Biography of Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski

Benedykt Ziemilski 1892-1942

Benedykt Ziemilski was born as Baruch Zimmels in 1892.

His father, Bernhard Zimmels, was the first rabbi of Ostrava in Moravia and served there from 1890 until 1893. His thesis was accepted by the Universität Leipzig in 1886. The title of his thesis was “Leo Hebraeus, a Jewish philosopher of the Renaissance: His life, his works and his teachings” (Leo Hebraeus, also known as Judah Leon Abravanel (c. 1460 Lisbon – c. 1530), was a distinguished medieval Portuguese–Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet.)

Zimmels died young (August 19, 1893) when his son Baruch (born on Oct. 2, 1892) was less than a year old; his widow married a pharmacist from Lviv, where Baruch and his mother moved.

Until the end of World War I, Benedykt (Baruch) Ziemilski’s family were citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city of Lviv (also known as Lemburg), in what is now western Ukraine, was significantly impacted by the Second World War and the Holocaust. In the 1920s, between the two wars, it was part of Poland and known as Lwów. It was then a diverse, multi-ethnic city, and its inhabitants included large communities of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, and others.

Baruch Zimmels (later Benedykt Ziemilski) studied medicine in Lviv, Vienna, Munich and Prague. During World War I, he served as a military doctor - first in the Austro-Hungarian army, then in Piłsudski's Legions, which won Poland's independence. He joined the Polish Socialist Party PPS, and Piłsudski became a real inspiration to him. As a sign of loyalty and a show of support for Polish independence, he had a bust of Piłsudski on his desk (in clear opposition to Austrian rule).

Lviv, Then and Now

the city of lviv - 1934

The city of Lviv - today

Historically, Lviv had a large and active Jewish community; until 1941, at least 45 synagogues and prayer houses existed. Even in the 16th century, two separate communities existed. One lived in today's old town with the other in the Krakowskie Przedmieście.

The city of Lviv - today

Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the fifth-largest in Ukraine, with a population of 717,273 (2022 estimate). It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine.

The Interwar Period

Ziemilski married Olga Askenaze (b. 1894), the daughter of the vice-president of Lviv, president of the bar association, and a long-term chairman of the Jewish Community. They had one son, Andrzej, born in 1923. An older son died as an infant. His brother-in-law was the famed pianist Stefan Askenase (1896– 1985).

After graduating from medical school in 1921, Ziemilski became a prominent Lviv doctor. He sympathized with the Jewish assimilationist movement, and like many people from this circle, he changed his name in the 1920s. He preferred it to sound Polish, not German. Thus, Zimmels became Ziemilski. He also changed his Jewish first name, Baruch, to his Christian and Polish first name, Benedykt. The name change may have been caused by the reluctance of some of Lviv's inhabitants to consult doctors with Jewish-sounding names or by anti-Semitic sentiments among Polish academic circles. Being a practicing physician, he continued scientific research.

One of his medical practices was treating prisoners in the most important Polish prison at the time, located in the former monastery of the Holy Cross in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. While working, he met a famous robber and spy, Sergiusz Piasecki, who entrusted him with the manuscript of his book. Ziemilski sent it to the well-known writer and publisher Melchior Wańkowicz, which led to his release. His novel, "Lover of the Great Bear," was a Polish bestseller in the interwar period.

In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Ziemilski did scientific work in a hospital to combat hypoglycemia and pulmonary diseases, especially tuberculosis. The German company Bayer became interested in the results of his research.

Dr. Ziemilski was friendly with other prominent medical figures in Poland during the interwar period. One was Dr. Marek Reichenstein, a pioneering medical doctor and art collector whose collections survived the war and are found in several Lviv museums. After Reichenstein died in 1932, Benedykt Ziemilski wrote an obituary for him in Polska Gazeta Lekarska, published in 1932. In part, he wrote the following in his friend's memory:

"His spirit was not confined to [medical] science. In an age when the average doctor is not moved by anything besides "interesting cases," he became fascinated with art: Art understood not as a mania of collecting curiosa, investing capital, or snobbishness. For him, it served as postulated by the ancient Greeks: it made him happy, it illuminated and ennobled him. He dealt mainly with graphic art, and by the end of his life, he became one of the best experts in Polish graphics."

See the full obituary here.

Ziemilski was a friend and companion on mountain climbing and ski trips with Antoni Gluziński, one of the most outstanding physicians in the history of Polish medicine and co-author of the first Polish handbook of internal medicine. 1907 Gluziński and Marek Reichenstein published a clinical description of plasmocytic leukemia, a first in world medical literature. This paper is cited even today in medical publications.
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Dr. Ziemilski's Friends / Associates

Sergiusz Piasecki

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

His novel written in prison, Lover of the Great Bear, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic. Dr. Ziemilski was a physician for prisoners as part of his practice at the former monastery of the Holy Cross in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains.

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

Dr. Marek Reichenstein (1876-1932) was a physician, hematology researcher, and art collector. After his death, the Reichenstein collections created the basis for the museum of Lviv's religious Jewish community that survived the war and became part of several museums in Lviv. The bulk of his collection hangs in the Borys Voznytsky National Art Gallery,

View more in our Gallery

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Władysław Antoni Gluziński was one of the most outstanding physicians in the history of Polish medicine. He founded the Polish Society of Internal Medicine and co-authored the first Polish handbook of Internal Medicine. He and Dr.Ziemilski were friends and took various ski and mountaineering trips together.

WWII Period & The Holocaust

In September 1939, Ziemilski joined the military forces defending Poland against the German military invasion from the West. The Soviets invaded Poland from the east, and Lviv fell under Soviet occupation for the first two years. During this time, the Ziemilskis still lived in the city center. Ziemilski kept his practice, and his son continued to attend school, changed by the Soviet occupation forces from a Polish into a Ukrainian school.

Dr. Ziemilski’s home in Lviv was adjacent to the high fortress-like wall of the Benedictine monastery. On September 4, 1939, when German air raids were anticipated, Ziemilski’s son Andrzej and the caretaker created a round passageway from the Ziemilski home to the monastery, with the monastery’s permission. Dr. Ziemilski had treated the monks and knew the Prior. He assured him that the family could take refuge in the monastery in case of an attack.

In June 1941, Lviv was occupied by the Germans (according to a registration questionnaire of his medical profession in November 1941, required by the Germans after Nazi Germany occupied Lviv). Dr. Ziemilski spoke five languages: German, Polish, Ukrainian, English, and French.) The Nazis established a ghetto in Lviv and forced the Jews to live there, then gradually deported them to be murdered. For another year, the Ziemilskis lived in the center of Lviv. At first, the Jewish doctors were safe from the deportations. But the Ziemilskis eventually felt threatened and decided to escape by train to Warsaw, where they had relatives. As a precaution, Dr. Ziemilski rode in a different compartment than his family. One of the passengers recognized the Lviv doctor and denounced him. He was arrested at the Lublin station and taken to Majdanek. The family never saw him again.

Click to see the original questionnaire mentioned above.

Misc Images

benedictine monastery in lviv

The Benedictine Monastery was located behind the city walls like many other churches in Lviv, which is why it has distinctive defensive features. Historians think the tower was added within the 1627 reconstruction after a fire because it was missing from the original plans.

The Lviv Ghetto

benedictine monastery in lviv

In early November 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in the north of Lviv. German police shot thousands of elderly and sick Jews as they crossed the bridge on Peltewna Street on their way to the ghetto. In March 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews from the ghetto to the Belzec killing center. - USHMM

Deportation: Lublin Station

benedictine monastery in lviv

Deportation: Lublin Station

The Ziemilski family travelled in separate compartments as a precaution. A passenger recognized Dr. Ziemilski and denounced him. He was arrested at Lublin station and taken to Majdanek.

Photo courtesy of the Montreal Holocaust Museum

Andrzej Ziemilski

During the war, Benedykt Ziemilski’s son, Andrzej Ziemilski, found shelter as a teacher of children in a small estate near Kazimierz on the Vistula River.

He later moved to Warsaw, where he studied at the secret Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika) and then joined the Polish resistance. With false documents, the doctor's wife and her mother lived near Warsaw, where they worked in a village library. During that time, they exchanged letters with friends from Lviv. One day, they met someone who brought them correspondence from Ziemilski's apartment in Lviv. Among other them, were two official letters in German: information from Majdanek that Benedykt Ziemilski is dead, and a short letter from a German drug company that in connection with the use of an essential component for the drug invented by him, he will receive a financial settlement. Andrzej Ziemilski kept these two letters in his briefcase with other vital documents when he was alive.

After the war, Andrzej Ziemilski studied sociology at the University of Warsaw and became a well-known Polish sociologist, writer, journalist, translator, and mountaineer. He married Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska (born June 1, 1949, in Kraków), a Polish writer and theatre critic who served as consul general in Montreal and permanent representative to UNESCO in Paris. Their two sons, Wojciech and Paweł, work in theatre and film.

Andrzej Ziemilski’s wife and children always knew that Andrzej’s mother, Olga, was Jewish even though she did not practice. But it was five years after Andrzej Ziemilski’s death, during a family trip to Jerusalem, that his wife, Malgorzata Dzieduszycka, and their two sons discovered Andrzej’s father was also Jewish. It was during a visit to Yad Vashem that the family first learned that Andrzej’s father, Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski, was murdered in Majdanek because he was Jewish. Perhaps it was on account of the difficulties faced by Jews in post-war Poland or his fears for his children’s future; Andrzej did not wish to reveal his Jewish roots, even though he had many Jewish friends.

Recognition during the 2021 March of the Living[1]

The 2021 March of the Living (motl.org) in Poland was held virtually online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The theme was “Medicine and Morality: Lessons from the Holocaust and COVID-19”. During the program, medical professionals who opposed the Nazis, as well as those who worked to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic, were honoured.

During the virtual program, Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski was honoured for his contributions to medicine. And, for the first time, he was publicly recognized as one of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust during a March of the Living candle-lighting ceremony honouring medical professionals who opposed the Nazis in the Holocaust. Dr. Alan L. Nager, Director, Division of Emergency and Transport & Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine at USC in Los Angeles, California, lit the candle.

Sources

This is the biographical site of Benedykt Ziemilski (1892-1942)

Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski (1892-1942) was a father, doctor, soldier, and scientist. On his way to Warsaw, he was taken from the Lublin station and never seen again.

Benedykt Ziemilski 1892-1942

Lviv, Then and Now

the city of lviv - 1934

The city of Lviv - today

The city of Lviv - today

The city of Lviv - today

The city of Lviv - today

The city of Lviv - today

The Interwar Period

Dr. Ziemilski's Friends / Associates

Sergiusz Piasecki

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Dr. Marek Reichenstein

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Professor Antoni Gluziński

Professor Antoni Gluziński

WWII Period & The Holocaust

Misc Images

benedictine monastery in lviv

benedictine monastery in lviv

benedictine monastery in lviv

The Lviv Ghetto

benedictine monastery in lviv

benedictine monastery in lviv

Deportation: Lublin Station

benedictine monastery in lviv

Deportation: Lublin Station

Andrzej Ziemilski

Andrzej Ziemilski

Andrzej Ziemilski

OUR MAN IN THE LANDSCAPE:. SKETCHES ON THE BORDERLINE OF SOCIOLOGY.APPROACH (1976)

Andrzej ZIemilski Skiing

Andrzej ZIemilski Skiing

Andrzej Ziemilski's Wife and Two Sons

Pawel Ziemilski

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Wojtek Ziemilski

Małgorzata Maria Dzieduszycka-Ziemilska

Wojtek Ziemilski

Recognition during the 2021 March of the Living[1]

Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski Honoured for his Contributions

"Benedykt Ziemilski was arrested at Lublin station and taken to Majdanek."

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