Physicians of the SS and Prisoner Physicians – the Self-Understanding of Medicine between Annihilation and Healing.

About 55 students (mainly medical) will deal with the topic of medicine during National Socialism. What were the internal attitudes of physicians in the Third Reich towards the person and their profession? What followed? And what can be learned from these extreme cases in medical ethics for today’s questions and challenges.

The main topic of the journey to Auschwitz is „Physicians of the SS and Prisoner Physicians – Medical Behavior in limited situations. From the self-understanding of medicine between annihilation, Instrumentalization and the healing of Man – limited situations, experiences of the medical  self-understanding today.

Before the journey they will focus on the testimonies of Jewish Holocaust survivors, medical behavior in the extreme situations, and possibilities and forms of resistance. During the stay in Auschwitz they will deal with little-known Jewish prisoners doctors, what were their roles and tasks in the concentration camps under the Nazi regime, and how they behaved in the extreme situations?

The journey will be accompanied by Prof. Dr Med. Peter Seleg (Professor of Medical Anthropology and Ethics, Director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Anthroposophical Basic Research), and Dr. Krzysztof Antończyk (Head of the Digital Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial).

Faculty of Health, Department of Human Medicine
Head of Integrated Accompanuing Studies in Anthroposophical Medicina (IBAM)
Gerhard Kienle Chair of Medical Theory, Integrative and Anthroposophical Medicine
Institute for Integrative Medicine
Scientific Assistant Dean of Studies – Clinic Coordination