The history of anesthesia in Roermond 1940-1945--a city in a war zone.

The Second World War brought much grief to the world. Roermond was at the forefront of the war for a period of five months. Before the war, in this part of The Netherlands, physicians were more attuned to scientific development taking place in Germany than in the United Kingdom. It wasn't until after the war that anesthesiology developed as a separate specialty. The impression that the hospital records give is that anesthesia was practiced at a far higher level than we had always assumed, using a wide variety of drugs and techniques, in spite of the fact that there were no professional anesthesiologists at the time. That high level was maintained throughout the war in spite of all the hardships.