Więzienni lekarze. Opieka lekarska w więzieniach stalinowskich w latach 1945–1956
Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, Vol. 23 No 1 (2014), pages: 293-307
Publication date: 2014-06-30
Résumé
The article is an attempt at presenting the role of doctors working in the
reality of prisons in the years 1944–1956. Medical care was supposed to be limited
to a minimum, and doctors had to serve a specific role in supervising the
prisoners. On the one hand, they were part of the oppressive system, while on the other
hand, they often stepped outside their assigned roles, helping the prisoners and
mitigating the regime. As in other aspects of Stalinism, here the reality also luckily
turned out to be more human than the official assumptions.
People who worked in prisons were civilian doctors and nurses employed on
contract by the Prison System Department, as well as military doctors assigned
to this work as part of their service. Due to constant lack of medical staff willing
to work in prison hospitals and infirmaries, doctors serving sentences and
medical students were employed, as well. Of course, their situation was much worse
than of the “freedom” doctors. Both groups, however, were subject to control by
prison officers, in particular of the Special Department which oversaw the work
of prison intelligence and tracked all attempts to make informal contact with the
prisoners.
Prison healthcare was part of the system and its political objectives and
ideological vision of the enemy, but it was also a derivative of the economic situation
in the war-ravaged country. In the years 1944–1956, medical care in Polish
prisons evolved. In the first years after the war, the health of prisoners was affected by
terrible sanitary conditions, lack of doctors and basic medical supplies. Although
over the years the equipment of some hospitals and drug supplies improved, poor
health of prisoners was primarily affected by the long-term repressive regime which
began to weaken only in the middle of 1953.
The article is based on documents of the MBP Prison System Department,
testimonies of prison doctors before the court and prosecutors, published memoirs
of prisoners, as well as the author’s own interviews with doctors who were
prisoners.
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