WW2 soldier's brain buried with body 85 years after his death

Libby MacRae

The brain of a Scottish solider who died during World War Two has been buried alongside his remains in Germany.

Donnie MacRae died in a prisoner of war hospital in1941, after being captured while fighting in France.

He suffered from a rare neurological condition and, during a post-mortem examination, his brain and part of his spinal cord were removed for further research.

His family did not know the organ had been removed until it was uncovered by an international group of researchers nearly 80 years later.

The group were examining records of thousands of brains used in research by the Germans, trying to identify all the subjects and commemorate them properly.

The Ministry of Defence’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) then helped track down Donnie’s relatives, some of whom have now travelled to Germany for a blessing ceremony.

JCCC case worker Nicola Nash told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast the additional remains had been interred, but they also wanted to give the family an opportunity to remember his life and honour his sacrifice.

“It gives them closure and gives them the chance to show how grateful they are because they are there because their relative fought and died for them,” she said.

Paul Weindling

Originally from Gairloch in Wester Ross, Donnie was serving as a private in the Seaforth Highlanders when he was captured while fighting in France in June 1940.

He died the following year, aged 33.

His brain was removed during a post-mortem examination and sent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Psychiatry in Munich.

Donnie’s body was buried by the Germans and later reburied by the Allies in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Berlin.

While his family knew of his capture and death, they were never told about removal of his brain.

Donnie’s brain was one of about 2,000 that were taken for research by leading Berlin and Munich research institutes during World War Two, including those of children killed during the Holocaust.

It was part of the German plan to be at the forefront of medical research.

In total, about 160 small slices of Donnie’s brain and spinal cord were kept in the archives of the Munich research centre – later renamed the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry – ever since.

Remains were also taken from Polish Jews and Catholics, those with mental illness, political prisoners, Belgian resistance fighters and French and Polish soldiers.

Libby MacRae