About 

The Medical Review Auschwitz Scholarship Program is a unique opportunity for physicians-in-training (residents, fellows and selected health professions students) that will provide critically relevant education about, exposure to and reflection on the roles of health professionals in the Holocaust. 

The key elements of the scholarship program for health professions trainees are centered around the conference Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire held in Kraków, Poland, on 15–17 September 2025. The full program for trainees includes: 

• A preconference; 
• An experiential learning component in Kraków that includes exploration of key sites providing context for the rise of Nazism and the location of concentration camps surrounding Kraków; 
• A visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex with a focus on areas of relevance for Nazi medicine; 
• Attendance at the Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire conference; 
• Participation in small group reflection and debriefing sessions for students and trainees to derive personal and professional lessons; 
• Post-trip follow-up including plans for and completion of a writing assignment or other educational project of relevance to ongoing education. 

Depending on the unique requirements of each participating university, credit may be available for coursework and study related to this learning experience. 

Learning objectives 

By the end of this program, participants will: 

1. Understand the social, professional, economic and political context surrounding the prominent role of health professionals and scientists in the state-sanctioned programs of eugenics, experimentation and ultimately genocide during World War II; 
2. Appreciate the scope and impact of health professionals in the planning and enactment of the Holocaust through visits to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, related sites in the vicinity of Kraków and participation in the conference Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire; 
3. Explore the relevance of this tragic history and its enduring legacy for contemporary and future medicine, health care professionalism and—more broadly—bioethics. 

Measurable learning goals 

By the end of this program, participants will be able to: 

1. Describe the theory of eugenics and its relationship to racism; 
2. Describe at least 3 socioeconomic factors that made the German medical profession of the 1930s especially prone to subverting the needs of individuals to the perceived needs of the German state; 
3. Describe the Nazi program of forcible sterilization and its relationship to similar programs in the US and elsewhere around the world; 
4. Describe the child euthanasia and T4 programs and how they related to later programs of mass murder in the Holocaust; 
5. Describe at least 2 rationales used by German physicians to justify unethical human experimentation on prisoners; 
6. Describe at least 2 examples of exceptional heroism by medical professionals during the Holocaust who acted to uphold Hippocratic ethics despite dire circumstances. 

Application process 

2025 application process is closed

Details

Applicants should submit: 

• CV; 
• 2 letters of recommendation (including at least one from a university faculty member); 
• An essay <1000 words describing why they want to take part in the program; the relevance of the program to their current stage of education; any experiences that would make participation in the program of particular, exceptional educational or career-development value at this time; and how they hope to use what they learn when they return. 

Submissions should be sent directly to the Medical Review Auschwitz Secretariat at mra@piebm.org. 

In case of questions, please contact: 

• Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH/MSPH, FACP, Director of the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities at matthew.wynia@cuanschutz.edu; 
• Tessa Chelouche, MD, Head of the Department of Bioethics and the Holocaust, International Chair of Bioethics (WMA Cooperating Center) at tessa.chelouche@gmail.com; 
• Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics at director_bioethics@hms.harvard.edu. 

Funding 

This scholarship program is funded by the Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine from grants provided mainly by the Institute of National Remembrance. The scholarship covers travel to and from Poland (economy class airfare) as well as education (including participation in the Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire), transportation, lodging and meal costs in Poland.