LOS ANGELES – Back in undergraduate, when I was studying anatomy and physiology in Los Angeles, California, I never really questioned where the images I was using came from. In a way, I took them for granted, since they were considered to be the best examples of anatomical drawings in the world. They were richer in detail and more vivid in color than any others. Skin, muscle, tendons, nerves, organs, and bone were revealed in graphic detail, and my focus was simply on learning and memorizing. At that time, I did not know that in 1939, under Nazi Germany, a law ensured that the bodies of executed prisoners were immediately sent to anatomy departments for research and teaching purposes.

As I progressed with my education, I began to realize that these images were not just scientific tools, but products of a specific historical and ethical context. Learning about Eduard Pernkopf and the origins of Pernkopf’s Atlas: Topographical Anatomy of Man forced me to rethink my earlier assumptions. What I once saw as purely educational material became something much more complex raising questions about responsibility, memory, and the cost at which knowledge is sometimes obtained.

Given the impact of the Holocaust on healthcare throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the question of where the middle ground lies between emotional and rational choices of health care professionals and educators becomes even more pressing when we turn to Eduard Pernkopf’s “The Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy,” often referred to as “The Pernkopf Atlas” or “The Atlas.”

Created at the University of Vienna, a leading anatomical institute with one of the world’s finest medical faculties, this book has become a truly unique contribution to global medicine. Its watercolor illustrations were of the highest quality. Combined with the quality of the paintings, the superior four-color printing technology allowed for the creation of illustrations of........

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