Gisela Januszewska (also known by surnames Kuhn, Rosenfeld and Roda; 22 January 1867 – 2 March 1943) was an Austrian physician. Having earned her degree in Switzerland, she briefly worked in Germany before becoming the first female physician in the Serbian town of

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...

. She received highest decorations for her service during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and social activism in Austria afterwards, but was deported to a

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

, where she died, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life and education

Gisela Januszewska was born on 22 January 1867 in the

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

n village of Drnovice, then part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

and now in the Czech Republic. She was one of five children of Leopold Rosenfeld, an estate manager in the

Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja ...

n town of

Grubišno Polje Grubišno Polje (Czech: ''Hrubečné Pole'') is a town in Bjelovar-Bilogora County, Croatia. Demographics In the 1991 census, the settlement had equal numbers of Serbs and Croatians, but during the Croatian War of Independence the Croatian Serbs ...

. The family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and were informally called Roda (

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...

word for

stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...

). Januszewska's younger brother

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, a satire writer, legally adopted that name. After attending a private school in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, she married the much older Joachim Kuhn. Feeling trapped in the marriage, she filed for a divorce within a few years. Januszewska then moved to Switzerland, where she took ''

matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

'' and enrolled in the

University of Zürich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

. She received a degree in medicine as Gisela Kuhn on 12 April 1898.

Career

Having gained her first experience in the obstetrics volunteering at the Women's Hospital in Zürich, Januszewska moved in June 1898 to

Remscheid Remscheid () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south ...

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, and became an insurance doctor for Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse. In March 1899, she was appointed ''Amtsärztin'', a public health official, in the

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

n town of

, becoming its first female physician. During her career in Banja Luka, Januszewska was one of few physicians who strove to ensure that

Bosnian Muslim The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

women had proper access to healthcare. Her initial supervisor there, the 20 years older Ladislaus Januszewski, became her second husband in 1900. Upon their marriage, Januszewska had to abandon her post as public health official. Instead she served as head of an

outpatient clinic An outpatient department or outpatient clinic is the part of a hospital designed for the treatment of outpatients, people with health problems who visit the hospital for diagnosis or treatment, but do not at this time require a bed or to be admitte ...

for Muslim women of Banja Luka. She performed minor surgeries and gained fame treating patients with

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

, but most of all

osteomalacia Osteomalacia is a disease characterized by the softening of the bones caused by impaired bone metabolism primarily due to inadequate levels of available phosphate, calcium, and vitamin D, or because of resorption of calcium. The impairment of bone ...

(the last being especially rampant among Muslim women, according to Teodora Krajewska, another physician in Bosnia at the time). Following Januszewski's retirement, the couple moved to

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. She took up doctoral studies shortly before the outbreak of the

, enrolling the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

. Widowed in 1916, she volunteered to enter the military medical corps as the only physician available to the ''Militärkommando''. Januszewska received several medals for her services, including

German Red Cross Decoration The German Red Cross Decoration (german: Ehrenzeichen des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes) is a decoration founded in 1922, replaced by the Social Welfare Decoration in 1939 and re-founded in its present form on 8 May 1953. It is awarded by the Germa ...

and the Austrian Order of the Civil Merit. After the war, in 1919, she opened her own practice in Graz. Until 1933, she functioned as a panel physician for

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

and

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

's Association of Health Insurance. She was widely respected for her social responsibility: not only did she treat the

underprivileged Social privilege is a theory of special advantage or entitlement, which benefits one person, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on education, social class, caste, age, height, weight, nationality, geogra ...

for free, she also financially supported some of them. She was the second Austrian physician to be awarded the title ''Medizinalrat'', an award for outstanding contributions to medicine.

Later life

By the end of 1935, Januszewska had closed her practice, but continued her social work. In 1937, her work was rewarded with the

Knight's Cross Knight's Cross (German language ''Ritterkreuz'') refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that often denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield. Most frequently the term Knight's Cross is used to refer to the Knight's Cr ...

of the Order of Merit, Austria's highest honour. Within a year, however, Austria was invaded and annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Januszewska found herself a victim of its racial policy. Her Graz apartment was confiscated in 1940, and she was forced to move to Vienna, from where she was deported to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

. She died there on 2 March 1943, aged 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Januszewska, Gisela 1867 births 1943 deaths People from Vyškov District People from the Margraviate of Moravia Austrian expatriates in Switzerland University of Zurich alumni Austrian women physicians Austro-Hungarian physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina Austrian obstetricians Jewish physicians Austrian military doctors Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austrian people who died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Austrian women in World War I