Bruno Beger (27 April 1911 – 12 October 2009) was a German

racial Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...

anthropologist, ethnologist, and explorer who worked for the ''

Ahnenerbe The (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a pseudoscientific organization founded by the ''Schutzstaffel'' in Nazi Germany in 1935. Established by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler in July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promoting racial the ...

''. In that role he participated in Ernst Schäfer's 1938–1939 expedition to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, helped the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (''Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS'', RuSHA) identify

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s, and later helped select human subjects to be killed to create an anatomical study collection of Jewish skulls.

Early life

Beger was born in 1911 to an old

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

family that soon after came upon hard times when Beger's father was killed in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. A family friend paid for him to attend the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

where he was first exposed to Hans F. K. Günther in a lecture, who would encourage him through his early academic career in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

Service in the SS

In 1934, Beger began working a part-time job in the Race and Settlement Office of the SS where he eventually became a section head. Beger was asked to be part of an expedition to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, but while this was awaiting final approval, he was invited on a trip to Tibet led by Ernst Schäfer which he accepted instead. In a proposal he wrote to Schäfer, Beger stated his contribution to the expedition would be "to study the current racial-anthropological situation through measurements, trait research, photography and moulds... and to collect material about the proportion, origins, significance and development of the Nordic race in this region."

1938–39 expedition to Tibet

All through the expedition, Beger kept a travel diary which was published in book form 60 years later, ''Mit der deutschen Tibetexpedition Ernst Schäfer 1938/39 nach Lhasa'' (Wiesbaden, 1998). Only 50 copies of it exist.

Jewish skull collection

Beger worked together with

August Hirt August Hirt (28 April 1898 – 2 June 1945) was an anatomist with Swiss and German nationality who served as a chairman at the Reich University in Strasbourg during World War II. He performed experiments with mustard gas on inmates at the Natz ...

at the

Reichsuniversität Straßburg The Reichsuniversität Straßburg was founded in 1941 by the Nazis in Alsace after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Nazi Germany. The University of Strasbourg had moved to Clermont-Ferrand in 1939. The university's purpose was to restore ...

. His assignment, which he carried out, was to provide the Nazi doctor with detainees of diverse ethnic types from various concentration camps in order to serve Hirt's lethal racial experiments. The work involved selecting over 100 individuals from

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

to be murdered for their

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

s and exhibited as the Jewish skull collection. They were mainly Jews, and the crime was exposed during the

Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

in 1946. The collection was sanctioned by ''

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

, and designed by and under the direction of

, with

Rudolf Brandt Rudolf Hermann Brandt (2 June 1909 – 2 June 1948) was a German Schutzstaffel, SS officer from 1933–45 and a civil servant. A lawyer by profession, Brandt was the Personal Administrative Officer to ''Reichsführer-SS'' (''Persönlicher Referen ...

and Wolfram Sievers, general manager of the ''

'', being responsible for procuring and preparing the corpses. The victims were sent to Natzweiler concentration camp for gassing by '' SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Josef Kramer, the '' Kommandant'' of the camp. Their corpses were then sent to Hirt in Strasburg. In these endeavours he was assisted by doctors Hans Endres, Hans Fleischhacker, Heinrich Rübel and Rudolf Trojan.

After the war

After the war, Beger was interned by American occupation forces. With the exception of August Hirt, who killed himself, all of his superiors were prosecuted in the immediate aftermath of the war: Rudolf Brandt and Wolfram Sievers were both executed by American occupation forces after being convicted at the Doctors' Trial, while Josef Kramer was executed by British occupation forces after being convicted at the Belsen trials. However, in February 1948, Beger was classified as “exonerated” by a

denazification Denazification () was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Par ...

tribunal which was unaware of his role in the Jewish skull collection. In 1960, an investigation into the collection began in

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a Cities of Germany, city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg (district), Lu ...

, and Beger was taken into custody on 30 March 1960. He was released four months later. The investigation continued until coming to trial on 27 October 1970. Beger claimed that he was unaware the Auschwitz prisoners he measured were to be killed. While two others indicted in the trial were released, Beger was convicted on 6 April 1971, and sentenced to three years in prison for being an accomplice in the murder of 86 Jews. However, he was then released immediately due to time served. Neither of his colleagues with whom he was tried, Hans Fleischhacker and Wolf-Dietrich Wolff, were convicted. According to his family, Beger died in

Königstein im Taunus Königstein im Taunus (, ) is a health spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Owing to its advantageous location ...

on 12 October 2009.

Published work

*''Meine Begenungen mit dem Ozean des Wissens'', Kurt und Dieter Schwartz, Königstein, 1986, 11 pages. Broschüre zum 75. Geburtstag von Bruno Beger in einer Auflage von 250 Stück. OCLC 611195622. *''Mit der deutschen Tibetexpedition Ernst Schäfer 1938/39 nach Lhasa'', Schwartz, Wiesbaden, 1998, 280 pages. Notes: Includes text of: Geheimnis Tibet: erster Bericht der Deutschen Tibet-Expedition Ernst Schäfer. München: Verlag F. Bruckmann, 1943. Contains an essay by Bruno Beger who was part of the expedition. Maps on lining papers. Description: xxxi, 249 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps; 26 cm. ; 3935102356. OCLC Numbers: 660670280; 163817098. * Czwienk, Jürgen, and Georg Graffe. 2004. Die Expeditionen der Nazis Abenteuer und Rassenwahn. Gescher: PolarFilm. Notes: Filmbericht, Deutschland 2004. - Extras: 2 Bonusfilme: Burma Road (41 Min.), China: 1932 - 1935 (15 Min.). Performer(s): Mit: Ernst Schäfer, Bruno Beger. Description: 1 DVD-Video (Ländercode 0, 50 + 56 Min.): s/w, Dolby digital stereo. 12 cm. Responsibility: ein Film von Jürgen Czwienk und Georg Graffe. ; 9783937163475. OCLC Number: 314606494. * Beger, Bruno. 1964. Es war in Tibet: Erlebtes im Himalaya und in Tibet. Frankfurt: Akademie für das Graphische Gewerbe. Herstellung: Semesterarbeit von Friedrich Beger. OCLC 611114953. * Beger, Bruno. 1941. Die Bevölkerung der altmärkischen Wische: eine rassenkundliche Untersuchung. @Berlin, Univ., Math.-Naturwiss. Fak., Diss., 1941. OCLC 252078607.

Early life

Service in the SS

1938–39 expedition to Tibet

Jewish skull collection

After the war

See also

Published work

References

Further reading