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Project

Introduction

Medical Review Auschwitz is a platform for an international academic discussion on the medical aspects and consequences of the Nazi German persecution in the concentration camps. A collection of unique historic and contemporary publications compiled as part of the project explores examples of physicians’ involvement in the Holocaust as well as heroic efforts of prisoner doctors and other medical personnel interned in the camps who acted in defiance of the machine of genocide. 

Medical Review Auschwitz aims to inspire a meaningful discussion on the implications of wartime medical crimes for present-day bioethics and medical practice. 

Main components of the project:  

  1. Open-access collection of English translations from the Polish scientific journal Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim (Medical Review – Auschwitz).
  2. Annual academic conference Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire, designed to encourage conversation between specialists in the field and to educate medical and allied professionals and students.

Video

The video discusses the genesis of Medical Review Auschwitz, its ties to the original journal Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim and the tradition it continues. It also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the project and the team engaged in making it a reality. 

Play Video
Your support matters.

Medical Review Auschwitz is led by the Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization. You can help us continue the project by making a donation. Thank you for your support.

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Journal 

Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim (Medical Review – Auschwitz) was a Polish scientific journal published annually from 1961 to 1991 by the Kraków Medical Society. The periodical started as a reaction of physicians from Kraków, many of them Nazi German camp survivors themselves, to the unprecedented medical consequences that the internment in concentration camps had for former prisoners. Their efforts resulted in pioneering research, including that on posttraumatic stress disorder. 

The 31 issues of Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim comprised 1050 articles by 477 authors dealing with the medical, psychological and social consequences of Nazi persecution in concentration camps. The discussed studies were based on detailed examinations of several thousand former prisoners, which nowadays would be no longer possible due to the shrinking number of living survivors. A significant number of articles present reflections based on first-hand experiences of former prisoners from various medical and allied professions. 

In addition to the studies, the journal featured biographical accounts of physicians and other medical professionals imprisoned in Nazi German concentration camps and other places of detainment. Their often heroic actions shed light on enduring ethical questions that remain relevant to this day and constitute an invaluable legacy of the modern history of medicine. 

The journal was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1993 and 1994. Despite their unique scientific and educational value, the articles remained unavailable to the global community for a long time. In 2017, the Polish texts started being translated into English and published on the Medical Review Auschwitz website, reaching a broad readership around the world thanks to the open access model. 

Open e-library

Authors

[under development]

Conference

Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire is an annual international conference organized to educate the world’s medical community about the violations of medical ethics during the Second World War, with a special focus on the behavior of physicians and other medical professionals in Nazi medical institutions and concentration camps or other places of imprisonment, and the ethical implications of Nazi medicine for contemporary medical practice and health care policy. 

more about the conference

Organizers

  • Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine

Co-organizers

  • Kraków Medical Society
  • Institute of National Remembrance
  • Jagiellonian University
  • Regional Medical Chamber in Kraków

Partners

  • Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
  • St Maximilian Kolbe Center in Harmęże
  • Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado
  • Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics
  • International Chair in Bioethics

Endorsement

  • American College of Physicians
more about the partners

Team

Project’s Chair

  • Piotr Gajewski, MD, PhD, FACP (Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine, Poland)

Conference Organizing Committee

  • Piotr Gajewski, MD, PhD, FACP (Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine, Poland)
  • Igor Gościński, MD, PhD (Kraków Medical Society, Poland)
  • Karol Polejowski, PhD, DSc (Institute of National Remembrance, Poland)

Conference Scientific Committee

  • Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD (Harvard Medical School, USA)
  • Tessa Chelouche, MD (International Chair in Bioethics, Israel)
  • David Goldman (FASPE, USA)
  • Aleksander B. Skotnicki, MD, PhD (Kraków Medical Society, Poland)
  • Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH/MSPH, FACP (University of Colorado, USA)

Consultants

[under development]

Operations & Support

  • Aleksandra Banaszewska
  • Joanna Brusik
  • Gabriela Gajewska-Jędrzejczyk
  • Marta Pasiut
  • Michał Kacprowicz
  • Karolina Kopczyńska-Rojek
  • Agata Salwińska