The hospital was established in early 1837 and operated until 1941 (until the extermination of Jewish residents of Kalisz). Medical services were provided in the building almost continuously during that time. The hospital was dismantled shortly after its final closure in 1941.

(more information under the photos ↓)

Jewish Hospital, 1939-1940, Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu, spuścizna T. Martyna

Site plan of the Jewish hospital buildings 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Design of the Jewish hospital builidings from 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Design of the Jewish hospital builidings from 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Design of the Jewish hospital builidings from 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Design of the Jewish hospital builidings from 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Design of the Jewish hospital builidings from 1871. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu.

Footbridge along Piskorzewska street next to the hospital, 1852. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu 

The square of the former Jewish hospital, 1945. Source: Muzea Wielkopolski,MOZK 

The hospital, founded to serve the Jewish community, also extended its care to non-Jewish residents of Kalisz. During the first two years of German occupation, it became a central institution for organizing what remained of Jewish communal life in the city - even as that community was being gradually annihilated.

The hospital was founded in early 1837, by the efforts of a Jewish physician, Michał Morgenstern. It was located by the Babinka Canal, at the corner of Piskorzewska and Nadwodna Streets (now A. Parczewskiego Street). Nearby stood a mikveh, and not far from it, a synagogue. Despite challenges related to organization and funding, the hospital survived until the outbreak of World War II. After a brief closure, it was reopened in November 1939. Jewish craftsmen carried out extensive renovations, physicians equipped the hospital with medical tools, and the Jewish community contributed funds, bed linens, and other necessities. The hospital was led by Dr. Debora Gross-Schinagel. Despite difficult conditions, the hospital treated over 1,000 patients, including people from nearby ghettos and camps. Some Jewish individuals also sought refuge in the hospital to avoid deportation. For a time, the hospital was able to negotiate certain concessions from the German authorities, receiving food and medical supplies. It continued operating up to the fall of 1941, until the final deportation of the remaining Jews of Kalisz. Shortly afterward, the building was dismantled.

The idea of establishing a hospital for Kalisz’s Jewish community was first proposed in 1830. Five years later, the Council for the Jewish Hospital was formed. Just two years after that, Jewish physician Michał Morgenstern (1780–1849) turned the vision into reality. In February 1837, the hospital opened in a newly purchased and renovated building on Nadwodna Street (now A. Parczewskiego), at the corner with Piskorzewska, near the mikveh. It was a single-story brick building on a corner lot. (…) The ground floor included a meeting room, a hospital pharmacy, (...) a room for the sick, and a laundry room. (…) The upper floor had two patient rooms and a steam bath on the right side, and another room and a linen storage room on the left. The attic housed a room for women with venereal diseases on the right and for men on the left. The hospital enjoyed a good reputation, not only among Kalisz's Jewish population but more broadly. In 1923, the Kalisz City Council voted to close the Jewish Hospital, citing financial concerns. In 1929, its surgical department was merged with that of the Holy Trinity Hospital, and both hospitals' dermatology and venereal disease wards were housed in the Jewish Hospital building. A maternity ward was also temporarily located there. In 1930, the hospital became part of the Intercommunal Hospital Union, operating under its umbrella until 1935, when it was officially absorbed into the new Municipal Hospital despite protests from the Jewish population. Nevertheless, it continued to function independently and was fully funded by the Jewish community. The hospital included a prayer room and the patients were provided with kosher meals.

The hospital’s most heroic period began under the Nazi occupation. In November 1939, the ransacked and looted facility by the Babinka Canal was reopened, repaired, and, despite the devastating situation of the Jewish population, re-equipped with medical supplies. After the departure of the hospital’s previous director, Dr. Dawid Seid, leadership passed to the dynamic Dr. Debora Gross-Schinagel. Following the murder of her colleague, Dr. Edward Beatus, by a Gestapo officer on a Kalisz street, Dr. Schinagel remained the hospital’s sole physician. Under extremely difficult conditions, the hospital treated more than 1,000 people, including many from nearby ghettos and camps. Numerous births took place there. A small laboratory, producing some medications, was organized by Dr. Schinagel’s husband, chemical engineer Artur Schinagel. To protect some of those threatened with deportation, a special ward for “chronically ill” patients was established with 322 beds. People with disabilities and others with chronic illnesses were also housed in the nearby Talmud Torah school building. For a time, German authorities and the regional chief physician, a German named Karsch (Korch), tolerated the hospital's operations, visited frequently, and provided increased allocations of food and medical supplies. Permission was granted for some patients to receive specialized treatment at the Municipal Hospital. In the spring of 1940, during Passover, the Germans even allowed ritual food to be distributed to the hospital’s staff and patients (about 700 people in total), as well as to the Koźminek ghetto (1,300 people). When a typhoid outbreak struck the Koźminek ghetto later that year, Dr. Schinagel secured a vaccine from the Germans and led a swift vaccination campaign. The hospital ceased operations in 1941, as the last functioning Jewish institution in Kalisz. The patients and staff, including the Schinagels, shared the fate of the remaining 25,000 Jews from Kalisz - they were murdered in ghettos, labor camps, concentration camps, or in executions. Shortly after the hospital’s closure and during the filling in of the Babinka canal, the building itself was demolished.

Author of the text:

Piotr Sobolewski

Project partners:

Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu

Muzeum Okręgowe Ziemi Kaliskiej

Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna