The New England Journal of Medicine is under fire for its historical lack of coverage on the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the name of medical science. In a scathing new article by medical historians Allan Brandt and Joelle Abi-Rached from Harvard, the journal is criticized for only paying “superficial and idiosyncratic attention” to the horrors of Nazi medical experiments, such as those conducted on twins at Auschwitz.
The article points out that while other leading science journals like Science and the Journal of the American Medical Association covered the Nazis’ discriminatory policies throughout Hitler’s reign, the New England Journal of Medicine did not publish an article explicitly condemning the Nazis’ medical atrocities until 1949, four years after World War II ended.
This revelation is part of a series started last year by the journal to address racism and prejudice in the medical establishment. Another recent article described the journal’s enthusiastic coverage of eugenics in the 1930s and ’40s.
Dr. Eric Rubin, the journal’s editor and an infectious disease expert at Harvard, emphasized the importance of learning from past mistakes to avoid falling into similar objectionable ideas in the future. The article also uncovered a paper in the journal’s archives endorsing Nazi medical practices, further highlighting the need for reflection and accountability.
Overall, the historians were surprised by the journal’s lack of coverage on the Nazis’ atrocities, which included the murder of disabled people and the slaughter of Europe’s Jews. The journal’s indifference towards these events, even after World War II, raises questions about the role of silence in perpetuating radical and immoral shifts in society.
As the medical community grapples with its past and strives for a more inclusive and ethical future, the criticism of the New England Journal of Medicine serves as a stark reminder of the importance of confronting uncomfortable truths and actively working to prevent history from repeating itself.
