Jews, Cadavers, and Politics in Medical Discourses East Central Europe

Schedule

Mon Mar 31 2025 at 05:00 pm to 06:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Glickman Conference Center, Patton Hall (RLP) 1.302E | Austin, TX

Advertisement
"Jews, Cadavers and the Politics of Medical Discourses in East Central Europe" by
Natalia Aleksiun
About this Event

In 1923, the Association of German Medical Students in Vienna petitioned the faculty of the Medical Department demanding that the Jewish community provide their unclaimed dead for dissections. The students objected to what they perceived as Jews pursuing medical training “at the expense of the Aryan population”. In their view, medical training for Jewish students ought to be linked to quotas for a proportionate number of Jewish medical corpses available for dissection by Jews alone. Vienna was not an exception as a site of the conflict over medical bodies. In the early 1920s, Christian student associations voiced similar demands at Czechoslovak, Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian universities. They submitted memoranda to their respective academic authorities and appealed for support, citing religious, scholarly, civic, and racial concerns about Jewish students dissecting non-Jewish medical bodies or about Jewish bodies being absent from anatomy classes. They also argued that in the face of a persistent shortage of medical bodies—which were indispensable for their instruction—the Jewish communities had long unjustly avoided sharing the responsibility for providing specimens because of Judaism’s religious prohibition against autopsies. Facing an increasingly violent campaign, Jewish medical students, medical professionals, communal and religious leadership were forced to respond to the demands. Based on in-depth archival research in Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as published and unpublished diaries and memoirs, and oral interviews, this lecture will explore how, in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, medical schools in East Central Europe turned into sites of bitter conflict over dissections and the place of Jews in the medical profession and – more broadly – in the emerging nation-states.

Natalia Aleksiun is the Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida, where she teaches courses on the Holocaust and its aftermath, Eastern Europe, Jewish childhood and the history of medicine. She holds doctoral degrees from Warsaw University, Poland, and New York University, U.S. She has written extensively on the history of Polish Jews and the Holocaust. In addition to her 2021 book Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization), she is the author of 2002 Where to? The Zionist Movement in Poland, 1944-1950 and editor of Gershon Taffet’s The Destruction of the Jews of Zolkiew, published by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw in 2019. She co-edited several volumes, including The Rescue Turn and the Politics of Holocaust Memory (2024); Entanglements of War: Social Networks during the Holocaust (2023), European Holocaust Studies, vol. 3: Places, Spaces and Voids in the Holocaust (2021), and Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 36: Jewish Childhood in Eastern Europe (2023). She serves as editor of East European Jewish Affairs. Aleksiun is working on a monograph about Jews who went into hiding in Western Ukraine during the Holocaust. In 2024-2025, she is Dalck and Rose Feith Family Fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania, completing her book on the so-called Cadaver Affair in medical schools in East Central Europe between two world wars.



Sponsored by: the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies
Advertisement

Where is it happening?

Glickman Conference Center, Patton Hall (RLP) 1.302E, Patton Hall (RLP) 1.302E, Austin, United States

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Tickets

USD 0.00

Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies

Host or Publisher Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies

It's more fun with friends. Share with friends

Discover More Events in Austin

Texas State Bobcats at Texas Longhorns Baseball at UFCU Disch-Falk Field
Tue, 01 Apr, 2025 at 11:59 pm Texas State Bobcats at Texas Longhorns Baseball at UFCU Disch-Falk Field

UFCU Disch-Falk Field

TRIPS-ADVENTURES
Post Sex Nachos
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 01:00 am Post Sex Nachos

The Ballroom at Spider House

CALENDAR
 Rachel Platten
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 01:00 am Rachel Platten

3TEN Austin City Limits Live

TRIPS-ADVENTURES
Chase Petra
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 01:30 am Chase Petra

Empire Control Room & Garage

TRIPS-ADVENTURES
Wednesday Wellness Walk
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 08:00 am Wednesday Wellness Walk

Hancock Recreation Center

HEALTH-WELLNESS SPORTS
Market Morning Talk with Carvalho Investment Group
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 08:00 am Market Morning Talk with Carvalho Investment Group

Ellis

BUSINESS WORKSHOPS
Early Learning Day 2025 \/\/ D\u00eda del Aprendizaje Temprano 2025
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 08:30 am Early Learning Day 2025 // Día del Aprendizaje Temprano 2025

Oak Hill Elementary School

WORKSHOPS FUNFAIRS
ATX  Lock-In
Wed, 02 Apr, 2025 at 09:00 am ATX Lock-In

206 Wild Basin Rd building a suite 240

Slide In The DMs:  A Comedy Show About Shooting Your Shot!
Sat, 19 Jun, 2021 at 10:00 pm Slide In The DMs: A Comedy Show About Shooting Your Shot!

Fallout Theater

COMEDY SPORTS
Garage: women & nonbinary comedians that pack a punch!
Thu, 24 Jun, 2021 at 08:00 pm Garage: women & nonbinary comedians that pack a punch!

Fallout Theater

COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT
Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking -Austin- Virtual Free Trial Class
Sat, 21 Aug, 2021 at 09:00 am Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking -Austin- Virtual Free Trial Class

Austin

PUBLIC-SPEAKING WORKSHOPS
Social Anxiety Austin - Free Trial Virtual Group Session
Sat, 04 Sep, 2021 at 11:00 am Social Anxiety Austin - Free Trial Virtual Group Session

Austin

WORKSHOPS NONPROFIT
Exploraphoria: Experimental Comedy You Can't Find Anywhere Else!
Tue, 19 Oct, 2021 at 09:30 pm Exploraphoria: Experimental Comedy You Can't Find Anywhere Else!

Fallout Theater

COMEDY ART
Critical Hit: Dungeons & Dragons inspired comedy show!
Wed, 01 Dec, 2021 at 08:00 pm Critical Hit: Dungeons & Dragons inspired comedy show!

Fallout Theater

COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT
Girls Girls Girls! Live Improvised Broadway-Style Musicals
Fri, 11 Feb, 2022 at 08:00 pm Girls Girls Girls! Live Improvised Broadway-Style Musicals

Fallout Theater

COMEDY WORKSHOPS
The Floor Is Lava: Explosive Sketch Comedy + Molten Hot Players!
Tue, 05 Apr, 2022 at 08:00 pm The Floor Is Lava: Explosive Sketch Comedy + Molten Hot Players!

Fallout Theater

COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT
AUSTIN-WEALTH MASTERY
Wed, 24 Aug, 2022 at 08:00 pm AUSTIN-WEALTH MASTERY

AUSTIN- Link will be given with confirmation

WORKSHOPS VIRTUAL
Teenage Dirtbag: Nostalgia Fueled Improv Comedy
Wed, 28 Sep, 2022 at 08:00 pm Teenage Dirtbag: Nostalgia Fueled Improv Comedy

Fallout Theater

COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT
Bucket List: Improvisers use every suggestion. Every. Single. Suggestion.
Tue, 10 Jan, 2023 at 09:30 pm Bucket List: Improvisers use every suggestion. Every. Single. Suggestion.

Fallout Theater

ART THEATRE
Hands-on Cocktail Experience
Wed, 10 May, 2023 at 03:00 pm Hands-on Cocktail Experience

Standard Proof Whiskey Co

WORKSHOPS ART

What's Happening Next in Austin?

Discover Austin Events