• Shmuel Reis.
• Center for Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University/Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel.
• Harefuah. 2020 Apr 1; 159 (4): 278-281.

IntroductionA growing interest in the realization, understanding and lessons of medicine and physicians' behavior during the Holocaust, is noted in the last two decades. In this incomprehensible time, the dark and enlightened faces of medicine reached an unprecedented (and hopefully will not ever recur) climax. We learn of the criminal conduct of Nazi medicine and Nazi physicians on the one hand, and the noble, faithful to the Hippocratic oath, behavior of some prisoner physicians and nurses on the other hand. The understanding that learning about medicine during and beyond the Holocaust is a unique platform with exceptional impact on professional identity formation for present and future health professionals, is becoming clearer. In the present paper we will briefly delineate the historical background, its place in the professional discourse, describe a seminal conference that took place in Israel in 2017 that also launched the Galilee Declaration, and thoughts for the future. In Israel, Professor Shaul Shasha's initiative to hold a yearly meeting on medicine and health in the Holocaust in the Medical Center for the Galilee in Naharia, for the last 20 years, is central to this important subject. This paper is dedicated to him with profound gratitude.

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