Eva Justin (23 August 1909 – 11 September 1966) was a German anthropologist who was active during the Nazi era. She specialised in

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that the Human, human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "race (human categorization), races", and that empirical evi ...

. Her work contributed to the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

crimes against the

Sinti The Sinti (masc. sing. ''Sinto''; fem. sing. ''Sintetsa, Sinta'') are a subgroup of the Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France, Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally Itinerant groups i ...

and Roma peoples.

Early life

Born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

in 1909, the daughter of a railroad official, Eva Justin served as an assistant to Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter. Justin originally trained as a nurse and received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Berlin in 1943 despite not having followed the normal university procedure to do so.

Eugen Fischer Eugen Fischer (5 July 1874 – 9 July 1967) was a German professor of medicine, anthropology, and eugenics, and a member of the Nazi Party. He served as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, ...

mentored her through her doctoral thesis and final exams, and ethnologist Richard Thurnwald was a reviewer. Justin was one of the early registered nurses to earn a PhD. Speaking Romani, she earned the trust of Roma and Sinti people. Her doctoral dissertation was titled "Lebensschicksale artfremd erzogener Zigeunerkinder und ihrer Nachkommen" ("Biographical destinies of Gypsy children and their offspring who were educated in a manner inappropriate for their species").

Holocaust

The children that Justin studied had been selected for deportation, but this was delayed until she completed her research and received her PhD. The children were later sent to the " Gypsy family camp" at Auschwitz on 6 May 1944. Soon after their arrival,

Josef Mengele Josef Mengele (; 16 March 19117 February 1979) was a Nazi German (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (). He performed Nazi hum ...

arrived at Auschwitz. Some of the children were subjected to his experiments and most were eventually killed in the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Donatie ...

s. About 39 or 40 children that Justin had studied were sent to Auschwitz in 1944, and all but four died before the end of the war, many before her thesis was published. Thirty-nine children from an orphanage in Mulfingen, who were the subjects of Justin's doctoral thesis, were registered at Auschwitz on 12 May 1944. She searched for anthropological subjects in

concentration camps A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

. Justin was a senior member of the Race Hygiene Research Center. She wrote in the foreword to a research paper that she hoped to provide the basis for further racial hygiene laws to stop the flow of "unworthy primitive elements" into the German population. Her position was that

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

could not be assimilated because "they usually became asocial as a result of their primitive thinking, and that attempts to educate them should be stopped." Justin proposed sterilization for Romani people, except for those with "pure Gypsy blood." She was present when the Sinti and Roma deportations to concentration camps were organized. In 1958, the

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

district attorney initiated an investigation into Justin's wartime actions, but the investigation was closed in 1960, after the district attorney had concluded that her actions were subject to the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

. Frankfurt magistrates found insufficient evidence to prosecute Justin in 1964, believing that Justin had not known her ideas would lead to the children being sent to concentration camps and that survivors could not specifically remember her striking them. Justin had based her work on the ideas of Robert Ritter and no longer believed them. In post-war West Germany, Justin worked as a psychologist for the Frankfurt police, even acting as a consultant to the legal system for compensation cases for Holocaust survivors. She died from cancer in 1966 in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

, a city on the outskirts of Frankfurt.

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St. Josefspflege
{{DEFAULTSORT:Justin, Eva 1909 births 1966 deaths Scientists from Dresden German women psychologists Young German Order members Proponents of scientific racism Romani genocide perpetrators Deaths from cancer in Germany 20th-century German psychologists

Early life

Holocaust

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links