7th Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire

7th Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire is organized by Polish Institute for Evidence Based Medicine (PIEBM) / Polski Instytut Evidence Based Medicine, Institute of National Remembrance, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow Medical Society / Towarzystwo Lekarskie Krakowskie will be held from Oct 06 - 08, 2026 at Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Malopolskie, Poland.

Description:
Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire is an annual international conference designed to educate the world’s medical community about medical ethics and practice in the context of the Second World War. It deals with medical, psychological and social consequences of persecution by physicians and other medical personnel in the Nazi German concentration camps as well as heroic efforts to provide medical aid by imprisoned members of the medical profession. Historical accounts are also used to discuss ethical implications of Nazi medicine for contemporary medical practice.

The aim of the conference is to educate the world’s medical community about the medical ethics and practice in the context of the Second World War, looking into the behavior of physicians and other medical professionals imprisoned in Nazi German concentration camps, prisons, ghettoes, or other places of detainment, as well as bringing to light the malpractice and ethical violations of the Nazi German doctors, hoping to demonstrate the implications of the history of medicine during that period for contemporary medical practice and healthcare policy.

Learning objectives:
The aim of Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire is to educate the world’s medical community about the medical ethics and practice in the context of the Second World War, placing special emphasis on the behavior of physicians and other medical professionals imprisoned in Nazi German concentration camps, prisons, ghettoes and other places of detainment. The conference discusses malpractice and ethical violations of medical personnel to demonstrate their implications for contemporary medical practice and health care policies.

By attending this event participants will be able to:

• Critically reflect about the prominent role of health professionals in Nazi eugenics, mass murder of the disabled, criminal medical experimentation on human subjects and the genocide during the Second World War. 
• Identify the legacy of health professionals’ involvement in the Holocaust for contemporary thinking about genetics, beginning and end-of-life care, medical and economic policies as well as public health programs. 
• Explore the cultural, social, economic and political factors that gave rise to the rise of thinking based in eugenics and racism that was sanctioned by health professionals and ultimately lead to genocide, and navigate similar factors in the modern world so that the basic codes of medical practice based in human rights are not overthrown in the future. 
• Contemplate the ongoing clinical and ethical implications for the profession of medicine, patient care and research involving human participants. 

Topics: 
Medical ethics