Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Holocaust
- The Cambridge History Of The Holocaust
- The Cambridge History of the Holocaust
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Abbreviations
- Additional material
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I History
- Part II Geography
- Part III Culture and Ideas
- Part IV Culture and Fields
- 18 Holocaust Commemoration and Memorials
- 19 Holocaust Museums
- 20 The Holocaust and the Medical Professions
- 21 Holocaust Literature
- 22 The Holocaust and the Visual Arts: Perplexity, Meanings
- 23 The Holocaust and Film
- 24 The Future of the Holocaust – Timely Reflections
- Index
- References
20 - The Holocaust and the Medical Professions
from Part IV - Culture and Fields
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Holocaust
- The Cambridge History Of The Holocaust
- The Cambridge History of the Holocaust
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Abbreviations
- Additional material
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I History
- Part II Geography
- Part III Culture and Ideas
- Part IV Culture and Fields
- 18 Holocaust Commemoration and Memorials
- 19 Holocaust Museums
- 20 The Holocaust and the Medical Professions
- 21 Holocaust Literature
- 22 The Holocaust and the Visual Arts: Perplexity, Meanings
- 23 The Holocaust and Film
- 24 The Future of the Holocaust – Timely Reflections
- Index
- References
Summary
The core idea in this chapter is that there was a substantial, transnational, effort to rethink medical ethics – how it was framed by, taught to, and practiced by health professionals such as physicians – after the Holocaust. Because of the intense involvement of medical professionals in the Holocaust, both in the extermination process and through medical experimentation, there was a widespread sense after 1945 that the medical profession needed to rethink its ethical foundations. The chapter in particular highlights postwar currents in east-central European ethical thought, which engaged its own indigenous tradition of medical ethics (“deontology” as it was called) in ways that sometimes went beyond the parallel but more familiar debates in western Europe and the USA. The Holocaust informed – but did not determine – the evolution of biomedical ethics throughout the postwar period. Such thinking was also, necessarily, shaped by other currents – economic, political, and scientific – such that it is hard to say that medicine has “learned the lessons of the Holocaust,” at least not completely.
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- The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 467 - 489Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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