Title:

Biography of a communist doctor : Jerzy Jakubowski, founder of the Łódź Cardiology School

Creator:

Epsztein, Jolanta

Publisher:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2020

Date on-line publ.:

2020.12.31

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Jerzy Jakubowski ; Łódź (Poland) ; Łódź Cardiology School ; history of medicine

Abstract:

The article aims to analyse the life of Jerzy Jakubowski (born in 1887 in Warsaw, died in 1967 in Wrocław), a doctor and a communist, against the background of political and social events taking place in Poland and Europe at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. It is also the story of a man who was not at peace with his roots and did everything he could to erase them from history and the memory of posterity. His endeavour could be called an escape from identity. Even before the Second World War, after returning to Poland from Soviet Russia, he changed his name to Maurycy Jerzy. During the German occupation, he took the surname Jakubowski and kept it after the war. Therefore, in the article, he appears as Jakubowski (Muszkatenblit) from the moment he received false papers. Similarly, his son Mikołaj used Aryan papers for the name of Mokrzycki during the Second World War and did not return to his family name afterwards. The prewar discrimination and restriction of the rights of Jews pushed them both towards communism, which gave a chance to everyone regardless of ethnic origin. The article is also an attempt to reconstruct the life of a communist ‘old-timer’ for whom loyalty to the party was of paramount importance. Although he accepted the dissolution of the Communist Party of Poland and the murder of Polish communists by Joseph Stalin with a heavy heart, it was only after the political thaw of 1956 that he had the courage to voice his doubts about these purges. The main source used by the author is Jerzy Jakubowski’s own account of his ‘revolutionary’ activity from 1905 to 1967, recorded shortly before his death, between 27 April and 5 August 1967. It is now held in the Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw.

Relation:

Rozprawy z Dziejów Oświaty

Volume:

57

Start page:

27

End page:

105

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

pdf

Resource Identifier:

0080-4754

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, full text available at:

Copyright holder:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów PAN

Original in:

Library of the Institute for the History of Science PAS

Access:

Open