useful cross-comparisons

The victims of unethical human experiments and coerced research under National Socialism

There has been no full evaluation of the numbers of victims of Nazi research, who the victims were, and of the frequency and types of experiments and research. This paper gives the first results of a comprehensive evidence-based evaluation of the different categories of victims. Human experiments were more extensive than often assumed with a minimum of 15,754 documented victims. Experiments rapidly increased from 1942, reaching a high point in 1943. The experiments remained at a high level of intensity despite imminent German defeat in 945. There were more victims who survived than were killed as part of or as a result of the experiments, and the survivors often had severe injuries

The problematic legacy of victim specimens from the Nazi era: Identifying the persons behind the specimens at the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and of Psychiatry

Although 75 years have passed since the end of World War II, the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck Gesellschaft, MPG), successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, KWG), still must grapple with how two of its foremost institutes—the KWI of Psychiatry in Munich and the KWI for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch—amassed collections of brains from victims of Nazi crimes, and how these human remains were retained for postwar research. Initial efforts to deal with victim specimens during the 1980s met with denial and, subsequently, rapid disposal in 1989/1990. Despite the decision of the MPG’s president to retain documentation for historical purposes, there are gaps in the available sources. This article provides preliminary results of a research program initiated in 2017 (to be completed by October 2023) to provide victim identifications and the circumstances of deaths

The impact of Nazi medical experiments on Polish inmates at Dachau, Auschwitz and Ravensbruck

Polish citizens of various backgrounds, gender and religion suffered greatly during the six years of Nazi occupation (1939-1945). Thousands of members of the country's elite, including physicians, priests, writers and politicians, were executed during the first months of World War Two along with nearly three million Polish Jews who perished in the years that followed. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of Polish men and women were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. All incarcerated Poles experienced humiliation, hunger, mistreatment and torture; moreover, selected Polish prisoners participated in medical experiments both as victims and as assistants of Nazi doctors, which not only affected their health, behaviour and reputation within the camp but also hugely influenced their post-war life in Poland or abroad. This thesis examines three interrelated issues in relation to Polish prisoners: priests at Dachau, physicians at Auschwitz and women at Ravensbruck, taking a biographical approach for the wartime and post-war periods. First, it presents the way they coped with medical experiments and with everyday life in their respective concentration camps; secondly, it analyses the purposes of, and reasons for, the experiments and how the process of the prisoners' participation in Nazi medical research changed their behaviour; finally, this thesis explores the measures victims took after the war to draw attention to Nazi crimes and the injustice of which they were victims