The Warsaw Ghetto Hunger Study was a study taken up by Jewish doctors imprisoned in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

in 1942. The

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s, intent on starving the ghetto within months, allowed no more than a daily intake of 180 calories per prisonerless than 1/10th the recommended caloric intake for a healthy human being, while withholding vaccines and medicine that would be necessary to prevent the spread of disease in the dense ghetto. This resulted in a thriving black market which supplied about 80% of the ghetto's food, and a network of 250 soup kitchens operated by the

Joint A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

, which at one time had served as many as 100,000 meals per day. In February 1942 a group of Jewish doctors headed by Israel Milejkowski decided to use the famine, which was out of their control, to study the physiological and psychological effects of hunger. Using smuggled supplies, they commenced on a deep study of the various aspects of hunger: metabolic, cardiovascular, ophthalmological and even immune system changes, to name a few. Despite the lack of resources, the risk of execution (Jews being prohibited by the Nazis from scientific work) and their own poor physical conditions, the 28 doctors managed to keep a strict study protocol including isolation,

glycemic load The glycemic load (GL) of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person's blood glucose level after eating it. One unit of glycemic load approximates the effect of eating one gram of glucose. Glycemic load accounts for how ...

testing, and even

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

. The study had ended in August 1942 with the ''

Grossaktion Warsaw The ''Grossaktion'' Warsaw ("Great Action") was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the ''Grossaktion'', Jews were terrorized in daily rou ...

''. The study manuscript was smuggled out of the ghetto and kept by the Polish doctor . Immediately after the end of the war it was published in Polish and French (1946), and then in English in 1979 by Myron Winick of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. According to Winick:

References

See also