News
Medicine in Auschwitz. Educational Conference for Teachers
A conference titled Medicine in Auschwitz took place at the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust on March 10. It was the first of several educational events for teachers scheduled this year.
The conference included lectures on medicine in the Third Reich, medical experiments in Auschwitz, and the camp hospitals. An important part of the conference were the educational workshops held in Block no. 10 at the Auschwitz I – Main Camp site, a place having awful associations with the medical experiments that the Nazis carried out there.
“The interest in the conference among teachers from all over Poland came as a pleasant surprise to us,” said Alicja Białecka, head of the ICEAH program section. “We had so many applications from teachers that we decided to repeat the event on March 24, so that all those who are interested can learn about medicine in Auschwitz.”
“The meeting with Eugeniusz Daczyński made a big impression on the teachers in attendance,” said Dr. Maria Martyniak of the ICEAH. “Right after the liberation of the camp in early 1945, he volunteered, as a young boy, to look after former prisoners in the Polish Red Cross hospital that was set up at the Auschwitz I site, in buildings including Block no. 10.”
German physicians played an active role in carrying out the Nazi extermination plans. Contrary to basic medical ethics, they voluntarily, and often at their own initiative, conducted various kinds of criminal research and medical experiments. The SS physicians serving in the concentration camps, including those at Auschwitz, played a special part in all of this.
