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Launch Event and Symposium: The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow

November 9th, 2023, 2:00pm — 7:00pm CET
Josephinum, Medical University of Vienna and online

The Lancet Report on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow

Please join the Medical University of Vienna, in partnership with The Lancet, as the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust launches its report on "medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow.” Hear from report authors and scholars in the field about how the history of medicine in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust can inform our understanding of medicine today and in the future, and why it needs to be included in all fields of health care education.

The Nazi era arguably provides the best-documented historical examples of medical involvement in transgressions and crimes against vulnerable individuals and groups. Health professionals played an important role in formulating, supporting, and implementing the Nazi regime’s programme of eugenics and ‘racial hygiene.’

This included participation in forced sterilizations, coerced and often deadly human experiments, the ‘euthanasia’ killing programmes, medicalized killings in concentration camps, and selecting prisoners for murder in the extermination camps of the Holocaust. What happened in Europe during the Second World War has wide-ranging ramifications for medical professionals to this day. Confronting what happened in medicine in this period is crucial to inform the ethical practice of health care and to understand potential dangers in medicine today.

With this report, the commission aims to provide a reliable, up-to-date historical documentation and a thorough analysis of the implications. Teaching of this subject should be part of health professional curricula around the world, helping to promote ethical conduct, moral development, courage to stand up against antisemitism, racism, and other forms of discrimination, and the formation of a history-informed professional identity based on compassion.

 


Watch the recording of the event here

Abspielen

Programme

Moderation: Christiane Druml, Director, Ethics, Collections and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna

  • Greetigs
    Markus Müller
    Rector, Medical University of Vienna

    Miriam Sabin
    North American Executive Editor The Lancet

    Richard Horton
    Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
     
  • Presentation of Report
    Herwig Czech
    Ethics, Collections and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna

    Sabine Hildebrandt
    Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA

    Shmuel Pinchas Reis
    Center for Medical Education, Hadassah/Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Digital Medical Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel

    Shani Levany
    Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
     
  • The Meaning of the Report for Survivors of Nazi Medical Experiments
    Video testimonials by Lea Huber and Judith Barnea
    Survivors of Josef Mengele’s twin experiments in Auschwitz
     
  • Keynote Implications: Counteracting Inhumanity with Humanity – A Perspective of Confucian Global Ethics about the Lancet Report on Nazi Medicine

    Jing-Bao Nie
    Bioethics Centre, Dunedin School of Medicine
    University of Otago, New Zealand
     
  • Closing Remarks
    Miriam Sabin
    North American Executive Editor, The Lancet
     
  • Coffee Break
  • Chair and Welcome

    Herwig Czech
    Ethics, Collections, and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
     
  • Keynote History: Understanding the Enormity of the Holocaust –
    The Perspective of Medicine


    Dan Michman
    The International Institute for Holocaust Research Yad Vashem, Professor (emeritus), Bar Ilan University, Israel
     
  • Panel 1
    Historical Evidence

    Volker Roelcke
    Institute for the History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine,
    Giessen University, Germany

    Respondent:
    Natalia Aleksiun
    Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies,
    University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
     
  • Coffee Break
     
  • Panel 2
    Aftermath and Implications for Today
    Chair: Sabine Hildebrandt, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard
    Medical School, Boston, USA

    Matthew Wynia
    Center for Bioethics and Humanities,
    University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA

    Respondent:
    Petra Fuchs
    Heilpädagogik/Inclusion Studies,
    University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, Germany
     
  • Panel 3
    Teaching for Tomorrow
    Chair: Shmuel Pinchas Reis, Center for Medical Education,
    Hadassah/Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Digital
    Medical Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel

    Hedy S. Wald
    Clinical Professor of Family Medicine,Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA

    Respondent:
    Emma Nalianya
    General Practitioner, Eldoret, Kenya.
    Member of the Commission’s Student Advisory Council
     
  • Keynote Education: Learning from the Past – Educating for a Better Future

    Yvonne Steinert
    Richard and Sylvia Cruess Chair in Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences McGill University, Canada
     
  • Closing Remarks
    Herwig Czech, Ethics, Collections, and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Austria

Speakers

  • Prof. Natalia Aleksiun, Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
  • Prof. Herwig Czech, Ethics, Collections, and History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
  • Dr. Christiane Druml, Director, Josephinum
  • Prof. Petra Fuchs, Heilpädagogik/Inclusion Studies, University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, Germany
  • Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
  • Prof. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
  • Prof. Dan Michman, Head, The International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem Professor (emeritus), Bar Ilan University
  • Prof. Markus Müller, Rector, Medical University of Vienna
  • Prof. Jing-Bao Nie, Professor of Bioethics, Bioethics Centre, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Dr. Emma Nalianya, General Practictioner, Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital, Kenya. Member of the Commission’s Student Advisory Council
  • Prof. Shmuel Pinchas Reis, Center for Medical Education, Hadassah/Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Digital Medical Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel
  • Prof. Volker Roelcke, Head, Institute for the History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, Giessen University, Germany

  • Dr. Miriam Lewis Sabin, North American Executive Editor, The Lancet

  • Prof. Yvonne Steinert, Professor of Family Medicine and Health Sciences Education, Richard and Sylvia Cruess Chair in Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University
  • Prof. Hedy Wald, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA

  • Prof. Matthew Wynia, Head, Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA


Venue

Josephinum

Medical University of Vienna

Währinger Straße 25
1090 Vienna


With kind support