For more than 15 years, the memorial site "Roter Ochse (Red Ox)" in Halle/Saale, Germany, has studied documents of special and military courts in Mitteldeutschland (central Germany). Hundreds of death sentences have been executed during the last years of the war in the former state prison of Halle. The resulting dead bodies were used in biomedical research and teaching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the period of 2004-2005, a group of anatomists and historians investigated the origin of dead bodies received by the anatomical institute of the University of Jena in the Third Reich. Between 1933 and 1945, the institute received the bodies of 203 executed persons, most of whom had been sentenced to death for relatively minor offenses or opposition to National Socialist (NS) regulations. Moreover, the institute received about 200 bodies of possible "euthanasia" victims from nearby nursing homes and mental institutions, and several dozen dead bodies of forced laborers from Eastern Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the period from 1933 to 1945 the Anatomical Institute in Halle (Saale) received bodies of persons, among them politically persecuted women and men, who had been sentenced to death and executed. In this article, we attempt to answer two important questions: (1) What happened to the bodies of those executed; i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the Nazi regime (1933-1945), the anatomical institute at the University of Jena received 2,224 corpses, of which approximately 200 originated from executions. The available data clearly suggest that a large portion of these 200 executed persons must be considered victims of Nazi crimes. Approximately an equal number of bodies were delivered from state nursing homes and mental institutions in the state of Thuringia during the same time period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe main goal of our investigations is to complete the genealogy of the famous Meckel dynasty. It is important to answer a lot of questions which have remained unanswered until now. During the investigations we were able to find the names of three children who died early and were dissected by their father Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1755-1803).
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