Pernkopf's anatomy is remarkable for the intricacy of its detailed images and its "regional stratigraphic" approach, i.e. "multiple layers of dissection with an emphasis on fascia shown and reflected, approaching the subject from superficial to deep dissection in great detail" (Hildebrandt). An Austrian professor of anatomy, Pernkopf joined the Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers in 1933, and promoted Nazi racial hygiene and antisemitism as dean of the University of Vienna Medical School. As a result 77% of the faculty, including all Jews and three Nobel laureates, were dismissed.

Though Pernkopf's anatomical atlas remains in many ways unsurpassed, it is likely that at least some of the cadavers used for dissections were those of executed prisoners, including Jews. In the early German editions the artists incorporated swastikas and SS insignias into their signatures. By the time the book was published internationally some of the Nazi symbols had been airbrushed out, and the medical community was so enthralled with the illustrations that few bothered to consider their origins or Pernkopf’s past. In their review of the 1963 edition, The Annals of Internal Medicine said it was “magnificently conceived and a finely printed book.” The Lancet wrote “most of the illustrations are outstanding works of art.... it should be in every medical school library.” As late as 1990 JAMA said that it was “a classic among atlases... [and] for all those who have an interest and appreciation of anatomical illustration, and the wherewithal to afford it, this atlas is one of the best” (http://www.codex99.com/anatomy/93.html). A condensed two-volume edition was published in English as Atlas of topographical and applied human anatomy (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1963) and was eventually translated into several languages. Updated editions were published in 1980 and 1988. See Sabine Hildebrandt, "How the Pernkopf controversy facilitated a historical and ethical analysis of the anatomical sciences in Austria and Germany: A recommendation for the continued use of the Pernkopf atlas," Clinical Anatomy, 19 (2006), 91-100.