Another important step towards the opening of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum. The Masovian government and the museum management have signed a sales agreement for plot number 38/3 in Warsaw's Wola district. This means the museum now owns the site, which includes the historic buildings of the former Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital and its immediate surroundings.
According to Marshal Adam Struzik , today's signing of the agreement completes the process of changing ownership of the former children's hospital site. "Thanks to successful legal decisions, the buildings at 60 Sienna Street and 51 Śliska Street, as well as their immediate surroundings, will be able to serve other purposes, in this case the very valuable activities of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum," the Marshal added.
In November 2020, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum purchased from the Voivodeship the property at 51 Śliska Street and 60 Sienna Street in Warsaw (plot no. 38/4), which includes the buildings of the former Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital. This includes the main building, constructed between 1876 and 78 according to the design of Artur Goebel , and the ophthalmology pavilion, built after 1904 with funds from the Dawidson family. Many outstanding specialists worked at the historic hospital, including one of the most renowned pediatricians, Dr. Julian Kramsztyk , co-founder of the Society of Friends of Children, Dr. Anna Braude-Hellerowa , and Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmit) himself.
In 1952, the property became city property and housed an infectious diseases hospital. The provincial government has owned the property since 1999, and until 2014, the Children of Warsaw Provincial Infectious Diseases Hospital operated there.
"The historic complex of the former Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital is one of the few witnesses to the fate of Warsaw and one-third of its citizens – Warsaw Jews," says MGW Director Albert Stankowski . "It is a unique place on the city map, inextricably linked to the history of the Warsaw Ghetto. The acquisition of plot 38/3 as the last remaining part of the hospital complex is a significant milestone in the process of construction and creation of the permanent exhibition of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum."
The agreement signed today implements the provisions of the preliminary agreement concluded in April 2020. The sale of plot no. 38/3 was previously prevented by the proceedings pending as a result of claims filed by the former owners. After the Local Government Appeal Board discontinued the administrative proceedings in this case, the voivodeship was finally able to sell the property.
“The historic buildings of the former hospital have a very rich history, and the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum there is its best culmination,” emphasized Deputy Marshal Wiesław Raboszuk.
The transferred properties are under the protection of the provincial conservator of monuments as a valuable relic of the pre-war urban fabric.
