Eva Justin (23 August 1909 – 11 September 1966) was a German anthropologist who was active during the Nazi era. She specialised in scientific racism. Her work contributed to the Nazi crimes against the Sinti and Roma peoples.
Early life
Born in Dresden in 1909, the daughter of a railroad official, Eva Justin served as an assistant to Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter.
Justin originally trained as a nurse and received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Berlin in 1943 despite not having followed the normal university procedure to do so. Eugen Fischer mentored her through her doctoral thesis and final exams, and ethnologist Richard Thurnwald was a reviewer. Justin was one of the early registered nurses to earn a PhD. Speaking Romani, she earned the trust of Roma and Sinti people. Her doctoral dissertation was titled "Lebensschicksale artfremd erzogener Zigeunerkinder und ihrer Nachkommen" ("Biographical destinies of Gypsy children and their offspring who were educated in a manner inappropriate for their species").
Holocaust
The children that Justin studied had...