World Study Tour No. 18
Summer student traveling tour to study reconstruction
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.
Alex Chen
18. Maria Sołtys, 1947 : barwy druin : Warszawa i Polska w odbudowie na zdjęciach Henry’ego N. Cobba = 1947 : the colors of ruin : the reconstruction of Warsaw and Poland in the photographs of Henry N. Cobb (Warszawa: Dom Spotkań z Historią, 2012).
1947
Photograph
Poland Natural Resource Map, 1959
Poland Natural Resources, Reconstruction
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.
Alex Chen
Fifteen Years of People’s Poland. (Warsaw: Polonia Publishing House, 1959).
1945-1959
Static Map
Hospital ward in disrepair, Piekary Hospital
Polish Medical Mission
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 for a strange stockpile of toilet paper rolls. The Miners' Insurance company had owned the hospital, but agreed to sell it to the National Social Insurance Agency, with the Miner's Insurance company taking care of the renovations. The renovations went far beyond the estimated time, resulting in the hospital being open more than a year after the team hard arrived.
Alex Chen
Work 3. USCA, Audiovisual Records, Photographs, 1940-1980, bMS 16076/6 (20) , Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University
1930-2015
Andover-Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Archives
Photograph
Patient being x-rayed with portable x-ray while Dr. A. Powell Davies looks on
Polish Medical Mission
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 became quickly utilized to create diagnostic instrumentation, especially useful for lung and bone conditions, two parts of of the body that is particularly important for miners.
Alex Chen
Work 19. USCA, Audiovisual Records, Photographs, 1941-1986, bMS 16181/5 (7) , Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University
1947
Andover-Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Archives
Photograph
Arrival of new operating table from America. Howard L. Brooks and Dr. A. Powell Davies watch while Dr. Bruk, medical director, tries it out
Polish Medical Mission
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 opening, and Howard Brooks was the assistant director of the Unitarian Service Committee.
Alex Chen
Work 16. USCA, Audiovisual Records, Photographs, 1941-1986, bMS 16181/5 (7) , Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University
1948
Andover-Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Archives
Photograph
Dorothea B. Jones with new refrigerator in the laboratory of main hospital pavilion
Polish Medical Mission
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, assisted Polish DPs in returning to Poland, first in France, then British occupied Germany, then finally in Piekary, Silesia, where she was made the USC Director in Poland.
Alex Chen
Work 53. USCA, Audiovisual Records, Photographs, 1941-1986, bMS 16181/5 (6) , Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University
1944-1949
Andover-Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Archives
Photograph
Kosciuszko Hospital
Polish Medical Mission
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 hospital equipment and machinery, to serve the miners in the region. The focus of the hospital was, and remains to be, traumatic surgery.
Alex Chen
Work 47. USCA, Audiovisual Records, Photographs, 1941-1986, bMS 16181/5 (6) , Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University
1930-2015
Andover-Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Archives
Photograph
The Marie Curie-Sklodowska Institute in Warsaw, in 1945 and 1947, Reconstruction
Polish science and medicine, Reconstruction, Warsaw
Marie Curie, with friends family, and governmental support, was able to set up the Radium Institute in Warsaw. "A prominent group of American women, close friends of Madame Curie and devoted to the cause of America's fight against cancer, donated one gram of radium to the Institute. Thus Poland was able to take up her own large-scale fight against scourge of this mankind." The Institute was a hospital, lab, and library, but was closed and then partially destroyed during the war. The hospital continued operating until August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising. The Gestapo sought the radium that was hidden in the building, (1 gram hidden, 720 mg was handed over to the Germans). After the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans destroyed the building, killed the staff and patients (or moved them to Concentration Camps) and moved expensive equipment like X-rays back to Germany. The director was able to bribe a few German soldiers and rescue the radium amidst the ruins. After the war, the statue of Marie-Curie, like that of Copernicus, was left intact underneath the rubble. The Institute was restored with the aid of UNRRA resources. The photograph on the left was taken in 1945, the image on the right was taken in 1947.
Alex Chen
Poland of Today, April, 1947 Issue. p. 12-13.
1932-1947
Photograph
Coal Mine at Walbrzych, Silesia.
Coal, industry, Reconstruction of Poland
This image of coal mining in Walbrzych, Silesia (a town a little over 250 kilometers from Piekary, and belonged to the German territory that was given to Poland after the war) accompanied an article illustrating "Life in Silesia," specifically referencing the importance of coal mining to the region and the reconstruction of the country.
Alex Chen
Poland of Today, March 1947 Issue. p. 4
1947
Photograph
High-tension networks, electric grid, Poland 1946 - 1048
Reconstruction of Poland, infrastructure, coal, industry, importance of Silesia
The importance of coal in the Silesian region cannot be under-estimated. One of its uses was for electricity generation, with the first generation of high-tension power lines planned as shown on the map.
Alex Chen
Poland of Today. December 1946 Issue. p. 5
1946-1948
Map