Dozens of brains and parts of them were discovered during the renovation of the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. The remains belonged to victims of the Holocaust and Nazi experiments, which were carried out in order to "improve the human race." The website Gizmodo reports.
According to the Society, the brain samples were in the collection of Julius Hallerworden, a German physician and neuroscientist. He was a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, as well as head of the Department of Neuropathology at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research (now named after Max Planck).
The preparations were made from brains extracted from executed prisoners and mentally retarded. Given that Hallerworden also received biological material from Josef Mengele, another German physician known for cruel criminal experiments on prisoners, it is likely that the brain samples belonged to Holocaust victims.
At the moment, employees of the institute are studying the samples in order, if possible, to understand who exactly they belonged to, as well as to determine the nature of the death. Then the remains will be buried in a mass grave.