A Taste of Ghetto Life 3. Wards of the "Czyste" Hospital – Leszno 1

Departments of the "Czyste" Hospital – Leszno 1

At 1 Leszno Street – the building that housed the Spirits Monopoly in the years just before the war – after the establishment of the ghetto, three surgical wards, an otolaryngology ward, and a radiology laboratory of a modern and well-equipped Jewish hospital, which had operated in the Czyste district before the war, were located. This hospital, partially relocated to Leszno at the turn of 1940 and 1941, experienced numerous challenges: inadequate premises, a lack of modern medical equipment, which could not be fully transferred to the ghetto, staff shortages, and – perhaps even above all – constant, painful daily shortages of medicines, fuel, and food. The latter, as we know, is, in addition to specialized medications and professional medical care, one of the essential conditions for rapid and effective recovery from illness.

In the hospital in Leszno, apart from medical celebrities such as Dr. Aleksander Wertheim , Dr. Dawid Amsterdamski and Dr. Ignacy Borkowski , a number of young people worked, including Dr. Noemi Wigdorowicz , later Makowerowa, who had the opportunity to observe hospital life on a daily basis. After the war, she wrote about this otherwise formative experience, also drawing attention to the hunger prevalent even among the most needy patients under the hospital's care: "Each patient is a separate chapter enclosed in the medical record. Each bed is like a separate apartment, and at the same time a separate world of pain, worries, and dreams. 'Nurse, I am asking for a food allowance for Rozenfeld,' says the head physician. I already know these orders and I know that nothing will come of it. Ward nurse Aldszuld, plump, full of energy and temperament, begins her daily speech: 'Mr. Head Physician, we only have allowances for ten people a day, and doctors are writing prescriptions for thirty. Where will I get it? Besides, I don't have any underwear. Lately, the servants on the ward have been stealing, it's some kind of organized gang, underwear is constantly disappearing on the way from the laundry. Yesterday I learned that they were selling marked hospital underwear at Kercelak. I really can't cope and I'm asking for help. The economic manager has launched an investigation, but "To no avail. We have too few bandages and lignin, the pharmacy sends only a small portion of our needs. The nutrition of the sick is deteriorating more and more. Bread is like clay, and they give very little of that clay. The soups are watery, the sick are starving, the diarrhea…" ("Love in the Shadow of Death. Memories from the Warsaw Ghetto"). In the photo: Noemi Wigdorowicz-Makowerowa.

The inability to provide sufficient food for their residents affected most of the care institutions operating in the Warsaw Ghetto. Orphanages, children's soup kitchens, and refugee centers faced similar problems, where unsuccessful attempts were made to perform the miracle of the multiplication of bread. Sometimes, the wealthier residents of the ghetto were also approached directly for support, fundraising campaigns were organized, and patronages (and even matronages, as was the case with the Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital , whose branch was located at the intersection of Leszno and Żelazna Streets) were established to support the people in the care of such facilities. However, efforts, treatments, social work, and even extensive propaganda on behalf of the hospital's patients were no substitute for bread, cereal, milk, meat, or sugar.