Medem Sanatorium
Title: Medem Sanatorium
Inclusive Dates: 1929-1943 ca
ID: RG 1474
Extent Information
2' 1"
Administrative/Biographical History
Educational and clinical facility for children and young adults at risk for tuberculosis. This sanatorium, which functioned in Międzeszyn near Warsaw between 1926 and 1942, was named after Bundist leader Vladimir Medem (1879–1923), and was the best-known establishment of the Bund and of TSYSHO (the Central Yiddish School Organization) in Poland. The clinic was funded by donations from Jewish unions in Poland and American Jewish workers’ organizations. Until 1935, public money (from municipal authorities and health insurers) also covered some of the costs. Children generally stayed for two to six months, and the waiting list for admission was long. Some children remained for more than a year, and quite a few returned for further treatment. The sanatorium accommodated an average of 140 children during the winter and about 350 in summer. After the Germans invaded Poland, the Medem Sanatorium was first shut down and then looted in September 1939. The Bund’s underground organization decided to reopen the clinic a few months later. Despite rapid deterioration in the facility’s conditions, the teachers nonetheless remained true to the educational concepts of the TSYSHO and continued to admit children; for example, 130 pupils arrived from a Polish-language Jewish orphanage. The children and remaining staff were deported to Treblinka on 22 August 1942. Author: Excerpted from Pickhan, Gertrud. 2010. Medem Sanatorium. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
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Acquisition Note:
Transferred from the Bund Archives of the Jewish Labor Movement to YIVO, 1992
Collection Material Type: Collections
