Piero Martinello
Piero Martinello

THE WEIGHT OF THE WORD, chapter three of eight: Hans Eppinger, Cauchois-Eppinger-Frugoni Syndrome

Hans Eppinger was a prominent Austrian physician and hepatologist whose early career earned him widespread recognition and high-profile patients, including Joseph Stalin and Queen Marie of Romania. After medical training in Graz and professional advancement in Vienna, Freiburg, and Cologne, he became known for his significant contributions to internal medicine, despite a reputation for cold detachment and unethical behavior. 

Though he hired Jewish colleagues and helped one escape the Gestapo, Eppinger was also affiliated with pan-Germanic and Nazi organizations, and after the Anschluss, he publicly endorsed the regime’s purge of Jewish influence from academia.

Piero Martinello –

Eppinger’s complicity deepened during the war, when he recommended his assistant Wilhelm Beiglböck to oversee seawater consumption experiments on concentration camp prisoners at Dachau. Dozens of Roma, Jews, and other detainees were subjected to inhumane tests, resulting in severe suffering and death.

Piero Martinello –

Though he was summoned to appear at the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, Eppinger committed suicide in 1946 before facing justice. His legacy, long entangled with both scientific achievement and criminal conduct, was gradually dismantled: a medical prize and a lunar crater once bearing his name were officially renamed, and his role in Nazi atrocities remains a cautionary symbol of moral failure in science.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –