Eva Justin

Eva Justin checking the facial characteristics of a Romani woman as part of her "racial studies".
41 "Mischlinge" half-Romani children at St. Josefspflege orphanage in Mulfingen, Germany, were used in Eva Justin's racial studies for her PhD dissertation. 39 of them (20 boys and 19 girls) were shipped to Auschwitz extermination camp on 9 May 1944. Of the 39 children, two survived Auschwitz; all the others were killed, most on the 3rd of August, 1944.

Eva Justin (23 August 1909 – 11 September 1966) was a German racial anthropologist and psychologist, and a prominent Nazi anthropologist.

Early life

She was born in Dresden in 1909, the daughter of a railroad official Charles Justin and his wife Margarethe (née Ebinger). Justin served as an assistant to Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter in the "Rassenhygienische und Bevölkerungsbiologische Forschungsstelle" (The Research Unit for Racial Hygiene and Population Biology) founded by Ritter in 1936 at the University of Tübingen.

Justin originally trained as a nurse, and received her doctorate in anthropology in 1944. She also spoke Romani, thus earning the trust of Roma and Sinti people. Her doctoral dissertation, titled "Lebensschicksale artfremd erzogener Zigeunerkinder und ihrer Nachkommen" (English: "The Life History of Alien-raised Gypsy Children and Their Descendants"), was based on studies of "Gypsy Mischlinge" half-Romani children who were taken from their parents and raised in orphanages and foster homes without any contact with Romani culture.

Holocaust

Justin's dissertation was approved by the German ethnologist Richard Thurnwald. After the completion of her studies, the 41 children used in the study were deported to the "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz. Soon after their arrival Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz. Some of the children were subjected to his experiments and most were eventually killed in the gas chamber. Justin was awarded her PhD on May 9.

In 1958, the Frankfurt district attorney initiated an investigation into her wartime actions, but the investigation was closed in 1960, after the district attorney had concluded her actions were subject to the statute of limitations.

After the war, she was employed as a child psychologist in the social services department of the municipality of Frankfurt am Main working again with Ritter, until shortly before her death from cancer in 1966 in Offenbach am Main, a city on the outskirts of Frankfurt.[1][2][3][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gypsies Under the Swastika By Donald Kenrick, Grattan Puxon Publisher: University Of Hertfordshire Press (January 1, 2009) Language: English ISBN 1-902806-80-8 ISBN 978-1902806808
  2. ↑ The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution By Henry Friedlander Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (September 22, 1997) Language: English ISBN 0-8078-4675-9 ISBN 978-0807846759
  3. ↑ The Gypsies During the Second World War: The final chapter By Donald Kenrick Publisher: University Of Hertfordshire Press (September 1, 2006) Language: English ISBN 1-902806-49-2 ISBN 978-1-902806-49-5
  4. ↑ One discipline, four ways: British, German, French, and American anthropology By Fredrik Barth Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (June 15, 2005) Language: English ISBN 0-226-03829-7 ISBN 9780226038292

Further reading

External links

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