Surgical Ward Book - memories

The surgical ward operated in conditions that until now were probably unheard of in the history of medicine. The inmate-physicians dependent on their oppressors, officers and non-commissioned officers of the SS, were forced to teach them surgery and simultaneously lead the treatment to protect the inmates from the results of potential botched surgeries. Sometimes one had to assist during operations that were not necessary or even not recommended. The operating SS-physicians had no qualifications. (...) They demanded to be provided with surgical “material”, and if there was none, they personally chose from among the sick who came to the outpatient clinic with various complaints. Appendices were definitely removed in excess.

            In the beginning, the operations were performed in the general treatment room on a field operating table., We had at our disposal only a modest set of surgical instruments, sterilized in the sterilizer, in which the linen scraps required for surgeries were boiled as well. The instruments were replenished by robbing the SS chemist's. Chloroethane, ether, procaine and sometimes even chloroform were used to anaesthetize. Fractures were positioned with a few original splints, usually made according to our own ideas of wires, waste, boards and sticks. Casts were made of old rags. (...)

            In June 1941, Władysław Dering, gynecologist trained also in general surgery, became the director of the surgical ward. (...) On the ground floor, Dering developed a sterile operating theatre and ran it himself. He was assisted by physicians: Zbigniew Sobieszczański, Jan Grabczyński and Emil Igner. The anaesthetic was administered usually by Zenon Ławski. Responsible for the preparation of surgeries and keeping the order at the operating theatre were the orderlies from the camp: Jan Wolny, Aleksander Górecki and Józef Panasewicz. (…)

            The so-called dirty (pus) ward was established on the first floor. It was run by Wilhelm Türschmied, and later by Jan Grabczyński, with the aid of Szczepan Kruczek, Stanisław Wrona-Merski, Stefan Żabicki and others.

Władysław Fejkiel (no. 5647)

As for the surgical treatments, they were registered in ward books and in patient’s records. (...) The records of surgeries were registered in it, those made in the operating theatre and in the treatment room in block 21, as well as those made in the small room in block 28. Terminology used in these books is generally correct; it was probably dictated by the physician operating.

It appears from the handwriting that the books were kept by several prisoners. The content of the entries indicates that annotations about surgeries and plaster casts were made in those books.

            ENT treatments and hernia surgeries were frequently performed. The latter case could be explained by the fact that during medical examinations, carried out every time a new transport arrived, the SS physician examining naked prisoners at once marked some of them for surgical treatment.  He could be driven by two reasons, that is, he wanted to increase the number of prisoners capable of work or he chose cases which interested him personally and that he wanted to operate on himself.

            Looking through the records, I find that there are not many annotations about plaster casts put on upper and lower limbs, and neither are there annotations about fresh wounds stitching. And it is well known that a lot of prisoners came to the ward with fractures, as well as with cuts. (...)

On the day of camp evacuation, 18.01.1945, under the surveillance of the SS physician Fischer and SDGs (SDG - SS orderly), who dogged us constantly, the whole medical documentation and all the papers from the block’s office were burned in stacks. Prisoners managed to hide only two Surgical Ward Books which were preserved.

Tadeusz Orzeszko (no. 131527)

The record books of block 21, in which the surgical ward was located, were hidden during the evacuation. The hiding place was the stove at the camp bathhouse, from where they were taken out after the liberation.

Stanisław Kłodziński (no. 20019)

We were directed to block 21, to the surgical ward. I went to the right wing. An awful stench was overwhelmed me and I almost fell down. The ground floor was divided into two large wards. At every ward there were about 400 bunks. In every bunk there were at least three, sometimes four patients, nearly all of them with large, infected, open wounds of size that a surgeon normally does not see. They were bandaged twice a week, only with paper bandages that lasted 10, or sometimes only 5 minutes. Apart from that, they were soaked with pus that flowed from their limbs onto other patients or into straw mattresses, which rotted quickly. In some bunks, among the living ones, there was one and sometimes even two dead bodies.

Karel Sperberg (no. 82512)

At the camp, above all, there was the dirty, pus surgery. Most of the sick came to the patient room because of enormous phlegmons, caused by infections of small wounds and chafes caused by accidental cuts, e.g. because of clogs, but most frequently because of festering wounds and huge haematomas caused by beatings, kicking and harassing the prisoners by SS men, trusties and block leaders. (...)

Extensive and chronic ulceration of shins occurred quite often, inflicted usually through beating, especially kicking. There were also many fractures that were often very hard to treat. These were usually forearm fractures, in the middle of the forearm, suffered while shielding oneself from being beaten with staffs and objects alike. (...) There were also a lot of ankle fractures that happened as a result of sudden position changing in the mud, on uneven ground, during hasty work carried out running, in inadequate footwear such as cloth-wooden shoes (“latschki”) or full, wooden clogs (“dutches”). Collarbone fractures were also quite frequent. There were also - almost exclusively as a result of harassment and beatings - fractures of arms and thighs.

            A lot of prisoners suffered from extensive oedemas, especially of feet, scrotum and abdomen, which by the slightest infection caused extensive phlegmons and gangrenes, with whole skin falling off, necrosis of fingers, etc.. (...) There were also a lot of frostbites, especially of fingers and toes. It mainly ended with emergency amputations, that were made under a short daze with chloroethane or procaine.

            After the finger amputation, and when the cast was put on, the sick had to work, because even if we designated them for lighter works in the block, indoors, the block leaders beat and forced them to work more than in a “normal” work squads.

Kazimierz Hałgas (no. 5670)