As Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Research, I was both delighted and fascinated to be asked to moderate the Historic Perspectives session during the 2023 Pediatric Academic Societies’ meeting. I was aghast when I learned about the impact of Naziism on pediatrics in Vienna in the 1930s and 1940s, which had lasting effects. I appreciated, in hindsight, that although I was born after this period in history, what the Nazis had done during the Holocaust had a powerful impact on my family. When we discussed these events, it was incomprehensible that humans could treat other humans in that manner.

However, the scientific presentation during the PAS meeting disturbed me profoundly because I learned that some pediatricians of that era were engaged in murdering children.1,2 This killing of children was separate from the estimated 1.5 million mostly Jewish children killed in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. In Germany and Austria, another type of child murder was practiced even before the war, that of Child Euthanasia. “Kinder-Euthanasie” was the organized killing of children up to 16 years of age who were diagnosed as severely mentally or physically disabled. The practice of Kinder-Euthanasie occurred during the Nazi era in several dozen children’s wards. At least 5000 children, both Jewish and non-Jewish, were murdered in this manner, predating the killing of children in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Dr Hans Asperger was a Viennese pediatrician engaged in this practice. Famous for his work on autism, his activities with the Kinder-Euthanasie were hidden under his scholarship. In 1981, a year after Dr Asperger’s death, a British psychiatrist defined autism spectrum disorder and named it Asperger syndrome. Dr Asperger was romanticized as a kind and caring physician who strove to save children from death in Nazi Vienna. Over time, historians realized that Dr Asperger described himself as a eugenicist who participated in murdering children at AM Spiegelgrund, a notorious clinic where hundreds of children were murdered during the Nazi era. And even when this history first came to light, it was very controversial (The Horrifying Nazi Roots of the Doctor After Whom Asperger’s Syndrome Is Named | History News Network). Now, Dr Asperger’s role has been firmly established (The truth about Hans Asperger’s Nazi collusion | Department of History (stanford.edu)). In this edition of Pediatric Research, Dr Daniel Neuspiel outlines the history of pediatrics during the Nazi era, including that of Dr Asperger. For a deeper account of Dr Asperger’s involvement, read the NPR interview with Edith Sheffer, the author of “Asperger’s Children, the Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna” (Doctor Behind Asperger’s Syndrome Subject To Name Change: NPR).

Asperger Syndrome is not alone in being the only medical eponym with Nazi associations. Other conditions have been named after persons associated with Nazis. Table 1 is a partial list of such eponyms along with suggested replacement terms, and a brief description of the original name’s association with Naziism (List of medical eponyms with Nazi associations – Wikipedia). Other eponyms with Nazi associations are listed elsewhere.

Table 1 List of eponyms [List of medical eponyms with Nazi associations – Wikipedia].
Full size table

I believe that we, as a group of individuals whose mission is to improve the lives of children, need to eradicate Asperger’s name from use in our medical profession. The DSM-5 no longer lists “Asperger Syndrome” as a diagnosis, not as a political statement but because Asperger syndrome has been recategorized within Autism Spectrum Disorder due to overlapping features and ending its position as a stand-alone diagnosis (The truth about Hans Asperger’s Nazi collusion | Department of History (stanford.edu)). Lastly, this name must be eradicated for possibly generating a wrong, positive association in the unaware public.

From this time forward, Pediatric Research will only use alternative non-eponymous names for any disease or condition given an eponymous name. Should there be a lack of an alternative title, Pediatric Research through its editorial and commentary process, will advocate for an alternative name. The reasons for this decision are two-fold: (1) the ethical background of an individual whose name is used as an eponym is often unknown. It is difficult and time-consuming to investigate these individuals. Therefore, to avoid situations such as the one with autism spectrum disorder, we will use non-eponymous alternative names; and (2) the vast majority of these names are for white, privileged males of former eras. These names do not acknowledge others who substantially contributed to the discovery, description and mechanism underlying these diseases but may not have had the position of power or privilege necessary for the medical field in that era to honor them (e.g., Blalock–Taussig Shunt, rather than Blalock–Taussig–Thomas Shunt).

Thus, we, as the Editor-in-Chiefs, the Editorial Office and the following members of the editorial board of Pediatric Research, will no longer publish any manuscript that refers to “Asperger Syndrome.” His name will be expunged from Pediatric Research from this time forward. We call upon the editors and editorial boards of other pediatric journals to do the same.