Human Subjects Research during and after the Holocaust: Typhus Vaccine Development and the Legacy of Gerhard Rose

Abstract

Over 70 years have passed since German physicians conducted unethical and often deadly typhus experiments on inmates at two concentration camps—Natzweiler and Buchenwald. Dr. Gerhard Rose, then director of the prestigious Department for Tropical Medicine at the Robert Koch Institute, facilitated and guided the research and was found guilty of conducting illegal medical experiments on human subjects without their consent. In this chapter, I address ethical issues related to such experimentation; the rationale provided for doing so; the development of the first international code of research ethics, the Nuremberg Code; and the legacy of these and other unethical human experiments conducted during and after the Holocaust. A brief history of the evolution of human subjects research and human subjects protections in the post-Holocaust period is also provided. Many lessons have been learned from analyses of vaccine and other clinical research during and after the Holocaust, which have resulted in a highly regulated process with numerous checks and balances. We must, however, remain cognizant of potential for both overregulation and underregulation of human subjects research.