Medicine and Nationalism – a hospital station at the Jewish cemetery in Wrocław

Between 1941 and 1945, in some regions of the Third Reich, Jews were allowed to function, if, among other things, they had non-Jewish spouses or were considered, according to racial purity laws, to be so-called „Mischlings”. German half-blood Jews, due to the Aryan blood element, were initially not affected by persecution to the same extent as full-blood Jews. In theory, they could, for example, seek exemption from racial laws, did not have to pay Jewish property tax or wear the Star of David. They were also spared during the first deportations. The question of the extermination of German Jews in mixed marriages or those who were categorised as being of „mixed descent” was repeatedly raised in National Socialist offices and institutions but was never finally resolved. In line with the National Socialist racial ideology, separate medical facilities had to be established for this social group, providing health care services. Such centres were set up from 1943 onwards in the larger German cities where there were still relatively large numbers of Jews. They were opened on the Gestapo’s orders as so-called hospital stations (Krankenstation). Such institutions operated in: Berlin, Breslau (now Wrocław), Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Cologne. An abandoned administrative building located in the Jewish cemetery at what was then Flughafenstraße 51 (now Lotnicza Street) in the Cosel (Kozanów) district was designated as the headquarters of the Wrocław facility, which egan operating on 1 July 1943.

Medicine and Nationalism – a hospital station at the Jewish cemetery in Wrocław

Between 1941 and 1945, in some regions of the Third Reich, Jews were allowed to function, if, among other things, they had non-Jewish spouses or were considered, according to racial purity laws, to be so-called „Mischlings”. German half-blood Jews, due to the Aryan blood element, were initially not affected by persecution to the same extent as full-blood Jews. In theory, they could, for example, seek exemption from racial laws, did not have to pay Jewish property tax or wear the Star of David. They were also spared during the first deportations. The question of the extermination of German Jews in mixed marriages or those who were categorised as being of „mixed descent” was repeatedly raised in National Socialist offices and institutions but was never finally resolved. In line with the National Socialist racial ideology, separate medical facilities had to be established for this social group, providing health care services. Such centres were set up from 1943 onwards in the larger German cities where there were still relatively large numbers of Jews. They were opened on the Gestapo’s orders as so-called hospital stations (Krankenstation). Such institutions operated in: Berlin, Breslau (now Wrocław), Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Cologne. An abandoned administrative building located in the Jewish cemetery at what was then Flughafenstraße 51 (now Lotnicza Street) in the Cosel (Kozanów) district was designated as the headquarters of the Wrocław facility, which egan operating on 1 July 1943.