Dr. Slavko Hirsch (29 March 1893 – 1942) was a
Croatian physician, founder and director of the Epidemiological Institute in
Osijek
Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...
.
Hirsch was born on 29 March 1893 in
Glina to a
Jewish family of Bertold and Josefina Hirsch. After high school education Hirsch studied medicine at the
Medical University of Vienna
The Medical University of Vienna (German: ''Medizinische Universität Wien'') is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It is the direct successor to the faculty of medicine at the University of Vienna, founded in 1365 by Rudolf IV, Duk ...
,
Innsbruck Medical University
The Medical University of Innsbruck (german: Medizinische Universität Innsbruck) is a university in Innsbruck, Austria. It used to be one of the four historical faculties of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck and became an independent un ...
and
University of Prague. During
World War I, as a student, he was recruited and mobilized in the
Austro-Hungarian Army. He was stationed in the village
Bršadin
Bršadin ( sr-Cyrl, Бршадин, hu, Borsod) is a village in the Trpinja Municipality in Croatian easternmost Vukovar-Syrmia County. Bršadin is located north of the Vuka river and west of the town of Vukovar on the main road to Vinkovci.
...
, near
Vukovar. During the war, Hirsch gained extensive experience in the field of venerology and other communicable diseases. In 1919, he finished
specialization
Specialization or Specialized may refer to:
Academia
* Academic specialization, may be a course of study or major at an academic institution or may refer to the field in which a specialist practices
* Specialty (medicine), a branch of medical ...
at the
Rudolf Virchow Hospital in
Berlin, where he studied epidemiology of bacterial meningitis. In 1923, Hirsch was appointed as head of the newly founded
Community health center Osijek and head of the infectious diseases department at the Osijek Hospital. Hirsch was also named, in 1924, director of the Epidemiological Institute Osijek which he founded. His great merit was in combating infectious diseases, not only in the Osijek area but also in the wider
Slavonia region. During
World War II, physician Miroslav Schlesinger organized the departure of the Croatian Jewish doctors to
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 ...
to combat endemic syphilis in 1941. Eighty Jewish doctors were sent to Bosnia by
Independent State of Croatia authorities, as a Jew among them was Hirsch. Most of those doctors would later flee to join the
Partisans. Hirsch was married to Josefine (), with whom he had a daughter Ruth. In 1942 Hirsch was deported from
Derventa to
Jasenovac concentration camp where he was killed together with his wife, daughter, granddaughter and sister.
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Slavko
1893 births
1942 deaths
People from Glina, Croatia
People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
Croatian Jews who died in the Holocaust
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Croatian Austro-Hungarians
Croatian infectious disease physicians
Jewish physicians
Croatian people of World War I
Croatian civilians killed in World War II
People who died in Jasenovac concentration camp
Croatian people executed in Nazi concentration camps
Yugoslav physicians