MEDEM-SANATORYE IN MIEDZESHIN. מעדעם-סאנאטאריע אין מיעדזעשין
Varshe [Warsaw]: Aroysgegebn Farvaltung fun Medem-Sanatorye, 1932. Item #43517
1st edition. Original printed stiff paper wrappers with additional rear flap, 31 pages. Overflowing with 32 photos on glossy plate paper. 24 cm. In Yiddish. TItle Translates as: “Medem Sanitorium in Miedzeszyn” [a neighborhood in Warsaw].
Ref: See Dokumenty zycia spolecznego Zydów polskich (1918-1939) w zbiorach Biblioteki Narodowej; page 367.
The Medem Sanatorium was an “Educational and clinical facility for children and young adults at risk for tuberculosis. This sanatorium, which functioned in Miedzeszyn near Warsaw between 1926 and 1942, was named after Bundist leader Vladimir Medem (1879–1923), and was the best-known establishment of the Bund and of TSYSHO (the Central Yiddish School Organization) in Poland. The clinic was funded by donations from Jewish unions in Poland and American Jewish workers’ organizations” as well as the Joint (Bund Melbourne).
The Children of the Sanitorium were the subject of Aleksander Ford’s 1936 Yiddish-language Film entitled, “Mir Kumen On,” which translates as, “We are Coming,” but for the Film was translated into English as “Children Must Laugh.” The film is viewable online at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vozD_XbGHGA).
The film was re-released in 1938 as part of a massive fundraising campaign for the Sanitorium; the restored film was later featured at the Museum of Modern Art’s To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation in 2016.
"In June 1926, a group of 70 children at risk of tuberculosis was accepted for a summer camp. The sanatorium began its statutory operations in September of the same year, accepting the first group of 50 patients.
The association's board of directors was located in Warsaw, at 28 Leszno Street (in 1933, at 41 Nowolipki Street). Its most important facility was the complex on Lokalna Street (formerly Wiazowska Street) in Miedzeszyn....
The sanatorium occupied a large area of wooded dunes….The brick main pavilion resembled a large, single-story manor house. In front of the façade rose a two-story porch/terrace, used for summer meals. The building contained classrooms, research laboratories, exercise rooms, and a dining room. Next to the ‘manor house’ stood a large, partially two-story wooden building with glass verandas, designed in the so-called Nadswidrzanski style. It housed dormitories….
The sanatorium in Miedzeszyn was designed to accommodate 160 patients, which were to be expanded through subsequent expansions. According to its statute, it was a medical and educational facility, offering classes, special interest groups, including art clubs, and a library. Instruction was conducted primarily in Yiddish. Life at the sanatorium was organized by a ten-member democratically elected children's council. Some of the staff, including the head physician, Natalia Lichtenbaum-Szpilfogel, commuted from the capital….
In 1935, the Children's Sanatorium Association applied to the Ministry of Social Welfare for further loans for expansion and renovation. It was emphasized that thanks to the Ministry's subsidies, the facility's operations were secured and its most urgent needs were met. However, the matter was postponed due to the needs of other institutions, which were receiving less assistance than the sanatorium. The Ministry, however, granted the Association's request to send insured Jewish children to the sanatorium in Miedzeszyn. Correspondence between the Ministry of Social Welfare and the sanatorium indicates that this decision caused dissatisfaction among the insurance company's management….
The average treatment lasted 2–3 months and cost approximately 120 zloty per month. Partial discounts were offered for poorer patients, and the Social Insurance Institution covered the fees for insured children. This led to conflicts, as the institution found it more profitable to treat patients in its own sanatoriums. Obtaining a place at the facility was not a problem, both in the interwar period and during the occupation….
Between 1926 and 1939, the Miedzeszyn sanatorium treated 7,700 children, 85% of whom came from the poorest sections of Warsaw's Northern District, and approximately 20% from smaller towns….
The institution's undoubted success was its educational and pedagogical achievements. The sanatorium collaborated with the Union of Jewish Schools. Throughout the treatment period, hygiene schools were run alongside instruction. Children were employed in household chores, which served educational purposes but also reduced maintenance costs. The Association of Children-Friends of the Wlodzimierz Medem Sanatorium operated at the sanatorium.
During World War II, the Miedzeszyn sanatorium was incorporated into the Falenica ghetto. The facility was physically located outside the ghetto, but it was also surrounded by a fence, and the entrance was guarded by Jewish police. Food smuggling was easier and less expensive here than in Warsaw, and the Germans avoided contact with tuberculosis patients, which ensured the facility's smooth operation. During the war, the facility was financed by subsidies from Jewish charities in Warsaw and Krakow (distribution of foreign donations) and fees paid by parents (usually reduced fees). The situation in the hospitals within the Warsaw ghetto was much more difficult, and the Miedzeszyn facility remained virtually the only center for the treatment of Jewish children with tuberculosis.
During the occupation, the facility was run by Mrs. Zygielbojm (wife of Szmul, a member of the Polish National Council in London), Mrs. Muszkat, Dr. Eugenia Gottfryd-Hotwatt, Dr. Wolf Masewicki, and Dr. Tenenbaum. The staff enjoyed widespread public respect, which meant that the Jewish police in Falenica overlooked them during roundups for labor camps and special events. Only indirect data on the results of treatments provided at the sanatorium survive from this period. The young people often recovered despite a low-protein diet, which meant returning to the ghetto, often destitute, where they shared the fate of the ghetto population.
After the Jewish district was closed, the staff of the Miedzeszyn facility were housed in small but significantly better patient rooms than those in the Falenica ghetto. Living conditions were improved by expanding the vegetable garden, raising chickens and rabbits, and operating local workshops. For the past year, the workers had not received their wages. Just before the "evacuation," some workers, already prepared to flee, managed to escape.
On August 20, 1942, the entire Jewish population was deported from Falenica and Miedzeszyn. According to some sources, the children from the sanatorium were treated quite well – they were allowed to pack their bags and were not beaten. In contrast, at the sanatorium in Otwock, the Germans killed the most seriously ill, the mentally ill, and the doctors who had not left the facility.
However, we know from elsewhere that the older children were called to a meeting, at which teacher Friedman urged them to save themselves by escaping to the nearby forests. Apparently, one girl, named Hochberg, was saved by a Polish neighbor. The remaining 200 children, along with the staff, were herded by the Germans to a square near the Falenica station, where, after a day's wait, they were loaded onto a train to Treblinka along with a crowd of local Jews.
The sanatorium complex existed for several decades after the war. After 1945, it housed a kindergarten, then a training center. Demolition took place in 1970, in an attempt to erase traces of the site's past.
In 2016, on the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Wawer commune and the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Wlodzimierz Medem Sanatorium in Miedzeszyn, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute prepared the exhibition ‘GAN EDEN–PARADISE? The Medem Sanatorium in Miedzeszyn’”
(medemsanatorium.wordpress.com/wystawa) (Translated from
sztetl.org.pl)
See also:
- Majewski J. S., Miedzeszyn – sanatorium im. Medema,
https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,97596,4194355.html.
- Zablotniak R., Sanatorium Dziecka im. Wlodzimierza Medema w Miedzeszynie, „Archiwum Historii i Filozofii Medycyny” 1992, nr 55, z. 3-4, ss. 317–322]
- W sloncu i radosci. Dziecko w Sanatorjum im. Wl. Medema w Miedzeszynie, Warszawa,1933
- Szwarcman-Czarnota B., Niezwykle przedwojenne sanatorium dzieciece w Miedzeszynie [online]
www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/historia/1662024,1,niezwykle-przedwojenne-sanatorium-dzieciece-w-miedzeszynie.read.
OCLC: 15249040. OCLC locates only 5 copies worldwide (NYPL, YIVO, UTexas-Austin, Royal Danish Library, Ntl Lib Poland), none at any Ivy League Institution.
Paper and internal binding, including photo pages, are excellent. Light wear to wrappers, small stamp on covers, Internally very good, Very Good- Condition overall. [PBERL-1-6-XX-(LEXBFS*)].
Price: $950.00