Zofiówka Sanatorium

Zofiówka Sanatorium, photographed in 2010.

Zofiówka Sanatorium is a defunct mental health facility in the town of Otwock in Poland, built at the beginning of the 20th century.

History

The history of the old Jewish sanatorium starts at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, the treatment of mental disorders in this sort of institution was in its infancy. The first steps on this field were put in Zehlendorf by Germans who, paradoxically, forty years later contributed to the destruction of the asylum in Otwock. In 1906 Adam Wizel, Samuel Goldflam, Ludwik Bregman and Adolf Weisblat formed the "Society for Poor Jews with Nervous and Mental Illnesses" (Polish: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Ubogimi, Nerwowo i Umysłowo Chorymi Żydami). The sanatorium's director was Dr. Stefan Miller.^[1] A year later, a donation by Sophia Endelman enabled the purchase of 17 hectares of ground and in 1908 the first building of a new sanitarium was built by the association there. They focused on restoring patients to society, and an important part of the treatment was work. Soon, the sanitarium complex was enriched by some more buildings. Zofiówka initially had 95 beds, but this number had increased to 275 by 1935.^[2] In the “isolated camp”, the part of the hospital purposed for the most difficult patients, was placed the mother of Julian Tuwim, famous Polish poet. Soon came the year 1939, within which the tragic end of Zofiówka’s glory occurred. During the occupation, the asylum was within the so-called ‘medical zone’ formed in late 1940 by the Germans in Jewish quarter. The institution was still working, but the conditions were getting worse and worse. Almost 400 patients were sentenced to a slow death by starvation in the course of Nazi actions. Zofiówka finally ended its existence at the same time as ghettos in Otwock. On the morning of 19 August 1942, Ukrainians supervised by Germans, spent the patients and the hospital crew to the first pavilion. Many of them (100-140) were killed instantly, the rest were taken to Treblinka. Only a few doctors who managed to escape to Warsaw by an ambulance survived. Some of the staff people committed suicide. In 1943 Zofiówka served Germans as Lebensborn, the institution of charity care. The facility also dealt with the Germanization of Polish children, and bringing them up for adoption to families in Germany. After the war, Zofiówka returned to its original medical purposes. In 1985, treating neuropsychiatric disorders started back there, but patients were mainly children and young people addicted to drugs. This carried on until mid 90’s, when the decision to finally close it was made.

The 2015 viral video 11B-X-1371 was found to have been filmed at the abandoned facility, though by whom and when, exactly, are not known.^[3]

See also

• 20th-century psychiatry

References

External links

• Media related to Zofiówka Sanatorium at Wikimedia Commons