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In the summer of 1947, Herman Field, brother of Noel Field, organized a tour for students that examined reconstruction efforts in Poland and other European countries. The group stayed at the Piekary Hospital for 2 nights.

The boundary of Poland was redrawn again after World War II, with territories East of the Curzon Line, a huge part of the pre-war territory, given to the Soviets and German territory, East of the Oder and Nesse Rivers, given to Poland in reparation.

This was a color photograph taken of the hospital during 1947, when the students stayed for two nights.

Rev. Howard Brooks was the USC associate director who communicated frequently with Dorothea Jones during the hospital project.

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.

This map illustrates the "Iron Curtain" that divides countries of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

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.

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…

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…

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…