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.

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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