El médico de Auschwitz

January 1945. There are 4,800 prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Their conditions of physical degradation do not allow them to be sent to the west to later return them to their places of origin. The Soviet troops then burst into the extermination camp with such speed that the SS men only manage to blow up part of the gas chambers and kill a handful of survivors so as not to leave witnesses to what was happening there. On February 5, Józef Bellert, with a group of about thirty doctors and nurses from Krakow, headed for Auschwitz. For eight months, Dr. Bellert runs what was probably the largest field hospital in Europe. Despite the lack of sewage and the scarcity of water, food and medicine, Bellert and his assistants dedicated all their efforts to the released prisoners. There are nearly 5,000 men evicted for life! Patients weigh between 25 and 30 kilos. They suffer from typhoid fever and tuberculosis, diarrhea from hunger, edema and scars on their skin. In addition to illness, Bellert must deal with the fear of a host of men and women who are terrified of those who wear lab coats and use syringes as work tools. Good doctors are associated with the phenol injections with which the Germans killed sick prisoners. But although it is hard to believe, despite those conditions, 4,400 men and women recovered their health and their lives. Józef Bellert was a silent hero, whose biography contains various personalities. He was a conspirator in the PPS (German-Soviet pact, which allowed the Germans to invade Poland without Russian intervention); soldier of the Legions and doctor of the Pilsudski brigade; social and independence activist; soldier in September 1939 and Warsaw insurgent. But he "only" he was recognized as a modest doctor from the Pinczów district.