New England Journal of Medicine ignored Nazi atrocities, historians say
The New England Journal of Medicine published an article condemning its own record during World War II.
A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the oldest and most esteemed medical research publications, criticizes the journal for paying only "superficial and idiosyncratic attention" to atrocities perpetrated in the name of medical science by the Nazis.
The newspaper was “an exception in its sporadic coverage of the rise of Nazi Germany,” wrote the article's authors, Allan Brandt and Joelle Abi- Rached, both historians of medicine at Harvard. Often the newspaper simply ignored Nazi medical depredations, such as the horrific experiments on twins at Auschwitz, which relied largely on Adolf Hitler's false "racial science."
The New article, published in this week's issue of the journal, is part of a series launched last year to combat racism and other forms of bias in the medical community. Another recent article described the journal's enthusiastic coverage of eugenics throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
“Learning from our past mistakes can help us move forward moving forward," said the journal's editor-in-chief: Dr. Eric Rubin, an infectious disease expert at Harvard. “What can we do to ensure that we don’t fall for the same kinds of bad ideas in the future? »
In the publication's archives, Dr. Abi-Rached discovered an article approving of Nazi medical practices: "Recent changes in German health insurance under Hitler's government ", a 1935 treatise written by Michael Davis, an influential healthcare figure, and Gertrud Kroeger, a German nurse. The article praised the Nazi emphasis on public health, which was steeped in dubious ideas about the innate superiority of the Germans.
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The New England Journal of Medicine published an article condemning its own record during World War II.
A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the oldest and most esteemed medical research publications, criticizes the journal for paying only "superficial and idiosyncratic attention" to atrocities perpetrated in the name of medical science by the Nazis.
The newspaper was “an exception in its sporadic coverage of the rise of Nazi Germany,” wrote the article's authors, Allan Brandt and Joelle Abi- Rached, both historians of medicine at Harvard. Often the newspaper simply ignored Nazi medical depredations, such as the horrific experiments on twins at Auschwitz, which relied largely on Adolf Hitler's false "racial science."
The New article, published in this week's issue of the journal, is part of a series launched last year to combat racism and other forms of bias in the medical community. Another recent article described the journal's enthusiastic coverage of eugenics throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
“Learning from our past mistakes can help us move forward moving forward," said the journal's editor-in-chief: Dr. Eric Rubin, an infectious disease expert at Harvard. “What can we do to ensure that we don’t fall for the same kinds of bad ideas in the future? »
In the publication's archives, Dr. Abi-Rached discovered an article approving of Nazi medical practices: "Recent changes in German health insurance under Hitler's government ", a 1935 treatise written by Michael Davis, an influential healthcare figure, and Gertrud Kroeger, a German nurse. The article praised the Nazi emphasis on public health, which was steeped in dubious ideas about the innate superiority of the Germans.
We are struggling to recover the content of the article.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.
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