The Impact of Nazi Persecution on Jewish Pharmacologists

Did you know that the oldest pharmacology journal, Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology, faced a dramatic shift after 1933? This is when the Nazi regime took over. Many Jewish and dissident German pharmacologists were forced to leave their homeland. This study looks at what happened to their scientific work and where they ended up. Researchers looked at 71 persecuted pharmacologists from 1900 to 1980. Most left Germany, with two big waves of emigration happening around 1933 and 1938. Where did they go? The USA and Great Britain were top choices. Five of those who went to Great Britain even became superstars in the British Pharmacological Society.

After the Nazis took power, the number of papers by these persecuted scientists in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives dropped quickly. But interestingly, they started publishing more in an American journal, the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Those who went to Britain also made a big splash in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Even during the darkest times, about half of the papers by persecuted pharmacologists in the Archives were from abroad. This shows that despite everything, their work was still valued. Most of these papers came from scientists critical of the regime or working under persecuted directors. The persecuted pharmacologists covered a wide range of scientific topics. After World War II, the Archives lost some of its previous diversity. Germany's loss was the USA and Britain's gain. Many distinguished scientists fled to these countries, boosting their pharmacology scenes.

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