Munich institute identifies 6,000 brain samples from Nazi victims
Sunday 25th October 2026 on 10:01 in
Bavaria
A Munich psychiatry institute has disclosed that researchers under the Nazi regime used the brains of 486 victims without their consent. Around 6,000 microscopic brain sections remain in its archive, BR reports.
The Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry said a large share of the samples came from children killed in the Nazi “euthanasia” programme. Researchers dissected the brains and prepared thin slices for examination under microscopes.
From 1939, anatomists examined the brains of 430 people murdered in the programme, according to Michał Palacz, part of the team that investigated the institute’s history. More than half of those victims were children under 10. Many were killed at, or taken from, the Eglfing-Haar psychiatric hospital.
The institute also received 35 brains taken immediately after executions by guillotine at Munich-Stadelheim prison. Researchers used the remains of people executed, prisoners of war and forced labourers. The practice of using executed people’s bodies for anatomical research had begun before 1933, the report said.
Institute historian Anna Greithanner said records showed researchers welcoming the availability of victims’ remains for further study. Some documents suggest doctors requested the brains of specific children, potentially influencing their murders. Researchers also took samples home and created private collections, many of which are believed to have disappeared.
The findings are part of a five-million-euro historical investigation by the Max Planck Society, published in four volumes. Institute director Elisabeth Binder said remembering victims and their lives was important, and that researchers and doctors must remain alert to ethical questions.
The institute is considering what to do with the surviving samples. Binder said they are human remains that should preferably be buried, and that displaying them in an exhibition would be unethical. The institute plans to consult ethicists, historians and people with experience of psychiatry about their future.