Hunger Disease: Studies by the Jewish Physicians in the Warsaw Ghetto

Abstract

This book is a unique blend of heroism and scientific research. It parallels various accounts by medical workers interned in World War II prisoner of war camps, especially in the Far East. It differs profoundly in the remorseless inevitability of the conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto of 1940, which had one purpose in mind—mass extermination by mass starvation, with a diet of 800 calories, grossly deficient in fat, vitamins, and protein. Under the leadership of Dr Israel Milejowski, this group of Jewish physicians, nurses, and assistants, with the help of those smuggling in limited equipment, undertook remarkably detailed clinical metabolic, physiological, and autopsy studies of hunger disease on their fellow sufferers, combined with attempts at the best treatment practicable. The account of their findings is of great importance, and the publishers and editor deserve congratulations on translating it from the Polish. What are detailed are the changes occurring in a