Preconference study visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
15 September 2025 (Monday)
A special study visit including areas not available to the public, including Block 10 with an introduction by Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Lang.
Limited number of places available.
6:00 Departure from Kraków
9:00–12:30 Study visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
14:30–16:00 “Negatives of memory. Labyrinths” — artwork exhibition by Marian Kołodziej, Auschwitz survivor
ca. 18:00 Return to Kraków
Conference
16 September 2025 (Tuesday)
8:00 Registration
Opening
9:00–9:30
Welcome address
Piotr Gajewski (Poland)
Keynote speech: Cogito ergo sum (Descartes)
Leon Weintraub (Sweden) – Guest of Honor, survivor of Nazi German concentration camps
Session I
9:30-10:10
Opening lecture: Physician leadership in Nazi euthanasia and sterilization campaigns: How did it go so wrong? What can we learn?
Mildred Solomon (Harvard Medical School, USA)
10:10-10:30
Nazi medical crimes: Escalation of racist ideology, economic rationality, or crimes of opportunity?
Thorsten Wagner (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, USA)
10:30-10:50
Nazi medical crimes, professional interests, and economy: The origins of the Declaration of Helsinki
Volker Roelcke (Institute of the History of Medicine, Giessen University, Germany)
10:50-11:10
Research as a tool to protect vulnerable populations: Lessons learned from the Declaration of Helsinki
Karla Childers (Board of Directors, Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics; Head of bioethics at Johnson & Johnson, USA)
11:10-11:30
Panel discussion
11:30-11:50 Refreshment break
Session II
11:50-12:10
Electroconvulsive therapy in Auschwitz: Medical innovation and human experimentation
Herwig Czech (Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
12:10-12:30
“…This would serve for the benefit of the whole family…”. Brain research on the victims of child euthanasia in Lower Silesia
Kamila Uzarczyk (Medical University of Wrocław, Poland)
12:30-12:50
Hygiene Institut der Waffen-SS und Polizei Auschwitz O/S: What do we know about the main laboratory in KL Auschwitz
Teresa Wontor-Cichy (State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland)
12:50-13:10
From Jan Sehn to the Institute of National Remembrance: Criminal medicine in Auschwitz Concentration Camp in historical research and prosecution proceedings
Filip Gańczak (Institute of National Remembrance, Poland)
13:10-13:30
Panel discussion
13:30-14:00 Lunch break
Session III
14:00-14:20
On dealing with guilt: The difficult path of confronting the Nazi euthanasia crimes from 1945 to the present day
Michael von Cranach (Germany)
14:20-14:40
Confronting eugenics and scientific racism
Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
14:40-15:00
Suffering and the moral orientation of presence
Jay R. Malone (Washington University School of Medicine, USA)
15:00-15:20
Legal and ethical dilemmas of Nazi eugenic propaganda online in an age of disinformation
Katarzyna du Vall (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
15:20-15:40
Teaching professional ethics against the backdrop of Nazi medicine: Potentials, challenges, best practice
Thorsten Wagner (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, USA)
15:40-16:00
Panel discussion
Workshops
17 September 2025 (Wednesday)
10:20-11:50
Exploring the potential of search and identification work for war victims inside the Office of Search and Identification of the Institute of National Remembrance
Magdalena Krajewska, Aleksandra Baryła, Angelika Słodka
(Institute of National Remembrance, Poland)
11:50-12:00 Refreshment break
12:00-13:30
Motivations and Complicity: the Case of Herta Oberheuser
Jay Malone, Thorsten Wagner (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, USA)
13:30-14:00 Lunch
