Traces of Nazi victims in Hermann Stieve's histological collection

Berlin anatomist Hermann Stieve (1886-1952) had access to many bodies of execution victims during the period of National Socialism and used tissues from these bodies to conduct histological research. Estate material of his eldest son, who died in 2012, included histological specimens related to this research, some of them carrying inscriptions with names. This historical investigation tried to identify the individuals behind these names and their fate.

Information was sought in several archives, the data collection of the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (German Resistance Memorial Center), Stieve's own publications, and in other estate material.

Thirty-six of the hundreds of histological slides from the estate carried a total of 20 personal names. Fifteen of these could be unequivocally related to individual historical persons, twelve women and three men, all of them executed at Berlin Plötzensee prison between 1937 and 1945. As detailed as the archival sources allowed, the fate of these individuals was reconstructed. They include men and women convicted of alleged political resistance activities, but also of just stealing cigarettes or speaking bad of Hitler. They were all victims of a murderous justice system, and their fate demonstrates the involvement of the anatomist in this system.

The histological slides from Stieve's estate were buried on the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in central Berlin on 13 May 2019. For most execution victims, this place now is the only known burial site of their mortal remains, as they were denied a grave at the time.