Walking a Fine Scientific Line: The Extraordinary Deeds of Dutch Neuroscientist C. U. Ariëns Kappers Before and During World War II

Abstract

Dutch neuroscientist Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers is famous for pioneering neuroembryological work and for establishing the Amsterdam Central Institute for Brain Research. Less well known is his anthropological work, which ultimately played a role in saving Dutch Jews from deportation to their deaths during the Holocaust. Ariëns Kappers extensively campaigned against anti-Semitism and Nazi persecution during the 1930s. During World War II, he utilized his credentials to help create anthropological reports “proving” full-Jews were “actually” partial- or non-Jews to evade Nazi criteria, and at least 300 Jews were thus saved by Ariëns Kappers and colleagues. His earlier work demonstrating differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish skull indices became the focus of an attempt to save hundreds of Dutch Portuguese Jews collectively from deportation. Ariëns Kappers and colleagues brilliantly understood how anthropology and neuroscience could be utilized to make a difference and to save lives during a tragic era.

Keywords:

• C. U. Ariëns Kappers
• neuroscientist
• Holocaust
• Netherlands
• cephalic index

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Hilda Nassar, Consultant (Medical Librarian), Saab Medical Library, American University of Beirut, for her help in obtaining pictures of Dr. C. U. Ariëns Kappers.

Notes

¹Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) was an Italian criminologist who modified early-nineteenth-century phrenology principles based on late-nineteenth-century eugenics principles and formulated the theory of criminal anthropology. His ideas centered on the craniometric and anthropometric identification of criminals, which were largely discredited as unscientific and later disproven by statistical analyses of criminals and noncriminals, revealing no significant differences between the groups. Environmental theories of criminality later became more widely accepted. See: http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n01/frenolog/lombroso.htm

²Importantly, the concept of “race” and racial groups, to define subgroups of the human species has become outdated and erroneous and contributed to racism and prejudice in the twentieth century and prior to that. Today, it is believed that race cannot be defined in many individuals whose lineage can be traced to a number of different continents, and DNA studies have confirmed that humans have the same genetic structure regardless of “race.” The superficial differences between groups of people from different regions are likely to due to long-term logical evolutionary adaptations to specific environmental stressors and have no meaning in defining intelligence or other qualities. (See http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/488030/race)

Figure 2. Ariëns Kappers at the American University of Beirut with Mr. Tamar Nasser (right), a Lebanese histologist and neuroanatomist, 1929. Photo reprinted courtesy of American University of Beirut Libraries (http://www.lb.aub.edu.lb/˜websml/).