Public health in the Vilna ghetto as a form of Jewish resistance

M. Longacre, S. Beinfeld, S. Hildebrandt, L. Glantz and M.A. Grodin

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 2, 293-301

Abstract: We describe the system of public health that evolved in the Vilna Ghetto as an illustrative example of Jewish innovation and achievement during the Holocaust. Furthermore, we argue that by cultivating a sophisticated system of public health, the ghetto inmates enacted a powerful form of Jewish resistance, directly thwarting the intention of the Nazis to eliminate the inhabitants by starvation, epidemic, and exposure. In doing so, we aim to highlight applicable lessons for the broader public health literature. We hope that this unique story may gain its rightful place in the history of public health as an insightful case study of creative and progressive solutions to universal health problems in one of the most challenging environments imaginable.

Keywords: child; child welfare; history; holocaust; human; infection control; Jew; Lithuania; political system; public health; sanitation, Child; Child Welfare; Communicable Disease Control; History, 20th Century; Holocaust; Humans; Jews; Lithuania; National Socialism; Public Health; Sanitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302312_0

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302312

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