Hans Fleischhacker

Who is Hans Fleischhacker?

Hans Fleischhacker was a German anthropologist with the Ahnenerbe and a Schutzstaffel Obersturmführer.

After studying at the University of Jena and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Fleischhacker went to work at the Institute of Racial Research in Tübingen in 1937, joining the SS at the same time. In 1940 he also joined both the Nazi Party and the Waffen-SS.

Before long Fleischhacker saw service with the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt. Following the invasion of Poland he was sent to Litzmannstadt as part of this group in order to perform measurements on ethnic Germans and determine whether they were suitable for resettlement programmes in the east or simply for forced labour. His main base of operations was at Łódź.

In 1942 Fleischhacker was, along with Heinrich Rübel, chosen by Bruno Beger to work with him in an SS project to determine the racial type applicable to the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus, a group that did not readily fit the Nazi's existing ethnic paradigms. Fleischhacker was chosen for this task due to a thesis he was preparing at the time dealing with skin colour amongst Jews. The following year he worked again with Beger, this time at Auschwitz concentration camp where again his duty was to measure physical features of the inmates in order to determine to which race they belonged.