Medical studies under the Nazi German occupation of Poland

During the Nazi German occupation of Poland, clandestine courses of medicine¹ were organized in Warsaw, where there were several centers (including one in the Jewish Ghetto), as well as in Wilno,² Kraków and Częstochowa.

In the 1940/41 academic year, the clandestine Council of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw³ initiated courses of medicine. This faculty was organized secretly under the aegis of Dr Jan Zaorski’s⁴ prewar college for therapeutic massage,⁵ now operating legally as a private vocational school for auxiliary medical staff.⁶ The school obtained a license from the German occupying authorities to train auxiliary medical personnel, which under the conditions of wartime occupation provided the most convenient cover possible for the secret educational program. Classes were held on the premises of the Faculty of Medicine and in the city’s hospitals.⁷ The first head of the school was Prof. Stefan Kopeć,⁸ and after his murder Prof. Franciszek Czubalski,⁹ one of the pioneers of clandestine education. Initially, only a first year was opened, with 87 students attending. Six months later, a second year was organized. By that time, the school had a total of about 300 students.¹⁰ In 1941, the German police inspected the school and reported that the level of education it offered was too high, so they decided to close the institution. The Faculty of Medicine immediately devised a plan to reorganize its courses and continue teaching clandestine classes. For reasons unknown, the Germans did not implement their decision.

In March 1943, a third and fourth year of undergraduate study was established. Most classes were now held in the hospitals. Lectures and classes for 11 groups with a total of 401 students were conducted in Szpital Dzieciątka Jezus (the Infant Jesus Hospital). Some lectures were delivered in the dissecting room of Szpital Wolski (Wolski Hospital) in consultation with Dr Stefania Chodkowska,¹¹ in the dissecting room of the Ujazdowski Hospital with the consent of Col. Dr Leon Kazimierz Strehl,¹² and in the Department of Pathological Anatomy¹³ with the participation of Prof. Ludwik Paszkiewicz.¹⁴ The courses were significantly reduced (e.g. General Pathology was just a course of 24 hours) conducted as revision classes, but thanks to the profound commitment of the students, this program of study was really effective. Most of the students were women¹⁵ (Maria Banasiewiczówna, Marianna Dudzińska, Janina Goeblówna, Łucja Daniszewska, Chróścielewska, Kalnikówna and others) who took an active part in organizing the clandestine classes. Many lecturers made copies of their notes, the only teaching aids available at the time, and distributed them to students. As the students performed various auxiliary jobs in the hospitals, their presence did not make the Germans suspect anything “untoward” was going on.

The lecturers of Zaorski’s School included many eminent professors: Witold Orłowski,¹⁶ Ludwik Paszkiewicz, Henryk Gnoiński,¹⁷ Franciszek Venulet,¹⁸ Edward Loth¹⁹ and others. They also taught in other clandestine classes, and so their names will crop up again in this article.

Alongside its basic activities, Zaorski’s school trained auxiliary healthcare workers. For example, in the 1942/43 academic year, several courses for X-ray technicians were conducted officially, but first aid classes were clandestine and conducted by medical practitioners Maj. Zygmunt Krupiński²⁰ and Maj. Marian Mroczkowski [As related by Aleksandra Eichhorn, who attended the course for X-ray technicians—original note].²¹

A considerable number of students of Zaorski’s school and those attending other clandestine classes were involved in the underground resistance movement and organized sanitary (first aid) training for resistance groups and sanitary staff for service in sanitary battalions in the event of an uprising breaking out. Many of these students joined combat groups.

It is difficult to establish the number of clandestine classes conducted in Warsaw, because some of them were part of the study program of Zaorski’s School and some were later incorporated in the School’s “regular” activities.

One of the first clandestine courses organized in Warsaw was run by the botanist Dr Marian “Wójcik” Koczwara²² and covered the syllabus of the first three years of medical studies. The lecturers were Edward Loth, Bolesław Wojciechowski, Zygmunt Pękała, Hanna Szukiewicz, Tadeusz Kurkiewicz, Aleksander Elkner, Arkadiusz Flatau and others.

Secret medical studies embracing all the years of the undergraduate curriculum prospered independently for quite a long time. The courses were conducted by Edward Loth, Kazimierz Opoczyński, Bronisława Konopacka,²³ Stefania Chodkowska, Aleksander Pruszczyński, Józef Grzybowski²⁴ and others.

The lecturers of Zaorski’s School, Witold Orłowski, Ludwik Paszkiewicz and Henryk Gnoiński,²⁵ continued to conduct their own courses.

Thanks to their work, after liberation students could enroll for the final years of medical studies. In 1945, there were about 2 thousand medical students in Poland. All of them had started their studies during the War. This, of course, had a considerable influence on the time the first group of students graduated from the medical academies.

The Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Western Lands,²⁶ located in Warsaw,²⁷ offered a particularly high standard of education. It worked in more difficult conditions than, for example, Zaorski’s School, as it had no above-board courses and all it could do was to operate in strict secrecy. Its activities were managed by Adam Wrzosek.²⁸ Apart from lecturers from other medical schools, its staff included Zygmunt Pękała, Małgorzata Serini-Bulska, Barbara Kampioni-Manteuffel, Stanisław Trojanowski Zbigniew Wojciechowski²⁹ and others. In 1943-1944, it had over 600 students. In November 1944, it transferred to Kraków as an independent institution and pursued its activities there until March 1945.

There was also a branch of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Western Lands in Częstochowa,³⁰ with Zdzisław Stolzman³¹ in charge of teaching medicine at the request of Adam Wrzosek. The other lecturers in 1943-1945 were Roman Poplewski,³² Jan Bederski, Edward Borkowski, Władysław Stawarz, Leon Achmatowicz,³³ Edward Hanke and others. In 1944, fearing arrest, many students left to join resistance combat units.

Ludwik Hirszfeld in his study. Source: Urszula Glensk and Domnique Belin’s private collection. Click the image to enlarge.

In 1940-1942, medical courses were conducted in extremely difficult conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto. They were run by Ludwik Hirszfeld³⁴ and Julian Zweibaum³⁵ and attended by 500 students. Their organization was facilitated by the fact that due to numerous epidemics affecting the Jewish population of the Ghetto, the Nazi German authorities allowed doctors to train staff to cope with and control infectious diseases. It was only to protect the Ghetto’s German supervisors. In fact, several 2-3-month courses for doctors and dentists were conducted. Dr Zweibaum decided to follow the experience of Zaorski’s School and obtain a license for a course for sanitary (first aid) staff. Classes were conducted strictly according to the pre-war programs of the Medical Faculty. Initially, only the lower years of medical studies were opened, but later a fourth- and fifth-year course was set up for those who had started their studies before 1939. The departments of this medical faculty were also carrying out some (albeit a limited amount of) research, for example examining hunger disease.³⁶ After the War, less than 50 students, mostly veterans of the resistance movement, turned up and wanted to continue their medical education. The other lecturers of the medical courses conducted in the Ghetto were Józef Stein,³⁷ Ludwik Sztabholc,³⁸ Mieczysław Centnerszwer³⁹ and others.

The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Wilno did not close down at all during the War,⁴⁰ so when it went underground, it simply continued its work without a break, enjoying an uninterrupted tradition. Its courses were supervised first by Michał Reicher⁴¹ and later by Stanisław Legeżyński,⁴² when Reicher had to hide from the Germans. The lecturers of this faculty included Witold Sylwanowicz,⁴³ Włodzimierz Mozołowski,⁴⁴ Tadeusz Pawlas,⁴⁵ Stanisław Hiller,⁴⁶ Stefan Bagiński⁴⁷ and other professors of the Wilno Faculty of Medicine. The secret Faculty offered a very high standard of education thanks to the efforts of its entire academic staff. Despite the difficult conditions, there was no “free ride” for students, as evidenced by extant student report cards, which gave the real dates of classes, revision courses and examinations, except for the year, which was encrypted (i.e. antedated by a fixed number of years). The fact that these documents survived was a great help for their holders after the War. The curricula included lectures and classes in first aid and chemical weapons. The Faculty’s staff also conducted courses in these subjects for Home Army soldiers outside of the medical syllabus for “regular” students.

We cannot give an exact figure for how many of the medical students of Wilno University continued their studies later because most of them left the city after the War.⁴⁸

In Kraków, underground medical education was organized relatively late as compared with other cities. The reason was the arrest of the city’s senior academics in the notorious Sonderaktion Krakau.⁴⁹ Preparatory work for clandestine education began in 1941 and teaching started in 1942. The head of the clandestine university was Professor Władysław Szafer,⁵⁰ and Professor Mieczysław Małecki⁵¹ was his deputy. Initially, lectures and practical training were provided for the first and second year of study program in Medicine, which was attended by about 50 students. These classes were conducted till mid-1944 and resumed in the fall of that year. Each class consisted of 5-7 students. After the War, 110 students who had started their studies in Kraków during the War had their educational achievements and progress reviewed and confirmed.⁵² The lecturers were Bożydar Szabuniewicz,⁵³ Stanisław Maziarski,⁵⁴ Stanisław Kohman,⁵⁵ Zygmunt Grodziński⁵⁶ and others.⁵⁷

***

Translated from original article: Zabłotniak, Ryszard. “Studia medyczne w czasie okupacji hitlerowskiej.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1968: 71–72.

1. One of the first repressive measures the German occupying authorities introduced against Polish society after invading Poland was to close down all of the country’s universities, colleges of higher education, and secondary schools, in line with the German racist policy to keep the people of Poland uneducated as a compliant labor force working for their German masters. Polish educationalists reacted by setting up a dense network of secret classes covering the entire range of post-primary education from grammar (high) school to university undergraduate programs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Poland_during_World_War_II^a
2. Now Vilnius, Lithuania.^b
3. The new authorities of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw were elected just before the outbreak of World War II, but they did not manage to take up their duties. After Warsaw’s surrender, Germany suspended the activities of the authorities of its University. The Council of the Faculty of Medicine decided to start teaching medicine in clandestine courses. Source: Łyskanowski, Marcin, Andrzej Stapiński, and Andrzej Śródka (eds.), Dzieje nauczania medycyny i farmacji w Warszawie (1789-1950), Warszawa: PZWL, 1990, p. 359.^c
4. In 1927-1939, Dr Jan Zaorski ran a school of therapeutic massage called Prywatna Szkoła Masażu Leczniczego Dra Jana Zaorskiego on Smolna 30 in Warsaw. Jan Zaorski (1887-1956) graduated in Medicine from the University of Lwów. In 1920, he was appointed senior assistant of the Third Surgery Clinic of the University of Warsaw. He also worked in the following Warsaw hospitals: Szpital dla Dzieci, Szpital Sióstr Elżbietanek, and Szpital PCK. During the Warsaw Uprising, he ran a first aid station in the Bank PKO building. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 431-432.^c
5. Prywatna Szkoła Zawodowa dla Pomocniczego Personelu Sanitarnego w Warszawie, generally known as Zaorski’s School. In the 1940/1941 academic year, the clandestine Council of the Faculty of Medicine adopted a resolution authorizing Dr Zaorski’s School to establish a private sanitary (first aid) school, in which classes for medical students were to be held. The School was licensed by the German authorities to train auxiliary medical staff, but the classes for undergraduate students of medicine were held secretly. On January 20, 1941, the Health Chamber of Distrikt Warschau in the Generalgouvernement (the part of German-occupied Poland not directly incorporated in Germany) gave its consent for the School’s operations. The official opening of the School took place on March 4, 1941, and classes began on March 17, 1941. The School was subject to the decisions of the Secret Council of the Faculty of Medicine. To keep the risk of exposure as low as possible, until the end of its operations, i.e., the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944, the School was a completely independent unit. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 351-353.^c
6. Franciszek Czubalski, MD, was the head of this School under wartime German occupation. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski 1946: 48, 1445-1446.^d
7. Classes were held at Zaorski’s School, Smolna 30, in the Department of Theoretical Medicine and on the premises of the University of Warsaw on Krakowskie Przedmieście adapted for medical classes. Clinical classes were held in all the hospitals in Warsaw, with the exception of the facilities occupied by the Wehrmacht. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 354.^c
8. Stefan Kopeć (1888-1941) studied Zoology at the Universities of Kraków and Prague. From 1918-1932, he was head of the Departments of Animal Genetics and Morphology in Państwowy Instytut Naukowy Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego w Puławach (an agricultural research institute at Puławy). In 1932, he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Warsaw. He was executed by a German firing squad in the Palmiry massacres. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 296-297.^c
9. Franciszek Mieczysław Czubalski (1885-1965) studied Medicine at the Universities of Tartu and Lwów. His post-doctoral habilitation dissertation was on Pharmacology and Physiology. He became a full professor in 1921. Lectured on Human Physiology and served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw in 1923-1925 and 1934, and as Vice-Rector in 1934-1938. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 272-273.^c
10. When classes started, i.e., on March 17, 1941, there were 87 students (48 women and 59 men) enrolled. The next recruitment took place in September 1941, and two groups with a total of about 180 were created. There were 267 students in the first year of clandestine classes. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 353 and 355.^c
11. Stefania Chodkowska (1897-1974) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw in 1931. She became a senior assistant in the Department of Pathological Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw. In 1938, she was appointed head of the Anatomical and Pathology Laboratory of Wolski Hospital. During the War, she also worked in the surgical and lung disease departments, conducting clandestine classes in Pathological Anatomy, Normal Anatomy and Histology. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 415.^c
12. Leon Kazimierz Strehl (1891-1960) studied Medicine at the Universities of Munich, Berlin and Leipzig; he graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1919. He was a veteran of the Greater Poland Uprising, the Silesian Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising. In 1940-1944, he was head of Szpital Maltański (the Maltese Hospital) and Ujazdowski Hospital, Warsaw. Appointed sanitary chief of the Home Army Headquarters (March 1944). After the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising, he left with the wounded for Stalag Zeithain in Saxony. Source: Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Słownik biograficzny konspiracji warszawskiej 1939-1945, Warszawa: Pax, 1987, Vol. 2, p. 167-168. For more on Dr Strehl, see the English version of his biography (by Stanisław Bayer), available online on this website.^{c, a}
13. Franciszek Venulet, “Tajne nauczanie patologii ogólnej w Warszawie podczas okupacji niemieckiej,” Polski Tygodnik Lekarski 1947: 40, p. 1160.^d
14. Ludwik Paszkiewicz (1878-1967) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw. He was head of its Department of Pathological Anatomy and served as its dean and vice-dean. He is the author of Anatomia patologiczna, a 3-volume textbook. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 426.^c
15. 1,900 students are estimated to have attended Zaorski’s School. A list drawn up by one of its students is in the collection of the Museum of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw.^c
16. Witold Eugeniusz Orłowski (1874-1966) graduated from the Military Medical Academy in Saint Peterburg. In 1907-1919, he was a professor at the University of Kazan; a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków in 1920-1925; and head the Second Clinic of Internal Diseases in Warsaw in 1925-1950. Under wartime occupation, he was dean of the clandestine Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 426.^c
17. Henryk Gnoiński (1891-1946) graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków. He furthered his practical experience in Warsaw, where he worked as an assistant at the Department of Pathology of the University of Warsaw. Founder of the Blood Transfusion Institute at the Polish Red Cross Hospital in Warsaw. In 1941-1945, he organized first aid and sanitary services for Bataliony Chłopskie (the Peasant Battalions, a Polish wartime resistance movement). After the War, he was a professor of the Gdańsk Medical Academy. Source: Renata Paliga, “Zawartość teczki osobowej Izby Lekarskiej Warszawsko-Białostockiej jako świadectwo życia zapomnianego lekarza,” in Bożena Urbanek, Magdalena Paciorek and Maria Ciesielska, Aktywności polskich lekarzy w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IH PAN: Oficyna Wydawnicza Aspra-JR, 2020, p. 45-52.^c
18. Franciszek Venulet (1878-1967) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw. Professor of General and Experimental Pathology at the University of Warsaw. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 286.^c
19. Edward Loth (1884-1944) studied Anthropology at the University of Zurich and Medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Heidelberg. Appointed to the Chair of Normal Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw. During the Warsaw Uprising, he was sanitary chief of the Home Army for the Mokotów district. Killed while performing the duties of surgeon at a first aid station. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 423.^c
20. Zygmunt Krupiński worked at Szpital Jana Bożego (the John of God Hospital) during the Warsaw Uprising, and later at Centralny Powstańczy Szpital Chirurgiczny nr 1 (No. 1 Central Insurgent Surgical Hospital) at Długa 7. Source: Lista lekarzy i medyków pełniących obowiązki lekarza w Powstaniu Warszawskim, tlw.waw^c
21. Marian Mroczkowski (1897-1968) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw. Worked under wartime occupation in the X-ray Department of Ujazdowski Hospital. He and Dr Z. Krupiński ran an X-ray center in Warsaw and participated in clandestine classes for doctors, medical assistants, nurses and laboratory assistants. Source: 1944.pl^c
22. Marian Koczwara (1893-1970) read Biology at the University of Lwów. One of the first organizers of clandestine Natural Science classes in Warsaw under wartime occupation. Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Kraków Medical Academy, 1950-1952. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 421.^c
23. Kazimierz Opoczyński and Bronisława Konopacka taught Histology, and Aleksander Pruszczyński and Józef Grzybowski conducted classes in Anatomy. Source: M Łyskanowski et al., p. 340.^c
24. Professors Witold Orłowski and Ludwik Paszkiewicz and their assistants were conducting clandestine classes for groups of 10-20 students already by November 1939. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 435.^c
25. Henryk Gnoiński also gave sanitary (first aid) courses for civilians and presumably was the organizer of similar courses for the Green Cross (a Polish wartime medical service operating unofficially) at Szpital Maltański (the Maltese Hospital) in Warsaw. Source: Paliga, p. 62.^c
26. When the Germans closed down all of Poland’s universities and institutions of higher education, Poznań University, which was located in the directly annexed part of Poland incorporated in the Third Reich, opened an underground entity known as Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich (the University of the Western Lands), which operated secretly in Warsaw. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Western_Lands^a
27. Michał Reicher, Anatomia człowieka, Warszawa: PZWL, 1959, p. 3-8.^d
28. Adam Wrzosek (1875-1965) read Medicine at the Universities of Kyiv, Zurich, Berlin, Paris, Kraków and Vienna. Lectured on the History of Medicine at the Jagiellonian University, the University of Warsaw, the University of Poznań, and the Stefan Batory University in Wilno. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the clandestine University of the Western Lands, 1942-1944. Returned to Poznań in 1945 and taught at the Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine. Founder of the journal Archiwum Historii i Filozofii Medycyny. Source: Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny, Warszawa & Poznań: PWN, 1981, p. 848.^c
29. All these academics conducted Normal Anatomy lectures and classes. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 366.^c
30. The Częstochowa branch of the University of the Western Lands was founded by Zdzisław Stolzmann in September 1943. It had about 150 students of Medicine and Pharmacy. The branch oprated until June 1945. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 436.^c
31. Zdzisław Stolzmann (1906-1997) graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Poznań and qualified as a medical practitioner in 1936. Head of the Częstochowa branch of the University of the Western Lands under wartime occupation. After the Germans left Poznań in April 1945, he resumed his former post in the Department of Physiological Chemistry. Source: Brożek, Alicja, Profesor Zdzisław Stolzmann (1906-1997), współtwórca Poznańskiej Szkoły Chemii Fizjologicznej / Professor Zdzislaw Stolzmann (1906-1997) pioneer of physiological chemistry in Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań: 2012, p. 27-88 (doctoral dissertation), wbc.poznan.pl (accessed July 12, 2022).^c
32. Roman Poplewski (1894-1948) obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Geneva in 1920. Worked in the Department of Descriptive Anatomy, and from 1929 also in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Warsaw. Source: Feliksiak, Stanisław (ed.), Słownik biologów polskich, Warszawa: PWN, 1987.^c
33. Misspelled first name; Osman Achmatowicz (1899-1988) studied at the Stefan Batory University in Wilno. In 1934-1939, he held a professorship at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry, and was Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Warsaw. After the War, he organized the Faculty of Chemistry at the Łódz University of Technology and lectured there. In 1953-1969, he was a professor at the University of Warsaw. Source: Polskie rody szlacheckie. Kto jest kim dziś?, Warszawa: Interpress, 1993, p. 31-32.^c
34. Ludwik Hirszfeld (1884-1954) read Medicine at the Humboldt University, Berlin. He worked at the Warsaw Department for Serum Research. From 1926, he lectured on Serology for students of the Faculty of Medicine, and on Bacteriology in the Faculty of Pharmacy. He co-organized clandestine medical and pharmaceutical studies in the Warsaw Ghetto. After the War, he was a co-founder of the Faculty of Medicine in Lublin, and later Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Wrocław, where he founded a pregnancy pathology research center. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 419.^c
35. Julian Zweibaum (1887-1959) studied at the Faculty of the Natural Sciences at the Universities of Liège and Bologna. He was an assistant at the Department of Histology in the University of Warsaw. He was Poland’s pioneer in tissue research, and one of the founders and managers of the anti-epidemic training course in the Warsaw Ghetto. After the War, he was head of the Department of Histology and Embryology at the University of Warsaw. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 432.^c
36. Ludwik Hirszfeld, Historia jednego życia, Warszawa: Pax, 1967, p. 220-223.^d
37. Józef Stein (1904-1943) graduated in Medicine from the University of Warsaw and worked in the anatomic pathology laboratory of Szpital Św. Ducha (the Holy Spirit Hospital), where he did cancer research. In December 1939, by order of the German authorities, he was appointed head of the Jewish Hospital in the Czyste district of Warsaw. He taught clinical disciplines in the Warsaw Ghetto and conducted legal classes in the nursing school at the Jewish Hospital at Pańska 34. Sources: Łyskanowski et al., p. 413 and 430. Ciesielska, Maria, Lekarze getta warszawskiego, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Dwa Światy, 2018, p. 169.^c
38. Ludwik Sztabholc (aka Stabholc and Bolesław Dziedzic, 1911-2007) worked in Czyste Jewish Hospital and conducted anatomy classes in the Warsaw Ghetto. Source: Ciesielska, p. 463.^c
39. Mieczysław Centnerszwer (1874-1944) read Chemistry at the Universities of Saint Petersburg and Leipzig. Professor of the Technical University of Riga and later of the University of Latvia in Riga. Appointed head of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Warsaw (1932). Lectured in Physics and Chemistry at courses conducted in the Warsaw Ghetto. Source: Ciesielska, p. 130.^c
40. Classes started in February 1940. Source: Łyskanowski et al., p. 435.^c
41. Michał Reicher (1888-1973) read Anthropology at the University of Zurich. Appointed head of the Chair and Department of Normal Anatomy (1920), and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Wilno. Continued the work launched by Prof. Adam Bochenek on the textbook Anatomia człowieka. After leaving Wilno in 1945, he was head of the Chair of Anatomy of the Gdańsk Medical Academy. Source: Lewicki, Krzysztof, Michał Reicher – jego wpływ na rozwój polskiej anatomii, Gdańsk: Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny, 2010 (doctoral dissertation), pl.^c
42. Stanisław Legeżyński (1895-1970) read Medicine at the Jan Kazimierz University, Lwów. In 1921, he took up an appointment at the Lwów branch of Państwowy Zakład Higieny w Warszawie (the National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw). Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Stefan Batory University, Wilno (1938). Left Wilno in July 1946 and was appointed Head of the Department of Bacteriology at the Jagiellonian University. Pioneer of the Chair and Department of Medical Microbiology at the Białystok Medical Academy. Source: Chyczewski, Lech, Magdalena Grassmann, Paweł Radziejewski, and Marta Piszczatowska (eds.), Rektorzy Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Białymstoku 1950-2014, Białystok: Uniwersytet Medyczny, 2014.^c
43. Witold Sylwanowicz (1901-1975) graduated in Medicine from the University of Wilno and was appointed adjunct professor in the Department of Normal Anatomy (1929). Moved to Toruń after the War and was a co-founder of the Department of Anatomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. Source: Brożek, Krzysztof, “Sylwanowicz Witold,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Vol. 46, p. 218.^c
44. Włodzimierz Mozołowski (1895-1975) studied at the Jan Kazimierz University of Lwów and was appointed to a post in its Department of Medical Chemistry. Co-organized the Department of Medical Chemistry at the Gdańsk Medical Academy after the War. Source: Łoza, Stanisław (ed.), Czy wiesz kto to jest, Warszawa: no publisher, 1939, p. 508.^c
45. Tadeusz Pawlas (1891-1953) graduated from the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Medicine, Kraków. Assistant in the Jagiellonian University’s Department of Biology and Embryology. Conducted clandestine medical classes at the University of Warsaw and lectured on Hygiene and Dermatology at the clandestine University of Wilno. Co-organized the Gdańsk Medical Academy after the War, and was head of its Clinic of Dermatology and Venereology. Source: Sobczak, K., and K. Szostakiewicz, “Pawlas Tadeusz Karol (1891-1953),” Seweryna Konieczna, Ludzie Akademii Medycznej w Gdańsku, Gdańsk: Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny, 2009, p. 74-82.^c
46. Stanisław Hiller (1891-1965) read Medicine at the Jagiellonian University. Head of the Department of Histology and Embryology at the Stefan Batory University, Wilno, 1929-1939, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Moved to Gdańsk after the War and was head of the Department of Embryology and Histology of the Gdańsk Medical Academy. Source: Encyklopedia PWN [online] accessed July 7, 2022.^c
47. Stefan Bagiński (1892-1969) graduated in Medicine from the University of Kiev and was Prof. Jerzy Aleksandrowicz’s assistant in the Department of Histology at the Stefan Batory University. Head of the Department of Histology at the Lwów Academy of Veterinary Medicine, 1937-1939. After the War, he was head of the Department of Histology and Embryology in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Łódź after the War. Source: Feliksiak.^c
48. The records of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Wilno held by Prof. Mozołowski and the testimonies of Prof. Włodzimierz Mozołowski and Prof. Stanisław Legeżyński.^d
49. Sonderaktion Krakau, or formally Aktion gegen Universitäts-Professoren, was a German special operation for the arrest of Kraków’s university staff carried out on 6 November 1939, and their concentration camp confinement in Sachsenhausen. See the Jagiellonian University magazine Alma Mater, Nos. 64(2004), 118(2009), 178 and 179 (2015), and 188(2016) online at https://almamater.uj.edu.pl/archiwum.^a
50. Władysław Szafer (1886-1970) graduated in Botany from the University of Vienna. Lecturer (1917-1960) and later (1920) professor of the Jagiellonian University. One of the world’s pioneers of nature conservation. Six of Poland’s national parks were founded on his initiative. Source: Köhler, Piotr, “Szafer Władysław,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Vol. 46, p. 401-407.^c
51. Mieczysław Małecki (1903-1946) read Polish, Slavic and Romance Philology at the Jagiellonian University. He was the main coordinator of clandestine teaching in Kraków. Source: Łoza, p. 190.^c
52. This was done to enable wartime students to continue their education and graduate after the War.^a
53. Bożydar Szabuniewicz (1901-1986) graduated in Medicine from the Jagiellonian University. Conducted clandestine Physiology classes. After the War, he founded the Jagiellonian University’s Department of Physiology. Source: Encyklopedia PWN [online] accessed July 7, 2022.^c
54. Stanisław Wincenty Maziarski (1873-1956) graduated in Medicine from the Jagiellonian University. Assistant at the Department of Physiology and Histology; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, 1916-1917 and 1922-1925; and Rector of the Jagiellonian University, 1933-1936. Gave clandestine lectures and classes in Histology. After the War, held the Jagiellonian University’s Chair of Histology. Source: Gajda, Zdzisław, “Stanisław Wincenty Maziarski,” Polski Słownik Biograficzny 1975, Vol. 20, p. 299-300.^c
55. Stanisław Wilhelm Kohmann (1900-1983), appointed an assistant in the Jagiellonian University Department of Anatomy while still an undergraduate. Gave clandestine classes and lectures on Anatomy. Obtained the doctor’s degree in 1948 and appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Medical Academy of Silesia. Source: Baza Ludzie nauki on the Nauka Polska website.^c
56. Zygmunt Grodziński (1896-1982) graduated in Zoology from the Jagiellonian University. Head of the Department of Comparative Anatomy, 1935. After the War conducted anatomy and embryology research. Source: Środka, Andrzej, Uczeni polscy XIX-XX stulecia, Warszawa: Aries, 1994, Vol. 1, p. 585-586.^c
57. Sześćsetlecie medycyny krakowskiej, Vol. II: Historia katedry w sześćsetlecie Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Leon Tochowicz et al. (eds.), Kraków: Academia Medica Cracoviensis, 1964, p. 150-151.^d

a—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes by Maria Kantor, the translator of the above article; c—notes by Anna Marek, Expert Consultant for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; d—original footnotes translated from Polish.

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