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Orthodox Jewish Hospital 1
The idea for a new hospital was proposed by a circle of doctors from the old hospital, directed by Dr. Józef Kinderfreud. On 25 June 1883,”Kurier Warszawski” published an article by Dr.Zygmunt Kramsztyk titled “New Hospital”, in which he presented the idea and guiding principles behind the proposed project. The initiative gained the support of the Board of the Religious Community and its chairman, Ludwik Natason. The bureaucratic formalities took a long time due to Russian partitioning government’s regulations. It was only in April 1887 that a Committee for the Construction of the Hospital was formed, whose chairman was Dr. L. Natanson. After his death, the post was filled by Jan Berson. After the Committee was founded, funds began to be collected. Donors included leading residents of Warsaw, both Jewish and Polish. The Committee soon was divided into different sections – general, technical, financial, medical and legal. The Community’s Board made a loan in bonds in the amount of 400,000 rubles.
The ambitious plans underwent numerous changes, and were finally approved at a meeting of the Committee on 26 June 1890. It was decided that the hospital would be built on Wielka Wola and Czyste properties (approximately 67,000 sq m) that had been purchased from the following owners: Biernacki, Rodkiewicz and Pieńkowski. The plan was confirmed by the Warsaw City Philanthropic Council in April 1893, and construction began in May. The corner-stone was laid in the foundations of the future hospital synagogue. A canister was included there as well, which contained some issues of Warsaw magazines and a bilingual text written on parchment in which the history of the hospital’s construction was outlined. The project was designed by Artur Goebel, who based himself on the most modern hospitals in Western Europe. The complex was comprised of eight separate hospital wings, an administrative building, synagogue, mortuary, kitchens, laundries, ice rooms, boiler rooms, garages, stables, disinfection chamber, food storage, servants’ quarters, nursing home and other buildings. According to figures of K. Mórawski, there were seventeen buildings in all. The hospital was notable for its modern equipment, and had for example the first central steam heating system in the Polish lands. It also boasted a gravity ventilation system and gas and electric lighting (with its own generator), sewage and water supply system, and its own well in case the public water supply system failed.
The hospital accepted its first patients in April 1902. The grand opening took place on 22 June 1902, and began with a service in the hospital’s own synagogue. Because of organizational changes in health care, all the Warsaw hospitals fell under the management of the Warsaw City Hall on 1 November 1907. In the years 1909-1911, a new two-story wing was built, and 200-250 beds were set aside for Jewish patients at the former building of the Orthodox Jewish Hospital at ul. Pokorna. The First World War verified those plans. In 1919, shortly after Poland regained its independence, a Committee of the Hospital Section of the City Hall and Council was established. It decided to close the hospital at Pokorna street because of its condition and for reasons of hygiene. The Committee planned to transform the Orthodox Jewish Hospital in Czyste into a district hospital with 1200 beds that would care for Warsaw’s entire Jewish population. These plans had financial and investment implications. In the late 1920’s, after the currency situation in Poland had stabilized, construction began on the new wing, which was to house a pathology laboratory. The growing number of patients and the worsening financial situation of Polish hospitals meant that the standard of assistance was gradually declining, as shown in the reports of the City Council’s Review Committee.
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During the Second World War, the hospital had about 1100 patients, most of its medical staff had been called up for the army and the hospital itself had been damaged during the siege. (For example, one bomb hit the surgery wing, destroying all of its operating rooms.) The hospital’s director, Dr. Sztabholz, left the city on 26 September, and was replaced by Dr. Julian Rotstadt and a leading ophthalmologist, the brother of the inventor of Esperanto – Dr. Leon Zamenhof. After his arrest, Dr. Józef Stein from the Infant Jesus Hospital took over this function, and was joined by several physicians sent from other Warsaw hospitals. By decree from the German occupying authorities, the hospital management, which had been up to this point under the authority of the City Hall, was transferred to the board of the Jewish Community. From that point on, the hospital was to be used exclusively for Jewish patients. As a result, all non-Jewish patients and medical staff had to leave the hospital within a few days. At the same time, all Jews who were in other Warsaw hospitals and infirmaries had to be transported with no regard for their condition to the hospital in Czyste. In late November 1939, a typhus epidemic broke out and the hospital was under complete quarantine for six weeks.
When the ghetto was created, in February 1941, the hospital was moved to the Jewish quarter, where individual wards were moved to various buildings (at ul. Leszno, Tłomackie, and at the corner of Leszna and Żelazna). Increasing mortality and the spread of typhus brought about the creation of a hospital for adults with contagious diseases in buildings at ul.Stawki. The hospital was named “The Czyste Jewish Contagious Diseases Hospital”. Despite a lack of basic means and the difficult hygienic conditions, the medical staff not only continued its work, but also conducted scientific and educational activities (such as for example bacteriological and serological tests under the direction of Professor Ludwik Hirszfeld and courses for orderlies and nurses).
In the summer of 1942, the German authorities ordered that all patients and medical staff be moved to the buildings on ul. Stawki. This happened just before Umschlagplatz was organized along the nearby railroad tracks, where Jews were sent to Treblinka. In practice, the hospital was ceasing to exist. In September 1942, the Germans decreed that a hospital be created for Jewish workers from German production plants. This infirmary was to be based at ul. Pawia, then at ul. Gęsia (today known as ul. Anielewicza). The few staff members still alive from the Orthodox Jewish Hospital worked there. In early 1943, the hospital definitively ceased to exist.
The Holy Spirit Hospital was moved into the abandoned buildings at Czyste. Founded in the fifteenth century, it had been located on Elektoralna street until 25 September 1939, when the building was bombed. Its patients and the wounded burned along with the building. In late May 1941, the Holy Spirit Hospital and the Hospital of the Revenue Officials (Skarbowców) were moved to ul. Jagiellońska. A German military hospital moved to Czyste. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, this hospital was moved to Konstancin. After the war, the Holy Spirit Hospital moved back into the rebuilt buildings at Czyste, which for political reasons was renamed Municipal Hospital No.1. A plaque was installed in the courtyard that read: “Founded in the fifteenth century by Princess Anna Mazowiecka and named after the Holy Spirit, the hospital is the oldest of existing Warsaw hospitals, and was located previously on Piwna, Przyrynek and Konwiktorska streets, and from 1861 on 12 Elektoralna street, where it was barbarically destroyed on 25 September 1939 during the siege of Warsaw. In 1946, it was moved from Konstancin to Warsaw and rebuilt here on the site of the former Jewish Hospital.”
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