Ophthalmology research in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto-hunger disease and the story of Szymon Fajgenblat, MD

Abstract

Purpose: During World War II, scientific studies were conducted in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw (Poland). This research, focusing on hunger-induced disease, was embedded in circumstances of omnipresent hunger and starvation. Ophthalmologist Szymon Fajgenblat (1900-1944) was one of the involved physicians and wrote a manuscript about ophthalmological changes during starvation. The background and the findings of his research are discussed in this article.

Methods: Literature and archival research.

Results: The Warsaw ghetto existed from 1941 to 1943 until it was destroyed, just like most of its inhabitants. Before destruction took place, the Nazis tried to kill the residents-almost half a million Jews-by means of starvation. Led by dermatologist Israel Milejkowski, a group of Jewish physicians decided to study the physical effects of hunger on human beings. Twenty-eight physicians would participate in the Hunger Disease Studies, including Fajgenblat. He linked cataracts to serious undernourishment and observed scleral thinning as another sign in hunger disease; the latter likely responsible for the low intraocular pressure found in the study population. Surprisingly, no complaints of night blindness or ophthalmological findings, characteristic of vitamin A deficiency, were observed in the study population.

Conclusion: The Hunger Disease Studies are a unique written medical and historical monument of the Jewish physicians of the Warsaw ghetto. Ophthalmologist Szymon Fajgenblat was one of them and left behind an ophthalmological study as his legacy.

Keywords: Fajgenblat Szymon; Kon Janina Franciszka; Warsaw; World War II; ghetto; hunger; ophthalmology; studies.