Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:21:47.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neurolathyrism in Vapniarka: Medical Heroism in a Concentration Camp

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

Jarred Garfinkle ,
Frederick Andermann  and
Michael I. Shevell
Jarred Garfinkle
Affiliation:
From the Departments of Neurology/Neurosurgery & Pediatrics, McGill University Division of Pediatric Neurology, Montreal Children's Hospital-McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Frederick Andermann
Affiliation:
From the Departments of Neurology/Neurosurgery & Pediatrics, McGill University Division of Pediatric Neurology, Montreal Children's Hospital-McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Michael I. Shevell*
Affiliation:
From the Departments of Neurology/Neurosurgery & Pediatrics, McGill University Division of Pediatric Neurology, Montreal Children's Hospital-McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*
Room A-514, Montreal Children's Hospital, 2300 Tupper, Montreal, Quebec, H3H 1P3, Canada.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Stories abound about the medical abuses that have come to define medicine and the “pseudo”-neurosciences in the Third Reich. Well known are the Nazi program of euthanasia and the neuroscientific publications that arose from it. Nevertheless, during this widespread perversion of medical practice and science, true medical heroics persisted, even in the concentration camps. In December 1942, inmates of Camp Vapniarka began experiencing painful lower extremity muscle cramps, spastic paraparesis, and urinary incontinence. In order to reduce the cost of feeding the 1200, mostly Jewish, inmates of Camp Vapniarka and surreptitiously hasten their deaths, the Nazi-affiliated Romanian officers of the camp had begun feeding them a diet high in Lathyrus sativus. L. sativus is the neurotoxin implicated in neurolathyrism, a degenerative disease of the upper motor neurons. Dr. Arthur Kessler, one of the camp's prisoners, eventually identified the source of the epidemic. Armed with this knowledge, the inmates collectively organized to halt its spread.

Type
Historical Review
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 38 , Issue 6 , November 2011 , pp. 839 - 844
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2011

References

Peiffer, J.Assessing neuropathological research carried out on victims of the ‘euthanasia’ programme. Med Hist J. 1999;34: 339–56.Google ScholarPubMed
Shevell, M.Neurosciences in the Third Reich: from Ivory Tower to death camps. Can J Neurol Sci. 1999;26:132–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alexander, L.Medical science under dictatorship. N Engl J Med. 1949;221:39–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruyn, GW, Poser, CM.The history of tropical neurology: nutritional disorders. Canton, MA: Science History Publications/USA; 2003. p. 89–108.Google Scholar
Chopra, R.Lathyrism. In: The British encyclopaedia of medical practice. London: Butterworth; 1935. Vol 7, p. 651–7.Google Scholar
Hippocrates. The history of epidemics. In seven books. Book 2, Section IV. Translated into English from the Greek by S. Farr. London: T. Cadell, In the Strand; 2003. p. 59–60.Google Scholar
Schuchardt, B.Zur geschichte und casuistik des lathyrismus. Dtsch Arch Klin Med. 1887;40:312–46.Google Scholar
Cohn, DF, Streifler, M.Neurolathyrism: historical notes. Koroth. 1978;7:147–52.Google Scholar
Barrow, MV, Simpson, CF, Miller, EJ.Lathyrism: a review. Quart Rev Biol. 1974;49:101–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sleeman, WH.Rambles and recollections of an Indian Official. London: J. Hatchard and Son; 1844.Google Scholar
Cantani, A.Latirismo. Il Morgagni. 1873;15:754–65.Google Scholar
Selye, H.Lathyrism. Rev Canad Biol. 1957;16:1–83.Google ScholarPubMed
Adiga, P, Rao, S, Parma, P.Some structural features and neurotoxic action of a compound from L. sativus seeds. Curr Sci. 1963;32: 153–4.Google Scholar
Spencer, PS.Food toxins, AMPA receptors, and motor neuron diseases. Drug Metab Rev. 1999;31:561–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nunn, PB, Seelig, M, Zagoren, JC, Spencer, PS.Stereospecific acute neuronotoxicity of “uncommon” plant amino acids linked to human motor-system diseases. Brain Res. 1987;410:375–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bridges, R, Hatalski, C, Shim, S, et al.Gliotoxic properties of the lathyrus exotoxin (β-L-ODAP). Brain Res. 1991;561:262–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, JF, Morris, ME.Lathyrus excitotoxin: mechanism of neuronal excitation by L-2-oxalylamino-3-amino-and L-3-oxalylamino-2-amino-propionic acid. Exp Brain Res. 1984;57: 158–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olney, J.Excitotoxins in food. Neurotoxicology. 1994;15:535–44.Google Scholar
Van Moorhem, M, Lambein, F, Leybaert, L.Unraveling the mechanism of β-N-oxalyl-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP) induced excitotoxicity and oxidative stress, relevance for neurolathyrism prevention. Food Chem Toxicol. 2011;49: 550–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sriram, K, Shankar, SK, Boyd, MR, Ravindranath, V.Thiol oxidation and loss of mitochondrial complex I precede excitatory amino acid-mediated neurodegeneration. J Neurosci. 1998;18: 10287–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawson, DA, Rinaldi, AC, Pöch, G.Biochemical and toxicological evaluation of agent-cofactor reactivity as a mechanism of action for osteolathyrism. Toxicology. 2002;177:267–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ioanid, R.The Holocaust in Romania. Chicago: Ivan R Dee; 2000.Google Scholar
Ancel, J.Transnistria, 1941-1942: the Romanian mass murder campaigns. Tel Aviv: Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center, Tel Aviv University; 2003.Google Scholar
Dumitru, D.The use and abuse of the Holocaust: historiography and politics in Moldova. Holocaust Genocide Studies. 2008;22: 49–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gall, M.Finsternis: durch gefängnisse, KZ Wapniarka, massaker und kommunismus. Ein lebenslauf in Rumänien, 1920-1990. Constance: Hartung-Gorre Verlag; 1999.Google Scholar
Simon, N.“…auf allen vieren werdet ihr hinauskriechen!”: Ein zeugenbericht aus dem KZ Wapniarka. Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum; 1994.Google Scholar
Benditer, I.Cattle fodder for the victims. In: Carmelly, F, editor. Shattered! 50 Years of Silence. Toronto: Abbeyfield Publishers; 1997. p. 181–202.Google Scholar
Kessler, D.Dr. Arthur Kessler (1903-2000). Lathyrus Lathyrism Newsletter. 2003;3:2–4.Google Scholar
Proctor, RN.Anti-Semitism in the German medical community. In: Racial hygiene-medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1988: p. 131–76.Google Scholar
Ancel, J.Documents concerning the fate of Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust. New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation; 1986.Google Scholar
Shachan, A.Burning ice: the ghettos of Transnistria. New York: Columbia University Press; 1995.Google Scholar
Hirsch, M, Spitzer, L.Testimonial objects: memory, gender and transmission. Poetics Today. 2006;27:355–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, M, Spitzer, L.“There was never a camp here!” In: Ghosts of home: the afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish memory. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California; 2010. p. 197–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, A.Lathyrismus. Monatschr Psychiatr u Neurol. 1947;113: 345–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, A.Lathyrism in man. Harefuah. 1946;31:111–4.Google ScholarPubMed
Hilberg, R.The destruction of the European Jews, 3rd ed. New York: Yale University Press; 2003.Google Scholar
Carp, M.Cartea Neagra: Le livre noir de las destruction des juifs de Roumanie, 1940-1944. Translated, annotated and edited by Laignel-Lavastine A. Paris: Éditions Denoël; 2009.Google Scholar
Ortner, E.Ueber Lathyrismus. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 1948;60: 291–3.Google Scholar
Radovici, A, Misirliou, V, Gluckman, M.Épilepsie reflexe provoquée par excitations optiques des rayons solaires. Rev Neurol. 1932;1: 1305–8.Google Scholar
Radovici, A.Sur une epidemie de lathyrisme. Bull Acad Med Roum. 1945;10:77–86.Google Scholar
Sigler, E, Shvidel, L, Shtalrid, M, Berrebi, A.Lathyrism, leg cramps, and thrombocytopenia: cascade of events starting in a concentration camp. Am J Med. 2007;120:e3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, DF, Streifler, M.Human neurolathyrism. A follow up study of 200 patients. Part I: clinical investigation. Schw Arch Neurol Psych. 1981;128:151–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Cohn, DF, Streifler, M.Human neurolathyrism. A follow up study of 200 patients. Part II: special investigations. Schw Arch Neurol Psych. 1981;128:157–63.Google Scholar
Ludolph, AC, Hugon, J, Dwived, MP, Schaumburg, HH, Spencer, PS.Studies on the aetiology and pathogenesis of motor neuron diseases. 1. Lathyrism: clinical findings in established cases. Brain. 1987;110:149–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drory, VE, Rabey, MJ, Cohn, DF.Electrophysiologic features in patients with chronic neurolathyrism. Acta Neurol Scand. 1992; 85:401–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Misra, UK, Sharma, VP.Peripheral and central conduction studies in neurolathyrism. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1994;57:572–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paissios, CS, Demopoulos, T.Human lathyrism. Clin Orthop. 1962; 23:236–49.Google ScholarPubMed
Weintroub, S, Cohen, DF, Salama, R, Streifler, M, Weissman, SL.Skeletal findings in human neurolathyrism. Is there a human osteolathyrism? Eur Neurol. 1980;19:121–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirano, A, Llena, J, Streifler, M, Cohn, D.Anterior horn cell changes in a case of neurolathyrism. Acta Neuropathol. 1976;35:277–83.Google Scholar
Streifler, M, Cohn, D, Hirano, A, Schujman, E.The central nervous system in a case of neurolathyrism. Neurology. 1977;27:1176–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paleacu, D, Cohn, DF, Rabey, JM.Cognitive evaluation of patients with chronic neurolathyrism. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 1999; 51:55–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trials of war criminals before the Nuremberg military tribunals under control council law 10. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 1950.Google Scholar
Radovici, A.Une épidémie de lathyrisme pendant la guerre. Société Médicale des Hôpitaux de Bucarest. 1945;Nr. 5-7:1–48.Google Scholar