Cardiologist, professor of medical sciences, founder of the Warsaw Academic School of Cardiology; defender of the Modlin Fortress, underground activist, participant in the Warsaw Uprising.
He was born on June 1, 1910, into the family of a Warsaw pharmacist. Before graduating from high school, he earned his living as a pianist in Warsaw cafes. During his studies, he was a victim of the ghetto benches. He earned his medical degree in 1935 and began working at the Second Department and Clinic of Internal Medicine at St. Lazarus Hospital under the supervision of Professor Mściwoj Semerau-Siemianowski. On January 1, 1938, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
Zdzisław Askanas | photo: Archives of the hospital at Banacha Street
During the September Campaign, he participated in the defense of the Modlin Fortress, for which he was awarded the Cross of Valor. Shortly thereafter, he was resettled in the Warsaw Ghetto with his wife Alicja (a future associate professor of pediatrics) and son Aleksander (a future pioneer of echocardiology in Poland). The family survived the Great Liquidation Action and fled to the so-called Aryan side of Warsaw just before the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising, hidden under a transport of rags by a bribed Wehrmacht soldier. After escaping, Askanas adopted the name Jan Dębowski and became active in the underground resistance. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising as a doctor at the so-called "Kaliska Redoubt" (a resistance point at the intersection of Grójecka and Kaliska Streets). He left Warsaw with the civilian population and ended up in the Dulag 121 transit camp in Pruszków, from which he escaped. Together with his wife, he founded a hospital in Łuszczewo, providing aid to civilians, insurgents, and partisans.
After the war, he continued his research and medical practice, taking a position at a government hospital (1948), defending his doctoral dissertation (1950) and habilitation (1951), receiving the title of professor (1954), and becoming the first national consultant for cardiology. He initiated the creation of special intensive care units and the introduction of resuscitation ambulances. In 1967, he edited the first textbook on cardiac resuscitation. He died of a massive stroke on September 25, 1974, and was buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery.
Detailed article about Zdzisław Askanas: https://swiatlekarza.pl/profesor-zdzislaw-askanas/
