Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics



The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927. In its early years, and during the Nazi era, it was strongly associated with theories of Nazi eugenics and racial hygiene advocated by its leading theorists Fritz Lenz and Eugen Fischer, and by its director Otmar von Verschuer. Under Fischer, the sterilisation of so-called Rhineland Bastards was undertaken. During WW II, the Institute regularly received body parts, including eyes and skulls, from Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz to use in studies to jusitfy Nazi racial polices. After the German capitulation in May of 1945, most of the thousands of files and lab material of the Institute were moved to a secret location in another European country and never obtained by the Allies to use as evidence in war crimes trials and to prove or dis-prove the Nazi racial ideology which had motivated mass genocide in Europe. Some of the staff of the Institute were able to change their identities and escape justice.