.-MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT

Biollledical Sciencesand Hulllan Experilllentationat I{aiser Wilhellll Institutes

The

~

President Hubert Markl apologizes to victims

of Nazi crimes committed in the name of science

aseries of initiatives aimed at clearingup the role its predecessor played inNational Socialism. In 1997, HubertMark!, the President of the MaxPlanck Society, set up an independentresearch commission, the task ofwhich has been to scientifically delveinto the his tory of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety during the Nazi era. Thoseworking für the commission have freeaccess to all the documents and filesin the possession of the Max Planck

Society.

The

Ma:x Planck Society's declarationon the occasion of a scientific

symposium entitled "BiomedicalSciences and Human Experimentationat Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes-The

Auschwitz Connection" onTune 7- 8, 2001 in Berlin, Germany.

The Max Planck Society was foundedin 1948 as a new research organizationin a democratic Germany. In a scien-tific aspect and due to numerous in"stances of overlapping personnel andideals, the Max Planck Society be-came the heir of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety, which was founded in 1911.

The historians involved with the "His-tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Societyduring National Socialism" researchprogramme have recently presented

findings historically proving beyondthe shadow of a doubt that directorsand employees of several Kaiser Wil-helm Institutes active in various fjeldsof biomedical science co-mastermind-ed and sometimes even actively par-ticipated in the crimes of the Naziregime. According to the findings, theKaiser Wilhelm Society's administra-tion either knowingly or unknowinglytolerated scientists at several KaiserWilhelm Institutes going beyondevery moral boundary and actively tak-ing part in the Nazis' racist politics.

As

an organization at the leading edgeoE German research, the Max PlanckSociety will do its utmost to con-tribute to the scientiEic elucidation oEthe his tory oE the Kaiser Wilhelm So-ciety during Germany's National So-cialist regime. Over the rast decades,the Max Planck Society has launched

The survivors 01 the

so-called twins experi-

ments at the Auschwitz

Concentration Camp

recount their experiences

during the symposium

held at the Berlin

Harnack House.

Same scientists at Kaiser Wilhelm In-stitutes made use of the opportunityto conduct morally unrestricted re-search' at Nazi coercive institutionssuch as psychiatric clinics or theAuschwitz Concentration Camp.Among them was Otmar von Ver-schlier, who, beginning in 1942, head-ed up projects in so"called twillS re-search at Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm

3

Institute für Anthropology, HumanGenetics and Eugenics. Concentra-tion camp doctor Josef Mengele wasneither employed by nOT working onbehalf of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.He was a protege of Otmar von Ver-schuer's, under whom he earned hisdoctorate in 1938 at the University ofFrankfurt. Even after that, the twostayed in close contact. Today, it issafe to gay that von Verschlief knew ofthe crimes being committed inAuschwitz and that he -together withsome of his employees and colleagues-used them für his purposes.

für the guilt that could be heaped up-on a number of scientists working fürKaiser Wilhelm Institutes at the time.In the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's stead,President Mark! asked für forgivenessfür the suffering inflicted uran thevictims of the crimes in the name ofscience. He apologized für the factthat für lang, the Max Planck Societybad clone tao little to uncover the his-tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Societyduring National Socialism, therebyfacing up to its historical responsibili-ty tao late.

Ouestions tram the

international press (be-

low 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

(chairwoman of the

"Organization of Mengele

Twins"), Bernd Wirsing

(spokesmanforthe

Max Planck Society)

and Hubert Markl

(President of the Max

Planck Society). Below

fight: Jochen Frowein

(Vice President of the

Max Planck Societyl and

Klaus Pinkau (emeritus

scientific member, fight).

On behalf of the Max Planck Society,President Mark! declared that everyarea of science needed to have itsethical und legal boundaries. Hewarned scientists never to forget thatthere are no scientific goals that canbe viewed as so important and of suchhigh priority that they justify a hu-man's dignity and their inalienable

fights being disregarded.

On the occasion oE the symposiumentitled "Biomedical Sciences andHuman Experimentation at KaiserWilhelm Institutes -The AuschwitzConnection" on June 7, 2001 inBerlin, Germany, the President oE theMax Planck Society, Hubert Mark!,acknowledged that the Max PlanckSociety was historically responsible

4

"

Welcome address by Wolfgang Schieder,

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

As joint chairman of

Max Planck Society's

Harnack House in Berlin.

focusing on a nu mb er of central as-pects. First of all, we are conductingresearch into the organization andcentral research and personnel poli-cies of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society'sadministrative headquarters. Second,we are studying the activities that fallinto the category of armaments re-search. Third, we are examining thefjeld of what is called in German Ost-forschung and Lebensraumforschung,meaning research on eastern Europeand human habitat in general, whichwere important to Nazi Germany'splans to become completely self-suffi-cient. OUT work, however, only coversthis subject to the extent that it wasconnected with the National Social-ists' war of conquest. Fourth, we arepaying particular attention to thecomplex of lire science, medical, andpsychiatric research carried out at in-stitutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Societythat contributed to the legitimizationand refinement of NazI policies onface and euthanasia.It is OUT dealings with this researchwork that have brought us together to-dar. Even though we have Jet to findfinal proof für some links and proba-bly never will, it has been establishedthat, at the very least, the Kaiser Wil-helm Institute für Anthropology, Hu-man Genetics, and Eugenics in Berlinunder the administration of OtmarFreiherr von Verschuer bad scientificcontacts to Auschwitz ConcentrationCamp and its doctor, loser Mengele.It is undisputed that, at the institute,preparations from murdered Ausch-witz prisoners were used für researchpurposes. All evidence primarily indi-cates tha~ the experiments involved

The Presidential Commission set upto investigate the "History of theKaiser Wilhelm Society in the Nation-al Socialist Era" and headed by mycolleague, Reinhard Rürup, and my-self was called into being in 1997uran the initiative of the President ofthe Max Planck Society, HubertMark!. It is a scientifically independ-ent group of researchers who are sure,however, to maintain the particular in-terest of the Max Planck Society'sPresident. This relations hip is reflect-ed in the fact that we have organizedthis symposium together with theSociety's administrative headquartersand that Professor Mark! is in atten-dance in order to give a special ad-dress momentarily.The score of Dur research could notbegin to examine the entire activitiesof a total of 45 research institutionsbelonging to the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci-ety during the period of National So-cialism in Germany. Instead, we are

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,

managing director o! the

Hamburg Institute fot

Social Research with

Reinhard Rürup and

Elmar ZeitIer, Peter Hans

Ho!schneider and Benno

Müller-Hili.

the use of blood sampies für geneticresearch. These are sampies Dr. Men-gele took from Auschwitz prisoners byforce.Thus, we have findings pointing touninhibited medical research havingabandoned all ethical boundaries fürthe alleged sake of medical progress.In a major speech just recently given

by Germany's President, JohannesRau, which he used to warn againstbeing uninhibitedly concerned wirbscientific progress, he pur it like this:"Science, being devoid of any moralscruples, carried out unbridled re-search für the sake of its scientificaims." Science was no longer beingconducted für people, it was beingconducted on people.The victims of there experiments onhumans who survived have bad andcontinue to have a heavy load to bearthroughout their lives. They welltthrough an excruciating experiencethat exceeds the limits of a historian'simagination. Historians, after all, gen-erally have to rely on accounts in writ-tell documents. Anyone wishing tograsp in retrospect the moral depravityof which German science was capablemust therefore seek contact wirb thesurviving victims of such research.That is why we were more than will.ing to follow through wirb the propos-al made especially by Professor Benno

Müller-Hili to send 'Out invitations tosurvivors of the medical experimentsconducted in Auschwitz by Dr. Men-gele on twi~ children of lews. We areextraordinarily grateful to Eva MozesKor, who with her organization,C.A.N.D.L.E.S (Children of Ausch-witz -Nazi Deadly Lab ExperimentsSurvivors) , has been the key help weneeded to establish contact with thesurvivors present today.In her moving memoirs entitled"Echoes from Auschwitz", publishedin 1995, she powerfully describedhow in 1944 she and her twin sister,Miriam, who has sadly passed away, asten-year-olds in Auschwitz lost theirparents and their childhood. In herac count, she writes, "I am a victim.Yet I am ignored." We would considerourselves fortunate if, following thissymposium, you and your fellow sur-vivors, whom we are delighted to havewith us today, no longer feit that youare victims who have been left alone.

Speech given by Hubert Markl, President ot the Max Planck Society tor the Advancement ot Science

cisely because it hurts, to accept thetruth and face up to Dur responsibilityto leam für the present and the futurefrom insight into the past. We owethat above all to the victims of Natio-nalSocialist ideology. We owe it to themany who perished as much as we doto the few survivors.

The existence of fiere suspicions in-stead of established facts can easilygive rise to distorted historical ac-counts, allow stubborn denial andglossing over to pers ist, and all to easilyturn, an admission of responsibilityinto pure lip service, whereas theunadulterated, historically document-ed knowledge of the crimes committed]back then cannot be avoided. This iswith certainty one area where the MaxPlanck Society and so many post-World War 11 organizations, compa-nies, and institutions in Germany havefailed. For war tao lang, many ques-tions were not asked; für war tao lang,many connections remained uninvesti-gated or only dealt with by outsiders;and für war tao lang, many documentslay in the archives, either inaccessiblebecause they remained classified orbecause people were all tao glad to dis-regard them. For tao lang, colleaguessupported each other by remainingsilent and not asking questions insteadof opening the dOOf to honest investi-gation that was needed. Too many hadcollaborated with the Nazi dictator-ship, either actively or passively, to thepoint where they were happy to hidetheir own joint responsibility or evencomplicity, so that, undisturbed andunburdened, they ceuld be apart ofthe new, democratic, post-war society.

"We must accept the

truth no matter how

painful. turn to face our

responsibility in order

to learn tor the present

and future from an

understanding ofthe

pas!: Max Planck

President Hubert Markl

during his speech.

The role played by science during theNazi dictatorship is Olle of the manychapters of Germany's past that re-mains insufficiently unveiled up tothe present day. This also holds für theKaiser Wilhelm Society as predeces-sor of the Max Planck Society. Thesymposium entitled "Biomedical Sci-ences and Human Experimentationat Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes -TheAuschwitz Connection" taking placethis aftemoon and tomorrow is part ofa research programme based on se-lected instances and scientifically ex-amining the actions of the Kaiser Wil-helm Society and its scientists duringthe period of National Socialism.Therefore, this symposium is part ofthe MaX Planck Society's efforts tounreservedly reveal all the facts aboutits history by means of historical re-

search, thereby shedding light uponthe dark chapters of its own past. Wemust be prepared as weil -no matterhow painful it may be, and even pre-

1

c,

Today's greater willingness to face upto the facts of the past is therefore notan expression of a hypocritically repet-itive fault-finding attitude or evenmoralizing arrogance of the Spätge-borene (those too young at the time topossibly bear any guilt for the eventsof the dar). mstead, it is the fulfill-ment of a duty which those who weredirectly involved and affected did notsee themselves capable of performingfor a long time, or which they, havingbeen directly associated with theevents, shunned, while those not in-volved exercised what they misper-ceived as consideration for others. Yet,we owe it to ourselves as weil as thegenerations to come to no Ionger at-tempt to avoid the necessary investi-galion into the truth.

close ties due to the fact that many ofthe newly founded Max Planck Soci-ety's leading scientists bad previouslyworked at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes.

So, although today's Max Planck Soci-ety is not identical to the Kaiser Wil-helm Society, due to a significantnumber of connections between thetwo, it has without a doubt raken pos-session of its predecessor's inheri-tance in many aspects. Even thesimple fact that the Society wasnamed after Max Planck, Olle of themost outstanding physicists of the20th century, a man of impeccablecharacter, Nobel Prize laureate in1918, President of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety from 1930 to 1937 and in1945/46, was a deliberate expressionof ideal continuity, bur at the sametime also Olle signifying a new moralbeginning. Taking possession of aninheritance, however, means accept-ing responsibility for everything, boththe positive -in particular the greatscientific tradition of individuals likeAdolf von Harnack, Albert Einstein,Lise Meltner, Max von Laue, or MaxPlanck -and the negative, whichmeans admitting guilt.

As an organization at the leading edgeof Gerrnan research, the Max PlanckSociety has a tremendous responsibil-irr to do its part to uncover the rast,particularly its own. On the olle hand,it is true that the Max Planck Societywas founded in 1948 at the bebestand with the support of the Americanand British occupying forces quite in-tentionally as a new institution, ademocratic organization für researchin a new and democratic Gerrnany.On the other hand, however, the MaxPlanck Society at the same time inmany scientific aspects stood in thetradition of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci-ety, für it feit obligated towards thebest of scientific heritages that badbeen passed down to it and which ithas sought to preserve to this very dar.As rar as personnel at the two organi-zations is concemed, there were also

to grips with its rast. For example, asearly as the 1950s, we signed long-term cooperation agreements with Is-rael's Weizmann Institute, lang beforethe Federal Republic of Germany wasahle to establish diplomatic relationswith the nation of Israel. In 1973, weset up Gur own archive with the taskof securing, examining, and makingthe files of the Kaiser Wilhelm andMax Planck Societies accessible tothe public and, in particular, re-searchers, provided they meet certainlegal requirements. In 1983, PresidentReimar Lüst gave inspiration to afestschrift in celebration of the KaiserWilhelm Society's 75th anniversary.It was edited by Rudolf Vierhaus andBernhard vom Brocke who used it tolay the foundation für fl,jrther investi-galion. When it became known thattissue sampies from victims of Nazicrimes were still in the possession ofsame Max Planck Institutes, the MaxPlanck Society, then under the leader-ship of Heinz Staab, did everythingconceivable to establish the facts andto pay due respect to the victims. In1990, their remains were ceremoni-ously laid to rest in a Munich ceme-tery, and a memorial was set up intheir remembrance. On October 14,of last year, together with the Hermannvon Helmholtz Assöciation and theDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,

Over the rast few decades, the MaxPlanck Society has launched aseriesof initiatives aimed at actively coming

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).

Third Reich can never be accom-plished on its own. It reviews andevaluates the status of research onspecific fjelds of related topics, itcompiles its own reports, it brings ini-tiatives für further research work andsees to it that they are carried out orthat the work is performed by a sepa-rate body. No matter how costly andambitious a research programme maybe, it could hardly evalu~te all thesources and illuminate all the aspectson its own with limited time and limit-ed resources. Confronting the his toryof Nazism is primarily a permanenttask für the science of history and thewhole of German society, a task withwhich they see themselves faced overand over again.

Brookes University, Oxford), and Fritz

Stern {Columbia University, New

Volk). Jochen Frowein (MPI fOT Inter-

national Law, Heidelberg, and Vice

President of the Humanities Section

of the Max Planck Society) is also a

member of the commission. He takes

the place of Franz Emanuel Weinert

(MPI fOT Psychological Research,Munich, and former Vice President of

the Max Planck Society), who passed

away much tao soon in March of this

real. Without any outside influence

flom the administration of the Max

Planck Society and having to answer

only to the commission, guest scien-

tists and doctoral candidates &om

Germany and abroad work together

on the research programme. Historian

Dr. Carola Sachse is in charge of proj-

ect management.

we unveiled a memorial to the victimsof "euthanasia" murders, and wirbthat of blinded science, in the Berlinsuburb of Buch.

Following preparations by my prede-cessor, Hans Zacher, in 1997 I re-ceived permission from the Senate ofthe Max Planck Society to set up a re-search commission whose task wouldbe to delve scientifically into the his-tory of the Kaiser Wilhelm Societyduring the Nazi era and draw the mostprecise picture possible of the eventsof those darg and their consequences.The commission's co-chairmen areProfessors Reinhard Rürup of theTechnical University of Berlin andWolfgang Schieder of the Universityof Cologne. Both of these men are in-ternationally respected historians, andneither of them -and this was of par-ticular importance to us -is a mem-her of the Max Planck Society. The re-maining members of the commissionare Professors Doris Kaufmann (of theUniversity of Bremen), HartmutLehmann (MPI für History in Gättin-gen), Jürgen Renn (MPI für the Histo-ry of Science in Berlin), Hans-JärgRheinberger (MPI für the History ofScience in Berlin), Michael Stolleis(MPI für European Legal History,Frankfurt), Paul Weindling (Oxford

Bit by bit, the commission's fact-find-ing mission will, however, be ahle tobring confirmation to the areas wherepreviously there was orten no morethan suspicion. It can lay a strangfoundation based on fact, one thatwill enable assessments to go beyondthe general expression of dismay atthe crimes committed during the Naziera. It can contribute to uncoveringthe names of victims and perpetrators.Most of all, it can attempt to exposetheir motives and the reasons für theirmoral failure, It will be ahle to provideconcrete documentation of guilt,thereby fulfilling the prerequisite füran honest confrontation with the rast.However, it should also make it clearto see those areas where moral cha-racter and scientific ethos causedpeople to res ist the temptation of re-search opportunities'that we describein German as entgrenzt, an adjective

The commission and its workers havefree access to all the files the MaxPlanck Society possesses. The com-mission puts out its own series of pub-lications and holds public lectures,symposiums, and workshops in orderto generate discussion of the results ofits work among not just the scientificcommunity but the general public asweil. Its members are aware that thetask of scientifically elucidating theKaiser Wilhelm Society's role in the

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" hut indicating something

morally unrestricted, in particular theresearch and experiments conductedby the Nazis.

sibility do not degenerate into emptywords of politically correct rhetoric by

either demanding or giving confes-sions in an abstract mann er so lackingin specific reference to deeds and per-petrators that, to make up für it, theyare given even stronger moral impe-tus. That is why I have always placedgreat importance on investigating andexamining rast events with all duediligence of historical science first,before carrying out an evaluation onthe scientifically secure foundation ofhistorical fact.

is "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus.Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektivend~r Forschung', which means "Histo-ry of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society dur-ing National Socialism. Portrait andperspectives in research", edited byDoris Kaufmann (Göttingen, 2000).

The

Kaiser Wilhelm Society and itsadministration were apart of thelimes back then. Therefore, the di-verse

facets of political and social re-ality in those darg were also reflectedin the reality of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety. Yet, Olle cannot judge or con-demn the people of Germany as awhole any more than olle can view theKaiser Wilhelm Society without mak-ing any distinctions, für that wouldnot do it or its key playersjustice. Itwas deeply imbedded in the NationalSocialist thinking and prejudices of itstime -even those which it claimed tobe studying and justifying through sci-ence -just as they were widespread inother countries. It is für that very rea-gon we are leEr wirb the task of ex-plaining why, of all places, it was inGermany -in those darg at the peakof scientific civilization-that opinionsturned into incendiary slogans, pre-conceived notions into condemnation,more or less abstruse theories into ac-tions, and chauvinistic literature intobloody crimes.

The commission chose to first focusits work on the fjeld of biomedicineand the research into and practical ap-plication of racial biology. They madea correct and obvious choice, becausethis is where one can most clearly seein what way and to what extent Ger-man researchers at the time were in-volved with the Nazi regime. Further-more, the fjeld of biomedicine iswhere the largest number of peoplefell victim to science in the most hor-rible ways and where the rejection ofscience's mor?l boundaries due to theNazis' racial mania becomes most di-rectly obvious. For certain, there aremany faces -and not just Germanones -and deep roots -and by nomeans just German ones -to inhu-mane racism. There has been ex-ploitation and enslavement, oppres-sion and rare, as weil as torture andmass murder to the point of genocidefür reasons of racial arrogance and ha-tred. There were self-proclaimed

The research programme, set up to becarried out over aperiod of five years,was opened in March 1999 with afour-day conference taking place toreview current research and give inter-pretive perspectives on the history ofscience under National Socialism.Numerous internationally renownedhistorians from Germany and abroadcarried out a survey based on the levelof research up to that point of whatbad beeil discovered and documentedabout the role played by the KaiserWilhelm Society and other organiza-tions in National Socialism. The re-sults of the conference were pub-lished in an anthology and thus docu-mented and made accessible für any-olle. The title of this German volume

Dealing with historical responsibilityrequires from us Germans a high de-gree of sensitivity. Even though mostof us today cannot be held personallyresponsible since we were born later,it remains the task of today's and allfuture generations to look the histori-cal truth in the eye. When doing so,we must insure that guilt and respon-

10

tolerate directors and leading scien-tists at several Kaiser Wilhelm Insti-tutes as they, by their own endeavor,promoted and look an active tale inthe racist policies of those in power atthe time. The activities revolved espe-cially (but not exclusively) around theKaiser Wilhelm Institute für Anthro-pology, Human Genetics, and Eugen-ics in Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm In-stitute für Brain Research in theBerlin suburb of Buch, and the Ger-man Research Institute für Psychiatryin Munich..As far as we have beenable to determine with a high degreeof assurance, the activities transpiredin three fjelds in particular.

"master races" who subjected their"slave races" to agony and atrocitieswith a clear conscience and after-wards went unpunished. These areneither merely German nor modemdepravities of a godlessly rootless soci-ety, and they are unfortunately alsonot ones that ceased to exist alongwith the Third Reich. We scientists,however, should consider one particu-lar form of such malignant racismeven worse than all the other atroci-ties in the catalogue of humanity'ssins. Because we think of science asone of mankind's greatest achieve-ments -and rightfully so -we oughtto shudder at the thought of scientifi-cally justified racism and the allegedlyscientifically justified ptactice of hu-man extermination even more than atall other forms of torturous degrada-tion and deprivation of a fellow hu-man being's fights. For there is nocrime worse than highly intelligentpeople with sound minds, cold hearts,and dead consciences with absolutelyno compassion mistreating other peo-pIe and killing them while professingto be contributing to the search fürscientific knowledge. Criminal acts ofthis kind are an inextinguishableshame, not only für those who perpe-trated them, hut also für all those whotolerated them, and in fact, für the liresciences themselves, in the name of

which they were committed, and

shame oE this kind will continue to

live as lang as Olle remembers it.

Building uran the already weightylevel of research, the commission hasmanaged to collect extensive informa-tion during its work. First of all, it hasbeen ahle to confirm same of what wassuspected up to this point. Secondly,additional knowledge has been gainedin same important areas. Mter t,:"oyears now, there is scientific evidencehistorically proving beyond the shadowof a doubt that directors and employ-ees at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes co-masterminded and sometimes evenactively participated in the crimes ofthe Nazi regime, thus allowing -in-deed demanding -clear recognition ofthese facts. The Max Planck Societyas the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's "heir"must face up to these historical factsand, together with them, its moralresponsibility. As President of the MaxPlanck Society, I would therefore liketo make an assessment and publiclysubstantiate it hefe today.

Nazi racial legislation, including therevolting 1935 Nuremberg Laws, andits practical application für purposesof "racial hygiene" was supported andsometimes even initiated by a numberof directors and employees at KaiserWilhelm Institutes, such as ErnstRüdin or Eugen Fischer.

lnvolvement in criminal euthanasiabased on eugenics and "racial hy-giene" or even the mer'e use of killedvictims für scientific experiments byKaiser Wilhelm scientists such asHugo Spatz or Julius Hallervordenwas a clear and indubitable violationof the boundaries of ethically respon-sible research.

As rar as we know, the Kaiser WilhelmSociety as a whole did not pass anyresolutions via its board of directors orother bodies to take an active part incriminal research work. Nevertheless,it did either knowingly or unknowingly

This also holds für knowingly andwillingly using without permissiontheallegedly scientific research facilitiesat Nazi coercive institutions, be theypsychiatric clinics or concentrationcamps like Auschwitz. These especial-

11

ly included certain projects involvingstudies conducted on twillS at theKaiser Wilhelm Institute für Anthro-pology under the administration ofOtmar von Verschlief, beginning in1942. Although concentration campdoctor Josef Mengele was not workingas an employee or on behalf of theKaiser Wilhelm Society, he was a pro-rege of Otmar von Verschuer's, underwhom he bad earned his doctorate in1938 at the University of Frankfurt.Even after that, they maintained closecontact wirb Olle another, as variousdocuments clearly show. We may nev-er be ahle to find out about all thedetails of their relationship, bur todayit is safe to say that Verschlief knewthat crimes were being committed atAuschwitz, that he and his employeesused the victims für scientific purpos-es, and that he probably bad an activeinfluence on how these crimes werecarried out. The results of the Presi-dential Commission's research on thistopic have been recorded and pub-lished. Olle title in particular by Doc-tors Carola Sachse and Benoit Massinwould be in English "Life Science Re-search at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutesand the Crimes of the Nazi Regime.Information on the Current Levelof Knowledge" (Berlin 2000). Amongother things, the symposium takingplace this afternoon and tomorrowwill also be dealing wirb how thesedetails are connected.

entists -from within the Kaiser Wil-helm Society as weIl -cooperated inthe preparation of Nazi crimes, andthey used them to pursue their scien-tific goals beyond every moral bound-ary of humanity. They contributed toinnocent people, many of them chil-drell, being tom away from their fami-lies, humiliated, tortured, and evenmurdered. The assessment of theirguilt in legal terms is the responsibili-ty of the courts in a society governedby the rille of law. Historians canonlydetermine collaboration and responsi-bility. When viewing the past with hu-man compassion, Olle shudders at thethought of such inhumanity taking onthe guise of scientific research.

tion of scientific research that de-grades human beings to fiere objectsof experimentation. For us scientiststhis is a warning to never forget thatthere is no goal of research that canbe viewed as so important and high-ranking that it justifies seriously re-stricting or completely disregardinganother person's dignity or humanfights against their will. The bouna-aries of freedom in science are delin-eated by the inalienable fights and in-violable dignity of human beings.

For another, I am forced by the find-ings of the research into the history ofinvolvement and guilt of a number ofscientists working at Kaiser WilhelmInstitutes at the time to both person-ally and as President of the MaxPlanck Society state my position onthe events that took place. I considerit a moral obligation that has beenplaced uran the Max Planck Societyin accordance with its responsibility asthe Kaiser Wilhelm Society's "heir",and I feel ii as a Gerrnan scientist -es-pecially as a biologist -in the presenceof victims of those inhumane experi-ments carried out at the time by Ger-man lire scientists or on their orders.

What lessons andconsequences can we drawfrom all this today?

For one thing, we have to be awarethat every realm oE science has to haveits moral bounds. We need to under-stand that scientists can becomeguilty oE crimes and how that hap-pens. The his tory oE the Kaiser Wil-helm Society during the period oE Na-tional Socialism in Germany demon-strates how science can become in-volved in devising, preparing, andeven actively participating in the mostabominable crimes and the brutaliza-

Verschlief and others attempted tojustify actions violating every knownhuman fight by offering the excusethat they were serving the best inter.ests of science. Leading German sci.

A sincere admission of our historicalresponsibility musr be expressedclearly, 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, Isee three levels of guilt.

medical science that was robbed ofevery moral boundary; a sciencewhose racist theories do indeed notdeserve to be called "scientific", hutwhich cannot deny that it is also toblame für the terrible consequencesto which they led.

us by the past. Therefore, I wish toapologize für the suffering inflictedupon the victims of these crimes inthe name of science -to those whoperished and have since passed awayand to the Olles who have survived.

1. The guilt of German scientists:At the time, Germany was in the glo-bal forefront of many fjelds of science.The work düne by the commission hasmade evident that even leading-edgeresearch is not invulnerable to moralabysses. What took place then in thename of science für the purposeof promoting racism and allegedly"eugenic" human expurgation werecrimes that will forever weigh heavilyon German science.

3. The guilt of the

Kaiser Wilhelm Society:

As lalready outlined at the beginning,the Max Planck Society was 4nten-tionally founded after the war to be anew organization in order to enablescience to have a fresh start in a new,democratic Germany. However, dueto the fact that the Max Planck Soci-ety sees itself as the Kaiser WilhelmSociety's "heir", it has the obligation toadmit its guilt as weil. The Kaiser Wil-helm Society tolerat~d or even pro-moted within its ranks research whichwas not to be justified für any ethicalor moral reasons. Thus, it placed itself-at least in a number of areas -in theservice of a criminal regime, therebytaking upon itself the moral guilt fürassisting in such crimes.

2.

The guilt of life scientists:National Socialism's entire body ofracist thought is an expression of amaterialistic, Social Darwinist, dehu-manized form of biology, für whichCharles Darwin himself, however, incontrast to his racist disciples, cannotbe held responsible. For certain, theroots of this body of ideas were plant-ed before 1933 and were even inter-national and not just confined to Ger-many. Hut, hefe in Germany, doctorsand biologists, having accepted thatman descended from animals, welltOlle step further: to treating humanbeings like animals. The guilt für uti-lizing human beings as laboratory ani-mals can be specifically placed on bio-

By confessing this three-fold historicalresponsibility, I, as a Gerrnan scien-tist, life scientist, and President of theMax Planck Society, am fulfilling theobligation that has been placed upon

I do not make such an apology lightly.

Though many people today are quite

quick to think of demanding an apolo-

gy and then give immediate expres-

sion to their thoughts, if one is to truly

mean what is expressed by the Eng-

lish phrase "excuse me," namely the

"removal of guilt", then one cannot re-

main silent concerning one's doubts.

Most people apologize by saying, "Ex-

cuse me," or "I'm sorry," when they of-

fend someone, say something wrong,or -either literally or figuratively -

ster one someone's toes. But can a

perpetrator of heinous crimes against

humanity really make an apology?

Certainly, he can if he feels sincere re-

morse für his deeds. However, can

another person feel that remorse in

the offender's place, especially if the

one who committ~d the crime per-

bars feit none at all? Is there no such

thing as an injustice so inexcusable

that any apology seems to be shedding

responsibility? As I stand hefe and

apologize both personally and on be-

half of the Max Planck Society in

proxy für the Kaiser~ Wilhelm Society,

I am referring to the sincere expres-

sion 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

13

not be ahle to be held personally re-sponsible für the events that tookplace back then, hut they carry the re-sponsibility für exposing and sheddinglight on the historical truth as a pre-condition für honest remembranceand learning. The fact that, für a langtime, this did not take place to the de-sired extent within the Max PlanckSociety, is für certain only partiallydue to classified documents having re-mained in the archives. It is certainlydue to a lack of willingness on the partof same accessories or even accom-plices inside and outside the MaxPlanck Society to face up to their his-torical responsibility. The Max PlanckSociety must also admit its faultin this area, für which I' offer a veryspecial apology, für it did not happenunder the constraints of dictatorship,hut in a free society which expresslyguarantees and encourages freedomof research.

to the other victims in attendance, für

today YOll are representing, in asense,

the victims in their entirety. I am very

sorry.

It is a painful way to meer the pastwhen Olle personally stands face toface with the victims of those crimes.At the same time, we feel growing inus a most enduring dedication to con-tinue making every effort to unre-servedly elucidate what happenedback then, and it serves as a most per-manent admonition to preserve thememory of it and, by teaching fromwhat we remember, to learn togetherwith others. Though truth does notset Olle free from guilt and shame,it releases Olle from repression andlying, and opens the dOOf to a futurethat can learn from the past.

As a German scientist,

life scientist and

President of the Max

Planck Society, Huber!

Markl (middlel apolo-

gizes to the survivors

of criminal human ex-

perimentation which

look place in the con-

centration camps (first

row silling, tram right)

Eva Mozes Kor. Vera

and Shmuel Kriegei,

0110 Klein, Mary Wright;

behind tram let!:

lydia Gallo, Reinhard

Rürup. Sabine Feiner.

Bernd Ebersold and

Carola Sachse.

The most honest form of apologyis therefore exposing guilt; für scien-tists, this ought to be perhaps themost appropriate form of apology.In actuality, the perpetrator is the onlyOlle who can ask für forgiveness.Nevertheless, I beg rau, the survivingvictims, from the bottom of my heartto forgive those who, no matter whattheir reasons, failed to ask you them-selves.

An admission of guilt is only concreteand complete once it has beeil spakendirectly to those who have beeil in-jured, the ill-treated victims who suf-fered all these unimaginable atrocitieswith their very own minds and bodies.Therefore, both personally and on be-half of the Max Planck Society, allowme to express my deepest regrets toyou, Mrs. Kor; to you, Mrs. Laks; and

14

"To remember is the warningwe have been given against forgetting"

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

particulary if your connections withthe institutions are new, years afterthe things happened. Your sense of re-sponsibility certainly assists in pre-venting their being forgotten. Andeveryone who assists in it merits ourappreciation and blessing. So: beblessed!

Dr. Mengele, a doctor and an S.S. of-ficer, named "The Angel of Death ofAuschwitz", served there from 1943until the liberation of Auschwitz inJanuary 1945. The connection be-tween Dr. Mengele and the "KaiserWilhelm Institute" is a fact. The con-nection involved necessarily people,correspondence and documents. Ob-viously, Dr. Mengele was involved andactive in the Institute itself. The peo-pie working there could not be mis-raken about his activities. He corre-sponded with them in the language ofmedicine, and this language aspires toprecision and realism.

Jona laks Irom Tel Aviv

warns against the "inter-

pretation 01 memory" in

her speech at the Max

Planck Society's Harnack

House in Berlin.

Professors, Doctors, Researchers,esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,

I will begin by thanking the MaxPlanck Society and Dr. Carola Sachse,director of the research programme"History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci-ety in the National Socialist Era" forthe very fact that you invited us toparticipate at this symposium. Since,to our regret, we have long becomeaccustomed to other people appearingin the name of victims of the Holo-caust, on the authority of their profes-sional specialization of that period -and then what appears is not thememory, hut "the interpretation of the

memory".

Dr. Mengele was not outside of histo-ry, not outside of time, and not outsideof the networks that activate a society:

organizations, law, communicationssystems, archives and culture. Dr.Mengele was not outside of Germany.I would like to quote from an officialSoviet report of]anuary 1945, saying:".In the camp of Auschwitz specialhospitals were set ur with operatinghistologicallaboratories and other in-stitutions, in which German profes-sors and doctors performed extensiveexperiments on absolutely healthypeople: men, warnen and children.Experiments were conducted in mak-ing warnen sterile, castrating men,

And I also thank you für the very factthat you are conducting an investiga-tion of the connection between Dr.Mengele's deeds and Gerrnan medicalinstitutions, and that you feel respon-sible für, though you are not "heirs",

15

Carola Sachse. Vera Kriegei. Wollgang Schieder. Eva

Mozes Kor. Hubert Markl and Jürgen Kocka. President

01 the 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, experimentsin infecting masses of peopIe with thediseases of cancer, typhus, fever etc,In investigating the effects of variouschemicaI compounds on commissionsfrom German commerciaI companies,on Olle occasion representatives ofthe German chemicaI industry, thedoctor and gynecoIogist Grauberfrom Königshütte, and the chemistGoebbeI, purchased from the campadministration 150 women fromamong detainees there für such exper-iments." (End of Quotation.)

Who am I? I am Jona Laks from"there" marked no. A-27725. Now anIsraeli citizen who does not ceaseadmiring Israel für gathering in thesurvivors of the Holocaust, at a timewhen Israel itself was fighting a warfür its independence. Ihave no part inthe position of the "new historians"who insinuate that the stare of Israelwas interested in refugees from theHolocaust mainly für its army. But thisposition totally shocks me emotionallyand mentally.

I am a representative of Mengele's vic-tims. In other words, I am an emissaryin the elementary sense of the ward -

an emissary of those of Mengele's vic-tims who are still alive. An emissary,not a proprietor. And according to thelaw regarding emissaries in the Jewishcode of observances (Halakha) -if Iforgive in the name of the dead, I willbe going beyond the bounds of themission that I have taken uran myselfto the point of distorting and destroy-ing it. As für those of Mengele's vic-tims who are still alive, those who aremembers of OUT organization, I havereceived no permission from them toforgive on their behalf. Nor do I as anindividual have the fight to forgive.Hence, I have no one's power ofattor-ney to forgive, hut to remind that for-giveness erases memory.

I am Jona Laks from Tel Aviv, a humanbeing. As I see it, a human being is aperson who remembers. Memory re-

quires cultivating, nourishing partners.We are the last witnesses who remem-her. After we die, the memory will bein documents, court verdicts, in cine-ma, in video, in the various kinds of lit-erature and no longer by means of theliving voice. All cultures prefer tl)e liv-ing voice as a witness over the abovementioned substitutes and reservoirs.

Ladies and gentlemen, to speak aboutAuschwitz is difficult für me, hut nec-essary für me. I am not a historian, nota philosopher, not an author or anartist. I do not have the ability to pro-duce a new discourse about Ausch-witz, a discourse that would sweepaway cliches that have accumulatedover the years, to the point where theyhave dulled it and made it into a sub-ject für philosophy or cinema, or a dis-course that would block metaphysicalcommentaries, such as that Auschwitzwas altogether outside of this planetetc. It was inside our planet and apartof it, perpetrated by human beingsagainst the lives of other human be-ings. It was here, amongst uso There isno guarantee that it will not return

again.

Let us adhere to Auschwitz as a physi-cal fact. Let us no~ collaborate in the"cultural game", in which Auschwitz isa metaphor, 01 a subject, or a "reli-gious discussion", or an embodimentof the "evil" striving against the"good". We were there. Someone whowas not there and does research onAuschwitz from a distance in time andfrom an psychological distance, istempted by the metaphor. We werethere, which means that it is never-

I remember Dr. Mengele. I have comehefe to affirm it once again. I am a pri-vate individual alive. Not a represen-tative of astate and not a means ofarranging the balance of monetaryagreements between Germany andthe victims of the Nazis.

Ladies and gentlemen, human beingsmade Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele wasborn to human beings. He and hiswife were parents of human beings. (Ipersonally met Mr. Rolf Yenkel -thesan of Dr. Mengele. He left the im-pression also of a human being.)

1&

the victims' sincerity. We are the vic-tims. You are the present heads of theMax Planck Society. You want "toclear up the Nazi crimes". We want toremember, hut we ask not only our-selves to remember, hut you as weil.In other words, we are asking you toremember what you want to "clear up"and then perhaps forget. We will re-member in any case. Will you forget inany case?

theless fitting to hear our testimonyand to relate to our words, at leastequal to one of the documents fromthe period.

Was Mengele "the embodiment ofevil"? Certainly, he was an embodi-ment of evil in the reality itself, but toturn hirn into the concept "the em-bodiment of evil" casts a certain auraaround hirn, as though he were a rep-resentative of the "evil" in its ongoinghistorical struggle with the "good".Mengele, in my eyes, was not a repre-sentative, he was he hirns elf. All thisdiscourse transforms Auschwitz andMengele into images, severs themfrom reality.

After we die, Auschwitz and Mengelewill be remembered by me ans of videofilms, written literature, archives, re-membrance days and Spielberg-stylecinema. Will you see all these as akind' of "cultural solution" to rastquestions which were troublesomeand have now stopped being trouble-same, and are now summed up in amonument or a video?

Even I mys elf, who was there, am nolonger sure of "language". Am I not in-evitably recycling banal and quasi-re li-gious images of Auschwitz? Are theAuschwitzian facts capable of trans-mitting themselves as theyare? Is myaddressee ahle, ar1d in the presentcase ahle -not mer:ely willing, -to ex-perience my language in its plainsense? I was there, and Dr. Mengele was

there. From there Dr. Mengele trans-mitted his findings to the Kaiser Wil-helm medical institute. My friends, thetwins, then children, and I were his ob-jects. And that is how we arrived at theabove mentioned medical institute.

Now to "the victims' sincerity". Eachdar that passes intensifies our need toprove that our memory is sincere andhonest. But every dar that passes cov-ers more and more the surface of the

memory.

Has the "discourse" about Auschwjtznot narrowed extremely the possibilityof "plain speech" about Auschwitz andDr. Mengele? Does not Mengele asthe "symbol of evil" push Mengele in-to the category of a symbol and reducethe possibility of speaking about Men-gele himself as apart of the Gerrnanmedical system of the time? I ask Godto restore the power of plain speech.Auschwitz was in Poland to the westof Cracow. Before the war, it bad

12,000 inhabitants, 4,000 of themJews. Auschwjtz was beside the Solariver, not outside the planet. Not inhell. Not outside of culture, not out-side of history, like Treblinka, Maj-danek, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno andall of them together.

I would like to quote from the BibleJoel I, verse 3, about memory in Ger-man: "Sagt euren Kindern davon undlasst es eure Kinder i,hren Kindernsagen und diese wiederum ihrenNachkommen,"

As "findings of research" as a messagein medicallanguage, German doctorsand researchers made use of Dr. Men-gele's reports from Auschwitz.

To remember, we hav~ already grownweary from the vast quantity of auto-matic and official utterances aboutthe Holocaust and memory. We havetaken weil the few precious and valu-ahle things that have been written,such as those by Prima Levi. I willonly note hefe, ladies and gentlemen,

Yes, I remember. I was there. I thenam both a soldier and a witness in thelang Jewish joumey of memory.

And hefe, ladies and gentlemen, wecome to a cruel and exclusive thing:

that, as rar as I know, only in Judaismis the instruction "to remember" a reli-gious precept. Judaism commands itsadherents: "Remember the days of theworld, remember that you were aslave, remember what Amalek did toyou." Maimonides, Olle of the greatestJews in history, a philosopher, a doctorof medicine, astatesman and codifierof precepts who lived in the 12th cen-tury, explains in his "Book of Precepts"that the precept "to remember" is "thewarning we have been given against

forgetting".

the horritic: Jona laks

brought with her tram

the year1944 signed

01 a twelve-year-old

child Irom thecourt verdicts against the deniers ofthe Holocaust do not operate in a sin-gle and clear linear manner. True, theyrefute the deniers, but as they do so,they recycle the denial and its argu-ments. And somehow, they do notbanish it from the minds of the younggeneration. Absurd? No, not absurd -

a weIl known deceptive mechanism.According to Judaism, everyone has tosee himself as though he himself badCOllie out from the slavery in Egypt.Everyone has to see himself as thoughhe himself bad been in Auschwitzand COllie out, or not COllie out of it.Everyone has to see himself as thoughhe himself bad been marked by Dr.

Mengele.

Here tao, today at this assembly, withits aspirations für purification, be-neath the skin ef this assembly, thereis the feeling, though not expressed inwords, that the sincerity of the victimsis no longer outside of the discussion.Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thankagain the Max Planck Society für con-ducting these discussions on the mat-ter of the medical "Kaiser Wilhelm In-stitute" and Dr. Mengele.

According to Judaism, everyone oE usat a certain moment represents all oEhumanity. The victim oE Auschwitzrepresented it, and opposite hirn orher Dr. Mengele represented it.Auschwitz was inside humanity, not ina play about humanity.

Moreover, I feel obliged to thank Prof.

Hubert Mark!, the President of the

Max Planck Society, für his goodwill

to offer us an apology.Memory assures continuity and hassustained the Jewish tradition through-out 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 timethat we made our historic trip toAuschwitz anq held the Mock Trial inJerusalem in 1985, I have mailed outnearly 12,000 letters looking für myfellow survivors. With the help of mylate twin sister, Miriam Mozes Zeiger,in 1984 we succeeded in locating 122individuals/survivors of the twins' ex-

periments.

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 amnot a spokesperson für all the twins. Iam speaking today only für myself. Iknow that same of my fellow survivorsdo not share my ideas. But, we are allhefe to be honest, learn the truth andlearn from this most tragic chapter ofhuman history.

"Finally free, no Ionger

a prisoner of my tragic

past", was how Eva

Moles Kor said she feels

after she had mustered

the strength to forgive.

Dear Fellow Survivors,Dr. Mark!, Dr. Sachse,

Doctors, Scientists,Researchers and Guests.

My speech is divided into two parts:

(1) how I survived Auschwitz, and

how it feIt to be a child guinea pig in

Mengele's lab; (2) the lessons that Ihave learned from this tragedy.

Fifty-seven years aga I was a humanguinea pig in Auschwitz. Muchprogress has been made in order fürus to be here at the KWI/MPS, the in-stitute that was in charge of Dur exper-iments. I thank you für holding thissymposium. I hope we can all leamfrom the past arid begin to heal Dur

pain.

It was the dawn of an earIy spring darin 1944 when I arrived in Auschwitz.Gur cattle car train came to a suddenstop. I could hear lots of German voi-ces yelling orders outside. We werepacked like sardines in the cattle car,and, above the press of bodies, I couldsee nothing bur a s~all patch of gray

Twenty years aga, I began thinkingabGilt the ather Mengele Twins andactively started searching für them.

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.

;ky

through the barbed wires on theNindow. whatever they wanted and foughtback. When they grabbed my arm totattoo it, I began to scream, kick, and

struggle.Gur family consisted of my father, age44, my mother, age 38, my oldest sis-ter, Edit, age 14, my middle sister Aliz,age 12, and Miriam and I, who wereonly tell years old.

Four people -two SS and two womenprisoners -restrained me wirb alltheir strength, while they heated apen-like gadget to red hot, thendipped it in ink and burned into myflesh, Jot by Jot, the number capitalletter A- 7063.

As

soon as we stepped down onto thecement platform, my mürber grabbedmy twill sister and me by the hand,hoping somehow 1:0 protect uso Every-thing was moving very fast; as I lookedaround, I suddenly realized that myfather and two older sisters were gone-I never saw any of them ever again.

55 soldier. I never got to say "Good-bye" to her, anp I never got to do sobecause that was the last time we sawher. All that took 30 minutes. Miriamand I no longer bad a family. We wereall alone. We did not know whatwould happen to uso All that was cloneto us because we were born Jewish.We did not und erstand why this wasa crime.

We were raken to a barrack filled wirbgirls, all twills, ages 1 to 13 years old.Shortly after Dur arrival, everybodyrushed to rhe front of the barrackwhere the evening meal was being dis-tributed. The food consisted of a verydark, 2 1/2 inch slice of bread and abrownish liquid they called coffee.Miriam and I looked at each other,and although we bad not bad anythingto eat or drink in 4 days, there was nodoubt in Dur minds that we could noteat that bread because it wasn'tkosher.

We joined a group of about eight setsof twills and waited at the edge of therailway tracks under SS supervision.Eight more sets of twills and Olle

mother joined Dur group.

We were raken to a buge building andwere ordered to sir on bleachersnaked while Gur clothes were rakenaway. It was late in the afternoonwhen Gur clothes were returned wirba big red cross painted on the back.Then Gur processing began.

'\S

Miriam and I were clutching my1l0ther's hand, an SS hurried by, shout-lOg, "Zwillinge! Zwillinge! Twins -:wins?"

He stopped to look at my twin;ister and me because we were dressedllike

and looked very much alike.'Are they twins?" he asked.'Is

it good?" asked my mother.'Yes", nodded the SS.'Yes, they are twillS", said my mother.

Then we offered Dur portions to thetwo girls who were showing usaround. They grabbed it before wechanged Dur minds, and, laughing atDur innocence, said, "Miriam and Eva,you cannot be fussy here. You have tolearn to eat everything if you want to

."SUrvIve.

Without any warning or explanation,he grabbed Miriam and me away fromMother. Gur screaming and pleadingfell on deaf ears. I remember lookingback and seeing my mother's armsstretched out in despair as she waspulled in the opposite direction by an

When my turn came, I decided that Iwould not allow them to do to me

After the evening meal, the two girlsbriefed us about everything in thecamp. It was then that we leamedabout the buge, smoking chimneysand the glowing flames rising high

20

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 thetwo groups of people we bad seen onthe selection platform and what badhappened to them. We leamed wewere alive only because Dr. Mengelewanted to use us in his experiments.

vent it. So 1 made a silent pledge:"I WILL DO WHATEVER IS WITHIN MY

POWER TO MAKE SURE THAT MIRIAM

AND 1 SHALL NOT END UP ON THAT

FILTHY LATRINE FLOOR."

experiments. It is estimated that fewerthan 200 individuals survived.

In Auschwitz, we lived an emotionallyisolated existence. During the wholetime I was in Auschwitz, Miriam and Italked very little. All we could say toone another was "Make sure you don'tget sick" and "Do you have anotherpiece of bread?". It took every ounceof my energy to survive one more dar,to live through one more experiment.We did not cry because we knew therewas no help. We bad learned thatwithin the first few days.

From that moment on, I concentratedall my efforts, all my talents and all mybeing on one thing: SURVIVAL.

It was late in the evening when Miri-am and I lay down on the bottombunk-bed to sleep. I could not sleep,even though I was physically tired andmentally drained. As I was tossing andtuming, I noticed something big anddark moving on the floor. I begancounting -one-two-three -four ...five...I jumped up from my bunk-bedscreaming, "Mice. Mice." I was alwaysscared of mice when I encounteredthem on Dur farm in Transylvania.

In our barrack, we, the children, hud-dled in our filthy beds crawling wirblice and rats. We were starved forfood, starved for human kindness andstarved for the love of the mothers weonce bad. We bad no fights, bur webad a fierce determination to live onemore dar -to survive one more exper-iment. No one explained anything tous, nor did anyone try to minimize therisks to our lives. On the contrary, weknew we were there to be subjects ofexperiments and were totally at themercy of the Nazi doctors. Our livesdepended entirely on the doctors'whims.

I remember being hungry all the time.I bad a big decision to make everynight when we received our daily ra-tion of bread, approximately 2 1/2inches. It was an agonizing decisioneach night when I would ask myself,"Should I eat the bread tonight? IfI da, then I will have a whole day to-morrow without any food." The daysseemed to be very lang and withoutany food, they were even longer. WhileI was awake, I could feel the hunger -

a pang in my stomach that sent painthrough my skinny body. It was logicalthat I should save the bread für thenext day. But if I pur it under my head,by the next moming, it was gone -

stolen or eaten by the rats.

'Those are not mice, they are rats. Youwill have to get used to them becausethey are everywhere", yelled out avoice from the top bunk-bed.

Before trying to sleep again, Miriamand I went to the latrine at the end ofthe barrack. There on that filthy floorwere the scattered corpses of threechildren. Their bodies were naked andshriveled and their wide-open eyeswere looking at me. Then and there, Irealized, that could happen to Miriamand me unless I did something to pre-

Nothing on the face of the earth canprepare a person for a place likeAuschwitz. At age 10, I became part ofa special group of children who wereused as human guinea pigs by Dr. JosefMengele. Some 1,500 sets of multipleswere used by Mengele in his deadly

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.

Three times a week we went to theblood lab. There we were injectedwith germs and chemicals, and theytook a lot of blood from uso

longer could walk. Iwanted to reach afaucet at the other end of the barrack.As 1 was crawling, 1 faded in and outof consciousness. 1 kept telling my-self, "I must survive. 1 must survive."

I became very ilI after an injection in

Mengele's lab. I tried to hide the fact

that I was ilI because the rumor was

that anrolle taken to the hospital

never came back. The next visit to the

lab, they measured my fever, and I

was taken to the hospital.

I have seen same twins fainting fromthe great amount of blood that theylost. I believe the Nazis wanted toknow how milch blood can a personlose, before it can cause death.

After two weeks, my fever broke, andI began to feel stronger. I decided todevise a plan that would show a grad-ual improvement in my condition. So,when the so-called nurse would comein and place the thermometer undermy arm and leave the room, I wouldtake it out, read it and if it was taohigh, I would shake it down a little.Then I would stick it back under myarm with the end sticking out. Afterthree weeks my fever chart showednormal and I was reunited with Miri-am. What a happy dar that was!

The next dar a team of Dr. Mengeleand four other doctors looked at myfever chart and then declared, "Toobad, she is so young. She has only twoweeks to live."

The experiments were in variousstages and Mengele bad an unlimitedsupply of guinea pigs in the camp. Jf atwill died as a result of the experi-ments, the other twill was injectedwith a phenol injection into the heartand comparative autopsies were cloneon both twills. When Olle pair of twillswas lost to the experiments, anotherpair of twills would come in on thenext transport to replace the pair whobad been killed.

I was all alone. The doctors I bad didnot want to heal me. Theywanted medead. Miriam was not with me. Imissed her so very milch. She was theonly kind and loving person I couldcuddle up with when I was hungry,cold and scared. I refused to accepttheir verdict. I refused to die!! Would I have died, MengeIe would

have kiIIed Miriam with an injectionto the heart and would have clonecomparative autopsies on our bodies.This is the war most of the twins died.Three times a week we waIked to themain Auschwitz camp für experi-ments. These las ted six to eight hours.We bad to sit naked in a room. Everypart of our body was measured, pokedand compared to charts and pho-tographed. Every movement was no-ted. I feIt Iike an animal in a cage.

I made a second silent pledge, "I willdo anything in my power to gel weiland be re uni ted with my sister, Miri-am." In the hospital barrack, we re-ceived no food and no medication.People were brought to this barrack todie or to wait für a place in the gaschamber. I was very ill, buming upwith fever, between lire and death. Iremember wakingcup on the barrackfloor. I was crawling because I no

On a white snowy dar, January 27,1945, four darg before my 11 th birth-dar, Auschwitz was liberated by theSoviets and we were free. We werealive. We had survived. We had tri-umphed over unbelievable evil.I have told you my story because thereare same important lessons to learnfrom it:

22

on both sides who will be angry withme. I understand that. I believe weshould not go on suffering forever.This is the way I healed myself. I daTehore that it might work für other

people.

I have forgiven the Nazis. I have for-given everybody. At the fiftieth an-niversary observance of the liberationof Auschwitz, in a ceremony attendedby my children, Alex and Rina, and byfriends, I met with a Nazi doctor, Dr.Hans Münch, a former 55 doctor atAuschwitz, and with his children and

granddaughter.

I, Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor ofMengele's medical experiments, haveleamed that human fights in medicalexperimentation is an issue that needsto be addressed. Those of you who arephysicians and scientists are to becongratulated. You have chosen awonderful and difficult profession:wonderful because you can save hu-man lives and alleviate human suffer-ing, hut difficult, because you arewalking a very narrow line. You havebeen trained to use good judgment,to be calm, cool and collected, hutyou cannot forget that you are dealingwith human beings. So, make a moralcommitment that you will n.ever, everviolate any~ne's human fights or takeaway anyone's human dignity. I appealto you to treat your subjects andpatients with the same respect youwould want if you were in theirplaces. Remember that if you are do-ing" your research solely für the sakeof science and not für the benefit ofmankind, you have crossed that verynarrow line and you are heading in thedirection of the Nazi doctors and theDr. Mengeles of the world. Medicalscience can benefit mankind, hutmedical science can also be abused inthe name of research.

We are meeting hefe as former adver-saries. I hope we can part as friends.My people, the Jewish people, arehard-working, intelligent and caring.My people are good people. We didnot deserve the treatment we re-ceived. No Olle deserves such treat-ment. Your people, the German peo-pie, are hard-working, intelligent andcaring. Your people are good people,but you should never have permitted aHitleito rise to power.

In July, 1993, I received a telephonecall from Dr. Mihalchick of BostonCollege who asked me to lecture at aconference on Nazi medicine. Thenhe added, "Eva, it would be nice if youcould bring a Nazi doctoI' with you." Isaid, "Dr. Mihalchick, where am I go-ing to find a Nazi doctor? The lasttime I looked they were not advertis-ing in the yellow pages." "Think aboutit", he said.

There is a lot of rain that we, theJewish people, and you, the Gerrnanpeople, carry around. It does not helpanyone to carry the burden of therast. We rnust learn to heal ourselvesfrorn the tragedies of the Holocaustand help our people to heal theirac hing souls.

In 1992, Miriam and I were co-con-sultants on a documentary on theMengele Twins düne by ZDF, aGerman television company. In thatdocumentary they had intervieweda Nazi doctor by the name oE Dr.Hans Münch.

Iwould like to sharewith you my ulti-mate act of healing from the horrorsof 56 years ago. I do realize that manyof my fellow survivors will not share,support or understand my war ofhealing. There might be so me people

23

I contacted ZDF to ask them if theywould ger me Dr. Münch's addressand phone number, in the memory ofmy sister who bad died the month be-fore. An hour later, I bad his addressand 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 totell me that "Yes, he's alive, willing togive you a videotape interview." Thatwas July, 1993. By August, I was onmy way to meer Dr. Münch.

I thought about it für amoment, andthen I said, "Dr. Münch, I have a bigrequest to make of you. Would youplease come with me to Auschwitz inJanuary 1995, when we will observefifty years to the liberation of Ausch-witz, and sign a document at theruins of the gas chambers and in thepresence of witnesses, ab out whatyou have told me?" He said yes. Iwellt horne delighted that I was goingto have a document about the gaschambers at Auschwitz -a documentthat would help me combat the revi-sionists who say that there were nogas chambers.

I began writing my letter to Dr.Münch, and friends, who speil betterthan I da, met with me to correct theletter. Olle of them threw a questionat me. "Would you be willing to for-give Dr. Mengele?" It was an interest-ing question, and I thought about itand decided that I could. Weil, if Iforgave Mengele, I might as weil for-give everybody. I bad no idea what Iwas doing. I only knew that it mademe feel good inside that I bad thatpower. In January 1995, my children,Alex and Rina, my friends and I, andDr. Münch with his children andgranddaughter arrived in Auschwitz.

In August of 1993, I arrived at Dr.Münch's house, I was very nervous. Ikept asking mys elf, "How would I feelif he treated me like nothing -the warI was treated in Auschwitz?" Dr.Münch treated me with the utmostrespect. As we sat down to talk, I saidto hirn, "Here you are -a Nazi doctorflom Auschwitz -and hefe I am -asurvivor flom Auschwitz -and I likeyou, and that sounds strange to me."We talked about many thing,s. I askedhirn if, by any chance, he knew any-thing about the operation of the gaschambers. And he said, "This is thenightmare I live with." Then, he pro-ceeded to tell me about the operationof the gas chambers and that whenthe bodies were dead, he nad signedthe death certificates.

I tried to think of a war to thank Dr.Münch. Then, one dar, I thought,"How about a letter of forgiveness?" Iimmediately realized that he wouldlike it. I also realized that I had thepower to forgive. No ONE could giveme this power and No ONE couldtake it away.

On January 27, 1995, we were stand-ing by the ruins of olle of the gascharnbers. Dr. Münch's docurnentwas read and he signed it. I read rnyDeclaration of Amnesty and thensigned it. I feit a burden of pain waslifted frorn shoulders. I was no Iongera victirn of Auschwitz. I was no Iongera prisoner of rny tragic past. I wasfinally free. So I say to 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 forgavemy parents because they did not saveme from a destiny in Auschwitz, andI also forgave myself für hating my

parents.

years and those funds would havegone iota a special reconciliation fundto assist the victims in rebuilding theirlives. The victims could have testied ifthey so choose. The victimiz~rs' testi-monies would have validated the vic-tims' suffering.

act of forgiveness -amnesty and rec-onciliation rather than justice and vin-dictiveness.

We have seen in Bosnia, Kosovo andRuwanda that victims have becomevictimizers and victimizers have be-come victims. Let's try something newto end this vicious cycle.

My latest thoughts on how to heal therains of the rast are different thanmost victims'. As I understand it, mostgovemments and world leaders be ar aheavy burden in trying to keep theworld at peace. In my opinion, theyhave failed miserably by not advocat-ing, encouraging and facilitating sur-vivors of tragedies such as the Holo-caust to forgive their enemies, whichis an act of self-healing.

As it is today, I still don't know whatwas clone to uso But Mengele couldhave solved this problem by testify-ing. Both the victims and the victim-izers -by verbalizing their painfulmemories -could have started thehealing at once.

I would like to end my lecture by say-ing that I hore this courageous ges-ture of Dr. Markl and the Max PlanckSociety becomes an example to theworld of how we might learn to capewith the rast. As a German friend ofmine has said, "Why can't your peopleand my people be friends?"

As it has happened, the victims weresilent and hurting. The victimizersw~re silent, hurting and hiding. Thevictims anguished in pain. The victim-izers anguished in pain, shame andfear of being caught. The addedtragedy of all this is that the victimshave passed on to their children alegacy of pain, fear and anger. The vic-timizers have passed on to theirchildren a legacy of pain, shame andfear. How can we build a healthy,peaceful world while all these painfullegacies are festering underneath thesurface?

Most governments and world leadersadvocate and support Olle thing only-JUSTICE. Justice does not exist and bydemanding justice they condemn thevictims to life-long suffering.

I would also like to thank Dr. HennoMüller-HilI for his years of friendshipand his role in pioneering this syrnbol-ic apology.I would also like to quote frorn rnyDeclaration of Arnnesty:Let's explore a possible scenario that

could have changed things für bothvictims and victimizers. "I hope, in same small war, to send

the world a message of forgiveness; amessage of peace, a message of hope,a message of healing.

All the Nazi criminals would havebeeil encouraged to come forward totestify to the crimes they committed,in return für their freedom. The perpe-trators or victimizers would also havepaid financial retribution für five to tell

Let there be NO MORE WARS, NO

MORE EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT IN-

FORMED CONSENT, NO MORE GAS

CHAMBERS, NO MORE BOMBS, NO

MORE HATRED, NO MORE KILLING, NO

MORE AUSCHWITZES."

I see a world where leaders will advo-cate and support with legislation the

Thank you.

25

"

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

With approval of the administrativecouncil and the senate of the MaxPlanck Society, the Presidential Cem-mission was established by the soci-ety's President in 1997. The com-mission is headed by two historianswho are not members of the MaxPlanck Society: Prof. Dr. ReinhardRürup (Technical University of Ber-lin) and Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. WolfgangSchieder (University of Cologne).

The Max Planck Society was foundedin 1948 as a new research organizationin a democratic Germany. In a scien-tific aspect and due to numerous in-stances of overlapping personnel andideals, the Max Planck Society be-came the he ir of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety, which was founded in 1911.

The five-year research programme ofthe Presidential Commission "Historyof the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in theNational Socialist Era" started withan international conference in March1999 reviewing current research andgiving interpretive perspectives onthe history of science in National So-cialism.

Members

The relation of the Kaiser WilhelmSociety to the NS-regime, the scien-tific and political conduct of its repre-sentatives and scientists during theperiod of National Socialism, and fi-nally the consequences of this con-duct für the Max Planck Society are tobe investigated and eventually pub-lished as completely as possible, with-out any constraints or institutionalbias. For this reason independent his-torians were entrusted with the direc-tion of the commission and the guid-ance of its work, while external histo-rians of science were engaged fo~leading and implementing the re-search programme itself.

Chairs

Prof. Dr. Reinhard RürupTechnical University of Berlin

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang SchiedeTUniversity of Cologne

Prof. Dr. Jochen A. Frowein,Max Planck Institute fürComparative Public Law andInternational Law, HeidelbergProf. Dr. Doris Kaufmann,University of BremenProf. Dr. Hartmut Lehmann,Max Planck Institute für History,

GöttingenProf. Dr. Jürgen Renn,Max Planck Institute für theHistory of Science, BerlinProf. Dr. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger,Max Planck Institute für theHistory of Science, BerlinProf. Dr. Fritz Stern,Columbia University, New YorkProf. Dr. Michael Stolleis,Max Planck Institute für EuropeanLegal History, Frankfurt/MainProf. 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

Presidential Commission,

ProfessorWolfgang Schieder

(Ielt), Professor Reinhard Rürup

{right} and research director

Dr. Carola Sachse.

1. Organisation, policyand administration of theKaiser Wilhelm Society

3. Military Research;war-related and applied sciencein Kaiser Wilhelm Institutesunder the superVisionof the "Four-Year-Plan"and the war economy

Collaboration of the general adminis-tration, the Presidents and the generalsecretaries with varlous agencies ofthe NS-regime; policies of hiring andfiring; influence of party-members,economic leaders, representatives ofthe state and the military functioningas Vice Presidents, senators, curators,trustees, and members of the KaiserWilhelm Society; the position of theKaiser Wilhelm Society within theresearch agenda of the NS-regime;personnel policy during the NS-period(dismissal of Jewish members, use ofslave labor); rehabilitation of emigrescholars / remigration-barriers on partof the Max Planck Society after thewar; compensation and / or commem-oration of victims of human experi-ments and other abuses; treatment of

Intensification of contract-research,especially für the improved use of do-mestic natural resources and surro-gate-products; contributions to thedevelopment of conventional, biologi-cal and chemical weapons; position ofthe Kaiser Wilhell;Il Institutes amidstthe power-triangle of industry, "Four-Year-Plan"-administration and the var-iDUS agencies of Nazi science admin-istration.

Research Director

PD Dr. Carola Sachse

(since Aprill, 2000)4. "Ostforschung" and"Lebensraumforschung" atKaiser Wilhelm Institutesin the context of expansionisticand occupation politics

Fellows

Dr. Susanne HeimDr. Helmut MaierBenoit Massin Cooperation with the Reich Ministry

of Nutrition and Agriculture withspecial focus on Herbert Backe's roleas state-secretary, minister and VicePresident of the Kaiser Wilhelm Soci-ety; botanical, genetic and agriculturalresearch at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutescontributing to the politics of self-sufficiency; the political significanceof the newly founded or confiscatedagricultural institutes in eastern Eu-fOre and the Balkans.

Doctoral Candidates

Bernd GausemeierFlorian SchmaltzMichael Schüring

2. Racial hygiene, genetic,medical, and psychiatric researchin Kaiser Wilhelm institutes

Post-war continuity in anthropology,racist and criminal biology, hereditarypathology at specific institutes; contri-bution of scientists at Kaiser Wilhelminstitutes to the national socialist poli-cies of racial and population policy asexperts involved in legislation, and thecarrying out of forcible sterilisation,euthanasia and genocide.

Secretariat

Christine Rütertel: +49-(0)30-22667-154Fax: +49-(0)30-22667-333e-mail:

kwg.ns@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Further information is availablefrom http:// www. mpiwg berlin.

mpg.dE/kwg/

77

MAXPLANCKRESEARCH supplement, 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