Article ID: CBB000953490

Medical Science in the Light of the Holocaust: Departing from a Post-war Paper by Ludwik Fleck (2008)

unapi

In scholarly debates, Ludwik Fleck's post-war paper `Problemy naukoznawstwa [Problems of the Science of Science]', published in 1946, has been taken unanimously to illustrate the epistemology expounded in his monograph Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. The paper has also been seen to support parts of the received view of Fleck, notably that he manufactured an anti-typhus vaccine while imprisoned in Buchenwald. However, a different narrative emerges when comparing Fleck's paper with other accounts, also published in 1946 and written by other prisoners alluded to by Fleck in his paper. The situation is further complicated by four papers, published in prestigious scientific journals between 1942 and 1945, by the German medical leader of the typhus studies accounted for by Fleck. In addition, a thus-far neglected paper by Fleck, published in 1946 and summarizing his observations on typhus, discloses his role in the Buchenwald studies. Despite the obvious difficulties with tracing the history behind these works, notably the one on Nazi science, the contention is that what was attempted in Buchenwald in the name of science amounted to pseudoscience. This conclusion is amply supported not only by the accounts given by Fleck's fellow prisoners, but also by his own post-war paper on typhus. Based on the above findings, it is suggested that the mythology about Fleck, established in the 1980s, has been accomplished by a selective reading of his papers and also that the role played by Fleck was more complex than has so far been contemplated.

...More
Associated with

Article Amsterdamska, Olga; et al. (2008) Medical Science in the Light of a Flawed Study of the Holocaust: A Comment on Eva Hedfors' Paper on Ludwik Fleck. Social Studies of Science (p. 937). unapi

Article Amsterdamska, Olga; et al. (2008) Medical Science in the Light of a Flawed Study of the Holocaust: A Comment on Eva Hedfors' Paper on Ludwik Fleck. Social Studies of Science (p. 937). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000953490/

Similar Citations

Book Baumslag, Naomi; (2005)
Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus (/isis/citation/CBB000600032/)

Book Rubenfeld, Sheldon; (2010)
Medicine after the Holocaust: From The Master Race to the Human Genome and Beyond (/isis/citation/CBB001031272/)

Book David de Jong; (2022)
Nazi billionaires : The dark history of Germany's wealthiest dynasties (/isis/citation/CBB275308890/)

Book Katz, Eric; (2006)
Death by Design: Science, Technology, and Engineering in Nazi Germany (/isis/citation/CBB000600205/)

Chapter Weindling, Paul; (2010)
Genetics, Eugenics, and the Holocaust (/isis/citation/CBB001020303/)

Article Topp, Sascha; Fuchs, Petra; Hohendorf, Gerrit; Richter, Paul; Rotzoll, Maike; (2008)
Die Provinz Ostpreußen und die nationalsozialistische “Euthanasie”: SS-“Aktion Lange” und “Aktion T4” (/isis/citation/CBB001220559/)

Chapter Schleiermacher, Sabine; Schagen, Udo; (2008)
Medizinische Forschung als Pseudowissenschaft. Selbstreinigungsrituale der Medizin nach dem Nürnberger Ärzteprozess (/isis/citation/CBB001023679/)

Article Hedfors, Eva; (2008)
Medical Science in the Light of the Holocaust: Reply to a Biased Reading (/isis/citation/CBB000953526/)

Article Weisz, George M.; (2010)
Dr. Fleck Fighting Fleck Typhus (/isis/citation/CBB000953628/)

Book Caplan, Arthur L.; (1992)
When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust (/isis/citation/CBB000031529/)

Article Zeidman, Lawrence A.; (2013)
Dr. Haakon Sæthre: A Norwegian Neuroscientist and His Resistance against Nazi Germany (/isis/citation/CBB001320360/)

Article Mineau, André; (2007)
Social Hygiene and the Holocaust (/isis/citation/CBB000760729/)

Book Ehrenreich, Eric; (2007)
The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution (/isis/citation/CBB001033853/)

Chapter Allen, Michael Thad; (2001)
Modernity, the Holocaust, and Machines without History (/isis/citation/CBB000350118/)

Book Fraser, Gordon; (2012)
The Quantum Exodus: Jewish Fugitives, the Atomic Bomb, and the Holocaust (/isis/citation/CBB001500182/)

Authors & Contributors
Hedfors, Eva
Nikolas K. Schröder
Zeidman, Lawrence A.
Weisz, George M.
Weindling, Paul J.
Uexküll, Thure von
Concepts
National Socialism
Holocaust
Medicine and ethics
Medicine
World War II
Human experimentation
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
Modern
Places
Germany
Norway
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment