Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

In Nazi Germany, the medical field was part of the larger effort to dehumanize anyone who did not conform to the idea of a healthy German nation.

Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt, who teaches the history of anatomy at Harvard Medical School, scrutinizes the biographies of medical professionals during the Nazi era and restores the histories of victims subjected to coercive medical experimentation both before and after death. Dr. Hildebrandt also considers the legacies of this history for the present, including how to ethically approach work with human remains in historical collectionsatuniversities, museums, and historical institutions.

Sabine Hildebrandt MD is a researcher and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Childrens Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She holds a medical degree from Philipsuniversitt Marburg, Germany. Sabine teaches anatomy and history and ethics of anatomy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College. Her research interests are the history and ethics of anatomy, and her educational approach integrates anatomy, medical history, and medical ethics.

Among other publications on anatomy, medicine, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, her 2016 book The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich is the first systematic study of anatomy in Nazi Germany. In this context, she has co-edited Recommendations on How to Deal with Holocaust Era Human Remains, known as the Vienna Protocol. As co-chair of The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow, she co-authored this commissions report published on Nov 8, 2023. As a member of the American Association for Anatomy Task Force on Legacy Collections and of the Human Remains in the Harvard Museum Collections Research Review Committee, Sabine is involved in formulating recommendations on how to ethically approach work with human remains in historical collections. She serves as associate editor of Anatomical Sciences Education for the areas of history and ethics. She was elected as Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy in 2024.

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