by Abigail Burch
On Paleontology
Paleontology in Germany and America in the late 1800s and early 1900s had slightly different approaches. Germany regarded paleontology as a segment of geology, while American paleontologists often came from biological or zoological backgrounds. While the idea of evolution was accepted by both, American paleontologists were more eager to accept Darwinist ideas and use the concept of “survival of the fittest” to explain macroevolutionary trends seen in the fossil record. German paleontologists were more hesitant to make such statements without more evidence and focused on what they could state as a fact based on the sample size and specimens they had and were therefore less focused on using paleontology as an explanatory tool.
Many scientists at the time, including paleontologists, were interested in or were proponents of eugenics. The eugenics movement was present around the globe, in Germany but also in the United States. Scientists at the time tried to use their findings to define race, assign characteristics to different races, and use “science”-based methods to explain differences. The relationship between conservation, paleontology, natural science, and eugenics and how it led to and then was affected by the Holocaust is an important offshoot of my project. It seems that at some point in the 20th century eugenics and paleontology ended their “relationship,” although further research is needed to really understand how this happened and how it may have been influenced by the Holocaust.
Dr. Tilly Edinger, Jewish Paleontologist and Founder of Paleoneurology
Dr. Ottilie “Tilly” Edinger (1897-1967) was born into an upper-middle class family in Frankfurt. Her father, Dr. Ludwig Edinger (1855-1918), was a successful neurologist, despite antisemitic views in Germany that limited his opportunities. He worked for the private Senckenberg Foundation and the Goethe University of Frankfurt where he set up a neurology institute and founded the comparative neurology branch. For the Edinger family, education was a core value; her family often hosted academic guests and she was afforded a high-quality education.
Edinger earned her doctorate in natural philosophy in 1921 from the University of Frankfurt where she studied the skull of a reptile fossil. She worked as a research assistant at the Senckenberg Foundation and eventually became the curator of vertebrate paleontology. Here she continued her research on animal and fossil brains, founding the field of paleoneurology.
As antisemitic sentiments rose in Germany in the 1930s, Edinger was removed from her position as a reviewer for the medical journals Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie, and then Zentralblatt and Fortschritte in 1937 and 1938 respectively. She was removed from her official position at the Senckenberg Museum after Hitler came to power, but continued to work in secret with the support of her director for five or more years until she left Germany in 1938. She described herself while working “undercover” as an “ammonite in the Holocene.”
Edinger is quoted as saying, “So long as they leave me alone, I will stay. After all, Frankfurt is my home, my mother’s family has been here since 1560, I was born in this house. And I promise you they will never get me into a concentration camp. I always carry with me a fatal dose of veronal.” However, after the events of Kristallnacht in 1938 it was clear to Tilly that she needed to leave. Most of her family including her sister fled the country in the 1930s, but unfortunately her brother stayed and was later murdered in Sobibor death camp in 1942.
Edinger attempted to secure “nonquota” status to enter the United States, but like many others she faced difficulties. She was allowed to stay in London for a year, where she worked translating medical texts, with the stipulation that she would leave after securing entry to the US. Her academic connections secured her this spot and her subsequent position in the United States after her number was called for entry, proving right her claim that “the fossil vertebrates will save me.” Upon entry to the US, Edinger was appointed to a research assistant position at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.
Edinger’s displacement due to the Holocaust and her subsequent work demonstrates how the Holocaust affected the field of paleontology as a whole. Dr. Edinger’s work in the US was valuable to the field of paleontology and helped bridge linguistic gaps in the field of paleontology as she translated and used papers published in languages other than English. Dr. Edinger brought the German perspective to American paleontology—a perspective based more in geological frameworks. She rewrote her influential paper “Die fossilen Gehirne” (“Fossil Brains”) in English, which expanded the influence of her work. She was a founding member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in the 1940s, when she was tasked with making decisions regarding the acceptance of German applicants, a role with which she was slightly uncomfortable. Through her work, she travelled across the US and abroad, eventually rekindling relationships with her prewar colleagues.
Further Questions, Reading, and Research
When researching the Holocaust and paleontology, I found more questions than answers. When studying geology, paleontology, and ecology, there is this concept of “deep time.” The geological time scale defined by rock and ash layers is used in paleontology and contextualizes events outside human experience. How does this way of measuring time interact with human experience or catastrophic events such as the Holocaust? How will the Holocaust and other modern history be reflected in rock layers/the fossil record?
Considering the scientific, paleontological view of history naturally led me to consider what archeologists would or will be able to learn about the Holocaust. How should archeologists treat sites that were a part of the Holocaust? When considering the need for and methods of Holocaust archeology, I found a paper called “Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution.” by C.S. Colls which addresses this topic. It also brought up an interesting ethical dilemma: how do you reconcile the importance or need to uncover and preserve important history while respecting Halacha (Jewish law)?
In my research, I came across another paper called “Expanding (Environmental) Histories of the Holocaust” by T. Cole which addresses the ecological history of the Holocaust. It asserts that it is important to examine the non-human players in the Holocaust, as the environment was not simply a passive factor. By considering the environment, it is evident that the ecological processes of the Holocaust are ongoing. This perspective on human history puts the Holocaust into the context of ecological deep time.
I was also interested in how paleontology and geological time interact with the concept of Jewish sacred time. I found a lecture hosted by “My Jewish Learning” called “Studying Sacred Time: The Jewish Side of Paleontology” which addresses this topic and highlights important Jewish paleontologists, including Dr. Tilly Edinger.
–Abigail Burch
Sources
Buchholtz, E. A., & Seyfarth, E.-A. (1999). The gospel of the fossil brain: Tilly Edinger and the science of paleoneurology. Brain Research Bulletin, 48(4), 351–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-9230(98)00174-9
Cole, T. (2020). Expanding (Environmental) Histories of the Holocaust. Journal of Genocide Research, 22(2), 273–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2020.1726653
Colls, C. S. (2012). Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution. Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 7(2), 70–104. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48601876
Dickson, Meig. “Studying Sacred Time: The Jewish Side of Paleontology.” My Jewish Learning, 3 Aug. 2023, www.myjewishlearning.com/the-hub/studying-sacred-time-the-jewish-side-of-paleontology/.
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“Tilly Edinger.” Museum of the Earth, Museum of the Earth, 18 Feb. 2022, www.museumoftheearth.org/daring-to-dig/bio/edinger.
Yount, Lisa. “Edinger, Tilly.” A to Z of Women: Women in Science and Math, by Lisa Yount, 3rd ed., Facts On File, 2016. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NDg2MDU3MQ==?aid=106016.