WW2 soldier's brain buried with body 85 years after his death
Summary
Donnie MacRae, a Scottish soldier who died in a German prisoner of war hospital in 1941, had his brain removed for research and separated from his body for nearly 80 years. Recently, researchers found this fact and arranged for his brain to be buried with his remains in a military cemetery in Berlin, allowing his family to honor and remember him.Key Facts
- Donnie MacRae was a Scottish soldier captured in France in 1940 and died in a German POW hospital in 1941.
- His brain and part of his spinal cord were removed during a post-mortem and sent to a German psychiatric research institute.
- His family did not know his brain had been taken until researchers uncovered the records almost 80 years later.
- About 2,000 brains, including some from Holocaust victims and prisoners, were taken by German institutes during World War Two for research.
- The Ministry of Defence helped find MacRae's relatives, who traveled to Germany for a ceremony.
- MacRae’s brain slices were kept at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich until recently.
- His body was buried in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Berlin after the war.
- A blessing ceremony was held to reunite his brain with his body and honor his sacrifice.
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