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Kosciuszko Hospital
The Kosciuszko Hospital was the joint effort of the Unitarian Service Committee's Polish Medical Team and ZUS, the Polish Social Insurance Agency. The team was tasked with repairing and restocking the hospital, including importing the latest American…
Dorothea B. Jones with new refrigerator in the laboratory of main hospital pavilion
Dorothea Jones was an American young woman from Beacon Hill, MA who, after being turned down by UNRRA, started working for the USC's French Office under Noel Field. She was appointed a member of the Polish Medical Team that, starting in 1944,…
Arrival of new operating table from America. Howard L. Brooks and Dr. A. Powell Davies watch while Dr. Bruk, medical director, tries it out
As a trauma center, the Kościuszko Hospital had four surgical wards and one medical ward, and much of the work done by the USC was with importing and setting up surgical equipment. Dr. Powell Davies was a unitarian minister who spoke at the official…
Patient being x-rayed with portable x-ray while Dr. A. Powell Davies looks on
X-ray had become such a critical piece of equipment since WWI that it was one of the first pieces of equipment that needed to be imported to the hospital. Just a few decades earlier, Röntgen rays (X-ray) was discovered in 1895, and the phenomenon…
Mrs. Lechtmann visiting woman's ward
Mrs. Tonia Lechtman was the fourth member of the team, and was actually in charge of putting the team together from Switzerland, where Noel Field was based in 1944. Her husband had fought in the International Brigade that fought against Franco in…
Hospital ward in disrepair, Piekary Hospital
By the time the Polish Medical Team had arrived, the found the hospital abandoned and empty, having been previously occupied and looted by the Germans and the Russians. There were no supplies, no equipment, and even the sinks were ripped out, except…
Poland Natural Resource Map, 1959
Silesia was known for its large coal deposits that easily mined. Coal was one of the few, and the main, Polish export in the years immediately following WWII.
Iron Curtain
This map illustrates the "Iron Curtain" that divides countries of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
Henry N. Cobb Visa Application to Poland
In the summer of 1947, Henry N. Cobb, then a student at the Harvard GSD, joined a group that travelled throughout Europe to observe reconstruction efforts, particularly in Poland. In September, the group stayed at the hospital in Piekary.
Rev. Howard Brooks
Rev. Howard Brooks was the USC associate director who communicated frequently with Dorothea Jones during the hospital project.