The corpse of a Jewish man found in an alcohol-filled vat at the Strasbourg University Anatomical Institute.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 82823

Overview

Caption: The corpse of a Jewish man found in an alcohol-filled vat at the Strasbourg University Anatomical Institute.

At the end of August,1943, eighty-six Jews, including 30 women, were gassed in Natzweiler-Struthof for the purpose of constructing a collection of skulls and skeletons to be kept at the Strasbourg University Institute of Anatomy, under the directorship of August Hirt. The individuals were "selected" at Auschwitz for their special bone structure and transferred to Natzweiler, where SS Captain Josef Kramer, the commandant of the camp, oversaw the operation. The corpses then remained in vats of alcohol for over a year, the project envisioned by Hirt having never been completed. When Allied forces approached Strasbourg in November 1944, SS administrators were unaware that evidence of the crime still existed at the Institute, and only at the last minute ordered the bodies destroyed. This operation failed, however, and 16-17 of the bodies fell into Allied hands. [Klarsfeld, S., ed. The Struthof Album, 1985]
Date: November 1944 - December 1944
Locale: Strasbourg, [Alsace; Bas-Rhin] France
Variant Locale: Strassburg
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Photo Source: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Copyright: Public Domain

Source Record ID: 153-Case files 1944-49--box 001--file 81

Keyword: ANATOMICAL INSTITUTES CONCENTRATION CAMPS CORPSES JEWS MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS/VICTIMS NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF STRASBOURG
Photo Designation: MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS 1940-45 -- Natzweiler-Struthof -- LIBERATION -- Strasbourg Anatomical Institute