The Women on Stieve’s List

Thursday, April 4, 2024, 1:00 PM PDT | 4:00 PM EDT

In Nazi Germany, the medical field was part of the larger effort to dehumanize anyone who did not conform to the idea of a “healthy German nation.”

Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt, who teaches the history of anatomy at Harvard Medical School, scrutinizes the biographies of medical professionals during the Nazi era and restores the histories of victims subjected to coercive medical experimentation both before and after death. Dr. Hildebrandt also considers the legacies of this history for the present, including how to ethically approach work with human remains in historical collections at universities, museums, and historical institutions.

Sabine Hildebrandt MD is a researcher and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She holds a medical degree from Philipsuniversität Marburg, Germany. Sabine teaches anatomy and history and ethics of anatomy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College. Her research interests are the history and ethics of anatomy, and her educational approach integrates anatomy, medical history, and medical ethics.  

Among other publications on anatomy, medicine, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, her 2016 book The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich is the first systematic study of anatomy in Nazi Germany. In this context, she has co-edited Recommendations on How to Deal with Holocaust Era Human Remains, known as the Vienna Protocol. As co-chair of The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow, she co-authored this commissions report published on Nov 8, 2023. As a member of the American Association for Anatomy Task Force on Legacy Collections and of the Human Remains in the Harvard Museum Collections Research Review Committee, Sabine is involved in formulating recommendations on how to ethically approach work with human remains in historical collections. She serves as associate editor of Anatomical Sciences Education for the areas of history and ethics. She was elected as Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy in 2024. 

Recovering Victims’ Voices

This talk is part of a new lectures series on marginalized victims of Nazi persecution.  “Recovering Victims’ Voices: Black, LGBTQI+, Persons with Disabilities, and Roma Communities and the Holocaust” will highlight new and emerging scholarship on often un- or underexplored victims of Nazi persecution. The series demonstrates how historical identity-based hate influences contemporary discourse about race, gender, sexuality, and disabilities.