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U.S. EDITION Friday, November 30, 2012 As of 10:30 PM EST Subscribe Log In Home World U.S. New York Business Tech Markets Market Data Opinion Life & Culture Real Estate Careers Seib & Wessel Washington Wire Fiscal Cliff Politics & Policy Economy San Francisco Bay Area WSJ/NBC News Poll Journal Reports Columns & Blogs U.S. NEWS November 30, 2012, 10:30 p.m. ET A Scientist's Nazi-Era Past Haunts Prestigious Space Prize Article Comments MORE IN US » By LUCETTE LAGNADO Every year since 1963, the Space Medicine Association has given out the Hubertus Strughold Award to a top scientist or clinician for outstanding work in aviation medicine. The prestigious 50-year-old prize is named in honor of the man known as the "Father of Space Medicine," revered for his contributions to America's early space program. The German émigré, who made Texas his home after World War II, is credited with work that helped American astronauts walk on the moon. Available to WSJ.com Subscribers But it is what he allegedly did during the war that has fueled a bitter Scientist's Nazi-Era controversy. Past Haunts Space Prize Nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, the scientific community is still fractured over the legacy of Nazi science—a conflict underscored by the BofA Backs Down on clash over the Strughold prize. New Checking Fees Luis Marden/National Geographic Stock Dr. Hubertus Strughold, dubbed the 'Father of Dr. Strughold, a former scientist for the Space Medicine,' in an early chamber designed to simulate the conditions in space. Some Third Reich, was listed as one of 13 scientists want his name removed from a medical "persons, firms or organizations prize. GOP Takes Aim at implicated" in some notorious Dachau Entitlements concentration camp experiments, according to a 1946 memo by the staff of the Nuremberg Trials. The document referenced the infamous hypothermia, or "cold experiments," in which inmates were used, and typically died, as subjects exposed to freezing conditions. No Easy Money in For years, former colleagues and disciples have defended him, saying there was Munis no evidence to conclude he engaged in atrocities. Other space scientists have argued that his involvement in Hitler's war machine should prevent any honors, including the eponymous prize, from being named for him. He was never tried at Nuremberg. In America, the U.S. Justice Department Don't Miss Powered by Taboola investigated him at several junctures but never found sufficient grounds for prosecution. During in his lifetime, Dr. Strughold himself repeatedly denied any Lindsay Lohan Hugh Hefner's Son Opinion Journal: involvement in the Dachau experiments arrested in New Cooper Hefner The Buffett Tax or other atrocities. He told a Nuremberg York nightclub for Discusses Taking Fiction--Freeman allegedly hitting a … On His Father's P… on Warren Buffett… investigator that he knew about the 00:34 08:33 04:45 cold experiments but disapproved of such tests on nonvolunteers. Most Popular in US "I have always forbidden even the Obama's Cliff Offer Spurned thought of such experiments in my Obama's Real Fiscal Problem Institute, firstly on moral grounds and secondly on grounds of medical ethics," Costco's Dividend Tax Epiphany he is quoted as saying in this Israel Pushes Housing After U.N. Vote Nuremberg report. His immediate Strassel: This Unserious White House family members are deceased. More in US Dr. Strughold, who died in 1986, became a revered figure in American GOP Takes Aim at Entitlements science. He built an impressive career, Scientist's Nazi-Era Past Haunts Space Prize National Library of Medicine/Photo Researchers, Inc helping to develop the first pressurized BofA Backs Down on New Checking Fees Dr. Strughold headed a major aviation research lab in Nazi Germany before coming to the U.S. space craft cabin that made manned Two Brothers Arrested in Terror Plot where he helped shape the space program. space flights possible. Doctors and Financier Gets 50 Years for $200 Million Fraud scientists in the emerging field of space medicine looked to him as a mentor and some affectionately called him by his nickname, "Struggie." They have remained loyal, despite allegations about his past. Most Popular Read Emailed Video Commented To his defenders, Dr. Strughold was a "pure scientist." His legacy, they say, was to ultimately help America beat the Soviets to the moon. 1. Obama's Cliff Offer Spurned "I certainly didn't have the feeling that he was a great deceiver," says Dr. Charles 2. Opinion: Obama's Real Fiscal Problem Berry, 89, a veteran of the U.S. space program who received the Strughold award 3. Opinion: Costco's Dividend Tax Epiphany in 1967. He strenuously backs Dr. Strughold, whom he came to know in the early days of the space program. "He would sit and talk to you and tell you about any of 4. Israel Pushes Housing After U.N. Vote the subjects you were concerned about," says Dr. Berry. 5. Opinion: Strassel: This Unserious White House But as more evidence surfaced in recent years about Dr. Strughold's wartime Most Read Articles Feed activities—including the disclosure by German scholars that his institute in Berlin had conducted experiments on young children from a psychiatric asylum—the doctors, scientists and astronauts who inhabit the rarefied world of space and Latest Headlines aviation medicine have become embroiled in an anguished debate. GOP Takes Aim at Entitlements "He was not a war criminal," says Dr. Scientist's Nazi-Era Past Haunts Space Prize Mark Campbell, a former president of BofA Backs Down on New Checking Fees the Space Medicine Association. "We Two Brothers Arrested in Terror Plot would not have been where we are in Financier Gets 50 Years for $200 Million Fraud space medicine without Strughold," he Gun Showdown at Work adds. Leak Sickens Dozens in New Jersey Dr. Strughold's critics argue that a Blow Dealt to School Voucher Program scientific organization like SMA has no L.A., Teacher's Union Reach Deal business awarding a prize that honors House Votes to Boost Foreign Workers a man who held a senior position in the Third Reich and was possibly complicit More Headlines in some of its crimes. "I never thought that you could prosecute Strughold, but that doesn't mean you have an award in his name," says Professor Robert Proctor of Stanford University, an authority on Nazi-era medicine. Dr. Russell Rayman, a former Executive Director of the Aerospace Medical Association—an umbrella group that includes the SMA—has lobbied over the years to have the award stripped of the name. He offers a more stark appraisal. Dr. Strughold, he says, "was part of a big killing machine." The Final Theory is Here The ravages of World War II left the Read the controversial new science bestseller everyone's talking world trying to grapple with the about thefinaltheory.com enormity of the crimes that were Museum of Jewish Heritage committed, and pondering how to 1000%+ Penny Stock Gains? At Dachau, an inmate being subjected to high- Join our 100% Free Newsletter today and get picks that skyrocket! altitude conditions. punish their perpetrators. The www.PennyStocks.com Nuremberg Trials, which took place Business Services after the war, were intended to bring to justice the worst offenders, including Find Business Services In Your Area With Local.com! doctors. Major corporations tried to come clean about their business relationships Local.com with Hitler's regime. While the U.S. Justice Department has shrunk its Nazi-hunting arm in recent years, From Around the Web Powered by Taboola Content from Sponsors and prosecutions dwindled as suspected war criminals aged and died, roughly a half-dozen cases remain active. Meanwhile, historians and scholars, including many in Germany, continue to probe relentlessly into the country's dark scientific past. ENTREPRENEUR TECH MEDIA KIPLINGER Prof. Proctor believes that the dispute over the Strughold prize is analogous to a 5 Ways Social Windows Users Worst College larger debate over what researchers call "eponyms"—conditions named after their Media Can Ruin Plan Mass Exodus Majors for Your Your Reputation to Apple Career discoverers. Several disorders and diseases were first identified by German scientists who worked for the Reich and yet still bear their names. "What do we do with the legacy of Nazi knowledge? How do you honor or dishonor Nazi achievements and Nazi crimes?" asks Professor Proctor. He cites the example of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Auschwitz physician known as the Angel of Death. Prior to the war, Dr. Mengele had been an avid researcher. "Is it legitimate to say, 'for more on cleft palates, see Mengele, J., 1937'? " he asks. The Dachau "cold" immersion experiments—whose brutality stood out even in the context of Nazi crimes—have long been a subject of discord in scientific circles. Some have argued the experiments were of no value, so flawed as to be useless. Others have said that despite the horrific means used to obtain the data, the information could still be useful. There is no question, says Professor Robert Pozos, a hypothermia expert at San Diego State University, that the Dachau data seeped into scientific circles after the War, and was referenced in multiple scientific journals. Enlarge Image The conflict over Dr. Strughold began Yad Vashem Nazi doctors submerged prisoners in freezing with a single, cryptic remark he made water to gauge ways to help downed pilots survive. Dr. Strughold's knowledge of, and at a conference during the war—a possible involvement in, this type of experiment is the subject of intense debate. statement that has been studied, analyzed, parsed and dissected by scientists, historians and Nazi hunters for years.