August Hirt

August Hirt was an anatomist with Swiss and German nationality, born on 28 April 1898 and dead on 2 June 1945. During the Second World War he served as a chairman at the Reich University in Strasbourg. Historical sources record that he performed experiments with mustard gas on inmates at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and played a leading role in the murders of 86 people there for the Jewish skull collection. The skeletons of his victims were meant to become specimens at the Institute of anatomy in Strasbourg, but the progress of the war stopped the project. He held the SS rank of Hauptsturmführer and by 1944 that of Sturmbannführer. This entry records what is documented about a scientist whose work was turned to atrocity; it is not an endorsement of any of his work.