Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
586 Pioneer Drive
Rochester, MI 48309
(248) 370-3634
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
The Holocaust, Medicine, and Becoming a Physician: OUWB Study Trip to Auschwitz
In 2022, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine began offering a new transformative learning opportunity to its medical students through the OUWB Holocaust and Medicine program.
Part of the program -- the OUWB Study Trip to Auschwitz -- is designed to prompt students to delve into this distinctive and tragic era in the history of medicine and critically reflect on its implications for one’s own personal and professional development within the medical profession.
The inaugural trip was June 13-20, 2022. The seven-day trip centered on guided tours in Krakow, Poland, as well as the sites of the former Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. Special lectures, and interactive workshops also were part of the trip.
Here is a brief overview:
A seven-week seminar follows the OUWB Study Trip to Auschwitz, taken for credit as part of the Medical Humanities and Clinical Bioethics (MHCB) 3 course, in which students will discuss and reflect upon the trip experience, the relevance of this history to contemporary medicine, and develop projects to disseminate what they learned at a symposium dinner as well as to other community groups at OUWB, OU, and beyond.
OUWB invites you to learn more below about the experience, preparations, and program directors.
(Note: Photo at top of page is of the OUWB cohort that travelled to Poland for the Study Trip to Auschwitz in 2022.)
Students who attend the Study Trip to Auschwitz complete a project following the trip to share their experiences and insight with our community, thereby expanding the impact of the program. These projects involve papers, poems, presentations, and videos. This section includes some of the videos students have produced.
When I returned from Poland after the OUWB Holocaust and Medicine program, I struggled to find the words to explain the profound impact the experience had on me to my family, friends, and classmates. Instead, I found myself sharing the photographs I had taken throughout the trip. Putting some of my pictures together into this video allowed me to process my experience, and hopefully offers others a glimpse into the incredible responsibility that comes with a career in medicine, and the depth of moral courage required to uphold our oath as physicians.
- Emily Tenniswood, M2
This project highlights the evolution of medical language and the moral responsibility behind changing eponyms associated with the Holocaust.
- Gabrielle Abdelmessih, M2
