Anthropology in National Socialism

Research project P 13779 Anthropology in National Socialism Maria TESCHLER-NICOLA 11.10.1999 As part of the senate project of the University of Vienna ("Studies on Anatomical Science 1933 8-1945 ", Vienna 1998) and a project commissioned by the Austrian Ministry of Education on provenience research at the Federal Museums (February 1998), the Abteilung Archäologische Biologie und Anthropologie (Department of Archaeological Biology and Anthropology) at Vienna`s Museum of Natural History conducted various studies. In the Somatological Collection it located material from the 1938-1945 period which ultimately provided the motivation for this research project. The material (plaster cast masks, hair samples, finger prints, data sheets and tens of thousands of photographs) originate in serial studies that were carried out on Jews and later on prisoners at diverse war camps in serial studies. The Jews studied by Viennese anthropologists were of Polish descent. They were detained at the Vienna Stadium in September 1939 and subsequently deported to Buchenwald where most of them perished. -The material studied here poses a number of questions. On the one hand, regarding the background of its acquisition and on the other, how it is to be dealt with adequately, since in the case of the deported Jews it was usually the last information and photographs of persons who were later murdered. These concrete projects carried out by the Anthropologische Abteilung as part of their collecting and research activities form the basis of an interdisciplinary study of the tradition and Nazi past of the field of anthropology in Austria. The questions to be addressed by the research project include the following: 1) In the sense of a critical history of science, the project will study to what extent the field of anthropology with its construction of "race" was made functional for the Nazis and how, by the same token" representatives of the field used the new political situation and the war to pursue their research interests and to collect new material. An analysis of the organizational structure of the discipline and a compilation of a collective biography of the Viennese anthropologists at this time are necessary steps for answering these questions. 2) The fate of the Jews detained at the Vienna Stadium will be analyzed against the backdrop of the history of deportations and the systematic genocide of the Jews during the Nazi period. Of crucial interest in this connection are the decision-making processes and the cooperation of various political and scientific institutions. 3) The issue of racism in dealing with the measuring bodies will also be addressed. As an attempt to reverse the original "gaze of the researcher" of the "Eastern Jews", a particularly persecuted group of victims, the subject status of persons who were degraded to objects of study should be restored. The reconstruction of the racial survey and the study of biographical data will figure significantly in this part of the project.

The essential orientation of anthropology got fundamentally deterministic of political conditions. The carrier of Anthropology at the Museum in NS-time is caused by the complex interdependency of science and politics and her representatives. Anthropology became exploited for the construction and popularisation of national socialist central items of "folk" and "race". In the context of this interdisciplinary conceived project the analysis of the tradition of physical anthropology in Austria, the institutional connections and particularly the environment of the museum research and public relations as well as the motivation of the curators and responsible head of the museum and their positions in this complex working structure were examined. The archive and collection inventory kept at the museum formed the starting point. Three bundles of questions were analysed: a) it should be explored to what extent could the area of Anthropology be made functional for National Socialism, did the representatives use the new political situation, how did the interdependency of science and politics work? b) how was the acquisition of the dates organised, in particular the anthropological measurement action of 440 stateless male Jews of Polish origin, which have been interned in September 1939 in the Vienna Stadium and later deported in the concentration camp Buchenwald; moreover the topic of racism in dealing with the human bodies should be examined. c) how can the anthropological investigations and activities be ranged within the persecution policy of the NS regime? Ad a) The political and personal networks were reconstructed, the role of the supervisors and the exploitation of the discipline for the national socialist "Blut und Boden" politics were highlighted by actions and projects initialised by the new direction of the scientific state museums, Hans Kummerlöwe, as well as the head of the Anthropological Department, Josef Wastl. Ad b) and c) The anthropological examinations of the 440 stateless male Jews was reconstructed, they were aimed to record "racial difference", "racial different quality". Measurements and hair samples were taken and face masks and photos were made. During this procedure people were demoted to research objects. By collecting and enquiring for personal dates and destinies a part of their individuality should be restored, the investigated man should become "visible" again. Furthermore, contacts with survivors and surviving relatives were taken and documents and photographs handed over to members of the family. The results aren`t relevant only discipline historically but also for questions of museums studies and an adequate dealing with this specific estate, representing an "excess of past".