LETTER
The Exodus of a Medical School
Richard S. Panush, MD, and
Robert M. Briggs, MD
15 December 1995 | Volume 123 Issue 12 | Page 963
TO THE EDITOR:
The events related in Dr. Ernst's recent article [1] on the Medical Faculty of Vienna during and after the Nazi Anschluss offered a chilling reminder about what can happen when physicians pervert humanity. We commend Annals for this presentation.
After reading Dr. Ernst's reflections, we were surprised to find a copy of Pernkopf's anatomy atlas [2] in our medical center library. Others [3, 4] corroborate most of Dr. Ernst's recollections of Pernkopf—a man who was an "outspoken Nazi," who was named Dean of the Medical Faculty of Vienna in 1938, who presided over the "cleansing" of the faculty (which included dismissal and deportation of physicians), and who supervised activities under the Nazi rule. That Pernkopf's "... anatomic atlas ... contained material from children killed in a Viennese hospital ..." and that he "... also used the corpses of executed persons for teaching purposes ..." [1] has been strongly suspected by others but has not been independently documented [3, 4].
Some have debated the ethics of using information derived from Nazi physicians and Nazi "experiments." Most agree that revulsion at the perversions of Nazism overrides all other issues and that such material should be expunged from the literature of our profession, preserved only lest we forget [5].
We consider the character and activities of Pernkopf sufficiently disturbing to warrant removal of his atlas from circulation. We have asked our medical center do so and have also discussed this with the past and present distributors of the atlas. Institutions, as do individuals, have values. Ours are reflected in this small but significant act.
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Author and Article Information
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St. Barnabas Medical Center Livingston, NJ 07039
1. Ernst E. A leading medical school seriously damaged: Vienna 1938 Ann Intern Med. 1995;122:789-92.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Ferner H, ed. Eduard Pernkopf Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy. 2nd revised edition. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1980.
3. Weissmann G. Springtime for Pernkopf Hosp Pract. 1985;20:142-68.
4. Williams DJ. The history of Eduard Pernkopf's Topographische Anatomie des Menchen J Biocommunication. 1988;15:2-12.
5. Angell M. The Nazi hypothermia experiments and unethical research today N Engl J Med. 1990;322:1462-4.[Medline]
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