Skeletons in the Closet of German Science


Enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath is a commitment to "treading with care in matters of life and death." During the Third Reich, science jettisoned these principles in a bid to advance the perfection of the German race.

Researchers recently stumbled across two extensively documented projects co-conducted during the Third Reich by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi's Auschwitz Angel of Death, and the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin.

Best known for his unspeakably horrific medical experiments using twins, Mengele's first project with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute was an investigation into how specific proteins can help identify racial origin. The second project, overseen by biologist Karin Magnusson, was a look at pigmentation in human iris color. More...