On 24 September 2024, specialists in the subject of pseudo-medical experiments to which prisoners of German concentration camps were subjected and other violations of medical ethics during World War II were discussed by scholars from around the world during the Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire 5th International Conference held the auditorium of the Jagiellonian University's Collegium Medicum.
In his speech, Prof. Karol Polejowski presented, among others, the topic of investigations by the Institute of National Remembrance into medical experiments during World War II. On the last day of the conference, the IPN will also be organizing workshops.
The conference is organized by the Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine in collaboration with the Kraków Medical Society, Institute of National Remembrance,and Jagiellonian University Medical College. Partners include the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities,Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, International Chair In Bioethics – WMA Cooperation Center, and other institutions.
The aim of the conference is to educate the world’s medical community about the medical ethics and practice in the context of the Second World War, looking into the behavior of physicians and other medical professionals imprisoned in German concentration camps, prisons, ghettoes, or other places of detainment, as well as bringing to light the malpractice and ethical violations of the Nazi German doctors, with the intention to demonstrate the implications of the history of medicine during that period for contemporary medical practice and health care policy.
The conference is part of the Medical Review Auschwitz project, developed with the aim of sharing with the international community the unique scientific documents published over 31 years (1961-1991) in the medical journal Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim (Medical Review – Auschwitz). Articles from this journal are being successively translated into English and made available on the project website.
The conference’ aim is to make a significant contribution to furthering the understanding of one of the darkest chapters in the history of medicine, both by spreading the knowledge of the often heroic attempts by medical professionals to counteract the grim reality of the war and the Holocaust and by educating about those physicians who became the perpetrators themselves. By doing this, the Organizers of the conference intend to help the international community draw a lesson for future generations.