Topographische Anatomie des Menschen – The Topographical Anatomy of the Human Body (“The Pernkopf Anatomical Atlas”) by Eduard Pernkopf – published by Urban & Schwarzenberg, Volume I: Part II – Allgemeines, Brust und Brustgliedmaße (General, Thoracic Region, and Upper Limbs). Berlin, Vienna, 1943 – First edition. An anatomical atlas of the human body, illustrated based on the corpses of Jews sent from the death camps to the laboratory of the Nazi anatomist Dr. Eduard Pernkopf, and drawn by a group of artists – one of the most controversial publications of the 20th century.
Eduard Pernkopf (1888–1955) was an Austrian anatomist, professor, and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna during the Nazi period, and a member of the Nazi Party since 1933. During the Nazi era, he served as head of the anatomical institute at the University of Vienna. His colleagues described him as a zealous National Socialist, and he acted accordingly as early as 1938, arriving at work dressed in the uniforms favored by Adolf Hitler. The anatomy department that Pernkopf headed had a history of antisemitism and radical political activity among both students and academic staff, even before Austria’s annexation to the German Reich. On 18 February 1939, the Nazi regime issued an order requiring that all corpses of executed prisoners be sent to the anatomy departments at the nearest universities for research and educational purposes. Later, in 1942, Nazi law ruled that the remains of executed Poles and Jews would not be buried by their relatives, but instead transferred to German research institutions. Many prestigious medical institutions in Germany preserved for research the remains of people who had been murdered. Pernkopf capitalized on the law, working up to 18 hours a day, dissecting bodies in front of teams of artists and illustrators. The shipments did not cease, and the university rooms filled with corpses. “At least half of the 800 illustrations in the atlas were based on the bodies of political prisoners, ” estimated Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt of Harvard Medical School, “they included homosexuals and lesbians, Roma, ideological dissidents, and of course, Jews.”
Pernkopf was the man destined to carry out this horrific task, as from the early 1930s, his rapid academic advancement at the University of Vienna went hand in hand with his growing involvement in the Nazi regime. In the same year he began directing the anatomical institute (1933), he joined the Nazi Party, and a year later, the SA (Sturmabteilung). Together with Pernkopf, many of his assistants, technicians, and illustrators who worked with him also joined the Nazi Party. (As dean, Pernkopf insisted on documenting the racial background—Aryan or otherwise—of all faculty members, and demanded that they swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler. He handed over to the authorities the names of those who did not comply with his demands, and in March 1938, all Jews, including Nobel Prize laureates, were expelled from the University of Vienna. Altogether, 132 out of 197 faculty members were dismissed.) By defining certain people as “subhuman, ” Nazi medical science enabled their treatment as “research material” even while they were still alive, stripped of any protection under German law.
For years, the book has been regarded as an unparalleled scientific masterpiece, considered one of the most beautiful and precise anatomical atlases ever produced. Pernkopf’s Atlas was described in 1990 by the leading medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine as a “classic work in the field.” It contains hundreds of exceptionally detailed color illustrations, created by artists such as Erich Lepier (who often signed his name alongside a swastika), Karl Endtresser, Ludwig Schrott (all three were Nazi activists), and others. Each illustration was drawn by hand, at full scale, with astounding precision. Rich in detail, the atlas provides uniquely sharp and graphic depictions of skin and bone, the muscular and tendon systems, nerves, and human organs. The illustrations in the book have been used—for decades—by physicians, surgeons, and medical students, and even today, in certain contexts, the atlas is still in use. Leading anatomists in the medical world have testified over the years: “You cannot even begin to compare it to other books in terms of precision and attention to detail.” Doctors worldwide have stated that during complex surgeries, the book helps them identify which of the many nerves operating in the body is the true source of pain—more than any other diagnostic tool available to this day!
In the years immediately following the war, the atlas was used in good faith by physicians in several countries, without awareness of the origins of its illustrations. Over time, however, it became increasingly known that many of the drawings in Pernkopf’s work were based on the bodies of innocent victims sent from the death camps, who were not even granted a proper burial. By the 1980s and 1990s, this fact gained broader recognition, and the debate over the use of the book became prominent in nearly every major medical institution around the world. These institutions grappled with the ethical question: Is it appropriate to use an atlas created through severe human rights violations? Should the victims be honored through full disclosure—or by ceasing the use of the work entirely? As a result, in March 1995, the Yad Vashem institute demanded that the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck conduct an independent investigation by external experts into the background and origin of the figures depicted in Pernkopf’s atlas. The first request from Yad Vashem was rejected. However, thanks to renewed efforts led by Professor William Seidelman (Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Holocaust and medicine scholar from the University of Toronto) and his colleagues, a thorough investigation was launched in February 1997 at the University of Vienna. In the report published in 1998, it was revealed that the university’s anatomy institute, under Pernkopf’s direction, had received at least 1,377 corpses during the war years, including the bodies of children, many of them from the Gestapo execution chambers at the Regional Court in Vienna. These individuals were executed by beheading with a guillotine or by firing squad.
Although its historical origin is morally tainted, many physicians and surgeons report that to this day, the atlas has no visual equivalent in terms of anatomical precision. A recent British survey found that 59% of the kingdom’s surgeons are aware of the atlas, and 13% of respondents admitted they still use it today. An overwhelming majority (69%) of doctors stated they would feel comfortable using it if the circumstances of its creation were openly disclosed, while only 15% expressed outright opposition. In some academic institutions in the U.S. and Europe, its use is permitted only when accompanied by a moral preface explaining the historical and ethical context. There is no doubt that Pernkopf’s book is a stunning anatomical work, extraordinarily detailed down to the last feature—but paradoxically, it also stands as a chilling testament to the depths of human depravity to which Nazi racial science led its adherents. The use of the atlas today remains deeply charged, and continues to be the subject of ongoing debate—between ethics, history, and medicine.
Pernkopf was arrested at the end of the war and was dismissed from the university. He was held in a detention camp for three years, but was never formally charged with any crime. Upon his release, he returned to the academic institution and continued working on the atlas, eventually completing the third edition, which was published in 1952. He died three years later, shortly before the publication of the fourth edition.
see also:
G. Riggs, “What should we do about Eduard Pernkopf’s atlas?”, Academic Medicine, 1998.
Sabine Hildebrandt, “How the Pernkopf controversy facilitated a historical and ethical analysis of the anatomical sciences in Austria and Germany: A recommendation for the continued use of the Pernkopf Atlas”, Clinical Anatomy, 2006.
Countless references to the subject can be found online, including:
“Should Doctors Learn from Nazi Medical Research on Holocaust Victims?”
“The Dilemma of Pernkopf’s Atlas”
“What should we do about Eduard Pernkopf’s atlas?”
See also the Hebrew University of Jerusalem website: Exhibitions at the Medical Library: Pernkopf’s Atlas
And see also here , along with many other sources.
345–617 pp. (pagination continues from Part I). 30 cm.
Original binding with gilt lettering. Very good condition.
