The purpose of this project is to produce a book-length manuscript that documents and examines the participation of Jewish and non-Jewish nurses and physicians in resistance-related activities during the Holocaust. The working title of the book is Bearing Arms and Bearing Witness: Nurses, Physicians, and Resistance During the Holocaust. There is a striking lack of research and publications systematically exploring the roles of health professionals engaged in defying and resisting the policies and mandates of the Nazi regime and the ethical dilemmas and choices they confronted in the process. The central goal of this project is to give visibility to thousands of nurses and physicians who risked their lives by resisting Nazi aggression to care for and protect others. Their powerful legacy is relevant to contemporary physicians and nurses who often provide care to vulnerable and marginalized populations. The investigator's on-going research (Martin, 2000) and related literature strongly indicate that many nurses and physicians were engaged in a broad spectrum of resistance activities as they attempted to care for their patients under brutal and dehumanizing conditions. Data for the book will be collected through (a) semi-structured interviews with nurse and physician survivors; and (b) review and analysis of archival and primary source documents related to medical and nursing resistance at major Holocaust repositories including the New York Jewish Heritage Museum and Archives, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Center for Jewish Documentation in Paris. Dr. Robert J. Lifton, an internationally recognized scholar in global violence and psychohistory and author of the leading study of Nazi physicians, Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, will serve as a consultant to the investigator throughout this project.
