Dr Stefan Pokrzewiński

All the medical students who attended theoretical and practical classes in the 1930s at the University of Warsaw’s Second Internal Diseases Clinic¹ knew Dr Pokrzewiński. He was an assistant and later a senior assistant in the Clinic and, in view of the fact that all university clinics had a small number of staff, largely consisting of volunteers—it was a testimonial to his character and medical qualifications. Those who met him, especially those who learned the secrets of diagnostics and treatment of internal diseases under his guidance, saw how comprehensive his knowledge of medicine was, how talented a tutor he was, how much he loved his profession; and they experienced his friendly attitude to students of medicine.

Dr Stefan Pokrzewiński. Source: Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1980. Click the image to enlarge.

Stefan Pokrzewiński was born in Kozienice on 5 September 1897. After passing the grammar school-leaving examinations (with honours), he began medical studies in Warsaw. He graduated with the Doctor Medicinae Universae² degree on 4 April 1922. He was working professionally while still at university (from 1 October 1921), first as an “area doctor,” and later as an assistant in the internal diseases department of the Lutheran Hospital³ in Warsaw. These first years must have encouraged him to make internal medicine the foundation of his career. On 1 January 1927, after his five-year spell at the Lutheran Hospital, he was appointed senior assistant at the Second Internal Diseases Clinic at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw, and he held this post until 1945, sharing the Clinic’s wartime vicissitudes under German occupation and during the Warsaw Uprising.⁴

Throughout his career as an assistant, Dr Pokrzewiński furthered his education by participating in conventions and courses held in Poland and abroad. For example, he spent several weeks in Switzerland visiting the country’s TB sanatoria. He also completed an internship at Prof. Vidal’s clinic in Paris. The University of Warsaw sent him to The Hague, Stockholm, and Oslo to observe how internal medicine was taught there. He was interested in issues concerning the organisation of health care and hospitals, as his article⁵ on a project to reorganise Warsaw’s hospitals showed.

Like most doctors, Dr Pokrzewiński was called up for military service when the War started; and, as with most of the men mobilised at the last minute, for him September 1939 was marked by an ineffective but exhausting journey in search of the unit he had been assigned to.

After his return home, he was one of the first (alongside Prof. Witold Orłowski⁶) the Clinic employed on a permanent basis. Officially, the German occupying authorities had closed down university clinics as such, and demoted them to the status of ordinary hospital wards; however, clandestine university courses⁷ began in the autumn of 1939. The staff of the pre-war Medical Faculty working in the clinics embarked on a secret teaching programme for undergraduates and young graduates of medicine and later, when Dr Zaorski’s School⁸ was opened, for its graduates as well.

Dr Stefan Pokrzewiński was involved in the secret courses from the very beginning. Following the teaching programme developed by Prof. Orłowski, he conducted classes that ended with theoretical and practical tests; he assessed students’ case studies of diseases and papers, and provided practical training in the metabolism department of which he was head. When he marked students’ work he was extremely demanding and meticulous but always fair. He was involved in work for the resistance, so he understood the situation of young people who divided their time between study and resistance.

Not all secret classes were held in the clinic, as gatherings of several young people could have been dangerous, so some classes and examinations were held in Dr Pokrzewiński’s residence at Lwowska 11, flat 2, which was a relatively safe place thanks to a good “alarm network.” As his widow Helena Pokrzewińska recalls, on two occasions when Germans searched the house, this “network” saved them from being caught.

Dr Pokrzewiński had been working with the ZHP⁹ Polish Scouting and Guiding Association in the pre-war period, and continued this involvement under German occupation. When ZHP turned into an underground resistance organisation and started to train medical staff for the Grey Ranks¹⁰ and their assault groups, Dr Pokrzewinski became one of their organisers and instructors. Moreover, thanks to his secret contacts, he provided medical services for the Union of Polish Syndicalists,¹¹ who worked with the Grey Ranks.

During the Warsaw Uprising Dr Pokrzewiński served as a physician in the northern part of the Warsaw district of Śródmieście. Initially, he worked with the insurgent hospital in the paediatric clinic on Śliska as well as with the medical service of the Chrobry Group II, and from 1 September 1944 was their chief physician.

After the fall of the Uprising, he stayed in the city as head of the 3rd group of Polish Red Cross hospitals¹² in the western part of the Śródmieście Północne sub-district, evacuating¹³ them to Ursus, Podkowa Leśna, and Kraków. After completing these tasks, he joined the Second Clinic of Internal Diseases, which was “in exile” in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, doing extremely useful work, given wartime conditions.

For the first years after Poland’s liberation, he worked in Silesia, and in 1945–1948 was chairman of its regional Society for Fighting Tuberculosis¹⁴ and one of the founders of the Silesian Medical Academy.¹⁵ He was the representative of General Aleksander Zawadzki, Voivode¹⁶ of Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin, on the board of the Academy’s organising committee. That was not the only kind of administrative business that took up Dr Pokrzewiński’s time; he also managed the internal ward of the Katowice municipal hospital.

In 1949 he moved to Warsaw, the city with which he had been associated for years. He was not appointed to a senior post in any of Warsaw’s hospitals, but his knowledge and experience were invaluable assets in the city’s outpatient health services, which the administrative authorities were diligently restoring, adapting them to the new socio-political conditions. At this time he was a consultant in many specialist outpatient clinics, and in 1954 he was appointed head of the Specialist Polyclinic¹⁷ of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he also ran an internal medicine outpatient clinic. This was Dr Stefan Pokrzewiński’s last place of employment. He died prematurely on 9 June 1965.

Dr Pokrzewiński’s achievements were widely recognised and appreciated. He held several important and responsible posts, which I have listed, and was awarded many national and departmental distinctions: the Officer’s Cross¹⁸ of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his lifetime service (1962); the Cross¹⁹ of Valour for his service during the Warsaw Uprising, the Gold Cross of Merit,²⁰ and the Badge for Exemplary Service in Health Care.²¹

He is remembered by those who knew him as an outstanding internist, an excellent teacher and organiser, a charming person and a dedicated physician.

*

To write this paper I have used a) information from Dr Pokrzewiński’s widow Helena, b) Dr Pokrzewiński’s questionnaire and biography from the archives of the Health Department of the Warsaw National Council.²² c) my own personal recollections as Dr Pokrzewiński’s student, d) the recollections of various contributors to the book Z dziejów tajnego nauczania medycyny i farmacji w latach 1939–1945 (Warszawa: PZWL, 1977).

***

Translated from original article: Bayer, S. “Dr Stefan Pokrzewiński.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1980.

1. II Klinika Chorób Wewnętrznych Wydziału Lekarskiego w Uniwersytecie Warszawskim.^a The University of Warsaw’s Second Internal Diseases Clinic was located in the Child Jesus Hospital (Szpital Dzieciątka Jezus). Since 1927 its Head was Prof. Witold Orłowski. At the time this institution was the most modern and had the best organization among all the internal medicine clinics in Poland. Source: M. Łyskanowski, A. Stapiński, A. Śródka (Ed.), Dzieje Nauczania medycyny i farmacji w Warszawie (1789-1950), Warszawa 1990.^b
2. Doctoris universae medicinae—“doctor of universal medical science,” a historical counterpart of the present-day professional title of a doctor. It wasn’t associated with producing a doctoral dissertation or with obtaining an academic doctoral degree. The doctoris universae medicinae title was created in the latter half of the 19th century in the Austrian Empire.^b
3. Szpital Ewangelicki w Warszawie.^c This hospital functioned from 1736 to 1943 at Karmelicka 10 and was directed by the Holy Trinity Lutheran parish in Warsaw. During the Nazi German occupation of Poland, it was located within the Warsaw Ghetto. Due to the liquidation of the Ghetto in 1943, the Hospital was closed down. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, an insurgent hospital was set up on the premises of the former Lutheran hospital. Source: Z. Podgórska-Klawe, Szpitale warszawskie 1388-1945. Warszawa 1975.^b
4. The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943.^a
5. Original title “Projekt reorganizacji szpitalnictwa warszawskiego.”^a
6. Witold Eugeniusz Orłowski (1874–1966), Polish internist and professor of medicine at the University of Warsaw. Participated in the clandestine teaching of medicine during the War and helped to publish the Warsaw Ghetto Hunger Study at the end of the War. Its English version (edited by Myron Winick) was published in 1979 by John Wiley and Sons under the title Hunger Disease: Studies by the Jewish Physicians in the Warsaw Ghetto. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Eugeniusz_Or%C5%82owski^b
7. In line with their racist policy, the German authorities occupying Poland closed down all the country’s universities, colleges, and secondary schools. Polish educationalists set up a system of secret university and grammar school education.^a
8. Jan Zaorski (1887–1956), Polish surgeon. Under the German occupation of Poland, he founded a vocational school for assistant medical staff (Prywatna Szkoła Zawodowa dla Pomocniczego Personelu Sanitarnego) which was founded on 4 March 1941 and operated until 1944 with the consent of the German occupying authorities. In reality Zaorski’s school was engaged in the underground work of the University of Warsaw Medical Faculty, educating over 1,900 people. Sources: M. Łyskanowski, A. Stapiński, A. Śródka (red.), Dzieje Nauczania medycyny i farmacji w Warszawie (1789-1950), Warszawa 1990.
9. ZHP, Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego.^a The ZHP Polish Scouting and Guiding Association was established on 1 November 1918 as an organisation uniting a number of other pre-existing scouting and guiding associations. For the mission statement of ZHP and more information, see https://zhp.pl.^b
10. Szare Szeregi (the Grey Ranks) were a paramilitary group which evolved in the Polish scouting movement during the Second World War. They worked for the Polish underground state and the AK (Home Army) resistance movement, engaging in combat, medical aid, liaison, and transport services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Scouting_and_Guiding_Association^b
11. The Union of Polish Syndicalists (Związek Syndykalistów Polskich, ZSP), a Polish underground civilian and military organisation, active between April 1941 and mid-1945 in Nazi occupied Poland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Polish_Syndicalists^b
12. Polski Czerwony Krzyż (Polish Red Cross)—a humanitarian aid organisation established in 1919, a member International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. https://pck.pl^b
13. During the Uprising and after its fall (September—October 1944), the Germans evicted some 650 thousand civilian inhabitants of Warsaw and forcibly drove them out of the city, sending them to provisional camps or concentration camps, or to Germany for slave labour. They then proceeded to demolish the entire left-bank city. https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/exodus-mieszkancow-warszawy-po-powstaniu^a
14. Towarzystwo Walki z Gruźlicą.^a
15. Now the Medical University of Silesia (Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach).^a
16. The first-tier territorial administrative divisions of Poland are known as voivodeships, and their chief administrative officers are called voivodes.^a
17. Poliklinika Specjalistyczna Polskiej Akademii Nauk.^a
18. Krzyż Oficerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski.^a
19. Krzyż Walecznych.^a
20. Złoty Krzyż Zasługi.^a
21. Odznaka za Wzorową Pracę w Służbie Zdrowia.^a
22. “National councils” (rady narodowe) were local administrative institutions modelled on the USSR soviets, which operated in the People’s Republic of Poland.^a

a—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes courtesy of Anna Marek, Expert Consultant for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; c—notes by Maria Kantor, the translator of the text.

A publication funded in 2020–2021 within the DIALOG Program of the Ministry of Education and Science in Poland.