Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust

Michael A. Grodin, M.D. (1951-2023) was Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights at the Boston University School of Public Health, where he was also Director of the Project on Medicine and the Holocaust, and Senior Faculty at the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies and the Division of Religious and Theological Studies. As a practicing physician, Dr. Grodin was named one of America’s Top Physicians and received a national Humanism in Medicine Award for “compassion and empathy in the delivery of care to patients and their families.” An internationally recognized scholar on the Holocaust, Dr. Grodin received a special citation from the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum for “profound contributions- through original and creative research – to the cause of Holocaust education and remembrance.”

• ForewordJoseph PolakPrefaceMichael A. Grodin & Allan NadlerAcknowledgmentsIntroductionMichael A. GrodinPART I: HYGIENE AND DISEASE CONTAINMENT AS RESISTANCEChapter 1. The Epidemiological Status and Health Care Administration of the Jews Before and During the HolocaustJacob Jay LindenthalChapter 2. Typhus Epidemic Containment as Resistance to Nazi GenocideNaomi Baumslag and Barry ShmooklerChapter 3. Delousing and Resistance During the HolocaustPaul WeindlingPART II: ORGANIZED HEALTH CARE IN THE GHETTOSChapter 4. Courage Under Siege: Starvation, Disease and Death in the Warsaw GhettoCharles G. RolandChapter 5. Jewish Medical Resistance in the Warsaw GhettoMyron WinickChapter 6. Health Care in the Vilna GhettoSolon BeinfeldChapter 7. The Jewish Hospital in the Vilna GhettoAlexander SedlisChapter 8. The Establishment of a Public Health Service in the Vilna GhettoSteven SedlisChapter 9. Medicine in the Kovno GhettoJack BraunsChapter 10. Medicine in the Shavli Ghetto – In Light of the Newly Discovered Diary of Dr. Aaron PikMiriam OfferChapter 11. The Nursing School in the Warsaw GhettoAleksander BlumChapter 12. A Tribute to an Old-Fashioned PharmacistLily Mazur MargulesPART III: MEDICINE IN THE CAMPSChapter 13. Jewish Medical Resistance in Block 10, AuschwitzClaude RomneyChapter 14. Greek Jews in Auschwitz: Doctors and VictimsYitzchak KeremChapter 15. The Kinderheim of Bergen-BelsenDiane PlotkinChapter 16. Memoirs of Heroic Deeds by Jewish Medical Personnel in the CampsIsak ArbusChapter 17. Felix Bachmann’s Medical Memoir of Terezin Concentration CampOliver B. PollakPART IV: WARTIME ACTIVITIES AND OTHER AREASChapter 18. Doctors Saving Jews in Dniepropetrovsk During the Nazi OccupationAlexander and Arkady BielostotzkChapter 19. Crimean Doctors: Victims of Holocaust and Heroes of ResistanceGitel GubenkoChapter 20. Jewish Medics in the Soviet Partisan Movement in the UkraineSter ElisvatskiAfterword: The Ethical and Human Dimension of Jewish Medical Resistance During the HolocaustYulian RafesPhotosAbout the EditorList of ContributorsCreditsIndex

“The 20 chapters in this four-part volume are well researched, based extensively on primary sources, and highly readable. This book should be read by anyone interested in understanding more about resistance to the Holocaust and the complex roles that medicine played in defying the genocidal intentions of the ‘Final Solution’.” · Choice“The essays in this volume are of uniform quality… [It] is must read for any scholars interested in the complex and often contradictory details of medicine in the world of the Holocaust.” · Modern Judaism“[This book] is more than simply a medical story. It is one of the most heroic and moving accounts of the Holocaust this reviewer has ever read.” · Jewish Book Council Review“[Grodin] compiled a fascinating series of articles documenting a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: medical resistance by Jewish physicians and health care workers… The articles cover a wide range of topics related to health care… [and] are fascinating to read. They inspire both compassion for those affected and awe of the courage of the health care professionals who risked their own lives to assist and save fellow Jews. Their sanctification of life, the core Jewish value, is duly honoured here. Libraries supporting programs in medical history, Holocaust studies, and bioethics will definitely want this book for their collections.” · Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews“[A] brilliant scholarly piece of work, very well written, underpinned with rich sources. The list of authors - some of them survivors, or children of survivors - is impressive… The book covers a hitherto fairly new and unknown chapter on the Holocaust… The stories of these physicians can serve as a model for future generations of doctors on how to preserve humaneness, morality and loyalty to the basic ethical principles of medicine in a deeply inhumane and destructive environment.” · Christian Pross, Zentrum Überleben“This is an interesting and important publication on Jewish medical resistance, a subject rarely covered in the literature on the Holocaust… the overall amount of information, the variety of approaches and the general insight given into this emotionally laden topic makes this volume unique and outstanding. And while the personal accounts as well as the scholarly data paint the picture of horrific suffering, they also leave the reader with hope in the realization of the nurses’ and doctors’ determination to alleviate suffering even under near impossible circumstances.” · Sabine Hildebrandt, Harvard Medical School