Events Calendar



Mar 6

HMS Event

The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust

The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Core Findings and Global Relevance

Date: Wednesday, March 6
Time: 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Hybrid

To Attend Virtually:
Zoom Link
Zoom Password: 570904

To Attend In-Person:
Room 106/107, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

This first Lancet Commission on the history of medicine presents up-to-date evidence on medicine’s role in Nazism and the Holocaust. It deconstructs myths and misunderstandings about the important role health professionals played in formulating, supporting, and implementing inhumane and often genocidal policies. Medical crimes committed during the Nazi era are the best-documented historical examples of medical involvement in transgressions against vulnerable individuals and groups.  Insights from this history are globally relevant for today’s perceptions of and debates in medical theory and practice, and should be discussed in all health curricula. This seminar will provide:

  • A Presentation of the Commission: Sabine Hildebrandt, Volker Roelcke
  • Comments from the perspective of global health: Michael Knipper
  • Seminar moderator: Scott Podolsky

Speaker Information:

Sabine Hildebrandt, MD, is a research scientist and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She teaches anatomy and history and ethics of anatomy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College, and serves as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust. Her 2016 book The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich is the first systematic study of anatomy in Nazi Germany. She is a member of the American Association for Anatomy Task Force on Legacy Collections and of the Human Remains in the Harvard Museum Collections Research Review Committee, and serves as associate editor of Anatomical Sciences Education for the areas of history and ethics.

Michael Knipper, MD, is professor of global health, migration and medical humanities at the Institute of the History, Theory and Ethics at the University Justus Liebig in Giessen, Germany. After clinical work in pediatrics, tropical medicine and primary health care in Germany and Latin America, he turned to historically and anthropologically grounded research and training on the social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of health, with particular interest in health equity, migration and health, and the intersections between health, human rights, and peace. He was a member of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health and is currently with the regional Hub for Latin America of Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration and health.

Volker Roelcke, MD, MPhil, is professor of the history of medicine and chair of the Institute for the History, Theory, and Ethics of Medicine, Giessen University, Germany. He is a member of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, and acted as its founding co-chair. He has published widely on medicine during the Nazi period and on the implications of Nazi medical atrocities on post-World War II medicine and bioethics. His further research interests include the history and ethics of human subject research, the interrelations between eugenics and medical genetics, and the history of the "animal model" of human diseases.

This event is co-hosted by the Center for the History of Medicine, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership (DICP), and the Center for Bioethics.

Mar 6

The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust

The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: Core Findings and Global Relevance

Date: Wednesday, March 6
Time: 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Hybrid

To Attend Virtually:
Zoom Link
Zoom Password: 570904

To Attend In-Person:
Room 106/107, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

This first Lancet Commission on the history of medicine presents up-to-date evidence on medicine’s role in Nazism and the Holocaust. It deconstructs myths and misunderstandings about the important role health professionals played in formulating, supporting, and implementing inhumane and often genocidal policies. Medical crimes committed during the Nazi era are the best-documented historical examples of medical involvement in transgressions against vulnerable individuals and groups.  Insights from this history are globally relevant for today’s perceptions of and debates in medical theory and practice, and should be discussed in all health curricula. This seminar will provide:

  • A Presentation of the Commission: Sabine Hildebrandt, Volker Roelcke
  • Comments from the perspective of global health: Michael Knipper
  • Seminar moderator: Scott Podolsky

Speaker Information:

Sabine Hildebrandt, MD, is a research scientist and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She teaches anatomy and history and ethics of anatomy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College, and serves as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust. Her 2016 book The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich is the first systematic study of anatomy in Nazi Germany. She is a member of the American Association for Anatomy Task Force on Legacy Collections and of the Human Remains in the Harvard Museum Collections Research Review Committee, and serves as associate editor of Anatomical Sciences Education for the areas of history and ethics.

Michael Knipper, MD, is professor of global health, migration and medical humanities at the Institute of the History, Theory and Ethics at the University Justus Liebig in Giessen, Germany. After clinical work in pediatrics, tropical medicine and primary health care in Germany and Latin America, he turned to historically and anthropologically grounded research and training on the social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of health, with particular interest in health equity, migration and health, and the intersections between health, human rights, and peace. He was a member of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health and is currently with the regional Hub for Latin America of Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration and health.

Volker Roelcke, MD, MPhil, is professor of the history of medicine and chair of the Institute for the History, Theory, and Ethics of Medicine, Giessen University, Germany. He is a member of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, and acted as its founding co-chair. He has published widely on medicine during the Nazi period and on the implications of Nazi medical atrocities on post-World War II medicine and bioethics. His further research interests include the history and ethics of human subject research, the interrelations between eugenics and medical genetics, and the history of the "animal model" of human diseases.

This event is co-hosted by the Center for the History of Medicine, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership (DICP), and the Center for Bioethics.