Human

Brains & Body Parts Of Nazi Victims Found In Psychiatric Institute In Munich

Brooke James
First Posted: Sep 02, 2016 04:59 AM EDT

Body parts preserved and left in psychiatric institutes are stuff of nightmares and horror stories, but then again, the Holocaust and anything related to the Nazis are all considered so in world history.

Decades after the end of World War II, it seems that there are still archives from the Nazi doctors - and a psychiatric research institute in Munich had been saving them accidentally. These archives are human body parts, mostly brains of humans that were once used by Nazi doctors. The body parts were discovered during the construction work at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry last year, although the story behind it was not revealed until earlier this week.

According to IFL Science, the institute was linked with Nazi theories and racial eugenics, so as part of the ideology human body parts were requested to be examined. Many of these were then sent by the Auschwitz physician Josef Mengele - one of the most deranged and disturbed members of the Nazis.

Mengle was known as the "Angel of Death" and as part of the team, he selected victims to be killed in the concentration camps, and performed violent and deadly experiments on prisoners. The brains of those who died were then shipped off to the Max Planck Institute, and they have been using them without realizing where they were from.

In a statement after the discovery of the human body parts, the organization said in a statement that investigations are ongoing regarding the brain sections belonging to the estate of the doctor, and the president of the Max Planck Society announced for a total review of the human specimens that they own in their collection.

It went on to state, "The Max Planck Society will also appoint a project with a view to establishing the identities of the victims based on the available files and records," and that "the human specimens discovered as part of the total review should, wherever possible, subsequently buried with names."

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