Renaming of Hallervorden–Spatz disease: the second man behind the name of the disease

Hallervorden–Spatz disease (HSD) has been recently renamed to pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) and neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA), mainly due to the unethical behavior of Julius Hallervorden in the National Socialist (NS) euthanasia program of the Nazi Third Reich. The role of the second name giver in the NS euthanasia program is less clear. Hugo Spatz was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch during World War II (WWII), renamed to Max Planck Institute after 1945. After the war, he headed the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt am Main. The present study investigates the potential involvement of Hugo Spatz in the NS euthanasia program. In the present study, we compared a list of euthanasia victims from the German Federal Archive Berlin (30.146 cases published after the reunification of Germany, BArch R179) with the files of the collection of specimens from 1940 until 1945 of Hugo Spatz as listed in the Archive of the Max Planck Society Berlin-Dahlem (n = 305). Furthermore, the old term HSD and the new terms PKAN and NBIA were systematically searched in PubMed from 1946, through January 2019 to evaluate the renaming process from HSD to PKAN/NBIA. Following Hugo Spatz’s death in 1969 growing evidence indicated that he may have taken part in the NS euthanasia program. This study identifies 4 euthanized victims in the patient files of Hugo Spatz from 1940 to 1945, suggesting involvement of Hugo Spatz in the NS euthanasia program. This further strengthens the argument that the former HSD should be exclusively referred to as PKAN or NBIA.

The Vienna Protocol

The "Vienna Protocol" was authored by Rabbi Joseph Polak, the Chief Justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts, with input from Prof. Michael Grodin of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University. The "Vienna Protocol" initially arose from a question posed by Prof. Susan Mackinnon of Washington University and her associate Andrew Yee with respect to the use of paintings from the Pernkopf Atlas of Human Anatomy, many of which are believed to be based on the dissection of victims of Nazi terror in Vienna. Questions about the use of these images and of how one deals, in Jewish tradition, with human remains of Nazi victims, have not been addressed. The "Vienna Protocol" is a unique and unprecedented religious and ethical analysis in the tradition of a Rabbinical "Responsum." While it was undertaken from a Jewish religious and ethical perspective, it is, in fact, a universal document that can be considered as a model for people of other faiths and beliefs. Image credit for the 1930s photo showing Nazi flags flying on the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics: Archives of the Max Planck Society, Berlin. Used with permission.

Mit einem Mann möcht ich nicht tauschen

Marie Bruns-Bode's diaries and letters design a living contemporary painting of culture and society, starting from Berlin during the imperial period until the end of the Second World War. The author was the daughter of Wilhelm von Bode, the general director of the Berlin museums. Through her father, the young woman became an art history teacher for Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia in 1907. In 1915 she married Viktor Bruns, international judge at the League of Nations in The Hague and founder of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Berlin. In her texts, curated and commented by Rainer Noltenius, the image of a creative and humorous woman emerges who, despite the restrictive atmosphere of authoritarian male-dominated societies, thinks and acts in an astonishingly emancipatory way. »Conquer the fortress! This is why we women have emancipated! «Embedded in the social life of the educated middle class in Berlin, she portrays her surroundings, from the times of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the end of the Second World War. There were close contacts to Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, Pastor Martin Niemöller and Leopold Reidemeister. The background of Marie's descriptions is always the life of her own family, rich in friendships and festivities. Her diaries are illustrated with her own watercolors and drawings, as well as with contemporary postcards and photographs.