Eduard Pernkopf created an 'atlas' of anatomy by dissecting the bodies of Nazi political prisoners.
When nerve surgeon Dr Susan Mackinnon needed help to finish an operation, she reached, as she often does, for a mid-20th Century book of anatomy.
But the book, often referred to as Pernkopf's Atlas, is no longer in print and a second-hand set - there are several volumes - can sell for thousands of pounds online.That's because the book's findings came from the bodies of hundreds of people killed by the Nazis. It is their bodies - cut up and dissected - that are shown across thousands of pages.
His colleagues described him as an"ardent" National Socialist who, from 1938, wore a Nazi uniform to work every day. Dr Sabine Hildebrandt, from Harvard Medical School, says at least half of the 800 images in the atlas came from political prisoners. They included gay men and lesbians, gypsies, political dissidents and Jews.In the first edition of the atlas, published in 1937, the signatures of illustrators Erich Lepier and Karl Endtresser included swastikas and the double lightning bolt insignia of the SS.
However a recent Neurosurgery survey of nerve surgeons found 59% were aware of Pernkopf's Atlas, with 13% currently using it. Rabbi Polak, told the BBC:"Look at Dr Mackinnon - she couldn't find a nerve and she's the greatest in her field. The patient told her 'I want my leg cut off if you can't find it' - no one wants that to happen.
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