Biomedical Sciences and Human Experimentation at Kaiser Wilhelm

Home , Eva Mozes Kor, Hubert Markl, Kaiser Wilhelm Society

.- MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT

Biollledical Sciences and Hulllan Experilllentation at I{aiser Wilhellll Institutes The ~ President Hubert Markl apologizes to victims of Nazi crimes committed in the name of science

Ma:x Planck Society'sdeclarationon aseries of initiatives aimed at clearing the occasionof a scientific up the role its predecessorplayed in symposiumentitled "Biomedical National Socialism. In 1997, Hubert Sciencesand Human Experimentation Mark!, the President of the Max at KaiserWilhelm Institutes-The Planck Society,set up an independent AuschwitzConnection" onTune research commission, the task of 7- 8, 2001 in Berlin, Germany. which has been to scientifically delve into the his tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm The Max Planck Society was founded Society during the Nazi era. Those in 1948 as a new researchorganization working für the commission have free in a democratic Germany. In a scien- accessto all the documents and files tific aspect and due to numerous in" in the possession of the Max Planck stances of overlapping personnel and Society. ideals, the Max Planck Society became the heir of the Kaiser Wilhelm The historians involved with the "His- Society,which was founded in 1911. tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society during National Socialism" research an organization at the leading edge programme have recently presented The survivors 01 the oE German research, the Max Planck findings historically proving beyond so-called twins experi- Society will do its utmost to con- the shadow of a doubt that directors ments at the Auschwitz tribute to the scientiEic elucidation oE and employees of several Kaiser Wil- Concentration Camp the history oEthe Kaiser Wilhelm So- helm Institutes active in various fjelds recount their experiences ciety during Germany's National So- of biomedical science co-mastermind- during the symposium cialist regime. Over the rast decades, ed and sometimes even actively par- held at the Berlin the Max Planck Society has launched ticipated in the crimes of the Nazi Harnack House. regime. According to the findings, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's administration either knowingly or unknowingly tolerated scientists at several Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes going beyond every moral boundary and actively taking part in the Nazis' racist politics.

Same scientists at Kaiser Wilhelm In- stitutes made use of the opportunity to conduct morally unrestricted research' at Nazi coercive institutions such as psychiatric clinics or the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Among them was Otmar von Ver- schlier, who, beginning in 1942, headed up projects in so"called twillS research at Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm

TheAs Ouestions tram the international press (below jett) being answered by (above, tram left) Eva Mozes Kor, (President of C.A.N.D.l.E.S.I, Maika leffers (translator, half concealed), Jona laks Institute für Anthropology, Human für the guilt that could be heaped up- (chairwoman of the Genetics and Eugenics. Concentra- on a number of scientists working für "Organization of Mengele tion camp doctor Josef Mengele was Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes at the time. Twins"), Bernd Wirsing neither employed by nOTworking on In the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's stead, (spokesmanforthe behalf of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. President Mark! asked für forgiveness Max Planck Society) He was a protege of Otmar von Ver- für the suffering inflicted uran the and Hubert Markl schuer's, under whom he earned his victims of the crimes in the name of (President of the Max doctorate in 1938 at the University of science. He apologized für the fact Planck Society). Below Frankfurt. Even after that, the two that für lang, the Max Planck Society fight: Jochen Frowein stayed in close contact. Today, it is bad clone tao little to uncover the his- (Vice President of the safe to gay that von Verschlief knew of tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Max Planck Societyl and the crimes being committed in during National Socialism, thereby Klaus Pinkau (emeritus Auschwitz and that he -together with facing up to its historical responsibili- scientific member, fight). some of his employees and colleagues ty tao late. -used them für his purposes. On behalf of the Max Planck Society, On the occasion oE the symposium President Mark! declared that every entitled "Biomedical Sciences and area of science needed to have its Human Experimentation at Kaiser ethical und legal boundaries. He Wilhelm Institutes -The Auschwitz warned scientists never to forget that Connection" on June 7, 2001 in there are no scientific goals that can Berlin, Germany, the President oEthe be viewed as so important and of such Max Planck Society, Hubert Mark!, high priority that they justify a hu- acknowledged that the Max Planck man's dignity and their inalienable Society was historically responsible fights being disregarded.

4 "

Welcome address by Wolfgang Schieder,

.."History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the National Socialist Era"

focusing on a nu mber of central aspects. First of all, we are conducting research into the organization and central research and personnel policies of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's administrative headquarters. Second, we are studying the activities that fall into the category of armaments research. Third, we are examining the fjeld of what is called in German Ost- forschung and Lebensraumforschung, meaning research on eastern Europe and human habitat in general, which were important to Nazi Germany's plans to become completely self-suffi- cient. OUTwork, however, only covers this subject to the extent that it was As joint chairman of connected with the National Social- The Presidential Commission set up ists' war of conquest. Fourth, we are to investigate the "History of the paying particular attention to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Nation- complex of lire science, medical, and al Socialist Era" and headed by my psychiatric research carried out at in- Max Planck Society's colleague, Reinhard Rürup, and my- stitutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Harnack House in Berlin. self was called into being in 1997 that contributed to the legitimization uran the initiative of the President of and refinement of NazI policies on the Max Planck Society, Hubert face and euthanasia. Mark!. It is a scientifically independ- It is OUTdealings with this research ent group of researcherswho are sure, work that have brought us together to- however,to maintain the particular in- dar. Even though we have Jet to find terest of the Max Planck Society's final proof für some links and proba- President. This relations hip is reflect- bly never will, it has been established ed in the fact that we have organized that, at the very least, the Kaiser Wil- this symposium together with the helm Institute für Anthropology, Hu- Society's administrative headquarters man Genetics, and Eugenics in Berlin and that Professor Mark! is in atten- under the administration of Otmar dance in order to give a special ad- Freiherr von Verschuer bad scientific dress momentarily. contacts to Auschwitz Concentration The score of Dur research could not Camp and its doctor, loser Mengele. begin to examine the entire activities It is undisputed that, at the institute, of a total of 45 research institutions preparations from murdered Ausch- belonging to the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci- witz prisoners were used für research ety during the period of National So- purposes. All evidence primarily indi- cialism in Germany. Instead, we are cates tha~ the experiments involved

5 Studying the programme are (!rom lell) Andrzej Poltawski, Wanda Poltawska, Olto Klein, SaulOren (behind, middlel. The pictures below show (!rom lelll Jan Philipp Reemtsma, the use of blood sampies für genetic Müller-Hili to send 'Out invitations to managing director o! the research. These are sampies Dr. Men- survivors of the medical experiments Hamburg Institute fot gele took from Auschwitz prisoners by conducted in Auschwitz by Dr. Men- Social Research with force. gele on twi~ children of lews. We are Reinhard Rürup and Thus, we have findings pointing to extraordinarily grateful to Eva Mozes Elmar ZeitIer, Peter Hans uninhibited medical research having Kor, who with her organization, Ho!schneider and Benno abandoned all ethical boundaries für C.A.N.D.L.E.S (Children of Ausch- Müller-Hili. the alleged sake of medical progress. witz -Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments In a major speech just recently given Survivors), has been the key help we by Germany's President, Johannes needed to establish contact with the Rau, which he used to warn against survivors present today. being uninhibitedly concerned wirb In her moving memoirs entitled scientific progress,he pur it like this: "Echoes from Auschwitz", published "Science, being devoid of any moral in 1995, she powerfully described scruples, carried out unbridled re- how in 1944 she and her twin sister, search für the sake of its scientific Miriam, who has sadlypassed away, as aims." Science was no longer being ten-year-olds in Auschwitz lost their conducted für people, it was being parents and their childhood. In her conducted on people. account, she writes, "I am a victim. The victims of there experiments on Yet I am ignored." We would consider humans who survived have bad and ourselves fortunate if, following this continue to have a heavy load to bear symposium, you and your fellow sur- throughout their lives. They wellt vivors, whom we are delighted to have through an excruciating experience with us today, no longer feit that you that exceedsthe limits of a historian's are victims who have been left alone. imagination. Historians, after all, gen- erally have to rely on accounts in writ- tell documents. Anyone wishing to grasp in retrospect the moral depravity of which German science was capable must therefore seek contact wirb the surviving victims of such research. That is why we were more than will. ing to follow through wirb the propos- al made especially by ProfessorBenno Speech given by Hubert Markl, President ot the Max Planck Society tor the Advancement ot Science

cisely because it hurts, to accept the truth and face up to Dur responsibility to leam für the present and the future from insight into the past. We owe that above all to the victims of Natio- nalSocialist ideology.We owe it to the many who perished as much as we do to the few survivors.

The existence of fiere suspicions instead of established facts can easily give rise to distorted historical accounts, allow stubborn denial and glossing over to persist, and all to easily turn, an admission of responsibility into pure lip service, whereas the unadulterated, historically document- "We must accept the ed knowledge of the crimes committed truth no matter how The role played by science during the ]back then cannot be avoided. This is painful. turn to face our Nazi dictatorship is Olle of the many with certainty one area where the Max responsibility in order chapters of Germany's past that re- Planck Society and so many post- to learn tor the present mains insufficiently unveiled up to World War 11 organizations, compa- and future from an the present day.This also holds für the nies, and institutions in Germany have understanding ofthe Kaiser Wilhelm Society as predeces- failed. For war tao lang, many ques- pas!: Max Planck sor of the Max Planck Society. The tions were not asked; für war tao lang, President Hubert Markl symposium entitled "Biomedical Sci- many connections remained uninvesti- during his speech. ences and Human Experimentation gated or only dealt with by outsiders; at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes -The and für war tao lang, many documents Auschwitz Connection" taking place lay in the archives, either inaccessible this aftemoon and tomorrow is part of because they remained classified or a research programme based on se- becausepeople were all tao glad to dis- lected instances and scientifically ex- regard them. For tao lang, colleagues amining the actions of the Kaiser Wil- supported each other by remaining helm Society and its scientists during silent and not asking questions instead the period of National Socialism. of opening the dOOfto honest investi- Therefore, this symposium is part of gation that was needed. Too many had the MaX Planck Society's efforts to collaborated with the Nazi dictator- unreservedly reveal all the facts about ship, either actively or passively,to the its history by means of historical re- point where they were happy to hide search, thereby shedding light upon their own joint responsibility or even the dark chapters of its own past. We complicity, so that, undisturbed and must be prepared as weil -no matter unburdened, they ceuld be apart of how painful it may be, and even pre- the new, democratic, post-war society.

1 Today's greater willingness to face up to the facts of the past is therefore not an expressionof a hypocritically repet- itive fault-finding attitude or even moralizing arrogance of the Spätge- borene (those too young at the time to possibly bear any guilt for the events of the dar). mstead, it is the fulfill- ment of a duty which those who were close ties due to the fact that many of to grips with its rast. For example, as directly involved and affected did not the newly founded Max Planck Soci- early as the 1950s, we signed long- see themselves capable of performing ety's leading scientists bad previously term cooperation agreements with Is- for a long time, or which they, having worked at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. rael's Weizmann Institute, lang before been directly associated with the the Federal Republic of Germany was events, shunned, while those not in- So, although today's Max Planck Soci- ahle to establish diplomatic relations volved exercised what they misper- ety is not identical to the Kaiser Wil- with the nation of Israel. In 1973, we ceived as consideration for others. Yet, helm Society, due to a significant set up Gur own archive with the task we owe it to ourselves as weil as the number of connections between the of securing, examining, and making generations to come to no Ionger at- two, it has without a doubt raken pos- the files of the Kaiser Wilhelm and tempt to avoid the necessary investi- session of its predecessor's inheri- Max Planck Societies accessible to galion into the truth. tance in many aspects. Even the the public and, in particular, re- simple fact that the Society was searchers,provided they meet certain As an organization at the leading edge named after Max Planck, Olle of the legal requirements. In 1983, President of Gerrnan research, the Max Planck most outstanding physicists of the Reimar Lüst gave inspiration to a Society has a tremendous responsibil- 20th century, a man of impeccable festschrift in celebration of the Kaiser irr to do its part to uncover the rast, character, Nobel Prize laureate in Wilhelm Society's 75th anniversary. particularly its own. On the olle hand, 1918, President of the Kaiser Wilhelm It was edited by Rudolf Vierhaus and it is true that the Max Planck Society Society from 1930 to 1937 and in Bernhard vom Brocke who used it to was founded in 1948 at the bebest 1945/46, was a deliberate expression lay the foundation für fl,jrther investi- and with the support of the American of ideal continuity, bur at the same galion. When it became known that and British occupying forces quite in- time also Olle signifying a new moral tissue sampies from victims of Nazi tentionally as a new institution, a beginning. Taking possession of an crimes were still in the possessionof democratic organization für research inheritance, however, means accept- same Max Planck Institutes, the Max in a new and democratic Gerrnany. ing responsibility for everything, both Planck Society,then under the leader- On the other hand, however,the Max the positive -in particular the great ship of Heinz Staab, did everything Planck Society at the same time in scientific tradition of individuals like conceivable to establish the facts and many scientific aspects stood in the Adolf von Harnack, Albert Einstein, to pay due respect to the victims. In tradition of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci- Lise Meltner, Max von Laue, or Max 1990, their remains were ceremoni- ety, für it feit obligated towards the Planck -and the negative, which ously laid to rest in a Munich ceme- best of scientific heritages that bad means admitting guilt. tery, and a memorial was set up in been passed down to it and which it their remembrance. On October 14, has sought to preserve to this very dar. Over the rast few decades, the Max of last year,together with the Hermann As rar as personnel at the two organi- Planck Society has launched aseries von Helmholtz Assöciation and the zations is concemed, there were also of initiatives aimed at actively coming Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Max Planck President Hubert Markl welcomes Dito Klein. one of the survivors of concentration camp human experi-

Reichenberg (right). Picture below: the opening ceremony in Berlin, right are the two chairmen of the Presidential Commission Wolfgang Schieder and Reinhard Rürup (right).

we unveiled a memorial to the victims Brookes University, Oxford), and Fritz Third Reich can never be accom- of "euthanasia" murders, and wirb Stern {Columbia University, New plished on its own. It reviews and that of blinded science, in the Berlin Volk). Jochen Frowein (MPI fOT Inter- evaluates the status of research on suburb of Buch. national Law, Heidelberg, and Vice specific fjelds of related topics, it President of the Humanities Section compiles its own reports, it brings ini- Following preparations by my prede- of the Max Planck Society) is also a tiatives für further research work and cessor, Hans Zacher, in 1997 I remember of the commission. He takes sees to it that they are carried out or ceived permission from the Senate of the place of Franz Emanuel Weinert that the work is performed by a sepa- the Max Planck Society to set up a re- (MPI fOT Psychological Research, rate body. No matter how costly and search commission whose task would Munich, and former Vice President of ambitious a research programme may be to delve scientifically into the his- the Max Planck Society), who passed be, it could hardly evalu~te all the tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society away much tao soon in March of this sources and illuminate all the aspects during the Nazi era and draw the most real. Without any outside influence on its own with limited time and limit- precise picture possible of the events flom the administration of the Max ed resources. Confronting the his tory of those darg and their consequences. Planck Society and having to answer of Nazism is primarily a permanent The commission's co-chairmen are only to the commission, guest scien- task für the science of history and the Professors Reinhard Rürup of the tists and doctoral candidates &om whole of German society, a task with Technical University of Berlin and Germany and abroad work together which they see themselves faced over Wolfgang Schieder of the University on the research programme. Historian and over again. of Cologne. Both of these men are in- Dr. Carola Sachse is in charge of proj- ternationally respected historians, and ect management. Bit by bit, the commission's fact-find- neither of them -and this was of par- ing mission will, however, be ahle to ticular importance to us -is a mem- The commission and its workers have bring confirmation to the areas where her of the Max Planck Society.The re- free access to all the files the Max previously there was orten no more maining members of the commission Planck Society possesses.The com- than suspicion. It can lay a strang are ProfessorsDoris Kaufmann (of the mission puts out its own series of pub- foundation based on fact, one that University of Bremen), Hartmut lications and holds public lectures, will enable assessmentsto go beyond Lehmann (MPI für History in Gättin- symposiums, and workshops in order the general expression of dismay at gen), Jürgen Renn (MPI für the Histo- to generate discussion of the results of the crimes committed during the Nazi ry of Science in Berlin), Hans-Järg its work among not just the scientific era. It can contribute to uncovering Rheinberger (MPI für the History of community but the general public as the names of victims and perpetrators. Science in Berlin), Michael Stolleis weil. Its members are aware that the Most of all, it can attempt to expose (MPI für European Legal History, task of scientifically elucidating the their motives and the reasons für their Frankfurt), Paul Weindling (Oxford Kaiser Wilhelm Society's role in the moral failure, It will be ahle to provide concrete documentation of guilt, thereby fulfilling the prerequisite für an honest confrontation with the rast. However, it should also make it clear to see those areas where moral character and scientific ethos caused people to resist the temptation of research opportunities'that we describe in German as entgrenzt, an adjective

9 At the table (trom lett! Wanda Poltawska, Bernd Gausemeier, doctoral candidate within the research programme, Vera Kriegel and Paul Weindling, Brookes University, Oxtord. Behind Wolfgang Preller, Shmuel Kriegel (half concl1aled), Mary Wright, Annette Vogt, MPI tor the History ot Sience, Helga Satzinger, guest scientist, TU Berlin, Andrzej Poltawski and Axel Cäsar Hüntel- mann. Pictures below (trom jett) Vera Kriegei, Eva Mozes Kor, Hubert Markl, SaulOren and Shmuel Kriegel (sitting!.

literally meaning "with its borders re-moved"sibility do not degenerate into emptywordsis "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm- hut indicating something of politically correct rhetoric by Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. morally unrestricted, in particular the either demanding or giving confes- Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven research and experiments conducted sions in an abstract manner so lacking d~r Forschung', which means "Histo- by the Nazis. in specific reference to deeds and per- ry of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society dur- petrators that, to make up für it, they ing National Socialism. Portrait and Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its are given even stronger moral impe- perspectives in research", edited by administration were apart of the tus. That is why I have always placed Doris Kaufmann (Göttingen, 2000). limes back then. Therefore, the di-versegreat importance on investigating and facets of political and social re- examining rast events with all due The commission chose to first focus ality in those darg were also reflected diligence of historical science first, its work on the fjeld of biomedicine in the reality of the Kaiser Wilhelm before carrying out an evaluation on and the researchinto and practical ap- Society. Yet, Olle cannot judge or con- the scientifically secure foundation of plication of racial biology. They made demn the people of Germany as a historical fact. a correct and obvious choice, because whole any more than olle can view the this is where one can most clearly see Kaiser Wilhelm Society without mak- The research programme, set up to be in what way and to what extent Ger- ing any distinctions, für that would carried out over aperiod of five years, man researchers at the time were in- not do it or its key playersjustice. It was opened in March 1999 with a volved with the Nazi regime. Further- was deeply imbedded in the National four-day conference taking place to more, the fjeld of biomedicine is Socialist thinking and prejudices of its review current researchand give inter- where the largest number of people time -even those which it claimed to pretive perspectives on the history of fell victim to science in the most hor- be studying and justifying through sci- science under National Socialism. rible ways and where the rejection of ence -just as they were widespread in Numerous internationally renowned science's mor?l boundaries due to the other countries. It is für that very rea- historians from Germany and abroad Nazis' racial mania becomes most di- gon we are leEr wirb the task of ex- carried out a surveybased on the level rectly obvious. For certain, there are plaining why, of all places, it was in of research up to that point of what many faces -and not just German Germany -in those darg at the peak bad beeil discovered and documented ones -and deep roots -and by no of scientific civilization-that opinions about the role played by the Kaiser means just German ones -to inhu- turned into incendiary slogans, pre- Wilhelm Society and other organiza- mane racism. There has been ex- conceived notions into condemnation, tions in National Socialism. The re- ploitation and enslavement, oppres- more or less abstruse theories into ac- sults of the conference were pub- sion and rare, as weil as torture and tions, and chauvinistic literature into lished in an anthology and thus docu- mass murder to the point of genocide bloody crimes. mented and made accessible für any- für reasons of racial arroganceand ha- olle. The title of this German volume tred. There were self-proclaimed Dealing with historical responsibility requires from us Germans a high degree of sensitivity. Even though most of us today cannot be held personally responsible since we were born later, it remains the task of today's and all future generations to look the historical truth in the eye. When doing so, we must insure that guilt and respon-

The tolerate directors and leading scientists at several Kaiser Wilhelm Insti- tutes as they, by their own endeavor, promoted and look an active tale in the racist policies of those in power at the time. The activities revolved especially (but not exclusively)around the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute für Anthro- "master races" who subjected their which they were committed, and pology, Human Genetics, and Eugen- "slave races" to agony and atrocities shame oE this kind will continue to ics in Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm In- with a clear conscience and after- live as lang as Olle remembers it. stitute für Brain Research in the wards went unpunished. These are Berlin suburb of Buch, and the Ger- neither merely German nor modem Building uran the already weighty man ResearchInstitute für Psychiatry depravities of a godlesslyrootless soci- level of research, the commission has in Munich..As far as we have been ety, and they are unfortunately also managed to collect extensive informa- able to determine with a high degree not ones that ceased to exist along tion during its work. First of all, it has of assurance,the activities transpired with the Third Reich. We scientists, been ahle to confirm same of what was in three fjelds in particular. however,should consider one particu- suspected up to this point. Secondly, lar form of such malignant racism additional knowledge has been gained Nazi racial legislation, including the even worse than all the other atroci- in same important areas. Mter t,:"o revolting 1935 Nuremberg Laws, and ties in the catalogue of humanity's years now, there is scientific evidence its practical application für purposes sins. Because we think of science as historically proving beyond the shadow of "racial hygiene" was supported and one of mankind's greatest achieve- of a doubt that directors and employ- sometimes even initiated by a number ments -and rightfully so -we ought ees at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes co- of directors and employees at Kaiser to shudder at the thought of scientifi- masterminded and sometimes even Wilhelm Institutes, such as Ernst cally justified racism and the allegedly actively participated in the crimes of Rüdin or Eugen Fischer. scientifically justified ptactice of hu- the Nazi regime, thus allowing -in- man extermination even more than at deed demanding -clear recognition of lnvolvement in criminal euthanasia all other forms of torturous degrada- these facts. The Max Planck Society based on eugenics and "racial hy- tion and deprivation of a fellow hu- as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's "heir" giene" or even the mer'e use of killed man being's fights. For there is no must face up to these historical facts victims für scientific experiments by crime worse than highly intelligent and, together with them, its moral Kaiser Wilhelm scientists such as people with sound minds, cold hearts, responsibility.As President of the Max Hugo Spatz or Julius Hallervorden and dead consciences with absolutely Planck Society, I would therefore like was a clear and indubitable violation no compassion mistreating other peo- to make an assessmentand publicly of the boundaries of ethically respon- pIe and killing them while professing substantiate it hefe today. sibleresearch. to be contributing to the search für scientific knowledge. Criminal acts of As rar as we know, the Kaiser Wilhelm This also holds für knowingly and this kind are an inextinguishable Society as a whole did not pass any willingly using without permissionthe shame, not only für those who perpe- resolutions via its board of directors or allegedly scientific research facilities trated them, hut also für all those who other bodies to take an active part in at Nazi coercive institutions, be they tolerated them, and in fact, für the lire criminal researchwork. Nevertheless, psychiatric clinics or concentration sciences themselves, in the name of it did either knowingly or unknowingly camps like Auschwitz. These especial-

11 ly included certain projects involving studies conducted on twillS at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute für Anthro- pology under the administration of Otmar von Verschlief, beginning in 1942. Although concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele was not working as an employee or on behalf of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society,he was a pro- entists -from within the Kaiser Wil- tion of scientific research that de- rege of Otmar von Verschuer's, under helm Society as weIl -cooperated in grades human beings to fiere objects whom he bad earned his doctorate in the preparation of Nazi crimes, and of experimentation. For us scientists 1938 at the University of Frankfurt. they used them to pursue their scien- this is a warning to never forget that Even after that, they maintained close tific goals beyond every moral bound- there is no goal of research that can contact wirb Olle another, as various ary of humanity. They contributed to be viewed as so important and high- documents clearly show. We may nev- innocent people, many of them chil- ranking that it justifies seriously re- er be ahle to find out about all the drell, being tom away from their fami- stricting or completely disregarding details of their relationship, bur today lies, humiliated, tortured, and even another person's dignity or human it is safe to say that Verschlief knew murdered. The assessment of their fights against their will. The bouna- that crimes were being committed at guilt in legal terms is the responsibili- aries of freedom in science are delin- Auschwitz, that he and his employees ty of the courts in a society governed eated by the inalienable fights and in- used the victims für scientific purpos- by the rille of law. Historians canonly violable dignity of human beings. es, and that he probably bad an active determine collaboration and responsi- influence on how these crimes were bility. When viewing the past with hu- For another, I am forced by the find- carried out. The results of the Presi- man compassion, Olle shudders at the ings of the researchinto the history of dential Commission's research on this thought of such inhumanity taking on involvement and guilt of a number of topic have been recorded and pub- the guise of scientific research. scientists working at Kaiser Wilhelm lished. Olle title in particular by Doc- Institutes at the time to both person- tors Carola Sachseand Benoit Massin What lessons and ally and as President of the Max would be in English "Life Science Re- consequences can we draw Planck Society state my position on search at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes from all this today? the events that took place. I consider and the Crimes of the Nazi Regime. it a moral obligation that has been Information on the Current Level For one thing, we have to be aware placed uran the Max Planck Society of Knowledge" (Berlin 2000). Among that every realm oEscience has to have in accordance with its responsibility as other things, the symposium taking its moral bounds. We need to under- the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's "heir", place this afternoon and tomorrow stand that scientists can become and I feel ii as a Gerrnan scientist -es- will also be dealing wirb how these guilty oE crimes and how that hap- pecially as a biologist -in the presence details are connected. pens. The his tory oE the Kaiser Wil- of victims of those inhumane experi- helm Society during the period oENa- ments carried out at the time by Ger- Verschlief and others attempted to tional Socialism in Germany demon- man lire scientists or on their orders. justify actions violating every known strates how science can become in- human fight by offering the excuse volved in devising, preparing, and A sincere admission of our historical that they were serving the best inter. even actively participating in the most responsibility musr be expressed ests of science. Leading German sci. abominable crimes and the brutaliza- clearly, hut it must equally include

12 Vera Kriegel and Eva MOles Kor express their appreciation to Carola Sachse (Iett), research director, for the invitation extended to the concentration camp victims to participate in a personal dialogue. Acknowledgement of the expression of reparation, conveyed by Efraim Reichenberg (below, together with the interpreters Adina Stern, jett, and Maika Leffers) and Vera Kriegel (right) to Hubert Markl.

clear differentiation. In retrospect, I medical science that was robbed of us by the past. Therefore, I wish to seethree levels of guilt. every moral boundary; a science apologize für the suffering inflicted whose racist theories do indeed not upon the victims of these crimes in 1. The guilt of Germanscientists: deserve to be called "scientific", hut the name of science -to those who At the time, Germany was in the glo- which cannot deny that it is also to perished and have since passed away bal forefront of many fjelds of science. blame für the terrible consequences and to the Olleswho have survived. The work düne by the commission has to which they led. made evident that even leading-edge I do not make such an apology lightly. research is not invulnerable to moral 3. The guilt of the Though many people today are quite abysses. What took place then in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society: quick to think of demanding an apolo- name of science für the purpose As lalready outlined at the beginning, gy and then give immediate expres- of promoting racism and allegedly the Max Planck Society was 4nten- sion to their thoughts, if one is to truly "eugenic" human expurgation were tionally founded after the war to be a mean what is expressed by the Eng- crimes that will forever weigh heavily new organization in order to enable lish phrase "excuse me," namely the on German science. science to have a fresh start in a new, "removal of guilt", then one cannot re- democratic Germany. However, due main silent concerning one's doubts. The guilt of life scientists: to the fact that the Max Planck Soci- Most people apologize by saying, "Ex- National Socialism's entire body of ety sees itself as the Kaiser Wilhelm cuse me," or "I'm sorry," when they of- racist thought is an expression of a Society's "heir", it has the obligation to fend someone, say something wrong, materialistic, Social Darwinist, dehu- admit its guilt as weil. The KaiserWil- or -either literally or figuratively - manized form of biology, für which helm Society tolerat~d or even pro- ster one someone's toes. But can a Charles Darwin himself, however, in moted within its ranks researchwhich perpetrator of heinous crimes against contrast to his racist disciples, cannot was not to be justified für any ethical humanity really make an apology? be held responsible. For certain, the or moral reasons. Thus, it placed itself Certainly, he can if he feels sincere re- roots of this body of ideas were plant- -at least in a number of areas-in the morse für his deeds. However, can ed before 1933 and were even inter- service of a criminal regime, thereby another person feel that remorse in national and not just confined to Ger- taking upon itself the moral guilt für the offender's place, especially if the many. Hut, hefe in Germany, doctors assisting in such crimes. one who committ~d the crime per- and biologists, having accepted that bars feit none at all? Is there no such man descended from animals, wellt By confessing this three-fold historical thing as an injustice so inexcusable Olle step further: to treating human responsibility, I, as a Gerrnan scien- that any apology seems to be shedding beings like animals. The guilt für uti- tist, life scientist, and President of the responsibility? As I stand hefe and lizing human beings as laboratory ani- Max Planck Society, am fulfilling the apologize both personally and on be- mals can be specifically placed on bio- obligation that has been placed upon half of the Max Planck Society in proxy für the Kaiser~ Wilhelm Society, I am referring to the sincere expression of deepest regret, compassion, and shame at the fact that crimes of this soft were committed, promoted, and not prevented within the ranks of German scientists. There is something-else I must add. The membersof later generations may

2. As a German scientist, life scientist and President of the Max Planck Society, Huber! Markl (middlel apologizes to the survivors of criminal human experimentation which not be ahle to be held personally re- to the other victims in attendance, für look place in the con- sponsible für the events that took today YOll are representing, in asense, centration camps (first place back then, hut they carry the re- the victims in their entirety. I am very row silling, tram right) sponsibility für exposing and shedding sorry. Eva Mozes Kor. Vera light on the historical truth as a pre- and Shmuel Kriegei, condition für honest remembrance It is a painful way to meer the past 0110Klein, Mary Wright; and learning. The fact that, für a lang when Olle personally stands face to behind tram let!: time, this did not take place to the de- face with the victims of those crimes. lydia Gallo, Reinhard sired extent within the Max Planck At the same time, we feel growing in Rürup. Sabine Feiner. Society, is für certain only partially us a most enduring dedication to con- Bernd Ebersold and due to classified documents having re- tinue making every effort to unre- Carola Sachse. mained in the archives. It is certainly servedly elucidate what happened due to a lack of willingness on the part back then, and it serves as a most per- of same accessories or even accom- manent admonition to preserve the plices inside and outside the Max memory of it and, by teaching from Planck Society to face up to their his- what we remember, to learn together torical responsibility. The Max Planck with others. Though truth does not Society must also admit its fault set Olle free from guilt and shame, in this area, für which I' offer a very it releases Olle from repression and special apology, für it did not happen lying, and opens the dOOfto a future under the constraints of dictatorship, that can learn from the past. hut in a free society which expressly guarantees and encourages freedom The most honest form of apology of research. is therefore exposing guilt; für scientists, this ought to be perhaps the An admission of guilt is only concrete most appropriate form of apology. and complete once it has beeil spaken In actuality, the perpetrator is the only directly to those who have beeil in- Olle who can ask für forgiveness. jured, the ill-treated victims who suf- Nevertheless, I beg rau, the surviving fered all these unimaginable atrocities victims, from the bottom of my heart with their very own minds and bodies. to forgive those who, no matter what Therefore, both personally and on be- their reasons,failed to ask you them- half of the Max Planck Society, allow selves. me to express my deepest regrets to you, Mrs. Kor; to you, Mrs. Laks; and

14 "To remember is the warning we have been given against forgetting"

Speech given by Jona Laks, Chairwoman of the "Organization of Mengele Twins", Tel Aviv

particulary if your connections with the institutions are new, years after the things happened. Your sense of responsibility certainly assists in pre- venting their being forgotten. And everyone who assists in it merits our appreciation and blessing. So: be blessed!

Dr. Mengele, a doctor and an S.S. of- ficer, named "The Angel of Death of Auschwitz", served there from 1943 until the liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945. The connection between Dr. Mengele and the "Kaiser Wilhelm Institute" is a fact. The connection involved necessarily people, Jona laks Irom Tel Aviv correspondence and documents. Ob- warns against the "inter- Professors,Doctors, Researchers, viously, Dr. Mengele was involved and pretation 01 memory" in esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen, active in the Institute itself. The peo- her speech at the Max pie working there could not be mis- Planck Society's Harnack I will begin by thanking the Max raken about his activities. He corre- House in Berlin. Planck Society and Dr. Carola Sachse, sponded with them in the language of director of the research programme medicine, and this languageaspires to "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci- precision and realism. ety in the National Socialist Era" for the very fact that you invited us to Dr. Mengele was not outside of histo- participate at this symposium. Since, ry, not outside of time, and not outside to our regret, we have long become of the networks that activate a society: accustomed to other people appearing organizations, law, communications in the name of victims of the Holo- systems, archives and culture. Dr. caust, on the authority of their profes- Mengele was not outside of Germany. sional specialization of that period - I would like to quote from an official and then what appears is not the Soviet report of]anuary 1945, saying: memory, hut "the interpretation of the ".In the camp of Auschwitz special memory". hospitals were set ur with operating histologicallaboratories and other in- And I also thank you für the very fact stitutions, in which German profes- that you are conducting an investiga- sors and doctors performed extensive tion of the connection between Dr. experiments on absolutely healthy Mengele's deeds and Gerrnan medical people: men, warnen and children. institutions, and that you feel respon- Experiments were conducted in mak- sible für, though you are not "heirs", ing warnen sterile, castrating men,

15 Carola Sachse. Vera Kriegei. Wollgang Schieder. Eva Mozes Kor. Hubert Markl and Jürgen Kocka. President 01the Wissenschattszentrum Berlin (behind). lollow the speech made by Jona laks (picture below jett) in which she thanked the President 01 the Max Planck Society tor his goodwill in "olfering us an apology".

experiments on chiIdren, experiments Who am I? I am Jona Laks from I am a representative of Mengele's vic- in infecting massesof peopIe with the "there" marked no. A-27725. Now an tims. In other words, I am an emissary diseases of cancer, typhus, fever etc, Israeli citizen who does not cease in the elementary sense of the ward - In investigating the effects of various admiring Israel für gathering in the an emissary of those of Mengele's vic- chemicaI compounds on commissions survivors of the Holocaust, at a time tims who are still alive. An emissary, from German commerciaI companies, when Israel itself was fighting a war not a proprietor. And according to the on Olle occasion representatives of für its independence. Ihave no part in law regarding emissaries in the Jewish the German chemicaI industry, the the position of the "new historians" code of observances (Halakha) -if I doctor and gynecoIogist Grauber who insinuate that the stare of Israel forgive in the name of the dead, I will from Königshütte, and the chemist was interested in refugees from the be going beyond the bounds of the GoebbeI, purchased from the camp Holocaust mainly für its army. But this mission that I have taken uran myself administration 150 women from position totally shocksme emotionally to the point of distorting and destroy- among detainees there für such exper- and mentally. ing it. As für those of Mengele's vic- iments." (End of Quotation.) tims who are still alive, those who are I am Jona Laks from Tel Aviv,a human members of OUTorganization, I have Ladies and gentlemen, to speak about being. As I see it, a human being is a received no permission from them to Auschwitz is difficult für me, hut nec- person who remembers. Memory re- forgive on their behalf. Nor do I as an essaryfür me. I am not a historian, not quires cultivating, nourishing partners. individual have the fight to forgive. a philosopher, not an author or an We are the last witnesseswho remem- Hence, I have no one's power ofattor- artist. I do not have the ability to pro- her. After we die, the memory will be ney to forgive, hut to remind that for- duce a new discourse about Ausch- in documents, court verdicts, in cine- givenesserases memory. witz, a discourse that would sweep ma, in video, in the various kinds of lit- away cliches that have accumulated erature and no longer by means of the Let us adhere to Auschwitz as a physi- over the years,to the point where they living voice. All cultures prefer tl)e liv- cal fact. Let us no~ collaborate in the have dulled it and made it into a sub- ing voice as a witness over the above "cultural game", in which Auschwitz is ject für philosophy or cinema, or a dis- mentioned substitutes and reservoirs. a metaphor, 01 a subject, or a "reli- course that would block metaphysical gious discussion", or an embodiment commentaries, such as that Auschwitz I remember Dr. Mengele. I have come of the "evil" striving against the was altogether outside of this planet hefe to affirm it once again. I am a pri- "good". We were there. Someone who etc. It was inside our planet and apart vate individual alive. Not a represen- was not there and does research on of it, perpetrated by human beings tative of astate and not a means of Auschwitz from a distance in time and against the lives of other human be- arranging the balance of monetary from an psychological distance, is ings. It was here, amongst usoThere is agreements between Germany and tempted by the metaphor. We were no guarantee that it will not return the victims of the Nazis. there, which means that it is never- again.

Ladies and gentlemen, human beings made Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele was born to human beings. He and his wife were parents of human beings. (I personally met Mr. Rolf Yenkel -the san of Dr. Mengele. He left the im- pression also of a human being.)

1& the victims' sincerity. We are the victims. You are the present heads of the Max Planck Society. You want "to clear up the Nazi crimes". We want to remember, hut we ask not only ourselves to remember, hut you as weil. In other words, we are asking you to remember what you want to "clear up" theless fitting to hear our testimony Was Mengele "the embodiment of and then perhaps forget. We will re- and to relate to our words, at least evil"? Certainly, he was an embodi- member in any case. Will you forget in equal to one of the documents from ment of evil in the reality itself, but to any case? the period. turn hirn into the concept "the embodiment of evil" casts a certain aura After we die, Auschwitz and Mengele Even I myself, who was there, am no around hirn, as though he were a rep- will be remembered by means of video longer sure of "language".Am I not in- resentative of the "evil" in its ongoing films, written literature, archives, re- evitably recycling banal and quasi-reli- historical struggle with the "good". membrancedays and Spielberg-style gious images of Auschwitz? Are the Mengele, in my eyes,was not a repre- cinema. Will you see all these as a Auschwitzian facts capable of trans- sentative, he was he hirnself. All this kind' of "cultural solution" to rast mitting themselves as theyare? Is my discourse transforms Auschwitz and questions which were troublesome addressee ahle, ar1d in the present Mengele into images, severs them and have now stopped being trouble- case ahle -not mer:elywilling, -to ex- from reality. same, and are now summed up in a perience my language in its plain monument or a video? sense? I was there, and Dr. Mengele was there. From there Dr. Mengele trans- Now to "the victims' sincerity". Each Has the "discourse" about Auschwjtz mitted his findings to the Kaiser Wil- dar that passesintensifies our need to not narrowed extremely the possibility helm medical institute. My friends, the prove that our memory is sincere and of "plain speech" about Auschwitz and twins, then children, and I were his ob- honest. But every dar that passescov- Dr. Mengele? Does not Mengele as jects. And that is how we arrived at the ers more and more the surface of the the "symbol of evil" push Mengele in- abovementioned medical institute. memory. to the category of a symbol and reduce the possibility of speaking about Men- I would like to quote from the Bible As "findings of research" as a message gele himself as apart of the Gerrnan Joel I, verse 3, about memory in Ger- in medicallanguage, German doctors medical system of the time? I ask God man: "Sagt euren Kindern davon und and researchersmade use of Dr. Men- to restore the power of plain speech. lasst es eure Kinder i,hren Kindern gele'sreports from Auschwitz. Auschwitz was in Poland to the west sagen und diese wiederum ihren of Cracow. Before the war, it bad Nachkommen," To remember, we hav~ already grown 12,000 inhabitants, 4,000 of them weary from the vast quantity of auto- Jews. Auschwjtz was beside the Sola Yes, I remember. I was there. I then matic and official utterances about river, not outside the planet. Not in am both a soldier and a witness in the the Holocaust and memory. We have hell. Not outside of culture, not out- lang Jewish joumey of memory. taken weil the few precious and valu- side of history, like Treblinka, Maj- ahle things that have been written, danek, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and And hefe, ladies and gentlemen, we such as those by Prima Levi. I will all of them together. come to a cruel and exclusive thing: only note hefe, ladies and gentlemen, that, as rar as I know, only in Judaism is the instruction "to remember" a reli- the horritic: Jona laks gious precept. Judaism commands its brought with her tram adherents: "Remember the days of the world, remember that you were a the year1944 signed slave, remember what Amalek did to you." Maimonides, Olle of the greatest Jews in history, a philosopher, a doctor 01 a twelve-year-old of medicine, astatesman and codifier court verdicts against the deniers of child Irom the of precepts who lived in the 12th cen- the Holocaust do not operate in a sin- tury, explains in his "Book of Precepts" gle and clear linear manner. True, they that the precept "to remember" is "the refute the deniers, but as they do so, warning we have been given against they recycle the denial and its argu- forgetting". ments. And somehow, they do not banish it from the minds of the young According to Judaism, everyonehas to generation. Absurd? No, not absurd - see himself as though he himself bad a weIl known deceptive mechanism. COllie out from the slavery in Egypt. Everyone has to seehimself as though Here tao, today at this assembly,with he himself bad been in Auschwitz its aspirations für purification, be- and COllie out, or not COllie out of it. neath the skin ef this assembly,there Everyone has to see himself as though is the feeling, though not expressedin he himself bad been marked by Dr. words, that the sincerity of the victims Mengele. is no longer outside of the discussion. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank According to Judaism, everyone oEus again the Max Planck Society für con- at a certain moment represents all oE ducting these discussions on the mat- humanity. The victim oE Auschwitz ter of the medical "Kaiser Wilhelm In- represented it, and opposite hirn or stitute" and Dr. Mengele. her Dr. Mengele represented it. Auschwitz was inside humanity, not in Moreover, I feel obliged to thank Prof. a play about humanity. Hubert Mark!, the President of the Max Planck Society, für his goodwill Memory assures continuity and has to offer us an apology. sustained the Jewish tradition throughout aIl its generations. I mean actual Many thanks for your attention.

18 "

Speech given by Eva Mozes Kor, President and Founder of C.A.N.D.l.E.S. (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly lab Experiments Survivors)

From the time I began to the time that we made our historic trip to Auschwitz anq held the Mock Trial in Jerusalem in 1985, I have mailed out nearly 12,000 letters looking für my fellow survivors. With the help of my late twin sister, Miriam Mozes Zeiger, in 1984 we succeeded in locating 122 individuals/survivors of the twins' experiments.

I care deeply für the Mengele Twins. Even though I am the founder and the President of C.A.N.D.L.E.S., I am not a spokespersonfür all the twins. I am speaking today only für myself. I know that same of my fellow survivors "Finally free, no Ionger do not share my ideas. But, we are all a prisoner of my tragic Dear Fellow Survivors, hefe to be honest, learn the truth and past", was how Eva Dr. Mark!, Dr. Sachse, learn from this most tragic chapter of Moles Kor said she feels Doctors, Scientists, human history. after she had mustered Researchersand Guests. the strength to forgive. My speech is divided into two parts: Fifty-seven years aga I was a human (1) how I survived Auschwitz, and guinea pig in Auschwitz. Much how it feIt to be a child guinea pig in progress has been made in order für Mengele's lab; (2) the lessons that I us to be here at the KWI/MPS, the in- have learned from this tragedy. stitute that was in charge of Dur experiments. I thank you für holding this It was the dawn of an earIy spring dar symposium. I hope we can all leam in 1944 when I arrived in Auschwitz. from the past arid begin to heal Dur Gur cattle car train came to a sudden pain. stop. I could hear lots of German voi- ces yelling orders outside. We were Twenty years aga, I began thinking packed like sardines in the cattle car, abGilt the ather Mengele Twins and and, above the press of bodies, I could actively started searching für them. see nothing bur a s~all patch of gray

19 The last picture 01 the Mozes lamily together Irom the year 1943. showing both the nine year-old-twin sisters Eva and Miriam -they were the only on es 01 the lamily to survive Auschwitz.

through the barbed wires on theNindow. whatever they wanted and fought back. When they grabbed my arm to tattoo it, I began to scream, kick, and Gur family consisted of my father, age struggle. 44, my mother, age 38, my oldest sister, Edit, age 14, my middle sister Aliz, Four people -two SS and two women age 12, and Miriam and I, who were prisoners -restrained me wirb all only tell years old. their strength, while they heated a pen-like gadget to red hot, then soon as we stepped down onto the 55 soldier. I never got to say "Good- dipped it in ink and burned into my cement platform, my mürber grabbed bye" to her, anp I never got to do so flesh, Jot by Jot, the number capital my twill sister and me by the hand, because that was the last time we saw letter A- 7063. hoping somehow 1:0protect usoEvery- her. All that took 30 minutes. Miriam thing was moving very fast; as I looked and I no longer bad a family. We were We were raken to a barrack filled wirb around, I suddenly realized that my all alone. We did not know what girls, all twills, ages 1 to 13 years old. father and two older sisters were gone would happen to usoAll that was clone Shortly after Dur arrival, everybody -I never saw any of them ever again. to us because we were born Jewish. rushed to rhe front of the barrack We did not und erstand why this was where the evening meal was being dis- Miriam and I were clutching my a crime. tributed. The food consisted of a very 1l0ther'shand, an SS hurried by,shout- dark, 2 1/2 inch slice of bread and a lOg, "Zwillinge! Zwillinge! Twins -:wins?"We joined a group of about eight sets brownish liquid they called coffee. He stopped to look at my twin of twills and waited at the edge of the Miriam and I looked at each other, ;ister and me becausewe were dressedllikerailway tracks under SS supervision. and although we bad not bad anything and looked very much alike.'Are Eight more sets of twills and Olle to eat or drink in 4 days, there was no they twins?" he asked.'Is mother joined Dur group. doubt in Dur minds that we could not it good?" asked my mother. eat that bread because it wasn't 'Yes",nodded the SS. We were raken to a buge building and kosher. 'Yes,they are twillS", said my mother. were ordered to sir on bleachers naked while Gur clothes were raken Then we offered Dur portions to the Without any warning or explanation, away. It was late in the afternoon two girls who were showing us he grabbed Miriam and me away from when Gur clothes were returned wirb around. They grabbed it before we Mother. Gur screaming and pleading a big red cross painted on the back. changed Dur minds, and, laughing at fell on deaf ears. I remember looking Then Gurprocessing began. Dur innocence, said, "Miriam and Eva, back and seeing my mother's arms you cannot be fussy here. You have to stretched out in despair as she was When my turn came, I decided that I learn to eat everything if you want to ." pulled in the opposite direction by an would not allow them to do to me SUrvIve.

After the evening meal, the two girls briefed us about everything in the camp. It was then that we leamed about the buge, smoking chimneys and the glowing flames rising high

;kyAs'\S The speeches given by the researchers at the symposium in Berlin are followed by Gerhard Baader and his wife lilly (from jett. lelt photo below) and Wolfgang Schieder. Jona laks and Marianne Ufer (right photo below).

above them. We learned about the vent it. So 1 made a silent pledge: experiments. It is estimated that fewer two groups of people we bad seen on "I WILL DO WHATEVER IS WITHIN MY than 200 individuals survived. the selection platform and what bad POWER TO MAKE SURE THAT MIRIAM happened to them. We leamed we AND 1 SHALL NOT END UP ON THAT In Auschwitz, we lived an emotionally were alive only because Dr. Mengele FILTHY LATRINE FLOOR." isolated existence. During the whole wanted to use us in his experiments. time I was in Auschwitz, Miriam and I From that moment on, I concentrated talked very little. All we could say to It was late in the evening when Miri- all my efforts, all my talents and all my one another was "Make sure you don't am and I lay down on the bottom being on one thing: SURVIVAL. get sick" and "Do you have another bunk-bed to sleep. I could not sleep, piece of bread?". It took every ounce even though I was physically tired and In our barrack, we, the children, hud- of my energy to survive one more dar, mentally drained. As I was tossing and dled in our filthy beds crawling wirb to live through one more experiment. tuming, I noticed something big and lice and rats. We were starved for We did not cry becausewe knew there dark moving on the floor. I began food, starved for human kindness and was no help. We bad learned that counting -one-two-three -four ...five starved for the love of the mothers we within the first few days. ...I jumped up from my bunk-bed once bad. We bad no fights, bur we screaming,"Mice. Mice." I was always bad a fierce determination to live one I remember being hungry all the time. scared of mice when I encountered more dar -to survive one more exper- I bad a big decision to make every them on Dur farm in Transylvania. iment. No one explained anything to night when we received our daily ra- us, nor did anyone try to minimize the tion of bread, approximately 2 1/2 'Those are not mice, they are rats. You risks to our lives. On the contrary, we inches. It was an agonizing decision will have to get used to them because knew we were there to be subjects of each night when I would ask myself, they are everywhere", yelled out a experiments and were totally at the "Should I eat the bread tonight? If voice from the top bunk-bed. mercy of the Nazi doctors. Our lives I da, then I will have a whole day to- depended entirely on the doctors' morrow without any food." The days Before trying to sleep again, Miriam whims. seemed to be very lang and without and I went to the latrine at the end of any food, they were evenlonger. While the barrack. There on that filthy floor Nothing on the face of the earth can I was awake, I could feel the hunger - were the scattered corpses of three prepare a person for a place like a pang in my stomach that sent pain children. Their bodies were naked and Auschwitz. At age 10, I became part of through my skinny body. It was logical shriveled and their wide-open eyes a special group of children who were that I should save the bread für the were looking at me. Then and there, I used as human guinea pigs by Dr. Josef next day. But if I pur it under my head, realized, that could happen to Miriam Mengele. Some 1,500sets of multiples by the next moming, it was gone - and me unless I did something to pre- were used by Mengele in his deadly stolen or eaten by the rats.

21 An American television team made a documentary 01 the Berlin event, including a talk given by Wollgang Schieder, Eva Moles Kor with Benno Müller-Hili (right photo, Irom lelt), Eva Moles Kors speech (picture lelt below) and Moshe Oller

in the audience next to the translator Adina Stern.

I became very ilI after an injection in longer could walk. Iwanted to reach a Three times a week we went to the Mengele's lab. I tried to hide the fact faucet at the other end of the barrack. blood lab. There we were injected that I was ilI because the rumor was As 1 was crawling, 1 faded in and out with germs and chemicals, and they that anrolle taken to the hospital of consciousness. 1 kept telling my- took a lot of blood from uso never came back. The next visit to the self, "I must survive. 1 must survive." lab, they measured my fever, and I I have seen same twins fainting from was taken to the hospital. After two weeks, my fever broke, and the great amount of blood that they I began to feel stronger. I decided to lost. I believe the Nazis wanted to The next dar a team of Dr. Mengele devise a plan that would show a grad- know how milch blood can a person and four other doctors looked at my ual improvement in my condition. So, lose, before it can cause death. fever chart and then declared, "Too when the so-called nurse would come bad, she is so young. She has only two in and place the thermometer under The experiments were in various weeks to live." my arm and leave the room, I would stagesand Mengele bad an unlimited take it out, read it and if it was tao supply of guinea pigs in the camp. Jf a I was all alone. The doctors I bad did high, I would shake it down a little. twill died as a result of the experi- not want to heal me. Theywanted me Then I would stick it back under my ments, the other twill was injected dead. Miriam was not with me. I arm with the end sticking out. After with a phenol injection into the heart missed her so very milch. She was the three weeks my fever chart showed and comparative autopsies were clone only kind and loving person I could normal and I was reunited with Miri- on both twills. When Olle pair of twills cuddle up with when I was hungry, am. What a happy dar that was! was lost to the experiments, another cold and scared. I refused to accept pair of twills would come in on the their verdict. I refused to die!! Would I have died, MengeIe would next transport to replace the pair who have kiIIed Miriam with an injection bad been killed. I made a second silent pledge, "I will to the heart and would have clone do anything in my power to gel weil comparative autopsies on our bodies. On a white snowy dar, January 27, and be re united with my sister, Miri- This is the war most of the twins died. 1945, four darg before my 11th birth- am." In the hospital barrack, we re- Three times a week we waIked to the dar, Auschwitz was liberated by the ceived no food and no medication. main Auschwitz camp für experi- Soviets and we were free. We were People were brought to this barrack to ments. These lasted six to eight hours. alive. We had survived. We had tri- die or to wait für a place in the gas We bad to sit naked in a room. Every umphed over unbelievable evil. chamber. I was very ill, buming up part of our body was measured,poked I have told you my story becausethere with fever, between lire and death. I and compared to charts and pho- are same important lessons to learn remember wakingcup on the barrack tographed. Every movement was no- from it: floor. I was crawling because I no ted. I feIt Iike an animal in a cage.

22 on both sides who will be angry with me. I understand that. I believe we should not go on suffering forever. This is the way I healed myself. I daTe hore that it might work für other people.

I have forgiven the Nazis. I have for- I, Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of We are meeting hefe as former adver- given everybody. At the fiftieth an- Mengele's medical experiments, have saries. I hope we can part as friends. niversary observance of the liberation leamed that human fights in medical My people, the Jewish people, are of Auschwitz, in a ceremony attended experimentation is an issue that needs hard-working, intelligent and caring. by my children, Alex and Rina, and by to be addressed.Those of you who are My people are good people. We did friends, I met with a Nazi doctor, Dr. physicians and scientists are to be not deserve the treatment we re- Hans Münch, a former 55 doctor at congratulated. You have chosen a ceived. No Olle deserves such treat- Auschwitz, and with his children and wonderful and difficult profession: ment. Your people, the German peo- granddaughter. wonderful because you can save hu- pie, are hard-working, intelligent and man lives and alleviate human suffer- caring. Your people are good people, In July, 1993, I received a telephone ing, hut difficult, because you are but you should never have permitted a call from Dr. Mihalchick of Boston walking a very narrow line. You have Hitleito rise to power. College who asked me to lecture at a been trained to use good judgment, conference on Nazi medicine. Then to be calm, cool and collected, hut There is a lot of rain that we, the he added,"Eva, it would be nice if you you cannot forget that you are dealing Jewish people, and you, the Gerrnan could bring a Nazi doctoI' with you." I with human beings. So, make a moral people, carry around. It does not help said, "Dr. Mihalchick, where am I go- commitment that you will n.ever, ever anyone to carry the burden of the ing to find a Nazi doctor? The last violate any~ne's human fights or take rast. We rnust learn to heal ourselves time I looked they were not advertis- away anyone's human dignity. I appeal frorn the tragedies of the Holocaust ing in the yellow pages." "Think about to you to treat your subjects and and help our people to heal their it", he said. patients with the same respect you aching souls. would want if you were in their In 1992, Miriam and I were co-con- places. Remember that if you are do- Iwould like to sharewith you my ulti- sultants on a documentary on the ing" your research solely für the sake mate act of healing from the horrors Mengele Twins düne by ZDF, a of science and not für the benefit of of 56 years ago. I do realize that many German television company. In that mankind, you have crossed that very of my fellow survivors will not share, documentary they had interviewed narrow line and you are heading in the support or understand my war of a Nazi doctor by the name oE Dr. direction of the Nazi doctors and the healing. There might be some people Hans Münch. Dr. Mengeles of the world. Medical science can benefit mankind, hut medical science can also be abused in the name of research.

23 I contacted ZDF to ask them if they would ger me Dr. Münch's address and phone number, in the memory of my sister who bad died the month before. An hour later, I bad his address and phone number. A me nd of mine, Tony Van Renterghem, a Dutch Resis- tance fighter, contacted Dr. Münch. Tony called hirn and then called me to I thought about it für amoment, and I began writing my letter to Dr. tell me that "Yes,he's alive, willing to then I said, "Dr. Münch, I have a big Münch, and friends, who speil better give you a videotape interview." That request to make of you. Would you than I da, met with me to correct the was July, 1993. By August, I was on please come with me to Auschwitz in letter. Olle of them threw a question my way to meer Dr. Münch. January 1995, when we will observe at me. "Would you be willing to for- fifty years to the liberation of Ausch- give Dr. Mengele?" It was an interest- In August of 1993, I arrived at Dr. witz, and sign a document at the ing question, and I thought about it Münch's house, I was very nervous. I ruins of the gas chambers and in the and decided that I could. Weil, if I kept asking myself, "How would I feel presence of witnesses, ab out what forgave Mengele, I might as weil for- if he treated me like nothing -the war you have told me?" He said yes. I give everybody. I bad no idea what I I was treated in Auschwitz?" Dr. wellt horne delighted that I was going was doing. I only knew that it made Münch treated me with the utmost to have a document about the gas me feel good inside that I bad that respect. As we sat down to talk, I said chambers at Auschwitz -a document power. In January 1995, my children, to hirn, "Here you are -a Nazi doctor that would help me combat the revi- Alex and Rina, my friends and I, and flom Auschwitz -and hefe I am -a sionists who say that there were no Dr. Münch with his children and survivor flom Auschwitz -and I like gas chambers. granddaughterarrived in Auschwitz. you, and that sounds strange to me." We talked about many thing,s. I asked I tried to think of a war to thank Dr. On January 27, 1995, we were stand- hirn if, by any chance, he knew any- Münch. Then, one dar, I thought, ing by the ruins of olle of the gas thing about the operation of the gas "How about a letter of forgiveness?"I charnbers. Dr. Münch's docurnent chambers. And he said, "This is the immediately realized that he would was read and he signed it. I read rny nightmare I live with." Then, he pro- like it. I also realized that I had the Declaration of Amnesty and then ceeded to tell me about the operation power to forgive. No ONE could give signed it. I feit a burden of pain was of the gas chambers and that when me this power and No ONE could lifted frorn shoulders. I was no Ionger the bodies were dead, he nad signed take it away. a victirn of Auschwitz. I was no Ionger the death certificates. a prisoner of rny tragic past. I was finally free. So I sayto everybody,

"FORGIVE YOUR WaRST ENEMY. IT WILL HEAL YOUR SOUL AND SET YOU FREE."

24 Eva Moles Kor thanks the President of the Max Planck Society Hubert Mark! with the hope "in some small way to send the world a message of forgiveness" (picture jett). The pictures below lett shows the scientific symposium with (from lett, front row) Jafa and Efraim Reichenberg, Shmuel Kriegei.

The dar I forgave the Nazis I forgave years and those funds would have act of forgiveness -amnesty and rec- my parents because they did not save gone iota a special reconciliation fund onciliation rather than justice and vin- me from a destiny in Auschwitz, and to assistthe victims in rebuilding their dictiveness. I also forgave myself für hating my lives. The victims could have testied if parents. they so choose. The victimiz~rs' testi- We have seen in Bosnia, Kosovo and monies would have validated the vic- Ruwanda that victims have become My latest thoughts on how to heal the tims' suffering. victimizers and victimizers have be- rains of the rast are different than come victims. Let's try something new most victims'. As I understand it, most As it is today, I still don't know what to end this vicious cycle. govemments and world leaders be ar a was clone to uso But Mengele could heavy burden in trying to keep the have solved this problem by testify- I would like to end my lecture by say- world at peace. In my opinion, they ing. Both the victims and the victim- ing that I hore this courageous ges- have failed miserably by not advocat- izers -by verbalizing their painful ture of Dr. Markl and the Max Planck ing, encouraging and facilitating sur- memories -could have started the Society becomes an example to the vivors of tragedies such as the Holo- healing at once. world of how we might learn to cape caust to forgive their enemies, which with the rast. As a German friend of is an act of self-healing. As it has happened, the victims were mine has said, "Why can't your people silent and hurting. The victimizers and my people be friends?" Most governments and world leaders w~re silent, hurting and hiding. The advocate and support Ollething only- victims anguished in pain. The victim- I would also like to thank Dr. Henno JUSTICE.Justice does not exist and by izers anguished in pain, shame and Müller-HilI for his years of friendship demanding justice they condemn the fear of being caught. The added and his role in pioneering this syrnbol- victims to life-long suffering. tragedy of all this is that the victims ic apology. have passed on to their children a I would also like to quote frorn rny Let's explore a possible scenario that legacy of pain, fear and anger.The vic- Declaration of Arnnesty: could have changed things für both timizers have passed on to their victims and victimizers. children a legacy of pain, shame and "I hope, in same small war, to send fear. How can we build a healthy, the world a messageof forgiveness; a All the Nazi criminals would have peaceful world while all these painful messageof peace, a messageof hope, beeil encouraged to come forward to legacies are festering underneath the a messageof healing. testify to the crimes they committed, surface? in return für their freedom. The perpe- Let there be NO MORE WARS, NO trators or victimizers would also have I see a world where leaders will advo- MORE EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT IN- paid financial retribution für five to tell cate and support with legislation the FORMED CONSENT, NO MORE GAS CHAMBERS, NO MORE BOMBS, NO MORE HATRED, NO MORE KILLING, NO MORE AUSCHWITZES."

Thank you.

25 "

Independent historians will investigate the contribution 01 the German Science Organization to National Socialism

With approval of the administrative council and the senate of the Max Planck Society,the Presidential Cem- mission was established by the society's President in 1997. The commission is headed by two historians who are not members of the Max Planck Society: Prof. Dr. Reinhard Rürup (Technical University of Ber- lin) and Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Schieder (University of Cologne).

The Max Planck Society was founded in 1948 as a new researchorganization in a democratic Germany. In a scientific aspect and due to numerous instances of overlapping personnel and ideals, the Max Planck Society became the he ir of the Kaiser Wilhelm The five-year research programme of Members Society,which was founded in 1911. the Presidential Commission "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Prof. Dr. JochenA. Frowein, The relation of the Kaiser Wilhelm National Socialist Era" started with Max Planck Institute für Society to the NS-regime, the scien- an international conference in March Comparative Public Law and tific and political conduct of its repre- 1999 reviewing current research and International Law, Heidelberg sentatives and scientists during the giving interpretive perspectives on Prof. Dr. Doris Kaufmann, period of National Socialism, and fi- the history of science in National So- University of Bremen nally the consequences of this con- cialism. Prof. Dr. Hartmut Lehmann, duct für the Max Planck Society are to Max Planck Institute für History, be investigated and eventually pub- Chairs Göttingen lished as completely as possible, with- Prof. Dr. Jürgen Renn, out any constraints or institutional Prof. Dr. Reinhard Rürup Max Planck Institute für the bias. For this reason independent his- Technical University of Berlin History of Science, Berlin torians were entrusted with the direc- Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, tion of the commission and the guid- Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang SchiedeT Max Planck Institute für the ance of its work, while external histo- University of Cologne History of Science, Berlin rians of science were engaged fo~ Prof. Dr. Fritz Stern, leading and implementing the re- Columbia University, New York searchprogramme itself. Prof. Dr. Michael Stolleis, Max Planck Institute für European Legal History, Frankfurt/Main Prof. Dr. Paul Weindling, Brookes University, Oxford

26 The work of the Presidential Commission "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the National Socialist Era"

is currently subdivided into tour major parts

The two chairmen of the 1. Organisation, policy 3. Military Research; Presidential Commission, and administration of the war-related and applied science ProfessorWolfgang Schieder Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes (Ielt), Professor Reinhard Rürup under the superVision {right} and research director Collaboration of the general adminis- of the "Four-Year-Plan" Dr. Carola Sachse. tration, the Presidents and the general and the war economy secretaries with varlous agencies of the NS-regime; policies of hiring and Intensification of contract-research, firing; influence of party-members, especially für the improved use of do- economic leaders, representatives of mestic natural resources and surro- the state and the military functioning gate-products; contributions to the as Vice Presidents, senators, curators, development of conventional, biologi- trustees, and members of the Kaiser cal and chemical weapons; position of Wilhelm Society; the position of the the Kaiser Wilhell;Il Institutes amidst Kaiser Wilhelm Society within the the power-triangle of industry, "Four- research agenda of the NS-regime; Year-Plan"-administrationand the var- personnel policy during the NS-period iDUSagencies of Nazi science admin- (dismissal of Jewish members, use of istration. ResearchDirector slave labor); rehabilitation of emigre PD Dr. Carola Sachse scholars / remigration-barriers on part 4. "Ostforschung" and (since Aprill, 2000) of the Max Planck Society after the "Lebensraumforschung" at war; compensation and / or commem- Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes Fellows oration of victims of human experi- in the context of expansionistic Dr. Susanne Heim ments and other abuses; treatment of and occupation politics Dr. Helmut Maier Benoit Massin Cooperation with the Reich Ministry 2. Racial hygiene, genetic, of Nutrition and Agriculture with Doctoral Candidates medical, and psychiatric research special focus on Herbert Backe's role Bernd Gausemeier in Kaiser Wilhelm institutes as state-secretary, minister and Vice Florian Schmaltz President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci- Michael Schüring Post-war continuity in anthropology, ety; botanical, genetic and agricultural racist and criminal biology, hereditary research at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes Secretariat pathology at specific institutes; contri- contributing to the politics of self- Christine Rüter bution of scientists at Kaiser Wilhelm sufficiency; the political significance tel: +49-(0)30-22667-154 institutes to the national socialist poli- of the newly founded or confiscated Fax: +49-(0)30-22667-333 cies of racial and population policy as agricultural institutes in eastern Eu- e-mail: experts involved in legislation, and the fOre and the Balkans. [email protected] carrying out of forcible sterilisation, euthanasia and genocide. Further information is availablefrom http:// www. mpiwg berlin. mpg.dE/kwg/

77 MAXPLANCKRESEARCHsupplement, issue 3/2001 Publisher: Press andPublicRelations Departrnent of the Max Planck Society für the AdvancernentofScience, Hofgartenstraße 8, D-80539 Munich .Editor: Eugen Hintsches .Art Direction: Rudi Gill, DTP-Operatmg:FranzPagel..Munich Photos: NorbertMichalke,Berlin. Lithography: kaltnermedia, Bobmgen .Printing: DruckhausBeltz,..Hemsbach