Pathology as a Crime: Analysis of Dissection Protocols from Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, 1944-1945

The present thesis examines 161 dissection protocols that were produced in the Flossenbürg concentration camp between July 1944 and April 1945. After an introductory overview of the history of pathology and an outline of the history of the Flossenbürg camp, the study describes the protocols in regards to formal and qualitative criteria. The analysis scrutinizes the conclusions or so-called diagnoses of the dissectors at the end of each protocol from a forensic perspective. All prisoner deaths that occurred in the context of a concentration camp are considered criminal or unnatural, having occurred under obscure circumstances. The present study shows how the allegedly objective language of medicine and pathology often covers up medical crimes, such as missing treatment or prevention of infectious diseases, improper abdominal surgeries, starvation, polytrauma, executions, and neglect, instead of uncovering them. This confirms what former prisoners had testified to in the immediate postwar period. The thesis furthermore attempts to provide a more probable cause of death in three exemplary cases. Finally, it evaluates the scientific nature of the dissection protocols. It concludes that the Flossenbürg dissection protocols should be described as arbitrary experiments on humans (eigenmächtige Versuche am Menschen) but that they do not incorporate any necessary scientific criteria, nor were they created with truly scientific questions in mind. From the available historical evidence, the study concludes that the dissections were performed on deceased inmates to satisfy personal curiosity if not voyeurism stemming from a deeply misanthropic and criminal ideology of Germanic supremacy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Tannenbaum, Jessica

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stahnisch, Frank

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Timm, Annette
• Stapleton, Timothy
• Moore, Anne
• Stam, Henderikus

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/35707

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/109443