The Doctors of the Warsaw Ghetto

Dr. Maria Ciesielska is a specialist in Family Medicine and a university lecturer with a doctorate in medical history. A keen personal interest in learning more about the fate of her Jewish peers in Warsaw during the Holocaust motivated Maria to publish an award-winning book on this topic in 2017 after years of research. For thirty years, Professor Emerita, Agata Krzychylkiewicz, lectured in Russian and European literature at the University of South Africa. A native of Poland, in 1970 she obtained an MA in Russian Philology at Wroclaw University, before emigrating to South Africa with her husband and sons in 1981. In 1999, she was awarded the degree DLitt et Phil for her thesis entitled “The Grotesque in the Works of Bruno Jasienski” (revised and published under the same title by Peter Lang [Bern], in 2006). During her academic career, Agata mainly focused on contemporary literature. She also was interested in translation theory, attempting to translate mainly short stories, several of which being published in Jewish Affairs and elsewhere. She also served as editor of the bilingual scholarly journal, Slavic Almanac. Luc Albinski is based in Johannesburg and is the co-founder of Vantage Capital’s mezzanine finance business which offers long-term, growth capital to mid-size businesses across Africa. He has recently launched an education investment platform which, in the first instance, is targeting the countries of Central & Eastern Europe. Luc has a long-standing interest in development finance. After completing his MBA at INSEAD in France, he spent time working on projects in countries such as Brazil, Gabon, Romania and Bosnia with the World Bank (IFC). Luc is passionate about entrepreneurship. Before Vantage, he established an employee-benefits business in Poland which was ultimately successfully listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Luc learnt about his Jewish origins in his early twenties. His interest in holocaust and genocide work springs from his personal history as well as from his on-the-ground involvement with a non-profit during the Bosnian conflict. Jeanette Friedman, a member of The Society of Professional Journalists, established her own company, The Wordsmithy, Llc. in 1979. That same year, she also founded Second Generation North Jersey for sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors. At The Wordsmithy, Ms. Friedman ghostwrites, edits and publishes books, most of them Holocaust memoirs, nursing books from handwritten manuscripts to the printed page. Her own book, Why Should I Care? Lessons from the Holocaust, written with David Gold, received critical acclaim from Holocaust educators. She also trains students to interview survivors for Names Not Numbers, a middle school Holocaust Education program. Friedman served on the NJ Governor’s Task Force for Holocaust Education under Gov. Tom Kean and is one of the founders of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. She was a Second Generation advisor to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and founder of an online group that exchanges information about current events, the Holocaust, character development in children and multicultural and ethnic understanding. From 1990-2004, she served as executive editor of the magazine Lifestyles. In addition to maintaining The Wordsmithy, Friedman continues her volunteer work in human rights/Holocaust education and is developing a Human Rights/Holocaust resource center for the Pocono Mountain region of Northeast Pennsylvania. Tali Nates is the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation. She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust education, genocide prevention, reconciliation and human rights. Nates has published many articles and contributed chapters to several books, among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018) and Conceptualizing Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021). She won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic) and the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021). She was one of the founders of the Holocaust and Tutsi Genocide Survivors groups in Johannesburg. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. The rest of the family was murdered.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL
BERENBAUM
FOREWORD BY LUC ALBINSKI 
PREFACE

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION TO THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY IN POLAND

CHAPTER II: THE MEDICAL SYSTEM IN
PRE-WAR POLAND
Doctors
in pre-war Poland
The
education of doctors in Poland
Career prospects of doctors in Poland
Jewish
doctors in Poland


CHAPTER III: JEWISH DOCTORS AND
ANTI-SEMITISM BETWEEN THE WARS
Anti-Semitism
in Academia
Anti-Semitism
in the Association of Doctors of the Polish State
Activities
of the Association of Doctors of the Polish Republic
Jews
in the Warsaw Medical Society


CHAPTER IV: HEALTHCARE DURING AND IN
THE AFTERMATH OF THE 1939 SIEGE OF WARSAW
The
Czyste (Old Order) Hospital for Orthodox Jews
The Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital
The
Ujazdowski Hospital
The
activities of the Jewish community organizations


CHAPTER V: HEALTHCARE PRIOR TO THE
CREATION OF THE GHETTO
The
Polish medical system under occupation
Creation
of the Judenrat
The
functioning of the medical chambers
The
activities of TOZ
The
Czyste Jewish Hospital
The
Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital
Pharmacies
Emergency
services
The
threat of labor camps
Treatment
of Jewish converts


CHAPTER VI: HEALTHCARE AFTER THE
SEALING OF THE WARSAW GHETTO
The
doctors in the Ghetto
Activities
of the Judenrat’s Health Department
The
fight against epidemics
TOZ
activities after the sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto
Emergency
services
The Czyste
Jewish Hospital
The
Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital
The
hospital at 109 Leszno Street
Pharmacies
The
Chemical and Bacteriological Institute
Medical
care for the Jewish Police
The
prisons
Christian Convert Doctors
Mental
health in the Ghetto
The
threat of labor camps


CHAPTER VII: THE GREAT DEPORTATION
(GROSSAKTION)
Events
leading to the Great Deportation
The
murder of Dr. Franciszek Raszeja
Hostage
taking
The
Great Deportation
Czyste
Jewish Hospital
The
General Hospital on Stawki Street
Doctors
during the Great Deportation
Pharmacists
during the Great Deportation
Doctors
in the Jewish Police during the Deportation


CHAPTER VIII: HEALTHCARE AFTER THE
GREAT DEPORTATION
The
Hospital on 6–8 Gęsia Street
Doctors
after the Great Deportation
Nurses
after the Great Deportation
Pharmacists
after the Great Deportation
Emergency
Services after the Deportation
The
Fate of the Gęsia Street Hospital


CHAPTER IX: THE GHETTO UPRISING AND
ITS AFTERMATH
The
last hospital in the Ghetto
The
fate of Jewish doctors after the Deportation


CHAPTER X: RESISTANCE BY THE MEDICAL
FRATERNITY
The
underground medical school
The
Blum-Bielicka School of Nursing
Studies in Hunger
Disease
Studies in Typhus


CHAPTER XI: CONCLUSION
ANNEXURE I: LIST OF JEWISH DOCTORS
WHO WERE ARRESTED AND HELD HOSTAGE IN 1940 FOLLOWING ANDRZEJ KOTT’S ESCAPE
FROM THE GESTAPO
ANNEXURE II: LIST OF NON-ARYAN
DOCTORS IN WARSAW FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE
ANNEXURE III: LIST OF JEWISH DOCTORS
WORKING AND LIVING IN WARSAW IN 1940–1942
ANNEXURE IV: THE DOCTORS MOVED FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO TO THE ŁÓDŹ
GHETTO IN 1941/42
ANNEXURE V: SCHEDULE OF PHARMACIES OVERSEEN BY THE PHARMACY DEPARTMENT
OF THE JUDENRAT
ANNEXURE VI: A LIST OF PHARMACIES OVERSEEN BY THE PHARMACY DEPARTMENT
OF THE JUDENRAT IN THE GHETTO IN SEPTEMBER 1942. ANNEXURE VII: DOCTORS SAVING JEWS IN WARSAW IN 1939–1945
ANNEXURE VIII: PHOTOGRAPHS OF SELECTED DOCTORS AND NURSES
INDEX