Saving lives in Auschwitz : the prisoners' hospital in Buna-Monowitz / Ewa K. Bacon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bacon, Ewa K., author.

Series:

Shofar supplements in Jewish studies.

Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish physicians--Medical care.

Jewish physicians.

Nazi concentration camp inmates--Medical care.

Nazi concentration camp inmates.

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Polish.

World War, 1939-1945.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Auschwitz (Concentration camp).

Budziaszek, Stefan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (199 pages) : illustrations, photographs.

Edition:

First printing in hardback.

Place of Publication:

West Lafayette, Indiana : Purdue University Press, 2017.

Summary:

"In a 1941 Nazi roundup of educated Poles, Stefan Budziaszek--newly graduated from medical school in Krakow--was incarcerated in the Krakow Montelupich Prison and transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in February 1942. German big businesses brutally exploited the cheap labor of prisoners in the camp, and workers were dying. In 1943, Stefan, now a functionary prisoner, was put in charge of the on-site prisoner hospital, which at the time was more like an infirmary staffed by well-connected but untrained prisoners. Stefan transformed this facility from just two barracks into a working hospital and outpatient facility that employed more than 40 prisoner doctors and served a population of 10,000 slave laborers. Stefan and his staff developed the hospital by commandeering medication, surgical equipment, and even building materials, often from the so-called Canada warehouse filled with the effects of Holocaust victims. But where does seeking the cooperation of the Nazi concentration camp staff become collusion with Nazi genocide? How did physicians deal with debilitated patients who faced "selection" for transfer to the gas chambers? Auschwitz was a cauldron of competing agendas. Unexpectedly, ideological rivalry among prisoners themselves manifested itself as well. Prominent Holocaust witnesses Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi both sought treatment at this prisoner hospital. They, other patients, and hospital staff bear witness to the agency of prisoner doctors in an environment better known for death than survival"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: 1939: Germanization

Chapter 2: Stefan’s Arrest and Montelupich Prison, June 1941-February 1942: From New Doctor to Political Prisoner

Chapter 3: Concentration Camps, the New Enterprise Zone: Forced Labor, Slave Labor, and Prisoners

Chapter 4: Auschwitz Camps Develop: Social Strategies, Medicine, Allies, and Deadly Typhus

Chapter 5: The Jawischowitz Subcamp: Finding Sanctuary, Executions, Phenol Injections, SS Dr. Wirths, and Stefan’s Transfer

Chapter 6: Auschwitz Labor Issues: Manpower Shortages, Prisoner Exhaustion, and Extermination Agendas

Chapter 7: Aspects of the Buna-Monowitz HKB, the Prisoners’ Hospital

Chapter 8: Aspects of Survival in the Camp

Chapter 9: Five Men in the HKB: Their Experiences

Chapter 10: End Games: The Evacuation

Chapter 11: Coda: Addressing the Teleological Deception of Retrospect

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Appendix 1: Register of Physicians (in Different Time Periods) Active in the Prisoners’ Hospital in Monowitz

Appendix 2: Development of the Buna-Monowitz Hospital Barracks

Appendix 3: Stefan Budziaszek’s Deposition Regarding His Arrest, 1949

Biographical Note

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781612494937

1612494935

9781612494920

1612494927

OCLC:

1227051510