Jewish Hospital (Czyst)

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The Jewish Hospital in Warsaw (1939)

The Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, the Jewish Hospital in Czyste, was a Jewish medical facility in Warsaw that was in operation from 1902 to 1943, and for years was considered one of the best and most modern hospitals in Poland .

The entire hospital complex consisted of eight separate hospital pavilions with the departments for: surgery , ophthalmology , gynecology , skin and venereal diseases, pulmonology , ear and throat medicine, infectious diseases, internal medicine , neurology , psychiatry and obstetrics . There was also a research laboratory.

The hospital also included an administration building, a synagogue , a pre-burial house, kitchens, laundries, ice houses, a boiler room, carriage houses, horse stables, a disinfection chamber, a food store, a servants' residence, a convalescent home, and other smaller buildings. In total there were 17 buildings for different purposes.

history

Establishment and opening

The idea of ​​building a new Jewish hospital arose in the 1880s under the doctors of the Old Jewish Hospital, which was a childhood friend under the direction of Józef.

On June 25, 1883 Zygmunt Kramsztyk published in the newspaper "Kurier Warszawski" an article entitled "Nowy Szpital" (German: "A new hospital" ) in which he presented a plan and postulates regarding the construction of a new hospital. The plan received the support of Warsaw doctors, the general public and the Warsaw Jewish Community , led by chairman Ludwik Natanson .

In April 1887, the Hospital Construction Committee was founded, headed first by Ludwik Natanson and, after Natanson's death, by Michał Berson . The committee was divided into general, medical, financial, technical and legal areas. In July 1887 the first meeting of the committee took place and since then the collection of donations for the construction of the hospital began. Among the donors were well-known citizens of the city, Jewish intelligentsia and ordinary people.

At the meeting of the committee on June 26, 1890, it was decided that the hospital should be built on the land owned by Wielka Wola and Czyste , which were bought by the owners Biernacki, Rodkiewicz and Pieńkowski. The entire property had an area of ​​6.7  hectares . The plan was approved by the Warsaw Municipal Public Charity Council in April 1983.

The construction of the hospital began solemnly in May 1894. In the foundation of the future synagogue of the hospital , a foundation stone was built and a box was placed in it, in which there was a glassine with a short history of the construction of the hospital in Polish and Hebrew as well as several Warsaw magazines . The hospital was designed by Artur Goebel in collaboration with Czesław Domaniewski. The most modern medical facilities in Western Europe served as a model.

The first hospital department - a pavilion for the mentally ill - opened in January 1898. The so-called Committee of Women, which was also responsible for this in other departments in the future, took care of the bedding, bedclothes and clothing. In December 1898, the board of directors of the Jewish Community granted a loan of 400,000 rubles to accelerate fundraising for the completion and furnishing of other buildings.

In April 1902 the first patients were admitted to the hospital. The opening ceremony of the facility took place on June 22nd of the same year and began with a service in the hospital synagogue. Michał Berson, the chairman of the hospital construction committee, and Zygmunt Kramsztyk, the hospital's chief doctor, gave the speeches. The cost of building the hospital was over 1,200,000 rubles.

At the time, the hospital was the most modern medical facility in Warsaw. For the first time in Poland, low-pressure steam central heating, gas and electric lighting, a power generation system as well as ventilation, sewerage and water supply systems and a private well were installed.

In connection with a new law, the hospital was placed under the administration of the City of Warsaw on November 1, 1907. In the years 1909–1911 a new two-story pavilion was built for the needs of the departments of internal medicine and neurology and a physiotherapy laboratory was opened.

Interwar period

A doctor's room in the Jewish hospital in Czyste (1909)

In the interwar period , a new section was added to the psychiatric pavilion, the patients of which were moved to Choroszcz (a town in the Białostocki powiat in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, near Białystok) and a new ward for tuberculosis patients was opened. A famous nursing school was also established. At the beginning of 1922, the first edition of the quarterly journal "Kwartalnik Kliniczny Szpitala Starozakonnych" (German: "The medical quarterly journal of the Jewish hospital" ) was published, which contained materials from scientific meetings. In the second half of the 1930s, the Jewish Hospital became the largest closed medical center in the capital. In 1937 it had 1,100 beds. Before the outbreak of World War II , the number of beds was already 1,500 and the hospital employed 147 doctors, 119 nurses and 6 pharmacists.

Institute for Pathology in honor of Dr. Flatau

Construction of the Institute for Pathology began in 1923 according to the plans of the builder Henryk Stifelman. The institute was to be an institution that enabled access to modern diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and followed the rapid scientific development of medicine at the time. Initially, $ 6,000 was received from the Joint Distribution Committee for the construction of the building and $ 28,000 was raised among the Warsaw Jews. This money enabled the construction of a skeleton of a new building in 1926. It was to include a section for pathological anatomy, a biology and therapy section, a section for chemistry and bacteriology, an auditorium for 100 people and a reading room. One of the founders of the Institute for Pathology was Edward Flatau . The institute was opened in 1933, one year after Flatau's death, and was named "Institute for Pathology in Honor of Doctor Flatau". In August 1933 the newspaper “Nasz Przegląd Ilustrowany” published a photo on its first page with the title “Before the opening of the most important Jewish scientific institution in Warsaw” (pol. “Przed otwarciem najważniejszej żydowskiej placówki naukowej w Warszawie” ), but it had to Institution will long struggle with the lack of financial resources.

The second World War

Immediately after the outbreak of World War II, most of the medical staff were drafted into the army, which led to a staff shortage in the hospital. The surgical pavilion and all operating theaters were destroyed during the bombing. Other hospital departments and the kitchen were also damaged. At the same time, due to its location, the hospital was back on the front line. At the time of Warsaw's surrender, the Jewish hospital was treating 5,000 wounded soldiers and civilians.

On behalf of the German occupation authorities, the hospital, which is under the administration of the magistrate, was handed over to the board of directors of the Jewish community and is therefore intended exclusively for Jews. As a result, all non-Jewish patients and staff had to leave the hospital and in their place hundreds of sick and injured Jews were brought from other hospitals. This led to a huge overcrowding of the hospital. The patients were placed in the corridors, attics and on the floor.

Due to the increasingly poor sanitary conditions, a typhus epidemic broke out in late autumn 1939 and the hospital was completely isolated for six weeks. In February 1941, based on a resolution, the German occupation authorities relocated the Jewish Hospital to a new headquarters in the Warsaw Ghetto , where it operated until 1943.

September 1939 to February 1941 was the cruelest time in the history of the hospital. It was cold in the departments and there was a lack of food, medicine and staff. Now and then there was no electricity, water or gas supply. The hospital was always overcrowded.

During the existence of the ghetto, a group of Jewish doctors conducted research on hunger . Some of the results of this research were published in 1946 in the book “ Hunger illness. Clinical studies on hunger in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 ”published.

The Holy Spirit Hospital and the Tax Officials Hospital were moved to the abandoned pavilions of the Jewish Hospital. In June 1941, when the German-Soviet War broke out, both hospitals were evacuated and a German military hospital set up in their place .

post war period

After the end of the war, the Holy Spirit Hospital was relocated to the abandoned pavilion and later renamed City Hospital No. 1. In the 1950s the Wolski Hospital was also moved here and is still located here today.

Doctors of the hospital in Czyste

  • Adam Wizel, Assistant in the Department of Neurology (from 1890)
  • Samuel Goldflam , volunteer doctor in the Department of Neurology (1922–1932)
  • Edward Flatau , senior physician in the Department of Neurology from 1904
  • Zygmunt Kramsztyk, chief physician from 1898–1904, chief physician in the ophthalmology department from 1879
  • Teofil Simchowicz, volunteer doctor (1904–1911) and assistant (from 1911) in the Department of Neurology
  • Julian Rotstadt, senior physician in the department for physiotherapy and mechanotherapy, director of the hospital in 1939
  • Maurycy Bornsztajn, Senior Physician in the Department of Psychiatry (from 1908)
  • Orko Sołowiejczyk, assistant doctor in the surgery department (from 1898)
  • Juliusz Mutermilch, senior physician in the ophthalmology department
  • Gerszon Lewin, Senior Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine (from around 1918)
  • Wilhelm Rubin, assistant doctor
  • Stanisław Klajn, Senior Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine
  • Leon Lipszowicz, volunteer doctor in the Department of Neurology
  • Ignacy Sznajderman, resident in the Department of Neurology
  • Ludwik Eliasz Bregman, Senior Physician in the Department of Neurology
  • Bronisław Berek Karbowski, Senior Physician in the Department of Ear and Throat Medicine (1933–1939)
  • Władysław Sterling, senior physician in the Department of Neurology after 1932
  • Adam Zamenhof, Senior Physician in the Department of Ophthalmology, Director of the Hospital (from 1939)
  • Natan Mesz, Senior Physician in the Radiology Department (from 1918)
  • Józef Stefan Szper, Senior Physician in the Department of Surgery (from 1934)
  • Viktor Arkin, doctor in the Department of Ophthalmology from 1923 to 1940
  • Stanisław Leopold Lubliner, ear, nose and throat doctor and lung specialist until 1937
  • Kamilla Horwitz

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Przedstawiciele prasy żydowskiej w Szpitalu Żydowskim. Sprawa Budowy Instytutu Patologicznego . In: Nasz Przegląd. 4 (182), p. 5, July 3, 1926. Warsaw (pol.). [Accessed October 10, 2017].
  2. ↑ Zbiórka na Instytut Patologiczny imienia doktora Flataua przy Szpitalu Żydowskim. In: 5-pa rano. 7 (79), p. 4, March 19, 1937 (pol.). [Accessed October 10, 2017].
  3. ↑ Przed otwarciem najważniejszej żydowskiej placówki naukowej w Warszawie . In: Nasz Przegląd Illustrowany. 11 (33), p. 1, August 13, 1933. [Accessed October 10, 2017].
  4. ^ Emil Apfelbaum (red.): Choroba głodowa. Badania kliniczne nad głodem wykonane w getcie warszawskim z roku 1942 . Warszawa: American Joint Distribution Committee, 1946, p. 16.
  5. ↑ Czy wiesz kto to jest, pod red. Stanisława Łozy, Warszawa rok 1937.
  6. ↑ Joanna Olczak-Ronikier : W ogrodzie pamięci . Wyd. 1st edition. Wydawn. Znak, Kraków 2001, ISBN 83-240-0110-7 .

literature

  • Nowy Szpital Starozakonnych w Warszawie. Księga pamiątkowa. Sprawozdanie Komitetu Budowy , Warszawa 1909. Druk Piotra Kaskauera i S-ki.
  • Zygmunt Kramsztyk. Nowy Szpital. Courier Warszawski, 25 czerwca 1883
  • Karol Mórawski, Warszawskie judaica - Szpital Starozakonnych na Czystem , Wydawnictwo PTTK "Kraj", Warszawa 1997
  • Jerzy Kasprzycki, Na Czystem , w książce Korzenie Miasta, Warszawskie Pożegnania, Tom V, Zoliborz i Wola , Wydawnictwo VEDA, Warszawa 1999, ISBN 83-85584-61-7
  • Zofia Podgórska-Klawe: Szpital Starozakonnych w Warszawie cz.2. partly waw.pl.