ambiguously that human beings are pre-
pared to inflict suffering on others in the
name of modern medical research. This is a
propensity that we must bear in mind at all
times. Although knowledge of what hap-
pened in the past cannot prevent future hor-
rors, it may at least serve as a warning.
A List of Controversial Nazi-Era
Neurologists
Julius Hallervorden (1882–1965) led
the histopathology department at the Kai-
ser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in
Berlin. He joined the SS in 1933, and Adolf
Hitler named him a professor five years lat-
er. In addition, he was head of the external
department of the Academy for Military
Medicine. In collaboration with Hugo Spatz
he described a rare neurodegenerative dis-
ease called the Hallervorden–Spatz disease.
Heinrich Pette (1887–1964) joined the
National Socialist party and other Nazi or-
ganizations in 1933. He was one of the sig-
natories of the “Oath of Allegiance of the
Professors of the German Universities and
High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the Na-
tional Socialist State.” In 1950 he founded
the German Society of Neurology and re-
mained its chairman until 1952. To this day
the society awards the Heinrich Pette Prize.
Ernst Rüdin (1874–1952) was a
Swiss-German psychiatrist and chairman
of the Society of German Neurologists and
Psychiatrists. In 1933 he chaired the Ex-
pert Committee for Population and Race
Politics. In 1939 Adolf Hitler awarded him
the Goethe Medal for Arts and Sciences.
During the denazification era after World
War II he was considered a “follower.”
Hugo Spatz (1888–1969) was a neuro-
pathologist and from 1937 director of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where about 700
brains of euthanasia victims were studied.
In 1943 he was named a medical staff offi-
cer. After the end of the war he directed the
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in
Giessen (now in Frankfurt). A prize awarded
by the German Society of Neurology was
named after him until 1999.Further Reading
How Nazi's Defense of “Just Following Orders”
Plays Out in the Mind
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist
Unearthing the Atrocities of Nazi Death Camps
Scientific Spy Craft: The Quest to Sabotage Nazi
Germany's Atomic BombDigital Matter
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