Hans Lauber (1876-1952) – okulista, niemiecki kolaborant, dziekan Wydziału Lekarskiego Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego w latach 1939-1940

HANS LAUBER (1876-1952) – NAZI COLLABORATOR, OPHTHALMOLOGIST, AND DEAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW FACULTY OF MEDICINE IN 1939-1940 Hans Lauber (1876-1952) – a distinguished ophthalmologist and scholar associated with Vienna and Warsaw – entered the history of medicine as one of the pioneers in the study of the physiology and pathology of the visual field and as a co-creator of perimetry standards. The author of 90 scientific papers and two textbooks, he designed his own diagnostic instruments, including a perimeter, a light-spot projector, and a lamp for examining the fundus of the eye in red-free light. From 1931 to 1940 he headed the Department and Clinic of Eye Diseases at the Infant Jesus Hospital in Warsaw, and from 1939 to 1940 served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw. With financial support from the John Warden Foundation, managed by Irena Warden, he modernized the Warsaw Eye Clinic and developed the first postgraduate medical training program in Poland. Lauber’s figure, however, remains ambiguous. During the occupation he took over the management of the Ophthalmology Clinic at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, which after the war became the subject of accusations of Germanizing the staff, brutal treatment of patients, and medical experimentation. Although war crimes were never proven, his activities during World War II remain controversial to this day. This article presents a detailed biography of Hans Lauber, clarifies inconsistencies found in the existing literature, and discusses his scientific output and his significance the development of ophthalmology in Poland and Europe.