Hans-Joachim Lang
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Hans-Joachim Lang (born 6 August 1951) is a German
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
,
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
, and
adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...
of
cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...
at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies
University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...
. Dr. Lang researched and authored the award-winning book ''Die Namen der Nummern'' (The Names of the Numbers), published in 2004, which identified all of the victims murdered in the gas chamber of the
Natzweiler-Struthof Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 Ma ...
concentration camp for Nazi anatomist
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 ...
as part of his plan to create a pseudo-scientific Jewish skeleton collection during World War II.


Biography

Lang was born and grew up in
Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...
. He received a doctorate in German studies and political science from the University of Tübingen,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
in 1980, where he studied under the French sociologist Freddy Raphael. In 1982, he became the editor of the scientific section of the newspaper '' Schwäbisches Tagblatt'' in
Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...
. He joined the faculty at his alma mater,
University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...
, as an
adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...
of
cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...
at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies. In 1989, Lang and co-author and journalist Wolfgang Moser turned down the Fritz-Sänger-Preis für mutigen Journalismus (Fritz Sanger Prize for Courageous Journalism) because of Sanger's work for the Nazi press agency under Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
from 1933 to 1945. Lang conducted this research in his free time over 20 years, when he was working as a science journalist. In 2017, he is an Honorary Professor and no longer a journalist. He remarks in an interview the changes in France over the time of his research. Initially, many institutions, but not all, did not respond to his request for information, "institutions in France didn't like to cooperate," but 11 years later this changed: "Dr Hans-Joachim Lang identified the victims in 2004. Eleven years later Dr. Raphael Toledano, French researcher, found together with the director of the Institute for Forensic Medicine three small glass containers, in which tiny bits of leftovers from a human stomach and five small pieces of skin were preserved, which can be attributed to Menachem Taffel, one of the 86 victims." These changes in France did not inhibit his research, first published in 2004, and allowed the later events and published material to clarify the nature of what the German University did when it was part of the German Reich during the Second World War. These changes in France are manifest in the documentary films made in 2013-2014 in France, and the added material posted at Lang's website since his book was published.


''Die Namen der Nummern'' (The Names of the Numbers)


Jewish skull collection

In June 1943, the anthropologists ''SS-
Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...
'' Bruno Beger from
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
and Hans Fleischhacker from Tübingen selected 86 Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz acting on behalf of the SS research organization "
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 ...
", which supported a plan of anatomy professor
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 ...
to create a Jewish anatomical skeleton specimen collection. During the German occupation of France, Hirt had been appointed head of the Anatomical Institute 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 ...
(Reichs University of
Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
) in 1941. Twenty-nine women and 57 men from 8 countries were selected from Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz by Beger and Fleischbacker and brought to the
Natzweiler-Struthof Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 Ma ...
concentration camp, where skull x-rays and blood groups were recorded. On 11th, 13, 17 and 19 August 1943, the camp commander murdered 86 people in the gas chamber built outside the camp by the SS exclusively for poison gas experiments by medical professors on prisoners. The victims were transported by the SS from Natzweiler to the Reichsuniversität Straßburg. With the approach of the Allied troops, these bodies, preserved in formalin, were hidden in the basement of the Anatomy Institute, where they were discovered. On 23 November 1944, Strasbourg was liberated by the U.S. Seventh Army under the command of Gen.
Alexander Patch Alexander McCarrell Patch (23 November 1889 – 21 November 1945) was a senior United States Army Officer (armed forces), officer who fought in World war, both world wars, rising to rank of General (United States), general. During World War  ...
. Three weeks later the French military tribunal began its investigation. On 3 January 1945, an article in the London newspaper ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'' reported the discovery of 86 bodies in the Anatomical Institute of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg. The "French Office of Investigations of War Crimes" took photographs of the remains and documented the findings of the remains. Evidence collected formed the basis of the subsequent trial of August Hirt by the War Crimes Tribunal in Metz in 1954. The French military, which controlled Strasbourg, gave up trying to identify the victims and buried the bodies in the local Jewish cemetery in a mass grave. At the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial in 1946, Hirt's anatomy assistant, Henri Henrypierre (or ''Henripierre'') testified that he noted numbers tattooed on the arms of the corpses brought to the Institute, and kept a secret recording of them hidden in the apartment of his romantic interest. August Hirt was sentenced to death ''in absentia'' at the Military War Crimes Trial at Metz on 23 December 1953, however it was unknown at the time that Hirt had shot himself in the head on 2 June 1945 at Schluchsee, Baden-Württemberg.


Identifying the victims

While at the ''Schwäbisches Tagblatt'', Dr. Lang, studied the war crimes committed by Auguste Hirt, at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg during the German occupation of France, and attempted to determine the identities of the victims in the Jewish Skeletal Collection. Other than Serge Klarsfeld, who documented his attempts in his book Le Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France no other attempts were previously made to identify these people. In 1998, Dr. Lang found archives of the Reichsuniversität located at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, including the hand-written copy of the numbers recorded by Hirt's assistant, Henri Henrypierre. Together with archives at
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
and
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
, Lang was able to identify all 86 of the victims' names, and other identifying information including occupations and place of origin. He published the identities and biographies of all 86 victims in the award-winning book ''Die Namen der Nummern'' (in German) in 2004. Biographies of the victims are available online and at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum website. In November 2005 the remains of these individuals were buried in the Jewish cemetery of Cronenbourg, on the outskirts of Strasbourg, under the auspices of the Communauté Israélite of Strasbourg, the Consistoire of the Bas-Rhin, and Grand Rabbi Abraham Deutsch. A memorial was erected at the cemetery in December 2005 with the names of the 86 victims, and a memorial plaque listing the names of the victims was placed outside the Anatomy Institute at Strasbourg's University Hospital. In an article which appeared in the ''Annals of Anatomy'' in 2013, Lang said:


Recognition of work

Bazelon remarked that "The most startling breakthrough n identifying the victims of Nazi anatomistscomes from German journalist and Tübingen culture professor Hans-Joachim Lang." Professor Urban Wiesing, at the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine of the University of Tübingen, wrote that: " e book is more than an essay on the moral catastrophe of medicine. It tells not only of a crime, but also writes history in a special way one step further: it gives the victims back their names."


Other notable works

Lang has written several books and articles on holocaust topics and Nazi war crimes. His book ''Die Frauen von Block 10: Medizinische Versuche in Auschwitz.'' (The women of Block 10: Medical experiments in Auschwitz) tells the story of 800 women who were subjected to pseudoscientific medical experiments at
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 ...
and provides biographical information about the victims. The book ''Als Christ nenne ich Sie einen Lügner – Theodor Rollers Aufbegehren gegen Hitler '' (As a Christian, I Call You a Liar:Theodor Roller's revolt against Hitler) tells the story of a young bank accountant named Theodor Roller who refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler, and wrote letters to Hitler explaining his faith. As a result, he was imprisoned in a psychiatric facility. An article Lang wrote for Die Zeit tells about the last person executed for murder in 1948 by the West German government in the aftermath of World War II.


Awards

* 1989 – Wächterpreis der deutschen Tagespresse, (Guardian of the German Press Prize, awarded by the German Freedom of the Press Foundation) for his article on the Tübingen regional court. * 2004 – Prize of the Auschwitz Foundation for ''Die Namen der Nummern'' * 2008 – Leonhart Fuchs Medal of the Medical Faculty of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen for ''Die Namen der Nummern''


Publications


Books

* * * *


Selected articles

* * * * * *


Documentaries

* , documentary directed by Sonia Rolley, Axel and Trancrède Ramonet, duration 55 min. Production France 3 – Temps Noir, April 2013. *
Le nom des 86 (The name of the 86)
', documentary directed by Emmanuel Heyd and Raphael Toledano, duration 63 min. Production Dora Films sas – Alsace 20 – Télébocal – Cinaps TV, 2014. File:Hans-Joachim Lang au Struthof avril 2013 02.jpg, Hans Joachim Lang in front of the plaque in memory of 86 Jews killed in August 1943 in the gas chamber of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. File:Strasbourg cimetière israélite de Cronenbourg sépulture des 86 victimes du Pr Hirt.jpg, Monument to the 86 victims at the Cronenbourg Jewish Cemetery near Strasbourg File:Strasbourg cimetière israélite de Cronenbourg août 2013 05.jpg, Memorial plaque with the names of the 86 victims at the Cronenbourg Jewish Cemetery File:Strasbourg Hôpital civil plaque institut anatomie.jpg, Memorial plaque at the Institute of Anatomy, University of Strasbourg File:Camp de concentration de Natweiller-Struthof plaque mémorielle noms des 86 juifs gazés.jpg, Memorial plaque with names of the victims outside of the gas chamber at Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp


See also

*
Natzweiler-Struthof Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 Ma ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Hans-Joachim 20th-century German historians 1951 births Living people People from Speyer University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen German journalists German historians of the Holocaust Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 21st-century German historians