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Luba Blum-Bielicka with her husband Abraham (Abrasza) Blum in Warsaw, in 1928. The collections of the Yad Vashem Institute

The Nursing School at the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw (currently Wolski Hospital) was established in 1923. It was founded by the Society for the Promotion of Nursing Schools with financial support from the municipal council and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The school was modelled after American nursing schools, and its first director was the American nurse Amelia Greenwald. The program was designed to last two years and four months. Initially, only a dozen or so girls were enrolled, but by September 1939, the school had graduated 350 students. Just before the outbreak of World War II, in August 1939, Luba Blum-Bielicka became the school’s director.

Luba Blum-Bielicka was born in Vilnius on January 6, 1905, into an orthodox Jewish family as one of several children. She attended a Jewish high school and later moved to Warsaw, where she enrolled in the newly established Nursing School. She graduated with distinction in 1925. Following her graduation, she travelled to Belgium and France to study their healthcare systems. Upon returning to Poland, she trained nurses at the newly established Health Center on Świętojerska Street in Warsaw, founded in 1930. She was both an instructor and a pioneer in the field of public health nursing.

While still a student, she joined the youth socialist organization Cukunft, where she met Abrasza Blum, her future husband, a Bund activist and later a fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They had two children: Wiktoria (Aviva), born in 1932, and Aleksandra, born in 1936.

After the outbreak of the war, Blum-Bielicka remained in Warsaw. During the defense of the capital, together with her students from the Nursing School, she provided first aid to wounded soldiers staying at the Jewish Hospital in Czyste. The students also helped with infectious diseases.

When the Warsaw Ghetto was established in October 1940, the school’s building was located outside its boundaries, necessitating its relocation. The school resumed operations on January 15, 1941, at its new site at 1 Mariańska Street / 34 Pańska Street. However, the building was ill-suited for conducting nursing courses, and for the first several months, lectures and practical exercises were held on staircases and landings, as a single demonstration room with three beds was insufficient. It was not until the autumn of 1941 that the school acquired an additional floor in the same building, where another lecture hall was set up. Practical training took place at several locations: at 1 Leszno Street in the Hospital at Czyste for surgical ward practice; at 6/8 Stawki Street in the Hospital at Czyste for infectious disease ward practice; at 51 Śliska Street in the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital for pediatric practice; and also at 51 Śliska Street at the Mother and Child Care Station and in refugee shelters for hospital nursing practice.

Many years after the war, Alina Margolis-Edelman, who was then a student at the Nursing School, described the appearance of its students as follows:

Our uniforms were truly beautiful. The dresses were white and pink striped with a white waist apron featuring crossed straps at the back. The dresses had short sleeves with white cuffs and collars, which were starched at the School almost until the end of the ghetto period. We wore light white caps held in place by an elastic band at the back. After completing the second year, a black velvet band was to be sewn horizontally onto the cap. When we left the School, we covered ourselves with wide navy blue cloaks. The students’ cloaks were lined with navy blue wool, the instructors’ with blue wool, and the director’s with red wool.

In 1942, during the infamous ‘Great Liquidation Action’, the Nursing School was evacuated. Blum-Bielicka convinced the Germans that nurses might be needed to combat epidemics, which spared them from deportation. She also succeeded in smuggling her own children out of Umschlagplatz . After the liquidation of the so-called ‘Small Ghetto’, the school was re-established as a nurses’ boarding school and relocated to 33 Gęsia Street. Most of the students began working in sheds, while some found refuge on the so-called Aryan side (i.e. outside the ghetto). The school’s director managed to obtain life cards for 20 nurses. Subsequently, in September 1942, the institution was moved to 24 Franciszkańska Street, while the girls worked at the hospital at 6/8 Gęsia Street, caring for patients including those suffering from typhus. Despite the hunger and harsh conditions, they diligently carried out their duties.

In 1943, following the January action in which some of the nurses were killed, the Nursing School ceased to exist. Blum-Bielicka, warned by the underground resistance, hid in a basement with her children and several nurses. She managed to smuggle Wiktoria and Aleksander out of the ghetto and later made her own way to the so-called Aryan side. All three survived until the end of the war. Abrasza Blum remained in the ghetto, where he was one of the leaders of the uprising. He succeeded in escaping but was subsequently captured and murdered.

The Nursing School building located in the ghetto at 1 Mariańska Street survived the war. Today, a commemorative plaque on its wall reads: “In this building, from 1940 to 1942, during the Warsaw Ghetto period, Luba Blum-Bielicka (1905–1973) ran the Jewish Nursing School. For her heroism and dedication, she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal by the International Red Cross.” It now houses the Non-Public Health Care Facility “Mariańska.”

After the war ended in 1945, Blum-Bielicka became the director of the Jewish Children’s Home in Otwock, appointed by the Central Committee of Jews in Poland. In 1949, following the closure of the institution, she returned to Warsaw and assumed the position of director at Nursing School No. 3 on Kasprzaka Street. “She worked to modernize and improve the standards of education and training, placing significant emphasis on practical training,” we read on the website of the Virtual Museum of Polish Nursing. Blum-Bielicka remained in the country with her son, while her daughter emigrated to Israel in 1950. In 1965, in recognition of her long-term work and contributions during the war, she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest honor in nursing.

Luba Blum-Bielicka passed away on August 20, 1973, in Warsaw and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street.

Bibliography:

Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute, Testimony of Luba Blum-Bielicka, 301/4264.

Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute, Testimony of Luba Blum-Bielicka, 301/5865.A. Blady-Szwajger, I więcej nic nie pamiętam, Warszawa 2010.

L. Blum-Bielicka, Szkoła pielęgniarstwa przy Szpitalu Starozakonnych w Warszawie (1923–1943), „Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego” 1960, nr 4 (40).

B. Engelking, J. Leociak, Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście, Warszawa 2013.

A. Majda, J. Zalewska-Puchała, Rozwój szkolnictwa pielęgniarskiego. Dziewięćdziesięciolecie powstania Uniwersyteckiej Szkoły Pielęgniarek i Opiekunek Zdrowia w Krakowie, „Problemy Pielęgniarstwa” 2016, t. 24, nr 1, s. 61–68.

H. Makower, Pamiętnik z getta warszawskiego. Październik 1940–styczeń 1943, oprac. N. Makowerowa, Wrocław 1987.

A. Margolis-Edelman, Ala z „Elementarza”, Londyn 1994.

Wirtualne Muzeum Pielęgniarstwa Polskiego, Luba Blum-Bielicka 1905-1973, https://www.wmpp.org.pl/pl/galeria-medalistek/77-medalistki/159-luba-blum-bielicka.

Wirtualne Muzeum Pielęgniarstwa Polskiego, Szkoła Pielęgniarstwa przy Szpitalu Starozakonnych na Czystem w Warszawie, oprac. I. Kowalkowska, http://www.wmpp.org.pl/pl/szkoly-pielegniarskie/szkoła-starozakonnych.html.=