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The historian David Irving, who has
been accused of being a Holocaust denier.
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What if you knew that not publishing and/or using the data could strengthen the
arguments of those who say the Holocaust never happened?
So-called Holocaust deniers maintain that the Holocaust itself never took
place. Many who find such arguments absurd and detestable feel that failing to
cite or use the Nazi data might only fan the flames of Holocaust denial. As
such, most scholars, whether or not they advocate using the Nazi data, hold
that the fact that the experiments happened should never be forgotten,
lest such atrocities recur. Thus, Dr. Jay Katz of Yale Law School, who opposes
use, would publish the data in full detail, then condemn them to oblivion
[31], while Ronald Banner of the Jewish Ethical Medical Study Group in
Philadelphia, who does not oppose citation of the data, nevertheless feels
"chagrined that someone would refer to those experiments without mentioning
something about the way the information was gained. It shows a lack of
conscience. There are times that something, morally, stinks so bad that you
have to hold your nose even while you refer to it." [32]
"It sends a chill down every normal human being's spine to think of the
horrible things the Nazis did there, but I'm separating the results and the
circumstances. Actually, if the U.S. doctor [Pozos] dedicated his study to the
memory of those victims of the Nazis, it would serve as a nice way of reminding
people about the horrible experiments."
Ephraim Zuroff, Israeli representative to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los
Angeles
[33]
"I submit that we must put the Holocaust and the Nazi experiments directly
under the floodlights and on center stage even if some of us and our past and
present are partly illuminated by the glare. Instead of banning the Nazi data
or assigning it to some archivist or custodial committee, I maintain that it be
exhumed, printed, and disseminated to every medical school in the world along
with the details of methodology and the names of the doctors who did it,
whether or not they were indicted, acquitted, or hanged. ... Let the students
and the residents and the young doctors know that this was not ancient history
or an episode from a horror movie where the actors get up after filming and
prepare for another role. It was real. It happened yesterday. ... They tried to
burn the bodies and to suppress the data. We must not finish the job for
them."
—Dr. Velvl W. Greene, professor of medical ethics at Ben Gurion University in
Beersheba, Israel
[34]
"The best argument I've heard for preserving the Nazi data is to keep evidence
that those experiments were carried out. As long as the data are available,
evidence that at least some people did some bad things in Nazi Germany cannot
be denied."
—Howard M. Spiro, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University
[35]
Yes |
No
References
31. Cohen, p. 13.
32. Moe, p. 7.
33. Associated Press. "Minnesota Scientist Plans to Publish Nazi Experiment on
Freezing." The New York Times, 5/12/88, p. 28.
34. Greene, Velvl W. "Can Scientists Use Information Derived From the
Concentration Camps? Ancient Answers to New Questions." In Caplan, pp.
169-70.
35. Spiro, Howard M., M.D. "Let Nazi Medical Data Remind Us of Evil" (Letter to
the Editor). The New York Times 4/19/88, p. 30.
The Director's Story |
Timeline of Nazi Abuses
Results of Death-Camp Experiments: Should They Be Used?
Exposing Flawed Science |
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