A timeline of events in Wolski Hospital during the Warsaw Uprising

From the Editors

The title of this article was supplied by the Editors of Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim. Janina Misiewicz took down the entries in her journal in handwriting done in pencil. We have edited her journal for publication, making the necessary amendments and minor abbreviations but not interfering in her style and content. A group of Warsaw professors, Dr Leon Manteuffel and Dr Wiwa Jaroszewicz reviewed and annotated it. (note by the Editors’ of the original 1967 issue of Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim).

Dr Misiewicz’s journal (fragments)

Tuesday, 1 August 1944¹

On Tuesday, I came in for work in the Hospital² at 4.30 p.m. On my way, I did not notice anything particularly disturbing. What struck me was the extremely small amount of traffic in the streets; there were very few German cars, and I don’t think I encountered any soldiers or policemen passing by. The trams were so few and far between (as they usually are now) that from the corner of Ordynacka to Chłodna I didn’t see one at all. It was only when I was on Chłodna that a tram passed by. I covered the stretch from Plac Kercelego to the corner of Młynarska and Górczewska on a No.1 tram.

It was quiet in the hospital, with the usual faces, Duda,³ Chorzewski,⁴ and the manager Wójcicki⁵ in the hall. When I got to my room in Ward VIII, Dr Drozdowski⁶ and all of his staff were there. I sensed an air of general excitement. They asked a few final questions like “Should we be giving treatment enemy casualties as well?” I gave a definitive yes. After a while, Wiwa [Jaroszewicz⁷], Dr Manteuffel,⁸ Dr Chwojka,⁹ and Dr Wesołowski,¹⁰ who was on surgery duty, came in. We discussed the admission technique for large numbers of casualties and the staffing arrangements for surgery.

The first shots in the environs of Górczewska started at 17.00 hours sharp.

Our sanitary patrol was waiting with its bags, ready to go. I inspected it. The girls were looking me straight in the eyes, they all wanted to set off for action right away, you could see it, but I also saw an individual personality in each of them. The one with a pneumothorax was pale, she turned up but need not have and seemed to be calm. Hanka was smiling and cheerful. Janka had pulled her socks up as befitted a girl guide (she was wearing heavy shoes), the moment before she had tears in her eyes like a baby when she learned that she was to administer anaesthetics in the surgery ward instead of going out onto the street (she had swapped with Wanda, who had come in so weak and exhausted). Lola, who had withdrawn from patrol duty, was wearing a white coat and had half-heartedly agreed to “do the anaesthetics,” when we realised she was pregnant. Jadzia, who seemed to be the most cheerful, was the most anxious, worried and unconfident, talking a lot about nothing, babbling in fact. Dr Drozdowski—I knew he’d do his duty, as he always did—but he didn’t look like a leader. The team knew what he was like. But he didn’t inspire confidence in people who didn’t know him. Then there were two boys who were “not ours”: a 19-year-old giving the impression of being 15, the son of one of our employees; and a girl of 17 who was a protégée of one of the “activists.”

At 5.15, Wiwa and I went down to the admissions room. The hospital’s chief physician¹¹ arrived at around 5.15 and we told him about the arrangements we had just made.

So it’s started. As usual (it was the fifth time I was going through the start of combat in a city), the first few hours pass basically . . . in an atmosphere of childishly gleeful excitement. I look out of the window to see where the shooting is coming from. At 5.40 Dr Drozdowski, Napiórkowski,¹² and Hania¹³ set off for Ulrichów but came back half an hour later; they did not manage to cross the railway line. The first casualty was brought in around 6.30, and by midnight a total of twelve casualties had been admitted to the hospital. The last person to come in “from town” was H. Wiel[owieyska¹⁴]. She says that she passed by a series of German soldiers and armed civilians who were shooting at each other but she managed to get by without much trouble. At eight o’clock we had no electricity in the hospital. The lights in the operating theatres powered by the accumulators went off for a while, so we used paraffin and meths lamps instead. A few hours later, Mr Kapica¹⁵ got the accumulators working again. Not much was going on in admissions. The people working there, apart from Wiwa, were Dr Belke¹⁶ and Mrs Buraczewska,¹⁷ and of course H. Wielowieyska, who can’t live if she’s not working. At seven, we learned that the Ulrichów operation had failed. Our patrol was ordered to stay in the hospital (later it turned out that they were very much needed in the hospital).

The Chief Physician, Dr Sokołowski,¹⁸ Prof. Zeyland¹⁹ and his wife,²⁰ Jaroszewicz, Drozdowski, Chmur . . .,²¹ Wesołowski, and Belke are the doctors present—that’s all, plus two guest physicians, out of a total of 26 doctors.

When the Uprising started, there were about 200 vacant beds (out of a total of 480) in the hospital. The patients lying in, especially the TB patients, are worried, they keep leaving their rooms and standing out on the corridors, or they head for safety on the ground floor; it’s hard to get them back to their rooms and tell them it’s not a bombing raid. Every now and again, one of my women patients in Ward Eight gets out of bed, claiming they’re shooting right at the window in her room.

Around eleven it’s quiet in the wards, despite the fact that the shooting is not dying down. We go to bed. The operations were finished by two o’clock. Twelve casualties (including two DOA) admitted by midnight.²²

Wednesday, 2 August

The shooting did not die down during the night. You could see fires burning all around the hospital. Only a couple of casualties were brought in. Dr Belke, Mrs Buraczewska, and another doctor were on night duty; Wiwa and Hanka Wielowieyska came on at 3.20. In the morning, the shooting grew bigger. We see a barricade at the exit of Górczewska onto Płocka, with about 20 to 30 men (some of them boys of 15-16) around it, with rifles and a machine gun. There are no people out on the streets, that is on Górczewska and Płocka, who you can see from our windows; from time to time a couple of armed men run up to or from the barricade. Not many patients coming into the hospital. There’s talk of Tigers²³ arriving and shooting at the barricades.

Warsaw Uprising insurgents in the entrance gate to the Church of the Holy Cross. Photo by Sylwester Braun nom-de-guerre Kris, 24 August 1944. Source: Museum of Warsaw.

Around eleven in the morning, the Górczewska barricade shouts for joy and its people fire a salute, apparently they’ve neutralised a Tiger. But a few minutes later, the Poles leave the barricade. A German tank rolls up, with a group of Polish people collected from neighbouring houses walking in front of it. The Poles dismantle the barricade. Wielowieyska sees our people taking down the barricade, and thinking they’re doing it to move forward, leaves the hospital to help them and learns that it’s the Germans who are waiting to have it removed so they can get to the city centre. Soon afterwards, there are tanks and armoured cars moving along Płocka, shooting left and right, aiming especially at men. They set on fire the house opposite the hospital (at Płocka 33, with a timber warehouse). The fire carries on until the evening. The wind was blowing the flames away from the Hospital. Panic started in the Hospital when the barricade was being demolished and German vehicles were passing by. First, nearly all the men vanished. Next, the patients grew uneasy and started crying. No one was around in the entrance way.

Around one o’clock, two German soldiers arrive in an armoured car. They want a surgeon and suggest we come out with stretchers to collect the Polish casualties. They also say they’re surprised: why are the Poles fighting if they’re in such a hopeless situation, for of course they can’t win? Prof. Zeyland spoke to them. That visit changed the atmosphere for the better. We felt it was a comfort that the enemy was talking to us calmly and did not consider it blameworthy for us to be conducting admissions, and even collecting casualties from the streets. We didn’t need much to comfort us . . .

There are more and more fires in the neighbourhood of the Hospital. Some houses on Wolska are on fire. Around three o’clock, Polish people come out on Górczewska and Płocka. At five, an expedition sets out from the hospital for the bakery on Górczewska to buy bread. They purchase 800 kg of bread. It’s a very good development, because the Hospital doesn’t have anything else except for three sacks of groats and . . . some sugar, and we see that there will be more and more people to feed. Wielowieyska was the leader. We have a supply of water and gas, but no electricity. Until evening, the environs of the hospital were presumably in the German zone; there didn’t seem to be any Germans on Górczewska, but there were German vehicles on Wolska.

This morning, Dr Krzywiec²⁴ arrived from the area of Chmielna and Bracka. Dr Woźniewski and his wife came at seven in the evening. They had been walking from ulica Krucza since ten in the morning. He said that the atmosphere in the city centre was better than out here.

Later still, at 9.30 p.m., three liaison girls arrived with the 2 August issue of B.I²⁵ which had come out of the press at 6 a.m. There is a lot of good news in it, but at the end it says, “up to 13.00 hours the whole of Wola has been in our hands.” But that isn’t true, so it makes the rest of the information unreliable. Those girls were very tired. We gave them a meal and they stayed the night. All the staff are working well and enthusiastically, no one’s skiving; in any case, there hasn’t been a lot to do so far. I expect that day by day there’ll be more work and we’ll be getting tired but there’ll be no one to replace us because we’re fine with being cut off from the city centre and neighbouring on Wolska, the main road for a German retreat from Warsaw, which makes the area a key point for the German defence and their route for forays into the city. By midnight we had admitted 36 casualties, many of them very serious.

Thursday, 3 August

There was practically no shooting from midnight to five in the morning. The Hospital had a good night’s sleep. All those who were worried and hadn’t slept the first night went to sleep.

In the morning, a fairly heavy cannonade started quite near us. It was quite intense. The patients’ wards are being expanded at the cost of Wards III and IV. Dr Sokołowski and I go round our wards. Dr Drozdowski goes to surgery. All the people in my sanitary platoon are doing well on the surgical jobs. Manteuffel commends them.

At 9.30, a shell hits the corner of the house next door to the Hospital grounds. Our patients fall into a panic and go down to the shelters. A row of houses on Wolska are on fire. Their inhabitants make for the Hospital. The entrance gate onto Działdowska is wide open. They’re arriving with bundles on their backs and occupying the area around the entrance hall. For a couple of hours, the Hospital’s full of these strangers. We’re worried by them being here, and we know that they’re a source of panic and unease both for the patients and for the staff. What’s more, we know that the Hospital is in dire need of access to its entrance hall, which can be used as a shelter in the event of an air raid. After a couple of hours, we manage to evacuate the newcomers to other districts nearer town. It all went smoothly. I have the impression that what helped with their evacuation was that the Hospital’s location does not at all seem to be a safe place.

Casualties are accruing at a fair rate, a large number of them with abdominal and chest injuries dying after a few hours. Today, the general atmosphere in the Hospital is better and the fact that the inner move of the front towards the city turned out to be ephemeral cheered everyone up because people thought the Germans were finding it hard to crush the uprising.

Since morning today, we have been seeing some of the AK²⁶ soldiers smartly dressed in apparently English jackets, protective canvas capes and caps, and smartly fitted out with Tommy guns.”²⁷ The boys from the woods.” Incidentally, ours say the words “Tommy gun” with a lot of affection and envy, because our Varsovian boys are poorly armed, they don’t have a lot of revolvers or rifles, and they’re poorly dressed, too. And as it’s been raining all the time since yesterday, they’re wet and cold right through. But those who have come in “from the woods” are “soldiers true,” the very sight of them raises our spirits, and whenever any of them says something, his tone is so imperative that ours instinctively get the urge to stand to attention.

Many people on the hospital staff are working with a lot of commitment and enthusiasm. Wielowieyska stands out among them all. She’s an absolute record breaker as regards searching for casualties and bringing them into the hospital. And she does it with such joy and satisfaction that she inspires confidence in her colleagues that every undertaking they make will be successful. Yet every venture outside with stretchers to collect an injured person noticed from one of our windows is a foray under a stream of bullets. Apart from brining in casualties, today she and three of our employees (Ojer, Sydry, and Dąbrowski²⁸) set out for St. Stanislaus’ Hospital²⁹ to fetch the overalls which had been laundered there and were desperately wanted in the operating theatre. They managed to bring four large bags. Today Wiwa is in admissions all day long. Mrs Buraczewska³⁰ is there on her own all the time. Although she’s not a doctor and a stranger to most of the hospital, yet she soon learned how to work efficiently with the doctor on duty and is an invaluable assistant. Her cheerful attitude, vitality, self-evident readiness for hard work and resilience (she’s been on duty two days now) has a refreshing effect on the admissions staff, and after all, they’re the ones who see the most dismal things (heavy casualties, those who have not been treated, the dying, and the dead).

All the Sisters of Mercy are dedicated to their work and don’t leave their ward even for a moment.

As of this morning, most of the doctors and medical assistants (all of the latter) have been sent to surgery. The small number of doctors in attendance seems to have been distributed as rationally as possible. It needs to be said that in fact they distributed themselves spontaneously. Seeing that the formal surgical ward was filling up with casualties, Dr Manteuffel, the chief surgeon, spoke to Dr Jaroszewiczowa, head of the assistant doctors, and the agreement they reached was accepted by most of the doctors and approved by the head of the hospital. That’s how Dr Drozdowski, an assistant physician, took over Ward III with less serious casualties (serious and post-op. cases stayed in surgery proper, that is Wards V and VI). Prof. Grzybowski³¹ arrived around noon today and is again taking charge of Wards IV and VI (women casualties). Wards III and IV internal diseases patients have been moved to Wards I, II, IX, VII, VIII, and some have stayed in Ward III. Luckily, there are enough vacant beds to allow for all these “swaps.”

At 19.00 hours, we were sent a copy of B.I. No. 2 from the city, containing just a word of praise for all the men and women who are fighting, from Monter,³² the commander of the Warsaw Area. The shooting in the environs of the Hospital has been going on all day long without a break, but in addition, from 15.00 hours, I think, we have been hearing gunfire booming in the distance, and we hope it’s Soviet heavy artillery. At 19.30, two boys from the woods arrived (we’ve nicknamed them “little tigers” because of their tiger spot jackets). They’re in a good mood and have come to visit an injured colleague, they say that the City Centre³³ is in our hands, but heavy fighting is going on in the Pawiak³⁴ area. They assure us that the Soviets are advancing towards the city and that they’ll be in Warsaw tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Everyone’s pleased to hear that, even the Sisters of Charity are pleased with this news. Good God, an “opportune moment” means such a lot! You could say that nothing could change Warsaw’s attitude to the Russians for the better as much as their aid in getting rid of the Germans from the city, which is what we expect of them, to fix a good outcome for the Uprising. If I were a sceptic, I might even speculate that the initiative for the Uprising came from the Soviet chief of staff. . . .³⁵

Casualties, the dying and the dead are an everyday phenomenon in the Hospital, though there are not many of them. Most of our staff are people who went through the siege of Warsaw in 1939, when the hurricane of artillery fire combined with the hurricane of bombardment from the air, so the fighting going on now, involving only hand guns, machine guns, and quite often Tommy guns seems easier to put up with. Over the five years of the War, we’ve got used to the sudden loss of our loved ones, our property, and our homes, so such phenomena are not as disturbing to those who suffer the loss, or strangers who are just bystanders. On the other hand, the funny or comic moments amuse or make us laugh more easily. Dr Woźniewski’s trustworthy but humorous story of how he made his way across the city genuinely entertained the people who listened to it.

Today we find the ostensibly tragic epilogue to the story of a German NCO humorous. Yesterday he was injured, so his colleagues took him to St. Lazarus’ Hospital,³⁶ which is in our neighbourhood, took down the names of the doctors working there, and declared in a fierce tone that the wounded man must be cured, otherwise all the doctors will die a terrible death. St. Lazarus’ is not a surgical hospital, and whenever they want to shirk the responsibility, they ask our head to send over a delegated surgeon to assess the case and operate if necessary. Our head always suggests an alternative solution: Lazarus³⁷ should send the casualty over to us and our surgery ward will do whatever has to be done. All the details were settled but the injured man did not arrive. A day passed, and lo and behold, a delegation turned up from Stanislaus,³⁸ but there was still no sign of the patient.

At ten in the evening, Wiwa and I went round the whole hospital, all was quiet. In the operating theatre, Prof. Grzybowski was examining a patient with a head injury; a meths lamp lit up the room. Dozens of people were asleep in the basement next to the boiler room.

As I was going round the hospital in the dark, familiar with all of its nooks and crannies, my thoughts went back to September and October 1939, when I often, practically every day, went round the hospital in the late evening or at night. Often Dr Werkenthin³⁹ accompanied me. She was even more at home in the hospital than I, a newcomer to Wolski, but she’d been working here for 15 years. These days, our thoughts often go back to her. Yesterday, the head of the hospital and Hanka collected up the Tommy gum shells to use them as vases for flowers in front of Marychna’s⁴⁰ portrait. Each of us is talking about current, professional matters, but on our mind we also have those who have died and those who are in Warsaw. When liaison officers or any other people come in from some other district, you can tell from the attention with which someone of us listens to news of that district that they have someone close, someone very dear to them there. For the person who tells his story, all the districts he has seen are equally interesting, but it’s perfectly clear which districts are of special interest for particular individuals listening to him.

After 11 p.m. it was quiet in the hospital. Everyone was asleep; only admissions and yet another surgical team were up and alert. These teams change every eight hours; if there is a lot of work, there will be two or even teams working. 32 casualties were admitted on 3 August. In the afternoon, 26 bodies were buried in the grounds, including 13 killed and wounded during combat.

Friday, 4 August

During the night there was a bit of shooting, quite often you could also hear a distant, faint echo of what was perhaps heavy artillery. At any rate, we all slept in peace. At six in the morning, Mr Augustyniak⁴¹ woke me up and said somewhat enigmatically, “Our officer wants to see you about an important matter.” I went downstairs to see him, apprehensive and wondering what it could be; I thought it might be something bad concerning Ewa⁴² or Zosia,⁴³ but then again, that it might be very good news, for instance about the Pawiak jail. It turned out to be something else: one of my patients, who wants to have his pneumothorax⁴⁴ topped up. He’s wearing a cloth cap with a small Eagle⁴⁵ badge, looking sprightly and as fit as a fiddle. He asks if he can take a wash. Next, as he is having his tea, he tells me what he has observed and the conclusions he has reached. He says that the combatants’ fighting spirit is very good; we know that and we’re all talking about it. But there are not enough weapons and ammo... (that reminds me all too painfully of September 1939). If the weather is fine, we could be getting airdrops of machine guns and then we could finish off the Germans and drive them out of Warsaw in a day. Does it all just depend on the weather? . . . Talking about the Pawiak, he says that insurgents are still defending the ghetto⁴⁶ and that yesterday . . . they were getting arms and ammunition dropped from aircraft. My interlocutor is a lieutenant, and a student in civilian life; he’s intelligent and calm, what he says shows that the insurgents are in a difficult situation and that the Russians are not in much of a hurry to enter Warsaw. He enumerates the places the Germans have taken, such as the Pac Mansion⁴⁷ and the Saxon Garden,⁴⁸ the house on the corner of Królewska and Zielona, and the bridges. The insurgents have not taken the Gestapo’s premises, either; and he doesn’t know what’s going on in the Mokotów district or in Ochota. He’s full of praise for the youngsters and children who are bravely helping the insurgents. He left after a while.

From morning till noon, everyone in the hospital’s busy with their regular hospital duties like doctors’ rounds and treatment. Today there’s no gas supply in my wards (VII and VIII), so we started up a cooker running on meths (at eleven o’clock the gas pipe was mended and the gas supply started working again). We didn’t hear much shooting. At nine o’clock there were aircraft circling overhead and they seemed to be heading for the ghetto and then swiftly gaining altitude and flying off on a westward course.

At 14.00 hours, there was an airdrop of leaflets signed “Bór, Commanding Officer of the Home Army,”⁴⁹ with an order which said that we were to stop fighting the Germans and join them “to fight the Bolsheviks.”⁵⁰ We’re sure it’s German propaganda because it all seems very illogical and sheer nonsense; what’s more, communications between the different districts and HQ are very good and there’s no need to drop leaflets with orders of this kind.

The head of the sanitary service for the district of Wola⁵¹ arrived at 14.00 hours as well and thanked the hospital for the work it was doing. He also said that there were not enough doctors in the Karol and Maria Hospita⁵² l and St. Stanislaus’ Hospital and their work was disorganised. Basically, we should be worried, but by and large the speck in your brother’s eye pleases you, especially if the “brother” in question is not a person (but a hospital). At 16.30, a few casualties arrived from the corner of Płocka and Górczewska. That was also the time we got a copy of the 4 August issue of B.I., which says that Mikołajczyk⁵³ is conducting talks with Moscow.

Right now, 17.00 hours, three whole days have passed since the first shot was fired. And as it usually happens, the people in the hospital, both staff and patients, have adjusted to the situation and are in a better condition psychologically than on Day One. The patients are looking after their own health better, staying in bed, regularly taking their temperature and asking for their medicine. On Day One, we members of staff had our everyday routine wrecked and our working teams messed up (the heads of the internal diseases wards lost their assistants and the surgeons had to work with randomly assembled staff); but now we’re trying to adapt to the current situation and make it our everyday routine. In general, that fine and above all strong survival instinct is never so clearly manifest as it is at life-threatening times. That lieutenant who wanted his pneumothorax topped up during a lull in combat; that 14-year-old insurgent with a leg wound anxiously asking the nurse undressing him in admissions whether the surgeons in the hospital were good enough to treat his leg, which must be cured; that man who had joined in the fighting but brought in a bag of food for his wife, who was hospitalised with a serious case of TB, so that the Uprising should not disrupt her treatment.

Today at 15.00 the Chief Physician had a talk with us ward heads about care for the refugees from the houses in the neighbourhood which had been burned down. There are about 150 of them. The overwhelming majority are women and children, and they’re squatting next to the boiler room in the basement. We decided to put them up in a more comfortable room with running water and a toilet of its own, and to provide them with facilities to cook for the children. The Hospital is providing hot coffee for all of them. It’s a big burden for the Hospital, especially as it’s filling up with more and more casualties and we need every nook and cranny, not to mention the problems with food supplies. In any case, such a rapid influx of casualties always gives rise to problems with distributing them and dispensing treatment. On Wednesday we admitted a woman in the last month of pregnancy. She had her leg amputated, and went into labour a few hours after the operation. Patrol girls H. Samsonowiczówna and Żytkow,⁵⁴ who are now working as spontaneous midwives, delivered the baby, which was stillborn. In Ward XI there is a little girl of 3 with enterocolitis (inflammation of the small intestine and colon).

Today we had our first case of gas gangrene,⁵⁵ so we need to isolate this casualty from the other patients but don’t have many cubicles and the ones we have are all occupied. Though I must say that all our wards are ready to adjust to whatever is required on a particular day and forget about their ambitions. . . . Even surgery, which used to be so “finicky,” now has serious and difficult cases and has lost its status as the hospital’s aristocratic ward. My Ward Eleven, cubicles packed chock-full with “scrap” as usual in times of trouble, is putting up with it philosophically.

A few hours ago the weather improved. Now it’s 18.00 hours and the sky’s blue, not a cloud in sight and there’s no wind. Today the shooting was not so regular; it was gunfire for half an hour, then quiet for an hour or an hour and a half, followed by another round of shooting, and so on.

A moment ago, I was on the topmost loft. I saw the whole of Warsaw. On my left were Żoliborz and the ghetto, it was quiet and with no smoke. In the area of Plac Teatralny and Plac Zamkowy there was a big fire. You could see smoke in the vicinity of the Belweder Palace, too. I had a good view of the pinnacles of Warsaw, left to right: Leszno Church, the PZUW skyscraper⁵⁶ on Kopernika, the towers of the Church of the Holy Cross, the Prudential Building,⁵⁷ and further on the towers of the Military Hospital at ulica 6 Sierpnia; then the filter towers and the green area, St. James’ Church⁵⁸ on Plac Narutowicza, and the huge block of the students’ hall of residence. All of them whole and wholesome, with not much smoke, compared to September 1939.

From 8.30 to 9.45 in the evening we went through a kind of hurricane of artillery fire targeted at the houses neighbouring on the hospital. There were no hits, but the windows were shattered along the front of Płocka, the window frame in the Chief Physician’s office was ripped out, and the frame of the door to the balcony of Room 4 in Ward VIII sustained minor damage. One of the first shots slightly damaged the roof on the corner of Płocka and Górczewska. I went up to the loft there and met the Chief Physician and Mr Kapica, who was inspecting all the lofts and put men with shovels and buckets on duty in them (the hydrants are standing by and so is the sand).

During that hour and a half, the patients were on the ground floor and generally did not return to their rooms. At 22.30, after the bombing raid, as we were standing by the window, we heard something like the patter of rain. The thing that turned out to be making that soft noise were two leaflets falling on the hospital grounds. Again signed “Bór” and exhorting us to fight the Russians. We’re treating these leaflets as a tongue-in-cheek courtesy which the Germans are throwing about for the purposes of moral sabotage. At eleven the hospital went quiet. During the night there were a few odd shots but no casualties were brought in. . . .

The general atmosphere in the Hospital is fairly calm. No one’s talking about whether the Uprising is a good thing or not, but I can feel that deep down everyone’s having doubts and is worried for their home, family, the houses of Warsaw and the people of Warsaw in general.

Saturday, 5 August

The weather’s been fine ever since the morning, . . . but there’s an autumn chill in the air coming from the window. The patients have returned to their beds. We have our gas and water supply, and apparently the Hospital and its environs is the only place with no electricity, as generally the power supply’s working in the city. Hardly any shots are being fired. From time to time, we hear the rattle of an aircraft, we don’t know what kind of plane it is, where it’s flying to and why. We have mixed feelings: expecting a bomb to drop, but hoping that it’s the plane which is bringing weapons for our boys. The expression “our boys” has come to be the generally accepted term for Home Army soldiers. It’s quiet in admissions. The hospital staff and patients don’t talk much about what’s going on. Those on duty in admissions are totally absorbed in a game of Categories⁵⁹ when they’ve nothing to do

The entry for Saturday, 5 August 1944 in the surviving manuscript of Janina Misiewicz’s journal ends abruptly with these brief remarks.

Around noon on that day, Prof. Zeyland and one of the surgeons went out to the corner of Płocka and Wolska, having been summoned by a Wehrmacht soldier. There was a German tank there, shooting at Polish houses. During his conversation with the German soldiers, Prof. Zeyland learned that they (the Wehrmacht soldiers) would not do any harm to the hospital, but soon SS units would be arriving and woe to the people in the hospital. It was obvious that disaster was nigh.⁶⁰ Prof. Zeyland, Dr Piasecki, and perhaps a few other people were aware of this. Shortly before the Germans broke into the Hospital, Dr Piasecki told Dr Woźniewski to persuade the civilian men who had taken refuge in the Hospital to flee for the City Centre. A few took his advice, and some of them survived the Uprising.

At 2.30, a group of SS men burst into the Hospital. They were a unit of Azerbaijanis under the command of German officers and NCOs. Within a quarter of an hour or so, they had put guards on the entire premises and made all who were not bedridden leave the building. Chief Physician Piasecki and Prof. Zeyland met the Germans in the entrance way. The SS men escorted the Chief Physician, Prof. Zeyland, the chaplain Father Ciecierski⁶¹ back into the Chief Physician’s office and shot them. Next, they took all the walking patients, doctors, nuns, nurses, hospital orderlies and other staff, and the civilians who just happened to be there, out to Moczydło, a street nearby, where they separated the men into small groups and after a short while started to shoot them.

Nearly two hundred persons were killed. Fewer than twenty men saved their lives thanks to a variety of circumstances and lucky chances. The executions stopped around six o’clock in the afternoon, when the men had been killed. Next day, the women and the men who were still alive were led out to a provisional camp at Jelonki. After a dozen or so hours, they managed to leave the place.

There was one physician, Dr Woźniewski, and one of the Sisters of Charity,⁶² Sr Lucyna Lange, left in the Hospital. These two people did their best to look after the large number of patients still in the Hospital. After a short time the SS-men withdrew, having decided (for no apparent reason) to leave without setting the building on fire and killing all the patients.

At midday on Sunday, the doctors and nurses who had been evicted from the nearby Karol and Maria Hospital arrived with a number of their patients. Wolski Hospital resumed its work. Dr Woźniewski became its new chief physician on a provisional basis. St. Stanislaus’ Hospital had not been massacred and dispersed, and continued to work.

The women who had been evicted from Wolski Hospital, doctors, nuns, nurses, and blue-collar staff, set about arranging a makeshift hospital unit. Its first location was at Jelonki. Dr Janina Misiewicz ran this centre and looked after its staff and patients, working in close contact with Wolski Hospital in Warsaw.⁶³

Friday, 11 August

In the morning, two expeditions set off [from Jelonki⁶⁴]: H. Wielowieyska and Sister Janina Aniołkowska⁶⁵ for Tworki,⁶⁶ and Dr Pecynianka,⁶⁷ Samsonowicz, Żytkow, Borkowska,⁶⁸ and Sister Bylica⁶⁹ for Włochy, to collect the things set aside for us there. The latter expedition returned at 3.30 bringing all the things, but you can’t buy anything for a 500-złoty banknote,⁷⁰ and almost all the banknotes I have are five hundreds.

For three hours in the early morning, I tried to get more facilities for the hospital because we’re very congested and there are more and more patients (today the numbers are 130). The outcome was that the mayor made another room available: a warehouse once used for the fire brigade’s equipment, a big and clean hall, but with no windows. We’ll be putting up a woman in childbed and her baby there. Today there’s another refugee in the last days of pregnancy, we have to take her in, too.

All our staff are sad and exhausted, we’re all worried about what’s going on in Warsaw. Dr Jaroszewicz has been in bed since morning, she’s down with ulcer pain. Dr Krzywiec is topping up pneumothoraces, and Napiórkowski is on surgery. The superior⁷¹ has a problem because several of the sisters don’t have a coat or shoes, just bedroom slippers.

Today’s an ordinary day, and everyone is asking themselves what next. It’s a consolation that the cooking stove which was found and repaired yesterday is now in working order; today the TB ward (56 persons) got its own breakfast. We are providing two meals of soup a day for people coming in from outside.

A bread delivery of 100 kg is due today, and their promising tons more for Monday. You can’t get milk or eggs at all.

The Calmuck⁷² savagery has stopped. Yesterday a German military patrol was here and shooed them all away. For good, or how long for, I wonder?

Hanka wasn’t back from Tworki until 19.00 hours. She brought the communiqués, clothing for the Sisters of Charity, and news. That tomorrow Mrs Lipińska⁷³ is due to arrive. She’s a nurse from the Pruszków Health Centre⁷⁴ and a friend of Dr Jaroszewicz’s. She’s to bring a permit for the transportation of our TB patients and casualties to Tworki, Pruszków, and possibly to Podkowa Leśna.

Dr Gepner⁷⁵ and Mrs Buraczewska came with Hanka to pay us a visit. They told us that no electric trains were running from Warsaw West, and even Commuter Electric Rail⁷⁶ was only running to Szczęśliwice,⁷⁷ and that life was quietly going on in Milanówek and Brwinów.⁷⁸

That should have cheered us up, but it didn’t: to my mind, it only makes the fate of Warsaw, forsaken by all and left to merciless destruction, look even more tragic. When I talk to my colleagues and consider my own emotions, I find that is difficult for every one of us to separate the anxiety and despair she feels when she thinks of the fate of someone dear to her from the thought of all those who have died in these times and those who are dying now or will still die.

Yesterday the fires in Warsaw were not big, but they are still burning. Last night, a Mr Matys sent us a cartload of tomatoes and gherkins from his farm for our patients. We were grateful, though if we were to feed our patients with raw gherkins, we could expect to have them going down with diarrhea and dysentery. Luckily, we haven’t had any epidemics up to now.

Saturday, 12 August

Today at six o’clock in the morning, our colleague . . . [illegible name—original Editors’ note set off with Mrs Buraczewska and Dr Belke for Włochy, to see if our patients could be transported by rail from Włochy to Pruszków. It would make things much easier for us, because Włochy is about 2—3 km away from Jelonki, but Pruszków is about 10—12 km away, so taking them directly from here would be far more problematic. Unfortunately, three hours later they were back with the news that it can’t be done. We know that trainloads full of people the Germans are evicting from Warsaw⁷⁹ are passing through Włochy all the time. Dr Steffen told Hanka that Dr Bądzińska⁸⁰ left on one of these trains, while her parents are still in Pruszków, he’s keeping them there as patients of his.

Today’s a beautiful day; everywhere the dahlias, . . . and sweet peas are in full bloom. In our room there’s a bouquet of beautiful white and red carnations. In the barn the cow’s giving idyllic moos; the hen’s clucking because she’s laid an egg; you’d think there was a summer holiday atmosphere, but no one . . . feels it. I see that in all of us the feeling of joy on recovering our freedom is giving way to anxiety over what’s going on in Warsaw, what’s going to happen to us, and thinking about those who have died. We’re all thinking of Prof. Zeyland whenever we think about those whom we’ve lost. Our only comfort is that Dr Manteuffel and Dr Wesołowski were saved, probably, and will live.

We have no news of the Infant Jesus Hospital,⁸¹ but Dr Steffen says that Prof. Czyżewicz⁸² has been killed. We are all down in the dumps with sadness, though the young ones are cracking jokes and making up little poems and songs, for instance on the Mongols.

The Sisters are becoming more and more nervous and want to go to Warsaw. We’ll see what Mrs Lipińska has to tell us today about Tworki and Pruszków.

At 14.00 hours Dr Miłaszewska, my former student from Wolski Hospital, arrived with Mrs Lipińska. They have the Kreishauptmann’s⁸³ permission for the transfer of 60 TB patients from Jelonki to Podkowa Leśna,⁸⁴ where they’re getting accommodation ready for them. The group is leaving on foot at 3.30 p.m. Unfortunately, there’s only one cart with the eight wounded patients who can’t walk but need an operation. They’re heading for Raków, where they’ll board an electric train which will take them to their destinations, Wrzesin hospital in Pruszków, and Podkowa Leśna. There are 50 casualties and TB patients, accompanied by the following medical staff: Dr Jaroszewicz, who is acting as chief physician, Samsonowicz, Żytkow, Lipińska, and [illegible name—original Editors’ note] . . ., 7 Sisters of Charity, and 10 ancillaries. This part of the Hospital is to be accommodated in the officers’ mess and one or two houses in Podkowa Leśna. I sent the mother with a new baby to the Sznajder family’s country house (they agreed to take her in).

Today they brought us 100 kg of coal along with a dispatch of margarine, peas, and a goose from Włochy. The indefatigable Hanka Wielowieyska brought 15 kg of horsemeat from Chrzanów.⁸⁵ Today everyone had a very good dinner of krupnik⁸⁶ with a portion of meat.

At such turning points, my role as manager is always unpleasant: some of the patients whom we did not put on the list for Pruszków desperately wanted to go there, while others we designated for the evacuation wanted to stay here. I had to resort to my “managerial” tone of voice, and within an hour and a half the evacuation was off on its way. The medical staff who are staying here are our old guard: Dr Halina Krzywiec, Dr Janina Pecynianka, Staszka Stawicka, Hanka Wielowieyska, and the two Lesieniówna⁸⁷ sisters. The staff nurses are staying, too. Several individuals unconnected with the Hospital want to join the evacuation. We discourage them, but in reality turn a blind eye. A total of 60 patients left, 5 civilian members of staff, 7 Sisters of Charity, and 10 orderlies—a total of 82 persons. About a hundred, including 15 old persons, are still left here. Three Sisters of Charity went to Ołtarzew⁸⁸ today to see about the old persons. There’s a home for the elderly there, and we want to place them there.

It’s a nervous day: we’re waiting for news from Pruszków and a hasty send-off. The weather’s fine: hot, not a cloud in the sky. There’s no noise of guns coming from Warsaw, only bangs that sound like houses being blown up. We still don’t know what’s going on there.

On Saturday a week ago, at this time (6.30 p.m.), our menfolk were led out and killed, while we were left cooped up in the hall on Moczydło, dirty, thirsty, and hungry. We should be glad we’re at liberty today, but all the time we’re thinking of those who died; I can feel it in every conversation and I know that they’re on our minds all the time.

Sunday, 13 August

A beautiful day. The Sisters of Charity, Hania W., Pecynianka, and the Lesieniówna sisters went to Włochy for Mass. At twelve the Sisters returned together from Strzykuły and Ołtarzew, on a cart drawn by a pair of horses. They brought some vegetables, some bread, a lot of blackcurrants, and the news that the RGO⁸⁹ and the Ursuline Sisters⁹⁰ at Ołtarzew can take our old people. At two o’clock, three Sisters of Charity and six of the old people left on the same cart, while another six old people set off on foot under the care of Dr Krzywiec and some of the other Sisters of Charity.

Sending off 11⁹¹ old ladies—that sounds an easy thing to do, but in fact there were problems and a lot of trouble. With them gone, we still have 23 TB patients, 36 surgery patients, and 6 old people left, along with about ten members of staff, making up a total of 76 persons.

Today’s supposed to be a holy day, and the local people are standing or walking about the streets in their Sunday best. It’s a garden city, but in fact it’s a singularly ugly settlement. One of the Sisters of Charity and M. Lesień visited the hospital on Płocka today. They brought back the news that Dr Manteuffel and Dr Wesołowski are in St. Stanislaus’ Hospital. Every piece of news we get about the Hospital is moving and makes us miss it even more, and even more impatient to return. A lot of servant girls are asking to be taken on as members of the hospital staff because they want to be evacuated with us, but they’re not so keen when it comes to work.

Dr Krzywiec returned at 20.00 hours. She got the old people safely to Ołtarzew; on the road, a German patrol helped her get a cart and she took them in it. When she got back, she was in an excellent mood. Today after lunch, two of the Sisters of Charity paid a call on the Hospital. They were given a lift in a German car. I can observe a casual mood setting in among the Sisters of Charity. Some of them are doing as they please. At any rate, there are too many of them.

Monday, 14 August

Nothing much happened today. A few of the Sisters and some of the ancillary staff went to the Hospital to fetch their things. We were told that the patients we sent to Podkowa Leśna on Saturday are in Włochy, but it’s not true. Warsaw is on fire, sometimes you can hear bangs coming from there. Last night there was an air raid. We’re all bored, uneasy and impatient. It’s the prose of our everyday life!

Tuesday, 15 August

Nothing new. Sister Irena arrives from Podkowa in the afternoon and tells us that things are not looking good there, that they don’t know if Wolski Hospital is there, or if we’ve just sent our staff and patients away to Podkowa Hospital, and that the Sisters of Charity don’t know what their status is supposed to be in relation to the civilian “sisters,” in a word, I get the feeling there’s an unusual situation. I think I’ll decide to go to Podkowa tomorrow.

To mark the holy day,⁹² my junior doctors had a delicious supper, and Pecyna and Hania visited the Hospital on Płocka and St. Stanislaus’ today. They came back with greetings for me from Dr Manteuffel and Dr Wesołowski, who are currently at St. Stanislaus’. They also brought some tinned food . . . , biscuits, and matches from them, as well as their own belongings. The atmosphere was good. The people left there make up a friendly, well-knit community.

Wednesday, 16 August

At 6.30 a.m., Hanka Wielowieyska and I set off for Podkowa. It was a beautiful, dewy morning (it was 5.30 according to the sun⁹³). We walked to Pruszków via Chrzanów, Mory, Gołąbki, Piasków, covering a distance of 15—16 km and reaching Pruszków by nine. The road was practically empty, people are afraid of travelling, but no one accosted us or asked any questions.

At Pruszków, we are met by Mrs Lipińska, who gives us some foodstuffs (for the sake of appearances⁹⁴) when we are on the cart for Tworki, where we board the electric train for Podkowa. When we get there, Wiwa gives me an account of the current situation. It turns out that the day before, the situation improved and the hospital at Podkowa was recognized as Wolski Hospital, with me as chief physician. I took over the hospital, which is accommodated in the officers’ mess and Baniewicz’s house (a genuine country mansion). Dr Pawłowski is the surgeon. I also meet Dr Hanna Nowosielska and Dr Tomaszewska. At seven, Hanna Wielowieyska and I left for a (delightful) overnight stay at Dr Nowosielska’s house in Milanówek. I also made arrangements for a transport from Jelonki to Podkowa on the following day. Mrs Łyżwańska has a travel permit issued by the Kreishauptmann, so tomorrow I have to be back in Jelonki as early as possible to get the transport ready to leave by 14.00 hours.

Thursday, 17 September

At 7.12, we are on the electric train for Malichy,⁹⁵ and thence at 10.30 continue on foot via Reguły, Opocz [Opacz], Raków, Ursus, Gołąbki, and Chrzanów to Jelonki, a total distance of about 17 km. We get everything ready for the journey, allocating duties to the staff, drawing up a list of patients, etc. Unfortunately, we have trouble with getting horses, so we have to requisition them.

Mrs Łyżwańska arrives at 2.30, but it isn’t until 4.30 that we manage to acquire two carts. It’s a procession of people on foot and in the carts, a total of about a hundred persons. We are constantly being stopped (four times in fact) and required to produce our credentials. Mrs Łyżwańska with the permit is on the first cart. I am at the head of the marching column. We reach Raków at six and start putting the patients on the train. Right then, one of the patients dies . . .. I look for the village graveyard and at sunset we hold a funeral in a picturesque setting. The Sisters say prayers. I cast a lump of soil on the fresh little mound marking the grave, and two flowers (red gladioli). Mrs Łyżwańska, who has sent the carts back, returns at seven o’clock, and after a while we’re on the train and on our way. We’re in Podkowa Leśna by about eight. Today I did about 25 km on foot.⁹⁶

Friday, 18 August

At 8.12 I’m off for Podkowa. I spend the time from 8.30 to 12.30 discussing the allocation of duties to the staff, other hospital business and “determining.” . . . [an illegible passage—original Editors’ note] But my efforts are unsuccessful. The things the hospital is most in need of are . . ., jugs . . ., bowls, spoons etc., not to speak of blankets.

. . . I learn that this morning at 5 a.m. there was a round-up of persons who were not permanent residents of Jelonki. Thousands of people, including our Sisters of Charity and the orderlies who were still there, were deported to the camp.⁹⁷

But at Pruszków, Mrs Łyżwańska was on her toes and got all of our people released. . . . Luckily, it all ended happily. The rest of the patients, women doctors, and the four nuns who were away during the round-up stayed in Jelonki and I want them to stay there. At six o’clock I arrived in Milanówek, where I found Hanka. I took my shoes off and sent them to the shoemaker’s. Tomorrow I’ll be housebound until half-past one in the afternoon.

Saturday, 19 August

Hanka’s going to Żyrardów⁹⁸ in the morning. I’m staying in bed until eleven o’clock because of the shoemaker (I’ve no shoes). Finally, I get my shoes, and at 12.12 I set off for Podkowa. We’re “sorting out” the problems concerning the funeral. At four o’clock we’re in the RGO office, and at 5.22 I leave for Milanówek.

At 7 p.m. Hanna arrives in Milanówek from Żyrardów. She’s brought a few of the things, but the outcome is that I have to see the RGO with the document. So I won’t be going to Jelonki tomorrow.

Sunday, 20 August

At 6.12 Hanka and I set off for Podkowa, to attend Holy Mass for Dr Piasecki. Afterwards, she leaves for Malichy and thence for Jelonki. I inspect the hospital (both buildings).

Dr . . . [we cannot decipher this name—original Editors’ note], and Dr Józef May and his family arrive at eleven. They’ve brought Prof. Modrakowski⁹⁹ and ask me to accommodate him in Podkowa. Actually, it’s none of my business, but I agree to help. After an early lunch, we call on the RGO to ask for accommodation, and later we go to Stawiska and thence to Brwinów. This Sunday it’s very hot and we’re exhausted.

Monday, 21 August

In the morning, I leave for Żyrardów in the company of four ladies. Next day, on Tuesday, 22 August, having tackled a variety of obstacles, I get a lot of things. Curiously, what made things easier was the fact that straightaway I helped the managing director of the Żyrardów Production Plant¹⁰⁰ with some medical advice.

Tuesday, 22 August

I was back in MIlanówek around 4.30 with some of the things. I was tired and went to bed (it was very hot). Around 6 o’clock Wiwa arrived with Krysia O.¹⁰¹ I had been waiting for her for so long and so impatiently, and finally, after 34 months in Pawiak jail, she’s free. I’m deeply moved. The night’s long and we talk.

Wednesday, 23 August

Street round-ups have been going on in Milanówek ever since morning. They let me pass. I’m off for Podkowa. There, I’m endlessly “negotiating” and wasting time waiting in the RGO office. I leave at five. It’s sizzling hot. The day passes monotonously; back to my everyday grindstone. The problems with mattresses, bedpans, wards quarrelling over spoons, cups, and plates. Our young folks are sad and down in the dumps. In the evening news comes that Paris has been taken,¹⁰² there’s painful envy, but there’s nothing I can do about it. We know little about Warsaw. We want to keep thinking that the Germans will leave Warsaw in a couple of days. In any case, it’s a beautiful summer day. People are lazily strolling along the railway platforms.

Pruszków camp is busy all the time; more and more transports¹⁰³ are arriving. This afternoon regular PKP¹⁰⁴ train services are not running from Pruszków to Żyrardów. Does that mean that the railway has been reserved for the last transport . . . from Warsaw?

Thursday and Friday, 24 and 25 August

The old trouble. Hanka Wielowieyska came.

Saturday, 26 August

Hanna Wielowieyska, Sister Joanna and I go to Jelonki with no travel permits. We arrive at 9.15. My “old guard” was very happy. Everything’s more or less all right there.

I was “officiating” all day long. In the evening the youngsters put on an entertainment, and one of the numbers they did was a song about the “old guard” at Jelonki.

Sunday, 27 August

At eleven o’clock, Sister Joanna and I returned to Milanówek, bringing a patient in need of a pneumothorax with us. Wiwa came from Podkowa. So I learned that nothing was going on in Podkowa, and spent the whole day in Milanówek. Resting. The atmosphere in Dr Nowosielska’s house and the cordial hospitality we are always given here are such a beneficial comfort for all of us.

Monday, 28 August

I set off for Grodzisk¹⁰⁵ to see the Landkommissar¹⁰⁶ for his endorsement of the list of my staff. Alas, sadly, I have to come back tomorrow. I did not manage to settle the other matters. We’re having trouble most of all with the góral banknotes,¹⁰⁷ which we can’t change [rest of sentence illegible—original Editors’ note]. . . .

Tuesday, 29 August

Off to Grodzisk again. We get the endorsement. At 11.30, I meet with the district physician (Dr Żebrowska). We travel to Milanówek, and I see the local hospital. At two o’clock there’s a meeting for all [the wards and departments] in the office of the head of these hospitals. They comprise the following: 1. Small Surgery, located in Villa Perełka, with “Dr” Kiełbasińska and Dr Dobrowolski in charge; 2. Internal medicine + eye clinic + neuro + . . ., in the school building, Dr Ziębiński; 3. The Summer Theatre—overnight accommodation; 4. Surgery, Dr Wagner; 5. The Second Internal Clinic, Brwinów (located in Villa Harenda), Dr Rydygier;¹⁰⁸ 7. me at Podkowa. A total of about 600 beds [rest of sentence illegible—original Editors’ note]. . . . Today I made the acquaintance of “Dr” Krystyna Tyszkiewicz-Kiełbasińska. I recommended some restoratives for her and afterwards went to her house.

Wednesday, 30 August

A day of trouble with settling the work schedule for the surgery ward . . .. I return home at four. My life is becoming monotonous . . .. Today Prof. Zeyland’s brother visited us.¹⁰⁹

***

Translated from original article: Misiewicz, Janina, “Zapiski z dni powstania warszawskiego w Szpitalu Wolskim.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1967.

* Extended biographical note about the author: Janina Misiewicz (1893-1958) graduated in Medicine from the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Medical Institute in 1918 and held an assistant’s appointment in an internal diseases clinic. She also worked in a tuberculosis advisory centre and as a school physician at a girls’ grammar school. In 1920, she left Russia for Poland and henceforth worked in Polish hospitals. In 1936-1939 she was a ward physician and head of a TB sanatorium at Mienia near Warsaw. On 1 April 1939 she became ward physician of the TB and internal diseases ward at Szpital Wolski (Wolski Hospital), Warsaw. Under German wartime occupation, she organized secret university courses for medical students in Wolski Hospital and lectured in lung, internal, and infectious diseases. She also trained about 2 thousand Home Army nurses . In 1959, she was appointed head of the Polish Institute for the Treatment of Tuberculosis (Polski Instytut Przeciwgruźliczy). A year later, she was appointed to Poland’s first Chair of Phthisiatry. Sources: Ostrowska, Teresa, “Misiewicz, Janina” in Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Vol. 22, Wrocław; Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich,1977; Zwolska, Z “Profesor Janina Misiewicz i Wiwa Jaroszewicz - prekursorki walki z gruźlica w Szpitalu Wolskim w Warszawie,” in Kobiety w medycynie. W stulecie odzyskania niepodległości 1918-2018. Maria Ciesielska, Anna Marek, and Magdalena Paciorek (eds.). Warszawa: Uczelnia Łazarskiego, 2019, p. 78-85.^a

1. The Warsaw Uprising started on 1 August 1944 and continued until early October 1944. It is not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of the spring of 1943.^b
2. Wolski Hospital [Szpital Wolski], at ulica Płocka 26, now the Institute for Tuberculosis [Instytut Gruźlicy]. Since 1963, the name “Szpital Wolski” has been used for the hospital known as “Szpital Miejski Nr 1” [No. 1 Municipal Hospital] (Czyste Hospital), at ulica Kasprzaka 17, although there were no logical grounds for the change of name.^c Since 1986, the Hospital’s name has been “Instytut Gruźlicy i Chorób Pluc” [the Institute for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases].^a
3. Bogdan Duda worked for many years as the Hospital’s porter. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli. Szpital Wolski 1939-1945, Warszawa: Czytelnik, 2004, p. 54 and 133.^a
4. Chorzewski was employed as a mechanic in the Hospital. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 112, 176, 301.^a
5. Józef Wójcicki was head of the Hospital’s administrative Office. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 163.^a
6. Kazimierz Drozdowski was an assistant physician in Dr Misiewicz’s ward. He contributed to the secret university classes. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 19, 22, 46, 304.^a
7. Wiwa Jaroszewicz (1905-1979) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw. In 1930-1934 she worked as an assistant physician in Wolski Hospital, and for the next three years in the TB ward of the Bersohn and Bauman Hospital and in St. Stanislaus’ Hospital for Infectious Diseases. In 1939, she returned to Wolski Hospital. During the War under German occupation, she was Dr Misiewicz’s assistant and provided aid for members of the Jewish resistance movement and other Jewish persons. She took part in the secret medical classes for the University of Warsaw and the University of Western Poland. After the Warsaw Uprising, she was head of the Podkowa Leśna external branch of Wolski Hospital. In September 1945 she returned to work in Wolski Hospital. In 1948 she was arrested by the Communist authorities and held for over a year in Rakowiecka Prison. Source: 1944.pl.^a
8. Leon Manteuffel-Szoege (1904-1973) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw and worked in Wolski Hospital for the entire duration of German wartime occupation. After the War, he conducted open-heart surgery to remove congenital and acquired heart defects. Sources: Ostrowska, Teresa, “Leon Manteuffel,” Internetowy Polski Słownik Biograficzny (online).^a
9. Stanisław Chwojka (1907-1944)—physician, shot by the Germans on the Górczewska/Zagloby corner, 5 August 1944. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 22 and 301.^a
10. Stanisław Wesołowski (1908-2009)—read Medicine at the University of Warsaw. Worked as an assistant physician in St. Lazarus’ Hospital, 1936-1942. Member of the underground resistance movement during the War. As of 1943, he worked as an assistant in the surgical ward of Wolski Hospital. In 1948-1950 he was an adjunct of the Urology Clinic of the University of Warsaw. Source: Baza Ludzie Nauki, Portal Nauka Polska online at http://www.nauka-polska.opi.org.pl
11. Józef Marian Piasecki (1894-1944) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw in 1923. When still an undergraduate, he worked as an assistant in the University’s Department of Topographic Anatomy and Operative Surgery. He worked in the Sisters of St. Elizabeth Hospital, 1931-1933, and in 1933-1936 was a surgeon in the University of Warsaw Children’s Clinic. Appointed chief physician of Wolski Hospital in 1936. Murdered by the Nazi Germans, 5 August 1944. Source, Kubietowski, J . “Julian Piasecki,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Vol. 25, Wrocław & Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1980, p. 148.^a
12. Jan Napiórkowski was a student of Zaorski’s College, an educational institution which conducted clandestine classes for the Medical Faculty of the University of Warsaw. He worked in Wolski Hospital as a medical ancillary and evaded the massacre on 5 August 1944. Sources: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 302; 1944.pl.^a
13. Anna “Hania” Samsonowicz-Oknińska , a student of Zaorski’s College. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 53-72.^a
14. Anna “Hanka” Wielowieyska, X-ray technician in Dr Werkenthin’s lab and qualified nurse. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 306.^a
15. Bronisław Kapica, an engineer.^a
16. Janina Belke (1915-1997), assistant physician in Prof. Janusz Zeyland’s TB ward for young patients. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 304 and 306.^a
17. Maria Buraczewska, biologist employed in Prof. Zeyland’s Central TB Laboratory. She and Dr Kubicki set up a blood donor station before the 1944 Uprising broke out. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 115 and 306.^a
18. Olgierd Sokołowski (1885-1944) studied Medicine at Kazan and Dorpat. He worked in Kościelisko and Zakopane TB sanatoria using modern treatment methods. Moved to Warsaw and appointed ward physician of the TB ward at Wolski Hospital. Killed with the other staff and patients of Wolski Hospital on the corner of Górczewska and Zagłoby, 5 August 1944. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 50, 259-266, 303; Sroka, Stanisław, “Olgierd Sokołowski,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Wrocław etc.: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich: 2000-2001, Vol. 40, p. 176-178.
19. Janusz Zeyland (1897-1944), studied Medicine in Berlin, Warsaw, and Poznań. Worked in the Department of Anatomical Pathology and the Children’s Clinic of Poznań University. Forcibly resettled to Warsaw in 1940, where he set up Centralne Laboratorium Gruźlicze (the Central TB Laboratory). In December 1941, he opened the first children’s TB ward in Poland. Conducted bacteriology classes at the clandestine University of Western Poland. Shot by the Germans on 5 August 1944. Sources: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 49 and 238-242; Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny, Antoni Gąsiorowski, Jerzy Topolski et al., (Eds.). Warszawa & Poznań: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1983, p. 87.^a
20. Eugenia Piasecka-Zeyland (1899-1953), studied Medicine at the Jagiellonian University and Chemistry at Poznań University. Worked in the Department of Medical Microbiology at Poznań University. Evicted by the Germans in 1939 and moved to Warsaw, where she worked in the Central TB Laboratory at Wolski Hospital. She and her husband conducted bacteriology classes at the clandestine University of Western Poland. She specialised in the bacteriology of tuberculosis. She and her husband pioneered BCG vaccination in Poland. Sources: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 22 and 306; Antoni Gąsiorowski, Jerzy Topolski et al., (Eds.). Warszawa & Poznań: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1981, p. 872-873.^a
21. We did not manage to decipher the full name.^c
22. The news spread from mouth to mouth on Monday, the last day of July 1944, was not auspicious. People were saying that the Uprising would break out any moment, though the situation on the front near Warsaw had deteriorated. German armoured divisions had forced the Soviet units to retreat from the foreground of Praga. The chances for the more than poorly armed units of the Home Army were extremely unfavourable.On 1 August, two men in high boots, windbreakers, berets, and with first-aid bags slung over their shoulders arrived in Wolski Hospital. It turned out that the older one was head of the Wola sanitary region, while the younger one was a student and his aide-de-camp. They notified the Hospital’s staff that the uprising would start at 17.00 hours.^c
23. The Tiger II was a German heavy tank (official name: Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B).^a
24. Halina Krzywiec-Leśniewska, b. 1915. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 305.^a
25. Biuletyn Informacyjny was an underground periodical published in German-occupied Poland in 1939-1944 in Warsaw, and in 1944-1945 in Kraków. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, it came out every day.^a
26. AK (Armia Krajowa, the Home Army, the largest underground resistance force in occupied Europe).^a
27. Tommy gun—the Thompson submachine gun.^a
28. Antoni Ojer and Kwiryn Sydry were among the victims murdered by the Germans on 5 August 1944 on the Górczewska/Zagłoby corner; Wacław Dąbrowski was shot in the buttock, managed to crawl out from under the pile of bodies, and survived. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 302.^a
29. Szpital św. Stanisława, established In 1883 by Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz for the city’s civilian inhabitants to prevent the spread of epidemics. In 1925, St. Stanislaus’ was extended to provide 584 beds. During the War under German occupation, St. Stanislaus’ sheltered persons wanted by the Gestapo, accommodated a secret cache of weapons and ammunition, and a unit producing hand grenades. During the 1944 Uprising, St. Stanislaus’ Hospital harboured about 600 local people and housed a first aid centre for casualties. It was evacuated in October 1944. After the War, St. Stanislaus’ Hospital was restored and now operates as the Voivodeship Hospital for Infectious Diseases (at ul. Wolska 34). Source: szpitale1944.pl.[a]
30. Now Dr. Buraczewska, a microbiologist.^c
31. Józef Grzybowski (1897-1944), studied Medicine at St. Petersburg, Kraków, and Lwów. In 1938, he was appointed head of the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw. In 1940 he started work in the surgery ward of Wolski Hospital and gave classes in the secret system of education. He was one of the Hospital’s staff murdered by the Germans on 5 August 1944 on the Górczewska-Zagłoby corner. Source: lekarzepowstania.pl.^a
32. "Monter” —nom-de-guerre of Col. Antoni Chruściel, commanding officer of the 1944 Watsaw Uprising.^a
33. Śródmieście.^b
34. The Pawiak jail was the largest German prison for political prisoners on occupied Polish territory. It was located on ulica Dzielna in Warsaw. On 21 August 1944, the Germans blew it up.^a
35. In fact, Soviet Red Army units advanced west but stopped at the Vistula in right-bank Warsaw, idly watching the Germans crush the Uprising on the other bank, which the Soviets did not cross until three and a half months later (18 January 1945) to “liberate” Warsaw (or by that time the ruins of Warsaw).^b
36. Szpital św. Łazarza. The origins of this hospital go back to the 16th century. It changed its location several times, eventually moving in 1927 to ulica Książęca 2. The Germans evicted it and used the premises as a hospital for German soldiers, sending St. Lazarus’ to a property formerly accommodating a Jewish children’s and old people’s home on ulica Leszno. When the Uprising broke out, insurgent and civilian casualties were brought there. On 5 August 1944 the Germans murdered all the staff, patients, and local people who had taken refuge there. After the War, the property accommodated St. Lazarus’ Dermatological Hospital. Source: Michałowski, B., “Rys historyczny szpitala św. Łazarza w Warszawie,” Szpitalnictwo Polskie 1963: 4.
37. Lazarus’ Hospital [Szpital św. Łazarza].^c
38. Stanislaus’ Hospital [Szpital św. Stanisława].^c
39. Maria Werkenthin (1901-1944) started her medical studies in Kyiv and graduated from Warsaw. In 1929 she was appointed head of the X-ray department at Wolski Hospital. In September 1943 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she worked in the dispensary of the prisoners’ hospital. She fell ill with typhus and was shot by a sentry. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 243-249; Pawlicka, Lilia, “Werkhentin, Maria,” in Słownik biograficzny polskich nauk medycznych XX w., Warszawa : Wydawnictwo IHN, 1995, Vol.1: 3, p. 116-117.^a See also Dr Werkenthin’s biography by Janina Kowalczykowa in Przegląd Lekarski - Oświęcim on this website. Dr Werkenthin is also mentioned in the following English versions of Przegląd Lekarski - Oświęcim articles online on this website: Helena Włodarska, “Recollecting the women’s hospital at Birkenau;” Maria Nowakowska, “The women’s hospital at Auschwitz-Birkenau;” and (in a separate, short biographical note by Janina Kowalczykowa) in Danuta Pytlik et al., “Biographical notes on some of the deceased Polish doctors and medical staff who rendered distinguished service in the care of Auschwitz prisoners.” ^b
40. Marychna—a diminutive endearment derived from the name “Maria,” indicating that Dr Werkenthin was popular with her colleagues.^b
41. Jan Augustyniak was the Hospital’s gravedigger. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 42, 55, 301.
42. Ewa “Ewa” Stefanowska (1923-1944), a student of Zaorski’s College. Served as an orderly for Battalion Zośka during the Uprising and killed during the attack on Gdański Railway Station. Sources: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 310; 1944.pl.^a
43. Zofia “Zosia” Stefanowska-Treugutt (1926-2007). Served as an orderly in the Rudy Company of Battalion Zośka during the Uprising. After the War graduated in Polish Philology and conducted research on Polish Romantic literature. Source: Werpachowski, Roman, “Wspomnienie o Zofii Stefanowskiej-Treugutt,” Alma Mater (the Jagiellonian University magazine) 2007: 96.
44. Pneumothorax, a “collapsed lung.” Prior to the advent of antibiotics, the artificial collapse of one of a patient’s lungs was a therapy used to treat TB.^b
45. The White Eagle is the emblem of Poland.^b
46. The Germans set up a ghetto for the Jews of Warsaw in 1940 and destroyed it after the fall of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May 1943. Thereafter, they used the site as a concentration camp. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto.^b
47. Pałac Paca.^b
48. Ogród Saski.^b
49. Tadeusz “Bór” Komorowski (1895-1966), Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, promoted to Supreme Commander on 30 August 1944. Source, “Komorowski, Tadeusz,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Vol. 13, Wrocław & Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1968, p. 433-434.^a
50. Bolsheviks—the Soviet Union’s Red Army.^a
51. Cyprian “Skiba” Sadowski (1902-1985) graduated in Medicine from Warsaw. Internist at Okręgowy Szpital w Warszawie (Warsaw Regional Hospital), where he was head of the Physiotherapy Ward. Skiba joined the Home Army and also held classes in medicine for the secret educational system. Head of the Wola District Sanitary Service, the Radosław Sanitary Group and the Północ (North) Group during the Uprising. Source: 1944.pl.^a The English version of Skiba’s biography (by Tadeusz Marcinkowski) is available on this website.^b
52. Szpital Karola i Marii (at ulica Leszno 136), founded by Zofia Szlenkierówna, was officially opened in 1913 and was one of the best state-of-the-art children’s hospitals in Europe. It comprised 9 buildings with 150 beds for children aged 1-12. During the Uprising, it was the central sanitary station in Wola and admitted both civilians and combatants. On 6 August 1944, the Germans shot 100 patients and staff on the hospital’s premises. It was evacuated after the fall of the Uprising and not rebuilt after the War. Source: Kopf, Stanisław, Powstańcze służby sanitarne. Warszawskie Termopile, Warszawa: Akson, 2004.
53. Stanisław Mikołajczyk (1901-1966), Polish politician and Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, 1943-1944. On 30 July 1944, Mikołajczyk travelled to Moscow for talks with Stalin, against the wishes and advice of the Polish President and Commander-in-Chief. The talks failed to bring about the effect Mikołajczyk had hoped for, as Stalin did not withdraw his political and territorial claims against Poland. Source: Buczek, Roman, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, Toronto: Century Publishing Co. Ltd., 1996.
54. Janina “Lala” Żytkow-Borkowska, a student of Zaorski’s College, later a qualified midwife. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 170 and 310.^a
55. Gas gangrene is a bacterial infection that produces tissue gas in gangrene, usually caused by Clostridium perfringens^a
56. The Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń Wzajemnych (General Mutual Insurance Company) office building on ulica Kopernika.^a
57. The Prudential Building was a 16-storey high rise tower built in 1931-1933 on ulica Napoleona, and served as the headquarters of the Polish branch of the British Prudential Insurance Company.^a
58. Erroneously for the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was situated in the Parish of St. James the Apostle.^a
59. Categories is a word game in which players have to find a word beginning with the same letter for things belonging to various categories.^a
60. The massacre described in the following passage was part of a German atrocity known as the Wola Carnage (Rzeź Woli). On hearing of the Warsaw Uprising, Hitler flew into a rage and ordered the city destroyed, and none of its inhabitants spared. The Carnage started with the mass killing of the inhabitants of the Wola district of Warsaw. Within 3 days (5-7 August 1944), the Germans massacred tens of thousands of Polish civilians, Source: Wnęk, Konrad, “Poland’s population loss caused by Germany during the Second World War,” in The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939-1945: A Collection of Studies, p. 165-167, online.^b
61. Father Kazimierz Ciecierski (1907-1944), chaplain of Wolski Hospital. Shot dead on 5 August 1944 in the chief physician’s office. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 301.
62. Formal English name: the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Latin: Societas Filiarum Caritatis a Sancto Vincentio de Paulo), commonly called the Daughters of Charity or Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p 94-96.^a
63. The passage in small print is a supplement by Prof. L. Manteuffel.^c
64. The rest of Dr Misiewicz’s journal is an account of her efforts and journeys in the neighbourhood to procure food, medications, and other essentials for over 100 persons in her care in the aftermath of the Wola Carnage.^b
65. Janina Aniołkowska, one of the Sisters of Charity. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 313.^a
66. Tworki mental hospital, established in 1891 at Pruszków on the outskirts of Warsaw.^a
67. Janina Pecyna-Sielewicz, a student of Zaorski’s College. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 309.^a
68. Janina Borkowska-Ramlau, a student of Zaorski’s College. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 307.^a
69. Janina Bylica, one of the Sisters of Charity. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 313.^a
70. The German occupying authorities took over the Polish financial system. To exploit the Polish economy, they established their own issuing bank with its own wartime currency which could not be exchanged for other currencies. Many other monetary restrictions were imposed, including a shortage of banknotes and coins in circulation. Source: Kłusek, Mirosław, “Poland’s losses in banking and insurance” and “Losses sustained by the Polish State Treasury as a result of German war operations . . .,” p. 305-329 and 335-355, in The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939-1945: A Collection of Studies, online.^b
71. Sister Jadwiga Rossipal, Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity.^c
72. The people of Warsaw used a variety of derogatory epithets for the collaborationist units of former ex-Soviet citizens fighting for Nazi Germany. The name “Calmucks” referred to Azeris, Tartars, and other soldiers from the Caucasus.^b
73. Nonna Lipińska-Łyżwańska, thanks to whom Dr Misiewicz obtained premises [for the hospital] and a permit for the transportation of her patients to Podkowa Leśna.^c
74. Ośrodek Zdrowia w Pruszkowie^b
75. Maria Gepner-Woźniewska (1918-2000), a student of Zaorski’s College. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 397 and 311.^a
76. Elektryczna Kolej Dojazdowa (EDK).^c
77. Szczęśliwice—formerly a village on the outskirts of Warsaw; within the municipal bounds since 1951. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szcz%C4%99%C5%9Bliwice.^b
78. Milanówek and Brwinów are two towns now in the Greater Warsaw agglomeration, respectively 30 and 25 km south-west of Central Warsaw.^b
79. During the Uprising, the Germans started evicting civilians from Warsaw, sending them either to Germany for slave labour, to Pruszków transit camp, or to Auschwitz. Source, Suleja, Włodzimierz et al., “The German occupation of Poland, 1939-1945,” in The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939-1945: A Collection of Studies, p. 79-80 online.^b
80. Wanda Bądzińska, an assistant in the X-ray department. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 306.
81. Szpital Dzieciątka Jezus. The origins of this hospital go back to the 18th century. Its new buildings on ulica Nowogrodzka were completed in 1901. During the War, its staff provided aid for Polish resistance fighters and Jewish persons, and secret classes were held there for medical students. On 25 August during the 1944 Uprising, men from the RONA Russian collaborationist unit serving in the SS killed the hospital staff and patients. Source: Encyklopedia Warszawy, Barbara Petrozolin-Skowrońska (ed.), Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1994, p. 844.^a
82. Presumably the gynaecologist and obstetrician Prof. Adam Czyżewicz (1877-1962). Source: Łoza, Stanisław (ed.), Czy wiesz kto to jest?, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Głównej Księgarni Wojskowej, 1938, p. 127.^a
83. Kreishauptmann—the German chief administrative officer for the Kreis (the territorial administrative unit the Germans introduced to replace the Polish powiats).^b
84. Podkowa Leśna is a town about 20 km south-west of Central Warsaw, now within the Greater Warsaw agglomeration, and about 24 km away from Jelonki by road.^b
85. Chrzanów, a small place in the locality, about 4 km away from Podkowa Leśna.^b
86. Krupnik—a traditional Polish soup with barley groats and vegetables.^b
87. Helena and Maria Lesieniówna, nurses working in the dispensary of the Jelonki external branch of Wolski Hospital. Source: Szpital Dobrej Woli . . ., p. 193.
88. Ołtarzew—a small place about 16 km away from Jelonki.^b
89. Rada Główna Opieki (The Main Welfare Council) was the only Polish charity recognized by the German occupying authorities.^b
90. The Grey Ursulines are a Polish congregation founded by St. Ursula Ledóchowska in 1920. Their work includes the running of kindergartens, schools, children’s homes, boarding schools, and students’ halls of residence. Source: https://urszulanki.pl/en/about-us/history.^a
91. Presumably a misprint for “12.”^b
92. 15 August is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day in the Roman Catholic Church, and for Polish people it also marks the anniversary of the Polish victory over the Bolsheviks in 1920 (now a national holiday).^b
93. “According to the Sun” is probably a reference to the effect of putting the clock an hour forward for the summer season ( “Daylight Saving Time”). This practice was first brought in by Germany and Austria-Hungary during the First World War, but not all the countries around the world followed suit. In prewar Poland, it was implemented only once, but imposed by the German occupying authorities during the Second World War. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czas_letni.^b
94. “For the sake of appearances” probably means preventive measures taken to have an alibi ready in case a German patrol stopped them on the way and ordered them to give the purpose of their journey.^b
95. Janina Misiewicz stayed for the night at Milanówek.^c
96. Malichy is a district in the municipality of Pruszków and was a station on the Warsaw suburban railway line already before the War. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malichy.^b
97. The transit camp at Pruszków, to which the Germans were deporting thousands of residents of Warsaw and its suburbs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruszk%C3%B3w.^b
98. Żyrardów—a town about 53 km by road south-west of Jelonki.^b
99. Jerzy Modrakowski (1875-1945), a pharmacologist. Studied Medicine at Breslau and Munich Universities. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and later Rector, of the University of Warsaw. Lectured in Zaorski’s College. Source: Łoza, Stanisław (ed.), Czy wiesz kto to jest?, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Głównej Księgarni Wojskowej, 1938, p. 497-498.^a
100. Zakłady Lniarskie Żyrardów, a linen mill established in 1833.^a
101. Dr Krystyna Ossowska was sent from Pawiak prison to Pruszków transit camp, from which Mrs. Lipińska-Łyżwańska procured her release.^c
102. Paris was liberated by joint Allied forces on 25 August 1944, when German occupying forces left the city after an uprising by the French resistance and a battle lasting several days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Paris. The “painful envy” in Dr Misiewicz’s journal is an expression of regret that nothing of a similar kind was done to liberate Warsaw.^b
103. Trainloads of people evicted by the Germans from Warsaw.^b
104. PKP—Polskie Koleje Państwowe, Polish State Railways. Dr Misiewicz’s use of this term is a misnomer because when the German occupying forces took over Polish State Railways, they changed the name to “Ostbahn,” which was a branch of Deutsche Reichsbahn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostbahn_(General_Government).^b
105. Grodzisk is a town in the neighbourhood of Podkowa and Milanówek, a few kilometres ‘ distance from both.^b
106. Landkommissar—the title of the German chief administrative officer of a Land, subordinate to the Kreishauptmann. https://portal.ehri-project.eu/keywords/ehri_terms-1187.^b
107. Góral was the colloquial name for the 500 zł banknote in circulation under German occupation.^c
108. Józef Rydygier (1905-1980 ), Professor of Medicine at the University of Warsaw. An English version of his biography (by his widow Hanna Rydygier) is available on this website. He is mentioned in Stanisław Bayer’s article “Episodes from the story of the hospitals of the Warsaw Uprising” (also on this website).^b
109. Assisted by numerous brave persons working with her, Dr. Misiewicz prepared the ground for two more medical centres to which Wolski Hospital was evacuated. So the following medical establishments were working: the Podkowa Leśna branch, head: Dr. Wiwa Jaroszewicz; Dr. Zbigniew Woźniewski’s institution at Pszczelin near Brwinów; and the institution at Olszanka near Radziwiłłów, with Dr. Misiewicz herself in charge of it. The last members of staff and patients left Wolski Hospital on 24 and 25 October [1944], to start work in three provisional hospitals in the suburbs of Warsaw. Straight after the liberation of Warsaw on 18 January 1945, Dr. Misiewicz and her team of medical staff set out for Wolski Hospital. With Dr. Misiewicz in charge, the hospital soon resumed its work and was the first hospital in left-bank Warsaw to do so. Its surgical ward started work already on 1 March 1945, by which time the internal diseases ward (headed by Dr. Rogulski [komentarz: Probably a misprint for “Roguski”) had been open for over a month. [note by Prof. L. Manteuffel, retained from the original Polish footnotes].
110. This item is Dr Werkenthin’s biography by Janina Kowalczykowa. Dr Werkenthin is also mentioned in several English versions of Przegląd Lekarski - Oświęcim articles online on this website. See Note 33 above.^b

a—notes by Anna Marek, Expert Consultant on the history of medicine for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; c—notes by the Editors of the original, Polish issue of Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim from 1967.

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