War and Medicine

An Exhibition at Wellcome Collection, London (UK) in cooperation with The Museum of Man
(Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany) 4 April - 9 August 2009

War and medicine: it’s dif cult to conceive of more contradictory disciplines. On the one hand the destructive power and the human misery of war; on the other the medical vocation to heal people and keep them healthy. The ethical con ict of wartime medicine has yet to be fully explored. How do physicians and nurses, and for that matter soldiers and civilians, experience it? What are their experiences of injury and death, of helplessness and despair? What can we learn about their courage and willingness to help others? These very personal points of view are at the heart of the exhibition “War and Medicine”, a joint project of Wellcome Collection, London, and the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden.