Down the Trump Rabbit Hole 29 January 2020

Earlier this week, the 75th anniversary of the 27 January 1945 liberation of Auschwitz was widely recognized.  I was reminded of two timely articles re the classic Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy that was created by a Viennese anatomy professor (Eduard Pernkopf) and his team during the Nazi years who drew the remarkably detailed illustrations from dissections of victims executed by the Nazis.  One article is a personal essay by Susan Mackinnon, MD, published last week in the British Medical Journal.  Dr. Mackinnon -- a senior plastic surgery faculty member in our department -- was the lead surgeon in the surgical case that anchors the second article.  This second article – published in the journal Surgery last year -- is a comprehensive analysis of the sensitive, complicated, and controversial issues associated with using the Pernkopf atlas in training and in practice.  Dr. Mackinnon is the lead author of this second article, with several of us in our department as co-authors.  I appreciate the opportunity to have contributed to and to be associated with these two articles.  I am inseparably/deeply disturbed by the ironic Nazi echoes/similarities in the dismissive attitudes, ghettoizing policies, and brutalizing tactics by which the government of Israel has for decades -- with the unwavering permission, shielding, and funding of the US government – victimized the Palestinians.  I found yesterday’s Trump/Netanyahu announcement especially sickening.