{"id":110894,"date":"2019-05-12T19:40:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T23:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/?p=110894"},"modified":"2019-05-12T19:40:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T23:40:42","slug":"berlin-to-bury-remains-kept-by-nazi-era-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/?p=110894","title":{"rendered":"Berlin to bury remains kept by Nazi-era doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Faces<\/img>Image copyright<\/span>
\n German Resistance Memorial Center, GDW<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Some of the women whose bodies were used by Stieve (pic: GDW)
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 300 tiny pieces of human tissue from prisoners executed in Nazi-era Berlin will be buried on Monday.<\/p>\n

The samples were found in microscopic slides at a property that belonged to Hermann Stieve – an anatomy professor at the Charit\u00e9 university hospital.<\/p>\n

Heirs of the doctor, who died in 1952, discovered the collection in 2016.<\/p>\n

Researchers say Stieve systematically collaborated with the Nazis to receive the bodies of 184 people, mostly women, executed for political resistance.<\/p>\n

The tissue pieces – most less than a millimetre long – were discovered at Stieve’s estate, stored in small black boxes, including some labelled with names.<\/p>\n

Once found, they were handed to Berlin’s Charit\u00e9 university hospital, who tasked staff at the German Resistance Memorial Center <\/a>to research their history.<\/p>\n

Research under the memorial’s director, Prof Johannes Tuchel, showed that bodies were picked up by a driver and taken to Stieve, sometimes just minutes after they were killed at Berlin-Pl\u00f6tzensee prison.<\/p>\n

He then dissected them for research,<\/a> before discreetly cremating and interring their bodies anonymously.<\/p>\n

Almost 3,000 people were executed at Pl\u00f6tzensee by beheading or hanging while Hitler was in power.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Unknown<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Hermann Stieve used the bodies of executed prisoners
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We have discovered that (Stieve) systematically aided the (Nazi) Reich Justice Ministry in obliterating the traces of these criminal acts,” Prof Tuchel told German newspaper Bild.<\/p>\n

Stieve served as the director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 until he died following a stroke in 1952.<\/p>\n

The anatomist’s use of the prisoners’ corpses had been kept almost in plain sight, because he kept meticulous records of his work. <\/p>\n

He had a particular interest in reproductive anatomy.<\/p>\n

His work was some of the first research to suggest that stress – in the form of being sentenced to death – could disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle. <\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Alamy<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n The ceremony will take place at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery on Monday
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the people he dissected were high-profile – including 13 women from the Red Orchestra communist resistance group.<\/p>\n

One of the project’s researchers was Andreas Winkelmann, a department head at the Institute of Anatomy of the Brandenburg Medical School (MHB).<\/p>\n

He told the AFP news agency that burial of such small specimens was highly unusual. <\/p>\n

“But this is a special story, because they came from people who were actively denied graves, so that their relatives would not know where they are buried,” he added. <\/p>\n

Dr Sabine Hildebrandt is a German-born anatomist who published a book about ethical transgressions and anatomical science in the Nazi period.<\/p>\n

In 2013 she explained to the BBC that Stieve exploited their policies<\/a>, including the increased use of the death penalty as a punishment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Tens of thousands of political opponents were murdered by the Nazis
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Before 1933, he was able to source the bodies of executed men, but no women; Germany was not executing women,” she said. <\/p>\n

“Then, suddenly, during the Third Reich, women were being executed too.”<\/p>\n

Because he was not a member of the Nazi party, Stieve was not prosecuted after World War Two.<\/p>\n

The samples will be laid to rest at a ceremony at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery on Monday.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Dr Karl Max Einh\u00e4upl, CEO of the Charit\u00e9, said the burial was part of an effort by the hospital to confront its – and German medicine’s – difficult relationship with Nazism. <\/p>\n

“By burying the microscopic specimens at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, we want to help restore to the victims some of their dignity,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright German Resistance Memorial Center, GDW Image caption Some of the women whose bodies were used by Stieve (pic: GDW) More than 300 tiny pieces of human tissue from prisoners executed in Nazi-era Berlin will be buried on Monday.The samples were found in microscopic slides at a property that belonged to Hermann Stieve -…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[4636,2672],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/110895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110894"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americansforabetteramerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fyst_prominent_words&post=110894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}