Pharmacy in Latvia during the occupation regime of Nazi Germany (1941-1945).

Abstract

The study covers the period of World War II after shift of occupational powers in Latvia when Soviet occupation was replaced by the occupation regime of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941 and retained until first half of 1945. Due to this shift gradually Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus were merged into a single administrative area and designated as "Ostland". Soviet officials left the pharmaceutical industry, which they had tried to apply to the communist ideology from June 1940 to June 1941 creating confusion and chaos. The renewed Pharmacy Board of Latvia had to deal with the restoration of supervision and a partial return from the communist to the capitalist regime. The research provides an insight to adaptation and development of the pharmaceutical industry in Latvia during Nazi Germany occupation regime, highlighting as essential indicators the administrative operation of Pharmacy Board of Latvia and its cooperation with German authorities, the availability of medicines, process of reprivatisation of pharmacies and changes in the number of pharmaceutical employees. The research issue raised is topical, since it is this period that reflects the industry's ability to adapt and perform work in fundamentally different and severe circumstances, which include both resource deficits and the transition from one regime to another. The collected evidence shows the efforts to stabilize the pharmaceutical industry in many terms. One example was the attemptions to ensure the rational dispensing of medical products to the pharmacies and hospitals, with the greatest degree of austerity, because the supply and consumption of medication was extremely complex issue throughout the war.