Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network – Jewish Studies Channel
Host: Rabbi Mark Katz
Guest: Dr. Howard Alan Israel
Episode Title: Howard Alan Israel, "Nazi Anatomy Lessons: A Dissection of Evil" (Vallentine Mitchell, 2026)
Date: February 13, 2026

This episode delves into Dr. Howard Israel's book, Nazi Anatomy: A Dissection of Evil, a memoir and investigation chronicling Israel’s journey to uncover the origins and ethical history of the Pernkopf Atlas—an anatomy reference produced under the auspices of the Nazi regime. The conversation explores the intersection of medical education, Holocaust history, ethical dilemmas, and collective memory.

Guest Introduction and Background

• [00:57] Dr. Howard Israel: Introduces himself as an American Jewish baby boomer who grew up near Yankee Stadium in the 1950s–60s. Initially more interested in baseball than Judaism, his path eventually led him to health care and academia, becoming an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and long-time teacher at Columbia University.

The Pernkopf Atlas: An Indispensable but Controversial Tool

Anatomy Training and the Atlas

• [03:31] Dr. Howard Israel: Describes starting anatomy at Columbia Dental School:

  "The shock and the awe of walking into that laboratory and seeing cadavers and the smell of formaldehyde... a huge shock."

• Grant's Anatomy was the required, but insufficient, textbook; Pernkopf's Atlas was recognized as vastly superior in its anatomical detail but prohibitively expensive.
• His wife later gifts him the Pernkopf Atlas, which becomes central in his surgical practice:

  "It became my ritual to study from that book." ([03:31])

The Shock of Discovery

The Casual Comment That Changed Everything

• [07:02] In 1994, a friend offhandedly remarks:

  "Oh, you're studying from Perncoff. I heard he was a Nazi."

• Israel recounts his immediate horror and guilt at the possibility that his most trusted medical reference was linked to Nazi evil.
• Quote ([08:21]):

  "Was I benefiting from a Nazi? ... That was a human being. They had a life. And the picture I had was a young person. So that was the... 1994 changed my life."

The Historical and Ethical Investigation

Who Was Eduard Pernkopf?

• [11:02] Dr. Howard Israel:

  "He was an ardent Nazi in the 1930s...head of the anatomy institute of the University of Vienna... In Perncoff's anatomy department, he taught not only anatomy, but he taught the concept of racial hygiene."

• Explains the split within the university: Nazis under Pernkopf, Jewish students with Julius Tandler.
• Riots and violent purges occurred, culminating in Nazi control and Pernkopf's ascent to the Deanship after Austria's annexation.

Who Were the Victims in the Atlas?

• [15:49] Dr. Howard Israel: Investigations determined most bodies came from Austrian resistance, Communists, dissenters, homosexuals; some Jews were among them, but were not the predominant group.

• "You think my moral compass is so low that if you tell me they weren't Jewish concentration camp victims, that I would be okay with that they were victims... they weren't the predominant source of material for Perncoff's book."

• Noteworthy story of a Berlin dentist sentenced to death simply for expressing doubt about the war and indirectly serving as a parallel to those memorialized in the atlas ([18:55]).

Institutional Denial and Breakthroughs

Roadblocks and Institutional Cover-ups

• [22:15] Dr. Howard Israel:

  "The biggest roadblocks came from the University of Austria's anatomy faculty... These were lies that occurred. So that was the biggest resistance."

• Resistance also from publishers and the global medical community, with many defending the “classic” status of the atlas and urging separation of scientific value from its origins.

Change from Within and an Official Reckoning

• [24:16] A new university president, Dr. Alfred Ebenbauer, insists on a full investigation.
• A two-year commission uncovers the truth of the atlas’s Nazi-era victims and leads to apologies, widespread disclosure, and memorialization.

• “This letter was to be put inside the book for any potential user of the book to know the truth about the origin of this book.” ([26:15])

Personal Encounters with History

Dr. Israel’s Visit to Vienna

• [28:01] In 2005, Israel attends a conference in Vienna and, on a spontaneous jogging tour:
  • Visits a new memorial for Jewish victims on the medical campus
  • Sees the Wiener Landesgericht (court) where dissenters were sentenced and executed
  • Stands before the actual Anatomy Institute and the original publisher of the atlas

• “If this was 1938... if they found out I was Jewish...I would be thrown into the Wiener Landesgericht by the Gestapo, and one day I'd be sentenced to death. My body would wind up in the basement with the guillotine and then immediately transported to the anatomy institute where my mortal remains would be dissected and then... wind up in a book..."

The Scale of Medical Complicity & Lingering Shadows

Medical Naziism Beyond Pernkopf

• [34:44] Dr. Howard Israel:

  "It wasn't just a few crazy doctors... the entire medical profession and the entire academic world... in Germany and in Austria, the Nazi Political ideology affected public health policy."

• Discusses other Nazi legacies: use of the term “Asperger’s,” German rocket scientists’ complicity in atrocities, and parallels to exploitation in modern exhibits like the Bodies exhibition.

• "There are a lot of remnants of this that continued to today of unethical behavior, where the ends justify the means."

Ethical Dilemmas: Benefiting from the Work of Monsters

• Fundamental question: Is it ethical to use data, art, or intellectual work rooted in atrocity?
• [38:20] Dr. Howard Israel:

  "Initially, I couldn't reconcile using the book. I knew it would help my patients. But I felt dirty by opening up the book as a surgeon."

• The Vienna Protocol: Based on a rabbinic responsum by Rabbi Joseph Polak—if use of these materials can save a life, it may be justified, but “you must memorialize the victims, acknowledge the source, and inform all users of its history.”

• "Whether you're on one side of that ethical debate or the other is really an individual decision." ([41:34])

Lessons and Final Reflections

• [43:04] Dr. Howard Israel (on the core takeaway):

  "The lesson... is to continue to educate ourselves on this history. Realize the Holocaust, no question, is beyond belief. But to learn from this history is our obligation to bear witness... and we have to change our behavior today. We can't say this can never happen again."

• On the universal dignity of life:

  "We are all God's gift. And how could we justify such not valuing the life of each individual person?... That's the journey that I'm still on and still learning." ([45:04])

Key Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• The life-changing moment:

  "I looked at the book, I looked at the picture I was looking at, and all of a sudden I'm saying, you know nothing... And I felt an immense amount of guilt." — Dr. Howard Israel [08:21]

• On institutional complicity and denial:

  "You got Israel, and you got Seidl men, and they're making a big stink..." — Dr. Howard Israel [22:15]

• On ethical responsibility:

  "You must memorialize the victims. You must inform the patients... where this came from, to use it, to learn from this history." — Dr. Howard Israel [41:34]

• On the essential lesson:

  "To learn from this history is our obligation to bear witness and learn from this history...and we have to change our behavior today." — Dr. Howard Israel [43:04]

Notable Segments and Timestamps

• [02:45] Book’s memoir/nonfiction hybrid structure introduced
• [03:31] Anatomy training and the search for accurate learning tools
• [07:02] The pivotal moment discovering the Nazi link to the Pernkopf Atlas
• [11:02] Who was Pernkopf? Academic and ideological background
• [15:49] What victims comprised the Atlas?
• [22:15] Institutional denial at University of Vienna and the publisher
• [24:16] Turning point: University investigation, official acknowledgment
• [28:01] Dr. Israel's personal encounters through Vienna
• [34:44] Scope of Nazi legacy in medicine and beyond
• [38:20] Wrestling with ethical dilemmas; introduction to the Vienna Protocol
• [43:04] Dr. Israel’s summative message for readers and listeners

Tone and Style

Reflective, personal, and searching; Dr. Israel speaks candidly of guilt, discovery, and the ongoing struggle with the moral ramifications of professional practices grounded in atrocity. The conversation is respectful, probing, and marked by moments of awe, humility, and a call to ethical vigilance.

Conclusion

This episode offers an important, poignant journey into how the dark legacies of the Holocaust remain interwoven with contemporary science and medical practice, and highlights the obligation to remember, acknowledge, and learn from these histories. Dr. Howard Israel’s Nazi Anatomy: A Dissection of Evil is more than medical history; it is a call for ethical introspection, remembrance, and moral responsibility.