Medical services during the Warsaw Uprising
Obroża (Collar)
The VII District Obroża of the Home Army Warsaw Area, which the operational area was the Warsaw territory excluding the city of Warsaw, and was divided into 8 regions. The regions reported to the Headquarters, where the person responsible for the medical services of the district was Dr Jan Dorożyński pseudonym "Adam". During the Warsaw uprising, the staff together with their security company had the headquarters in Warsaw at 51 Hoża Street.
Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz Copyright © 2018 SPPW 1944. All rights reserved.
The network of hospitals surrounding Warsaw took over the burden of caring for the wounded and ill evacuated from Warsaw during the uprising and after capturing one by one by Germans the Warsaw fighting districs, as well as after the capitulation of the uprising on 3rd of October, 1944.
Area 1 "Brzozów" - Legionowo.
For the time of uprising, there were prepared two insurgency hospitals, which operated from 1st of August until the entry of Soviet soldiers on 20th of October, 1944.
Communal Hospital in Legionowo at 23 Mickiewicza Street.
Insurgency Hospital in Legionowo located in the villa at Krasińskiego Street, founded on 5th-6th of August, 1944, in connection with the increasing number of the wounded coming into the hospital. Officially it was the Second Department of the Communal Hospital. There was a plaque at the entrance with a large inscription "Isolation Hospital - typhoid fever" which scared off the undesirable German guests. The hospital had three rooms with wards: A, B and C, about 40 beds in total, an operating room and a treatment room. The hospital was well equipped with medical equipment; medicines and dressing came from the German medical train, which was derailed by insurgents at Chotomów.
Both hospitals after the entry of the Red Army, the destroyed Communal Hospital and the Insurgent Hospital, were evacuated on 28th of October to Jadowo near Wyszków, from where they returned to Legionowo as one merged hospital in the spring of 1945.
Area 2 "CeIków" - Marki, was conquered by the Red Army at the end of July, yet before the outbreak of the Uprising.
Area 3 "Dęby" - Rembertów.
Hospital in Nowy Rembertów at Jagiełły Street, operated from 1941 and had a surgical ward together with an operating room and a maternity ward.
Isolation Hospital in Nowy Rembertów at 14 Zwycięstwa Street. This hospital was a branch the mother-hospital at Jagiełły Street. The hospital was located in the junior high school building.
Dressing station at the Medical Center in Stary Rembertów.
Dressing station in Zielona;
Dressing station in Sulejówek at Słoneczna Street.
Area 4 "Fromczyn" - Otwock, was conquered by the Red Army at the end of July, yet before the outbreak of the Uprising.
Area 5 "Gątyń" - Piaseczno.
Insurgency hospital in Pyry was organised in the first days of October 1944. Initially, the hospital was located in the building of the former police station at Puławska Street. Due to the lack of space, it was moved to a single-storey school building. The necessary equipment was provided by local doctors, the operating table was constructed on the spot.
Insurgency hospital "Lazaret" in the village of Mirków. The hospital staff constituted of the medical services members of the General Mączyński battalion of the NSZ (the National Armed Forces). The hospital offered help to the wounded from Warsaw and the nearby forests.
Hospital made available for the Home Army in Konstancin. The wounded and sick evacuated from the Hospital St. Duch stayed at the hospital on the turn of September and October 1944.
Provisional insurgency hospital in Okęcie, located in the Bosch warehouse.
Hospital in Piaseczno. Initially placed in a wooden school building at 12 Świętojańska Street, later moved to a brick building at Kościuszko Street. The hospital helped the sick and wounded from Warsaw and the military units from the nearby forests. The hospital operated from 6th of August, 1944 to February 1945.
Area 6 "Helenów".
District hospital with the isolation and internal ward in Pruszków at Piękna Street. Several dozen of beds were separated and destined for the sick from the Pruszków camp and the exhausted of evacuation.
Hospital for the mentally ill in Tworki. There was a ward designated for Varsovians. Approximately 2,600 patients from the Pruszków camp and hundreds of patients who managed to escape from transports were treated by the ward. This hospital took on patients evacuated from the Hospital of Dzieciątko Jezus and the wounded from the insurgency hospital at 6 Krechowiecka 6 in Żoliborz. The ward for Varsovians functioned until the end of March 1945.
District hospital in Pruszków-Wrzesin at Pęcicka Street. There were designated wards: surgical and gynaecological-obstetrics. From August to December 1944, the hospital took on over 1000 of the wounded and sick Varsovians.
Hospital in Pruszków-Żbików at Szkolna Street located in a private house. It was the only hospital located on the northern side of the railway tracks. The hospital was located nearby the Pruszków camp, and had about 30 beds. The hospital gave help several hundreds of the wounded and sick Varsovians.
Small hospital in Pruszków at 15 Szkolna Street located at the Educational Center of the Samaritan Sisters and ran by the nuns. They provided help to several hundreds of exhausted Varsovians - escapees from German transports.
24-hour medical and dressing station in Pruszków at Prusa Street in the Social Insurance Institution.
Medical center at the "Porcelit" Faience Factory in at Chemiczna Street Pruszków.
Medical center at the Files Factory in Pruszków at 3 Maja Street, corner of Mostowa Street.
The three above medical centers operated from August to November 1944, providing help to over a dozen of thousands of the sick and wounded.
Hospital at the "Tudor" plant at Warszawska Street in Piastów. The hospital was organised in September 1944, and was designated for the seriously ill Varsovians from transports to Pruszków camp, as well as for the wounded evacuated from Warsaw after the fall of the Uprising and came were at hospitals at 27 Wspólna Street, 55 Mokotowska Street and the Isolation Hospital at 5 Chocimska Street. The hospital at the "Tudor" plant had several dozens of beds, and helped about 800 people.
Hospital for the evacuated ill from Warsaw at 11 Listopada Street corner of Harcerska Street. It was organised in an unfinished school building. Among others, he ill from the Hospital of Dzieciątko Jezus were brought there. The hospital had a small number of beds and operated in difficult conditions, took about 300 patients. It functioned until December 1944.
An outpatient center at the Health Center at 17 Bohaterów Wolności in Piastów.
Insurgency hospital at Bohaterów Warszawy Street in Ursus. It was organised on 5th of August 5. Its creation was caused by the number of the first escapees from Wola and Ochota coming into the area, as well as first transports to the Pruszków camp. The hospital had an operating room and a separate isolation room. The hospital had about 50 beds. The hospital outpatient ward carried out over a dozen of thousands of minor surgeries. From August 1944 to January 1945, the hospital took on about 1000 Varsovians.
Insurgency hospital at Kościuszki Street corner of Cieplicka Street in Ursus. It was the branch of hospital at Bohaterów Warszawy Street. The hospital had about 30 beds and occupied the first floor of the building. The hospital was the place for patients who underwent minor surgeries and convalescents. The hospital also had a gynaecological-obstetric ward. The branch was under the care of doctors from the insurgency hospital at Bohaterów Warszawy Street.
Outpatient clinic for the ill evacuated Varsovians situated in the transit camp at Ursus Mechanical Works founded by Germans on 2nd of October, 1944. The hospital employed doctors from Warsaw. The clinic operated during the existence of the Ursus camp, from 3rd to 25th of October, 1944.
Medical center in Michałowice, on the route of EKD railway. The center was a shelter for escapees from the German transports. There was also a small, several-bed hospital at the center which cooperated with the hospital in Ursus. The center existed from August to December 1944. About 1000 people were given assistance at the center.
Medical and dressing station at the "Polesie" outpost in Magdalenka. It was the only the Home Army forest base within the 6th Area "Helenów", working for the Home Army units throughout the duration of the uprising.
There were two more hospitals in the outskirts of the 6th Area.
Hospital run by nuns in the Mariańska Forest near Skierniewice.
Hospital of St. Stanisław in Skierniewice. The hospital helped over 300 of the sick people and wounded from Warsaw and the Jaktorów area.
Area 7 "Jaworzyn" - Ożarów.
The RGO hospital was located in a residential building owned by the Glassworks in Ożarów. The hospital was created in the middle of August 1944 and occupied four rooms with 20 beds in total. From September, a 7-bed isolation ward and convalescent ward were established in the adjoining building. The hospital operated until December 1944.
The RGO Hospital in Włochy had 50 beds and two branches at the following locations: 28 Kościelna Street (general ward) and Wrońskiego Street (isolation ward).
Municipal Health Center in Włochy.
Area 8 "Łęgów" - Łomianki.
Field hospital in the Institute for the Blind in Laski, was located in the retreat house. The hospital was planned for 70 beds and had a well-equipped operating room and large stocks of medicines and dressings. There were organised additional rooms in the half-burned girls house, where the wounded and sick were placed and which had to be hidden from Germans.
Field hospital in Krogulec, designated for the lightly wounded.
The RGO Field Hospital in Łuszczew. The hospital was organised in the spring of 1944 and registered under the name of the RGO of Milanówek. The hospital was located in the estate of Aniela Kapuścińska due to the secluded location and easy access. There were two wards: male - for a dozen or so beds and female - for 10 beds. There was a separate dressing room. The hospital admitted the wounded and sick from the Warsaw uprising, the "Perełka" hospital in Milanówek and the wounded from Krogulec. The hospital staff was strengthened by doctors who came from Warsaw. The number of the wounded coming into the hospital created a need to look for a new location for the hospital. And it was found in the estate of Janusz Kuczyński in Gawartowa Wola, where the ground floor of the house was made available to the hospital. The hospital in Gawartowa Wola operated until 1948 as civilian hospital.
The RGO field hospital in Święcice, between Ołtarzew and Błonie. The hospital helped about 65 wounded and sick Varsovians.
The RGO small hospital and medical center at Pionierów Street in Dąbrowa Leśna. It was located in a former guesthouse and had approx. 20 beds. The place was intended for the lightly injured. The hospital functioned during the insurgency.
Hospitals and medical centers which functioned within the "Obroża" gave enormous help to wounded and sick Varsovians displaced by Germans from Warsaw during the Uprising and after its capitulation.
translated by: Janusz Kocerba