New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Howard Alan Israel, "Nazi Anatomy Lessons: A Dissection of Evil" (Vallentine Mitchell, 2026)
Feb 13, 2026
Howard Alan Israel, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and author, recounts discovering that a trusted anatomy atlas was created by Nazi doctors. He traces the atlas’s origins in Vienna, the victims likely used for its illustrations, and the institutional resistance to truth. The conversation raises urgent questions about medical ethics, remembrance, and how knowledge can be entangled with atrocity.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Gifted Atlas Became A Career Staple
- Howard Alan Israel received Pernkopf's Atlas as a gift and used it obsessively through residency and his surgical career.
- A colleague's 1994 remark that "he was a Nazi" triggered intense guilt and launched a decades-long investigation.
Politics Shaped Medical Education
- Pernkopf led Vienna's anatomy institute and taught racial hygiene as Nazism rose in the 1930s.
- Political alignment, not science, determined academic survival and shaped who taught anatomy at the University of Vienna.
Sources Were Mostly Political Victims
- Investigations showed most Pernkopf specimens were political dissidents, resistance members, homosexuals, or communists rather than primarily Jewish camp victims.
- Howard Israel and Dr. Bill Seidelman confronted University of Vienna responses and uncovered this evidence.
