���ϸ�����

In advance of the April 24 Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), Deborah Meshel, assistant professor of nursing, invited Holocaust survivor Paul Schwarzbart to share his story with students in the nursing research classes.

This semester, Meshel has been talking with her nursing students about the Nuremberg Code, the ten-point statement that defines legitimate medical research, particularly concerning informed consent and adherence to moral, ethical, and legal principles.

With all of her students presenting research at ���ϸ�����’s Scholarly Works Conference, Meshel discussed how the requirement that research involving human subjects be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) relates to the ethical standards set following World War II. IRBs are research ethics committees that review and approve research involving human subjects.

“Many of the ethical guidelines we follow today came directly in response to the horrific experiments carried out during World War II, when people in Nazi concentration camps were subjected to inhumane research without consent or compassion,” Meshel said. “Those atrocities led to the creation of the first international code of research ethics, which shaped how we do research today. By requiring IRB approval, we’re upholding those standards and protecting the dignity, rights, and safety of all research participants.”

Schwarzbart was born in 1933 in Vienna. When Austria was annexed by Germany, he and his parents were forced to flee. From 1942-1944, Paul was one of 83 Jewish boys sheltered in a Catholic boarding school in Jamoigne, Belgium. He and his mother eventually made it to the United States, where he went on to earn both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at UC Berkeley and later taught in local schools for more than 42 years. His life was also the focus of the award-winning documentary Shattered Dreams: A Child of the Holocaust. In addition, Mr. Schwarzbart authored two memoirs detailing his experiences during and after World War II: ​ “Breaking the Silence: Reminiscences of a Hidden Child” and “L'Chayim! A Holocaust Survivor's American Journey: A Memoir.”

Mr. Schwarzbart shared his story with our students to help them understand the Holocaust through his experience as a hidden child, Meshel said.

“With Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 24, this feels like an especially meaningful time to reflect on that history and to hear from someone who lived through it.”