Jewish Dermatologists in Warsaw during the Second World War

Abstract

The Warsaw School of Dermatology originated and developed due to the work of many excellent dermatologists, who functioned within the three main centers of dermatology in Warsaw. One of them was the Orthodox Jewish Hospital at Czyste. On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, 40 dermatologists of Jewish origin were registered in the Warsaw-Białystok Medical Chamber, which was an independent self-governing organization of physicians and dental practitioners. Many of them had graduated from foreign universities and were excellent specialists. Numerous Jewish and non-Jewish patients visited these Jewish physicians, but most of those physicians were killed during the 1939 Polish Campaign (September 1, 1939 to October 10, 1939). Soviet Secret Police Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), executed many others. Altogether, the NKVD murdered more than 25,000 prisoners, including more than 400 Jewish medical officers in Katyń, Kharkiv, and Mednoye. German officials quickly introduced a series of racial laws in the then occupied territories. These enactments dictated that Jewish physicians could treat only Jewish patients, which limited their ability to work. In the autumn of 1940, the Germans established the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw, which lasted until its destruction in 1943. Within its walls, there were 750 physicians, 39 of whom were dermatologists. Most of these died of starvation and diseases such as typhus, with only a few surviving. German authorities killed additional Jewish physicians in the extermination camp at Treblinka. Only 12.5% of Jewish dermatologists survived the War.