The Bersohn and Bauman Hospital in Warsaw

The Bersohn and Bauman Hospital in Warsaw

Hanna Węgrzynek, Konrad Zieliński

The children’s hospital between Śliska and Sienna Streets was built in 1876-1878 thanks to two distinguished families of Jewish industrialists and philanthropists of Bersohn and Bauman. In November 1940, the hospital was within the boundaries of the so-called small ghetto and operated until the so-called Great Action of Deportation in 1942. In the Warsaw Uprising it served as a field hospital for the AK Chrobry II Grouping.
Many well-known doctors worked in the hospital, among them Henryk Goldszmidt (“Janusz Korczak”), employed in this institution in the years 1905-1912. The hospital’s chief physicians were: Ludwik Chwat (1878-1881), Szymon Portner (1881-1910), Adolf Poznański (1911-1923), and Anna Braude-Hellerowa (1930-1942). During the Second World War, Marek Edelman was also connected with the hospital, working there as a messenger. After the war, the building continued to serve as a hospital, until recently it was an active children’s infectious disease hospital ward. On 19th October 2018, it was donated to the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.