EUGENE GARFIELD INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION* 3501 MARKET ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104 Remembering the Holocaust, Part 2 Number 28 JuIY15,1985 It is a terrible paradox that physi- course, appalled by the way the data cians—men and women ostensibly dedi- were obtained. However, they feel obli- cated to healing-served as Hitler’s van- gated to use the information because, guard in the extermination of milhons of they believe, it contributes to the ad- Jews, Poles, Slavs, and other peoples vance of scientific knowledge or even to during World War II. Concentration- discovering how to save lives. They camp doctors selected those who would argue that they are trying to salvage live from among the new arrivals. The some good from a tragedy. others were exterminated immediately The article by Kristine Moe reprinted in the gas chambers. Some of these doc- here, which was originally published in tors initiated and conducted so-called the Hastings Center Report,3 raises the experiments on victims in the camps. ethical question of whether or not the Sigmund Rascher, a physician at data collected by Nazi doctors should be Dachau, introduced a new category of cited, and if so, in what manner. When human experimentation. He called it the this article was written, Moe was the sci- “terminal experiment .“1 (p.4) His sinis- ence reporter for the Bellevue, Wash- ter meaning, of course, was that the test ington, newspaper the Journa[-Amen”- subject would not survive the proce- can. In addition to thk article, Moe dure. The Nazi doctors claimed that wrote a three-part series on Nazi “ex- their “experiments” were carried out in perimental” data and their use today for the name of science. The use of the word the JournaI-A merican in 1984.46 ThK “experiment” and other such grotesque past year she held a Vannevar Bush Fel- euphemisms, however, cannot legiti- lowship in science journalism at the mize their acts of torture and murder. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Most of the victims died, and all suffered Cambridge. Recently, Moe has joined miserably. Some doctors published the the San Diego Union as a science data from their grisly work in German reporter. The present article is reprinted medical journals. And some researchers here with the permission of both the today, especially those working in the author and the publisher. field of hypothermia, use the Nazi data While the extent to which Nazi “ex- in their work, even citing them in their perimental” data have been cited carries publications. no weight in the consideration of wheth- Bernard Dixon, writing recently about er or not it is ethical to cite such data, a this practice in the New Scientist,2 has quantitative analysis of citations to these asked: “1s it not a gratuitous insult to articles indicates that this question does those pathetic human guinea pigs, and arise and is not hypothetical. Initially, to the memory of the dead, for journals we had intended to count the citations to and textbooks today to cite data ac- journal articles that were known to have quired in such an odious manner?” The been written by Nazi doctors and that re- scientists who use the Nazi data are, of ported on their “experiments” on con- 265 centration-camp victims. This proved rable 1: Research institutions for Holocaust studies difficult, however. Although we spoke that were consulted in ISI@’s search for a list of Nazi pseudmmedical articles. to experts at numerous Holocaust re- search institutions (Table 1), we were Anne Frank Institute of Pbifadelphia unable to locate a list of such Nazi arti- (formerly The National Institute on cles. Wethenattempted to compile our the Holocaust } own bibliography of these articles. A PO. Box 2147 published list of Nazi doctors, including Philadelphia, PA 19103 information on the camp to which each Center for Holocaust Studies was assigned and the type of “experi- 1610 Avenue I ment” each conducted, wasconsulted,7 Brmklyn, NY 11230 and we attempted to match doctors’ names and “experiments” with articles Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace Stanford University published in German medical journals Stanlord, CA 94305 during World War II. We had only limit- ed success in this effort, and we realized Leo Baeck Institute 129 East 73rd Street that our list was inadequate and there- New York, NY l@321 fore not representative. We concluded that a citation study that attempted to Simon Wiesenthal Center characterize the extent of citations to 9760 West PICOBlvd. Los Angeles, CA 9(K135 the Nazi pseudo-medical articles was im- possible without extensive investigative US Holocaust Memorial Council work. Nevertheless, our study did prove 2(X)L Street, NW that certain articles, unquestionably Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 written by Nazi doctors concerning their “experiments, ” were cited frequently. This was enough to demonstrate the re- be cited indirectly. A citation to Leo alit y of the ethical dilemma. Alexander’s The Treatment of Shock For example, one Prof. Dr. Gutzeit from Prolonged Exposure to Cold, Espe- infected concentration camp victims cially in Water9 is an example of indi- with hepatitis virus at his medical clinic rectly referring to Nazi “experimental” in Breslau, now Wrocfaw. An assistant data. Alexander, a major in the US Ar- physician at the clinic, Dr. H. Voegt, my Medical Corps, and the psychiatric published their “results” in an article en- consultant to the Secretary of War and titled “Zur Aetiologie der Hepatitis epi- to the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes demics” in the journal Mtinchener Med- at the Nuremberg “Doctors’ Trial, ” izinische Wochenschn~t.8 Alexander wrote a report summarizing the Nazi Mitscherlich and Fred Mielke, authors “experiments” at Dachau in which vic- of Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the tims were immersed in cold water and Nazi Medical Crimes, have observed often died. The report, originally classi- that Voegt’s paper is a “.. very clear ex- fied, was made public in 1945 and pub- ample of the tactics of obscuration as to lished by the Office of Publication whether the experiments were voluntary Board, US Department of Commerce. or not. In the case of the first test series The Alexander report was cited in at voluntary participation is expressly em- least 44 publications during the period phasized; in a second, embracing six 1955-1984. persons, this is not mentioned.” I (p. 53) While the Voegt article and the Alex- A search of ISP’s citation indexes re- ander report would not qualify as Cita- vealed that this paper has been cited 50 tion Classicsa, our citation searches for times since 1955, the first year for which these two works demonstrate that the Science Citation Index@ (SCP ) data are ethical dilemma posed by the existence available. of such papers is a real one. Of course, In addition to the direct citation of our analysis reveals only those instances Nazi articles, such information can also in which the researcher decided in favor 266 of citing the data (or made no ethical French and German; however, readers judgment because he or she was un- should remember that numerous and aware of the source of the data). We do highly important Hebrew, Polish, Rus- not know how many researchers have re- sian, and Slavic language studies on fused, whether explicitly or implicitly, to these topics are available and will be cite Nazi data on ethical grounds. consulted with profit by those who read We have developed and are printing these languages. here three select bibliographies (Tables With these three bibliographies, the 2-4). The first bibliography lists studies Moe article, and the Radii-Weiss article on the physiological and psychological that we reprinted last week, 10 we con- effects of the concentration-camp ex- clude our commemoration of the 40th perience on survivors. The second lists anniversary of the end of World War II, books and articles concerning medicine and our look at the Holocaust and its re- in Nazi Germany and “experimentation” flection in the scienttilc literature. How- on concentration-camp victims. The ever, the broader issue of involuntary third bibliography includes studies participation in medical experiments, about science and scientists under the among other ethical questions, wifl con- Third Reich. These bibliographies are tinue to be the subject of review in Cur- limited to works published in English, rent Content@ . Table 2: Physiological and psychological effects of the concentration-camp experience on survivors. (A select bibliography. ) Antonnvsky A, Mstoz B, Dowty N & Wijsenbeek H. Twenty-five yeara later: a limited study of the sequelae of the concentration camp experience. Sot. F%ychiat. 6:186-93, 1971. Benahefm H. Die K, Z.-Neurosc raaaisch VerfoIgter (The concentration-camp syndrome of the raciaffy persecuted). Nervenarzt 31:462-9, 1960, Berger D M. Recovery and regression in concentration camp survivors: a psychodynamic re-evaluation. Can. J. Psychiat. 30(1):54-9, 1985. --------------- The survivor syndrome: a problem of nosology and treatment. Amer. J Psychorher, 31:238-51, 1977. Bettefhefm B. Surviving and other essays. New York: Knopf, 1979.432 p. Brenmx R R. The faith and doubt of Holocaust survivors. New York: Free Press, 1980. 266p. Chodoff P. Effects of extreme coercive and oppressive forces: brainwashing and concentration camps. (Arieti S, cd.) American handbook of psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 1966. Vol. 3. p. 384-405. --------------- The German concentration camp as a psychological stress. Arch. Gen. Psychiar. 22:78-87, 1970. --------------- Late effects of the concentration camp syndrome. Arch. Gen. Psychia/. 8:323-33, 1963. Cohen E A. Human behavior in the concentration camp. London: J. Cape, 1954.295 p. DanJeff Y. Differing adaptational styles in families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.