The German Radiological Society (DRG) opened an exhibition in Tel Aviv, Israel, about radiology under the Nazis on 14 April.
In 2010, the DRG commissioned Dr. Gabriele Moser, a historian of medicine at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, to conduct research into the history of the DRG during the era of the National Socialist dictatorship.
The German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) joined the project in 2012 because of the DRG and DEGRO's shared past. After initial publications by Moser in the two societies' professional publications (RöFo -- Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet der Röntgenstrahlen and Strahlentherapie und Onkologie), the exhibition provides an overview of this period of history.
The research project traces the criminal use of radiation in the service of Nazi fanaticism about race while also documenting the careers of its scientists and practitioners. The findings also include the biographies of radiologists who were persecuted and murdered in the years from 1933 to 1945, which were often quite difficult to locate and assemble.
The exhibition in Israel was aided by Dr. Jacob Sosna, president of the Israeli Society of Radiology (ISRA). Text was translated into modern Hebrew for the exhibition.
The exhibition may be viewed online (in German or English) at www.radiologie-im-nationalsozialismus.org.
