Launch Event
Launch Event: The Lancet Report on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow
- Tagungsthema
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November 14th, 2023, 2:00pm — 4:30pm CET
Historical Lecture Hall (Hörsaalruine), Medizinhistorisches Museum, Charité Berlin.
Please join the The Lancet and the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, in partnership with the Charité (Institute of the History and Ethics of Medicine), the Robert Koch-Institute, and the Max-Planck Society as the Commission launches its report on "Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow” in Berlin.
Listen to authors of the report discussing the history of medicine in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, how this history 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. There will also be invited statements by representatives of victims and their organizations, medical associations, biomedical research institutions, and the German Ethics Council (Deutscher Ethikrat). All will address the relevance of this history for medicine, healthcare, and bioethics today, alongside commitments to support further historical research, teaching, and self-reflection within the medical community and beyond. Please register below.
Co-chairs of the Lancet Commission:
- Prof. Herwig Czech (Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
- Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt (Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
- Prof. Shmuel Pinchas Reis (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)
Local Organizers (members of the Lancet Commission):
- Prof. Volker Roelcke (Giessen University, Germany)
- Prof. Carola Sachse (University of Vienna, Austria)
Miriam Sabin, PhD (North American Executive Editor, The Lancet)
Voices of the victims and their representatives
Statements by representatives of:
- American Medical Association
- Israel Medical Association
- German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer)
- Robert Koch-Institute
- Max-Planck-Society
- German Ethics Council (Deutscher Ethikrat)
- Federal Government Commissioner for Matters relating to Persons with Disabilities
Tagungsthema
November 14th, 2023, 2:00pm — 4:30pm CET
Historical Lecture Hall (Hörsaalruine), Medizinhistorisches Museum, Charité Berlin.
Please join the The Lancet and the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, in partnership with the Charité (Institute of the History and Ethics of Medicine), the Robert Koch-Institute, and the Max-Planck Society as the Commission launches its report on "Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow” in Berlin.
Listen to authors of the report discussing the history of medicine in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, how this history 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. There will also be invited statements by representatives of victims and their organizations, medical associations, biomedical research institutions, and the German Ethics Council (Deutscher Ethikrat). All will address the relevance of this history for medicine, healthcare, and bioethics today, alongside commitments to support further historical research, teaching, and self-reflection within the medical community and beyond. Please register below.
Co-chairs of the Lancet Commission:
- Prof. Herwig Czech (Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
- Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt (Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
- Prof. Shmuel Pinchas Reis (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)
Local Organizers (members of the Lancet Commission):
- Prof. Volker Roelcke (Giessen University, Germany)
- Prof. Carola Sachse (University of Vienna, Austria)
Miriam Sabin, PhD (North American Executive Editor, The Lancet)
Voices of the victims and their representatives
Statements by representatives of:
- American Medical Association
- Israel Medical Association
- German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer)
- Robert Koch-Institute
- Max-Planck-Society
- German Ethics Council (Deutscher Ethikrat)
- Federal Government Commissioner for Matters relating to Persons with Disabilities
Image credits
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About the report
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.
