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The Loyal Genetic Doctor, Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, and the Institut für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene: Origins, Controversy, and Racial Political Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2013

Sheila Faith Weiss
Sheila Faith Weiss*
Affiliation:
Clarkson University
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Reporting on the results of the 1935 World Population Conference hosted in the capital of the “new Germany” for members of the nation's medical community, the renowned racial anthropologist and director of the prestigious Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik (KWIA), Eugen Fischer (1874–1967), commented on the significance of a new type of physician, one whose duties were intricately linked with the goals of the Nazi state. Just as the house doctor of old was able to prevent and recognize when an individual patient was in imminent medical danger by having carefully watched over his charge—intervening when necessary—so, too, must the Erbarzt (genetic doctor) do the same for the entire Volk by overseeing, and, if need be, managing, the hereditary lineages of all its composite members. This not merely entailed evaluating the trajectory of genetic diseases in different segments of the German population, but it also demanded something equally important. “As getreuer Ekkehardt [loyal Ekkehardt] with his hand on the pulse of the life of his Volk,” Fischer commented, the genetic doctor had to supervise its racial purity. This was to ensure that its racial essence—the presupposition of all cultural and mental attributes of the Volk—was inherited unchanged.

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Central European History , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 631 - 668
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2012

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References

1 Fischer, Eugen, “Erbarzt und Bevölkerungswissenschaft,” Der Erbarzt 2 (1935): 113Google Scholar. All quotes are taken from the same page.

2 There are numerous variations in spelling of the name “Ekkehardt” in reference to this medieval heroic legendary figure. See, for example, Johann Wolfgang Goethe's poem, “Der getreue Eckart,” published in 1815, http://www.feiertagsgedichte.de/autoren/g/goethe/erstes-buch/der-getreue-eckard/home.html, as well as Ludwig Tieck's “Der getreue Eckart,” discussed in Paulin, Roger, Ludwig Tieck, a Literary Biography (New York: Clarendon Press, 1985), 196Google Scholar. A third alternative spelling for this mythic hero, “Eckhart, der getreue,” can be located in the Reallexicon der Deutschen Altertümer, http://www.zeno.org/Goetzinger-1885/A/Eckhart,+der+getreue.

3 Fischer, Eugen, “Erblehre-Erbklinik-Erbarzt,” Der Erbarzt 1 (1934): 3Google Scholar; von Verschuer, Otmar Freiherr, “Der Erbarzt—zur Einführung,” Der Erbarzt 1 (1934): 1–2Google Scholar.

4 Bernhard Rust an Herrn Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, May 2, 1935, Universitätsarchiv Münster (UAM), Kurator Personalakte Nr. 3651 Band II/14; Der Oberbürgermeister an den Herrn Reichs- und Preuss. Minister des Innern, June 29, 1935, Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main (IfS), MA8269/82.

5 The pioneering study not merely of von Verschuer, but also of most important biomedical professionals under National Socialism, is Benno Müller-Hill's classic work Murderous Science: The Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933–1945, 2nd ed. (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1998)Google Scholar. Müller-Hill's study as well as those of Ernst Klee, Auschwitz, Die NS-Medizin und Ihre Opfer (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1997)Google Scholar and Klee, Ernst, Deutsche Medizin im Dritten Reich. Karrieren vor und nach 1945 (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2001)Google Scholar have focused on the Verschuer-Mengele connection. In addition, there have been several other important works dealing with the controversial human geneticist as part of the Max Planck Society's investigation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under the swastika. Perhaps the most significant is the English translation of the seminal work by Schmuhl, Hans-Walter, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927–1945: Crossing Boundaries, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 259 (Heidelberg: Springer, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, although Schmuhl focuses on the institute, not on von Verschuer per se. In addition, see Massin, Benoît, “Mengele, die Zwillingsforschung und die ‘Auschwitz-Dahlem-Connection,’” in Die Verbindung nach Auschwitz. Biowissenschaften und Menschenversuche an Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten, ed. Sachse, Carola (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003), 201–254Google Scholar, who also concentrated on the relationship between von Verschuer and Mengele; Ehrenreich, Eric, “Otmar von Verschuer and the ‘Scientific’ Legitimization of Nazi Anti-Jewish Policy,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 25 (2007): 55–72Google Scholar; Ehrenreich, Eric, The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Schmuhl, Hans-Walter, ed., Rassenforschung an Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten vor und nach 1933 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003)Google Scholar; Sheila Faith Weiss, Humangenetik und Politik als wechselseitige Ressourcen. Das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik im “Dritten Reich” (Preprint no. 17 from the Research Program “History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the National Socialist Era,” 2004). Other works include Kröner, Hans-Peter, Von der Rassenhygiene zur Humangenetik. Das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik nach dem Kriege (Stuttgart: Fischer, 1997)Google Scholar; Black, Edwin, War against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003)Google Scholar; and Steinweis, Alan E., Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006)Google Scholar. For some of the older literature that deals with von Verschuer, see Proctor, Robert N., Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Schmuhl, Hans-Walter, Rassenhygiene, Nationalsozialismus, Euthanasie. Von der Verhütung zur Vernichtung “lebensunwerten Lebens,” 1890–1945 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987)Google Scholar; Weingart, Peter et al., Rasse, Blut und Gene. Geschichte der Eugenik und Rassenhygiene in Deutschland (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988)Google Scholar; and Weindling, Paul J., Health, Race, and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1871–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)Google Scholar. For an account of von Verschuer's “Faustian bargain,” see my recent book, Weiss, Sheila Faith, The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

6 Some of the scholars who have addressed, if quite briefly, this period of von Verschuer's life include Stuchlik, Gerda, Goethe im Braunhemd. Universität Frankfurt 1933–1945 (Frankfurt am Main: Röderberg-Verlag, 1984), 182–200Google Scholar; Hammerstein, Notker, Die Johann Wolfang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main. Von der Stiftungsuniversität zur staatlichen Hochschule, Bd. 1, 1914–1950 (Frankfurt am Main: Alfred Metzner Verlag, 1989), 356–361Google Scholar; Sander, Peter, “Das Frankfurter ‘Universitätsinstitut für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene.’ Zur Positionierung einer ‘rassenhygienischen’ Einrichtung innerhalb der ‘rassenanthropologischen’ Forschung und Praxis während der NS-Zeit,” in “Beseitigung des jüdischen Einflusses . . .” Antisemitische Forschung, Eliten und Karrieren im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Institut, Fritz Bauer (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1999), 73–99Google Scholar; Schultze, Dietmar, Untersuchungen zum Frankfurter Teilnachlaß des Rassenhygienikers Prof. Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer (Münster: Klemm & Oelschläger, 2008)Google Scholar; and Benzenhöfer, Udo, ed., Mengele, Hirt, Holfelder, Berner, von Verschuer, Kranz. Frankfurter Universitätsmediziner der NS-Zeit (Münster: Klemm & Oelschläger, 2010)Google Scholar.

7 For convenience, I will abbreviate the term erb- und rassenkundliche Abstammungsnachweis as Rassegutachten or racial certificates throughout the essay. Almost all of these racial certificates (242) are housed in the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (hereafter HHStaW) in Wiesbaden. I was made aware of the possible existence of some number of such testimonials by reading Alexandra Przyrembel's first-rate study, “Rassenschande.” Reinheitsmythos und Vernichtungslegitimation im Nationalsozialismus (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003)Google Scholar, 119, note 171. As she indicated in a footnote, at the time she undertook the research for her book, no one had yet analyzed these documents. Volker Eichler of the HHStaW informed me that no other person had investigated this material. According to Herr Eichler, as well as the official description of the Bestand Abt. 484 online at the HHStaW, these certificates probably survived the war because the Gausippenamt Hessen-Nassau, headed by Heinz F. Friedrichs, was housed in the same building as von Verschuer's institute. Apparently, Friedrichs requested that the entire collection of 538 paternity certificates (of which 242 were specifically racial certificates) be handed over to his office. In addition, I found four other such racial certificates written in von Verschuer's institute among the six paternity certificates shown to me in the Frankfurt am Main Institut für Stadtgeschichte (hereafter IfS) as well as one racial certificate in the Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde (hereafter BAB). To my knowledge only three of these 247 racial certificates have thus far been discussed in the literature; among the three is the infamous case of the architect Heinz Alexander who was accused of and prosecuted for “Rassenschande.” It is important to note, however, that not all 242 certificates in the HHStaW were undertaken during von Verschuer's tenure in Frankfurt (1935–1942). Approximately ten percent were completed by von Verschuer's successor, Heinrich Wilhelm Kranz.

8 For the most thorough study of the Reichsstelle für Sippenforschung/ Reichssippenamt, see Schulle, Diana, Das Reichssippenamt. Eine Institution nationalsozialistischer Rassenpolitik (Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar. For convenience I will use Reich Genealogical Office (abbreviated as RGO) for both the Reichsstelle and the Reichssippenamt. It should be mentioned that there was also a National Socialist Party Office for Genealogical Research, but it was so intertwined with the more important Reichsstelle and Reichssippenamt, that for all intents and purposes they were one. Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 79.

9 Ehrenreich has argued that von Verschuer's construction of ancestral certificates during the Third Reich was “unscientific” even according to the standards of the day. See Ehrenreich, “Otmar von Verschuer and the ‘Scientific’ Legitimization of Nazi Anti-Jewish Policy,” 65; and Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 122–123. Hans-Peter Kröner, in his article “Von Vaterschaftsbestimmung zum Rassegutachten. Der erbbiologische Ähnlichkeitsvergleich als ‘österreichisch-deutsches Projekt’ 1926–1945,” Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 22 (1999): 257–264Google Scholar, suggested that the German examiners who produced such certificates were less scientific than those in Austria. See especially 262.

10 For the most thorough examination of von Verschuer and Mengele's “specific protein” research, see Trunk, Achim, “Two Hundred Blood Samples from Auschwitz: A Noble Laureate and the Link to Auschwitz,” in The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, ed. Heim, Susanne, Sachse, Carola, and Walker, Mark (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 120–144Google Scholar. This is a detailed and convincing revisionist interpretation (by a biochemist) of the research agenda and results of von Verschuer and Mengele that questions Müller-Hill's original thesis about the project.

11 Frankfurter Zeitung, Morgenblatt, June 20, 1935, Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt (hereafter UAF), Abt. 50, Nr. 2125.

12 Ibid.

13 Geh. Hofrat Prof. Seitz an den Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät Prof. Dr. H. Holfelder, Dec. 4, 1933, Dekanatsarchiv des Fachbereiches Medizin der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (DFMF), Box 31.

14 Müller-Hill, Murderous Science, 87; Dr. Gross an Herrn Dekan Holfelder, Oct. 23, 1934, DFMF, Box 31.

15 Kurator Wisser an Regierungsrat Reiner, April 5, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2124.

16 Finanzverwaltung an den Herrn Oberbürgermeister, Jan. 24, 1935, IfS, MA8269.

17 Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, “Plan für ein erbbiologisches Institut mit klinischer Abteilung an der Universität Frankfurt,” Jan. 12, 1935, IfS, MA8269; von Verschuer an das Kuratorium der Jo. Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, April 3, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2130. Quote found in the first reference.

18 Der Reichs- und Preußische Minister für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung an das Universitätskuratorium, Feb. 6, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2124.

19 Kurator Wisser an Regierungsrat Reiner, April 5, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2124.

20 For a discussion of the founding of the University of Frankfurt in 1914 as the first Stiftungsuniversität, see http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/ueber/geschichte/index.html.

21 Internal Memo, Feb. 19, 1935, IfS, MA8269.

22 First quote taken from von Verschuer an Kurator Wisser, Feb. 13, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2124. Second quote taken from von Verschuer an Kurator Wisser, March 19, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2124: Kurator Wisser an die Universitätskassen, May 23, 1935, UAF, Abt. 50, Nr. 2125. Although von Verschuer was formally named director on May 2, 1935, his appointment as ordentlicher Professor in the Medical Faculty began as of April 1, 1935. UAM, Kurator Personalakte, Nr. 3651, Bd. II/14.

23 Von Verschuer's ceremonial opening speech was printed in the journal he edited, Der Erbarzt. von Verschuer, Otmar Freiherr, “Aufgaben und Ziele des Instituts für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene,” Der Erbarzt 2 (1935): 97–101Google Scholar. Quotes taken from 99.

24 Ibid.

25 Party concern over the “scientific” basis of Nazi racial policy can be gleaned in a letter from Dr. Linden an Staatsminister Dr. Wacker, May 16, 1937, BAB R 4901/965.

26 Von Verschuer, “Aufgaben und Ziele des Instituts,” 99–100. Quote found on 100.

27 Verwaltungsbericht der Stadt Frankfurt a.M. über das Haushaltsjahr 1937/38, IfS, LS SD1 96. Also mentioned in Stuchlik, Goethe im Braunhemd, 189. Von Verschuer did not accomplish this task completely alone. He worked in tandem with the Frankfurt Municipal Public Health Office to maintain a genetic register and a genetic archive.

28 Verwaltungsbericht der Stadt Frankfurt a.M. über das Haushaltsjahr 1937/38, IfS, LS SD1 96, 100.

29 von Verschuer, Otmar Freiherr, “Vier Jahre Frankfurter Universitäts-Institut für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene,” Der Erbarzt 5 (1939): 63Google Scholar.

30 Von Verschuer, “Aufgaben und Ziele des Instituts,” 100–101. For a discussion of the goal of centralizing the Nazi health-care arena, see Gütt, Arthur, Der Aufbau des Gesundheitswesens im Dritten Reich (Berlin: Junker und Dünnhaupt, 1938)Google Scholar. Von Verschuer's appointment to the Poliklinik is detailed in Arthur Gütt an das Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Haus, Sept. 1, 1934, Humboldt Universitätsarchiv (hereafter HUA), Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Haus (KAVH) Mappe 9010.

31 Von Verschuer, “Aufgaben und Ziele des Instituts,” 100–101; all quotes taken from these pages.

32 Dr. Gerum an Herrn Medizinalrat Dr. Widmann, June 8, 1935, IfS, SGE, 5255.

33 Dr. Bruno K. Schultz an Dr. Gerum, Nov. 21, 1933, IfS, SGE, 5071; Dr. Gerum an Herrn Medizinalrat Dr. Widmann, June 8, 1935, IfS, SGE, 5255.

34 Von Verschuer an das Erbgesundheitsgericht Berlin, Aug. 31, 1934, Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep A 356. Nr. 45524, 88.

35 Dr. Gerum an Herrn Medizinalrat Dr. Widmann, June 8, 1935, IfS, SGE, 5255.

36 Stuchlik, Goethe im Braunhemd, 189.

37 Von Verschuer an das Reichs- und Preußische Ministerium des Innern, Abteilung für Volksgesundheitsdienst, June 5, 1935, IfS, MA 8269.

38 Von Verschuer an den Rektor der Joh. Wolfg. Goethe-Universität Herrn Prof. Dr. Platzhoff, June 5, 1935, IfS, MA 8269; von Verschuer, Otmar Freiherr, “Der Erbarzt an der Jahreswende,” Der Erbarzt 3 (1936): 2Google Scholar; Stuchlik, Goethe im Braunhemd, 188–189. For a discussion of the controversy between von Verschuer and Fischer-Defoy in 1936, see the correspondence between the two in UAF, Abt. 1, Nr. 47.

39 Of the first eight institutes accredited by the RGA to undertake racial examinations, only that of von Verschuer was in southwestern Germany. Der Reichs- und Preußische Minister des Innern an Herrn Reichs- und Preußischen Minister für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung, Anhang, May 29,1936, BAB, 4901/965.

40 For a discussion of Nazi ancestral certificates, see Przyrembel, “Rassenschande”; Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof; Lilienthal, Georg, “Zum Anteil der Anthropologie an der NS-Rassenpolitik,” Medizinhistorisches Journal 19 (1984): 148–160Google Scholar; Lilienthal, Georg, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus. Das erb- und rassenkundliche Abstammungsgutachten,” Jahrbuch des Instituts für Geschichte der Medizin der Robert-Bosch-Stiftung 6 (1987): 71–91Google Scholar; Lilienthal, Georg, “Die jüdischen ‘Rassenmerkmale.’ Zur Geschichte der Anthropologie der Juden,” Medizinhistorisches Journal 28 (1993): 172–198Google Scholar. The problematic study of a single institute where racial certificates were produced is that of Seidler, Horst and Rett, Andreas, Das Reichssippenamt entscheidet. Rassenbiologie im Nationalsozialismus (Vienna: Jugend und Volk, 1982)Google Scholar. For the critique, see Kröner, “Von Vaterschaftsbestimmung zum Rassegutachten.”

41 Lilienthal, “Die jüdischen ‘Rassenmerkmale’”; Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 4–8.

42 Przyrembel, “Rassenschande,” 106–108.

43 Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 58–62, 66, 94; Przyrembel, “Rassenschande,” 105–106; Lilienthal, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus,” 16; Dr. von Ulmenstein, Freiherr, Der Abstammungsnachweis (Berlin: Verlag für Standesamtswesen, 1941), 11Google Scholar.

44 Lilienthal, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus,” 72; von Verschuer, Otmar Freiherr, “Die Vaterschaftsgutachten des Frankfurter Universitätsinstituts für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene,” Der Erbarzt 9 (1941): 25Google Scholar; von Verschuer, Erbpathologie, 2nd ed. (Dresden and Leipzig: Theodor Steinkopff, 1937), 188–198Google Scholar.

45 Lilienthal, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus,” 74.

46 Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 121.

47 Lilienthal, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus,” 76 and 78.

48 In his interview with Müller-Hill, anthropologist Wolfgang Abel states that neither he nor Fischer ever wanted to write racial certificates for the RGO. According to Abel, Fischer offered to train individuals at the RGO to undertake the task, but they refused. “We had to go on,” Abel continued. It appears that Müller-Hill gave little credence to the statements of his interviewee; Müller-Hill, Murderous Science, 138. Although I, too, would be skeptical of much of what these scientists said in the postwar years about the activities during the Third Reich, in this case Abel might have been telling the truth.

49 Von Verschuer an das Kuratorium der J. W. G. Universität Frankfurt am Main, July 10, 1936, BAB, R4901/965.

50 Lösch, Niels C., Rasse als Konstrukt. Leben und Werk Eugen Fischers (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1977), 392Google Scholar.

51 Lilienthal, “Anthropologie und Nationalsozialismus,” 83.

52 Von Verschuer an das Kuratorium der J. W. G. Universität Frankfurt am Main, July 10, 1936, BAB, R4901/965; HStAW, Abt. 484/ 760, 748, 798, 803, 902, 937.

53 HStAW, Abt. 484/738, 752, 778, 805, 827, 851, 857, 895, 926, 957, 967.

54 Cottebrune, Anne, “Leonore Liebenam, eine Wissenschaftlerin in der Rassenhygiene,” in Die Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Gießen 1607–2007, ed. Roelcke, Volker, Enke, Ulrike, and Oehler-Klein, Sigrid (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007), 266Google Scholar; von Verschuer an das Kuratorium der J. W. G.-Universität Frankfurt, UAF, Abt. 14, Nr. 201, Bl. PR; F. Schwarzweller an die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, June 1, 1937, BAB R73/10647; Schmuhl, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, 288, note 179.

55 Lebenslauf Grebe, UAF, Abt. 14, Nr. 849; Abschrift, Oct. 28, 1941, UAF, Abt. 4, 1250.

56 Lebenslauf Mengele, UAF, Abt. 4, 1502; DFMF, Akte Mengele 2085. See also Benzenhöfer, Udo, “Bemerkungen zum Lebenslauf von Josef Mengele unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Frankfurter Zeit,” Hessisches Ärzteblatt 72 (2011): 228–230Google Scholar and 239–240. For an in-depth discussion of Mengele's dissertation, see Benzenhöfer, Udo and Weiske, Katja, “Bemerkungen zur Frankfurter Dissertation von Josef Mengele über Sippenuntersuchungen bei Lippen-Kiefer-Gaumenspalte (1938),” in Benzenhöfer, ed., Mengele, Hirt, Holfelder, Berner, von Verschuer, Kranz, 9–20Google Scholar.

57 For his complaint regarding lack of male assistants owing to war, see von Verschuer an den Herrn Reichsminister für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung, Oct. 28, 1941, UAF, Abt. 4, 1.

58 Von Verschuer became a Nazi Party member only in 1940, probably to secure his future appointment as director of the KWIA. I was unable to determine whether Schwarzweller belonged to the NSDAP. Even if he was not a party member, he passed the litmus test of the NS Dozentenschaft, UAF, Abt. 14, Nr. 201 Bl. 3R.

59 HStAW, Abt. 484/738, 929. I found two other cases of Rassenschande with which members of the institute were involved, but as the documentation was incomplete or illegible, I could not analyze them. Ibid., Abt. 484/906, 977.

60 Von Verschuer an Eugen Fischer, Nov. 5, 1937, Archiv der Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Abt. III Rep 86 A, von Verschuer Nachlass, Nr. 291–3.

61 Von Verschuer an Eugen Fischer, May 20, 1937, ibid.

62 For a discussion of the use of anthropological traits in 1960, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1601-5223.1960.tb03100.x/pdf; in the immediate postwar period the Americans themselves permitted von Verschuer to undertake paternity certificates, Hessisches Staatsministerium, April 5, 1947, HStAW 504/12353/156.

63 HStAW 484/861, 904, 868, 829. In the first three cases, the issue was the possibility of “Negro blood.” In the last instance the subject was suspected of being “part gypsy.”

64 I have taken these formulations of the questions from Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 122.

65 HStAW, Abt. 484/804.

66 Ibid., Abt. 484/823.

67 See, for example, von Verschuer's decision in a case where the father and son were born in Turkey, and there was no genealogical proof of Aryan ancestry. Ibid., 484/759.

68 Ibid., Abt. 484/783.

69 Ibid., Abt. 484/843.

70 Ibid., Abt. 484/755.

71 Ehrenreich, The Nazi Ancestral Proof, 4, 6–8; Ehrenreich, “Otmar von Verschuer and the ‘Scientific’ Legitimization of Nazi Anti-Jewish Policy,” 61–66. On page 57 of his article, Ehrenreich implies that von Verschuer willfully embraced “pseudoscience” in the racial policy. Ehrenreich more strongly suggests that von Verschuer deliberately followed a path of “pseudoscience” with regard to the “Jewish question” in his response to my reply of his review of my book, The Nazi Symbiosis, in the American Historical Review (hereafter AHR) 117, no. 1 (February 2012): 322. Those interested in following our debate should see Ehrenreich's original review of my book AHR 116, no. 5 (December 2011): 1587–1588; the first exchange of letters AHR 117, no. 1 (February 2012): 321–322; and finally, the second exchange of letters AHR 117, no. 2 (April 2012): 661–662.

72 Proctor, Racial Hygiene, quote on 9; Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962)Google Scholar. More recently, historians and philosophers of science have offered numerous case studies from various historical periods, all demonstrating the difficulties and contradictions involved in trying to separate out so-called good science from “pseudoscience.” Rupnow, Dirk, Lipphardt, Veronika, Thiel, Jens, and Wessely, Christina, eds., Pseudowissenschaft (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2008)Google Scholar. I highly recommend the articles by Veronika Lipphardt, Sabine Schleiermacher and Udo Schagen, and Dirk Rupnow—all of which wrestle with the issue of “pseudoscience” in the Third Reich. Mitchell Ash's commentary on the volume's articles is especially useful.

73 Steinweis, Studying the Jew, 50–52; see note 60 for von Verschuer citation.

74 HStAW, Abt. 484/820/5.

75 Ibid., Abt. 484/937.

76 Ibid., Abt. 484/951.

77 Ibid., Abt. 484/770.

78 Ibid., Abt. 484/929. The RGO overturned Mengele's testimonial in a case by arguing the principle that genealogical proof of ancestry took precedence over a racial testimonial. Ibid., Abt. 484/784.

79 This case is mentioned as early as 1984 by Müller-Hill in the original German version of his book, Murderous Science, 38. See also the more detailed discussion of the case in Przyrembel, “Rassenschande,” 350–352. The author simply describes the circumstances and, unlike Müller-Hill, does not imply anything about the motives of von Verschuer in writing a report to several Nazi officials regarding the court's decision.

80 “Im Namen des Deutschen Volkes!,” Sept. 14, 1937, 2, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

81 An den Herrn Oberstaatsanwalt, July 9, 1937, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

82 An den Herrn Oberstaatsanwalt, Aug. 30, 1937, HstAW, Abt. 484/738; An den Herrn Oberstaatsanwalt, July 9, 1937, HstAW, Abt. 484/738. For Mengele's background, see page 650 of this essay.

83 “Im Namen des Deutschen Volkes!,” Sept. 14, 1937, HstAW, Abt. 484/738; An den Herrn Oberstaatsanwalt, July 9, 1937, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

84 Von Verschuer an den Herrn Reichs- und Preußischen Justizminister, Oct. 14, 1937, Personal Papers of Helmut Freiherr von Verschuer, Nentershausen. According to the Signatur on the document, it was originally located in the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, R22–486.

85 “Vermerk,” Oct. 20, 1937, 6, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

86 Ibid., 4.

87 Walter Gross an Herrn Prof. Dr. Freiherr von Verschuer, May 4, 1938, 3, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

88 “Abschrift des Oberstaatsanwalts bei dem Landgericht Wiesbaden,” May 11, 1938, HstAW, Abt. 484/738.

89 See Müller-Hill's comments about Otmar von Verschuer's actions in his interview with the latter's son, Helmut von Verschuer, in Müller-Hill, Murderous Science, 128.

90 HstAW, Abt. 484/858.

91 Ibid., Abt. 484/840.

92 Müller-Hill, Murderous Science, 37. This quote is also cited by Kröner, “Von der Vaterschaftsbestimmung zum Rassegutachten,” 263.

93 HstAW, Abt. 484/894.

94 Ibid., Abt. 484/960.

95 Ibid., Abt. 484/788.

96 Ibid., Abt. 484/850.

97 Ibid., Abt. 484/914.

98 Ibid., Abt. 484/947.

99 Ibid., Abt. 484/769.

100 The two cases are in ibid., Abt. 484/951 and 918.

101 See the testimony of Dr. med. Albrecht Schröder, Aug. 8, 1946, and Dr. med. Trittelvitz, July 23, 1946, DFMF, Box 31.

102 Von Verschuer an Herrn Hermann Freiherr von Verschuer, Nov. 12, 1936, Personal Papers of Helmut Freiherr von Verschuer, Nentershausen.

103 During his tenure in Frankfurt, von Verschuer served as a member of the Hereditary Health Appellate Court at least during the years 1938 and 1939. This information was communicated to me in a letter by Volker Eichler, May 19, 2011.

104 The list of works concluding that biomedical practitioners legitimized Nazi racial policy is as large as the number of books on the subject. Please see note 5.

105 Schmuhl, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, 364.

106 For a brief discussion of Generalplan Ost and the KWIA's connection to it, see Schmuhl, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, 348–357.

107 Trunk, “Two Hundred Blood Samples from Auschwitz,” 120–144.

108 Schmuhl, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, 362–371, 390–391. Trunk, “Two Hundred Blood Samples from Auschwitz.”

109 For a discussion of von Verschuer in the postwar period, see Weiss, Sheila Faith, “After the Fall: Political Whitewashing, Professional Posturing, and Personal Refashioning in the Postwar Career of Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer,” Isis 101 (2010): 722–758Google Scholar.

110 In 2006 I visited the cemetery in Solz, Germany, where von Verschuer is buried. Interestingly, there is a double stain on the tombstone. Someone, not a family member, wished to erase the original defilement, but was unsuccessful.

111 For a discussion of the role of historical continuity in the “Faustian bargain” between German human geneticists and Nazi state and party officials, see Weiss, The Nazi Symbiosis, 305–308.