Polish Medical Refugees in Britain during and Immediately after the Second World War

MichaÅ Adam Palacz

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Chapter 8 Polish Medical Refugees in Britain during and Immediately after the Second World War

äºForced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815â1949

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MichaÅ Adam Palacz

MichaÅ Adam Palacz
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Page Range:: 197â224

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004689145_009

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Abstract

More than 6,000 refugee physicians, dentists, nurses and other healthcare professionals from continental Europe arrived in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s. These âmedical refugeesâ were caught up in the process of a structural transformation of British medicine whichÂ culminated in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. Unlike many Jewish Ã©migrÃ©s from Germany and Austria who were dismissed and interned as âenemy aliensâ in 1940, Polish refugee physicians profited in wartime Britain from the status ofÂ âfriendly aliensâ and were allowed to set up their own clinical facilities. The traditionally liberal policies towards foreign students in Scotland furthermore enabled the creation in 1941 of an autonomous Polish School of Medicine (PSM) at the University of Edinburgh.

In the broader context of the admission of persecuted physicians from mainland Europe into British medicine, this chapter will analyse how the reception of Polish medicalÂ refugees changed overtime. The enthusiasm, with which the Poles were welcomed in the early years of the war, was put to the test after 1945 when the refugees generally refused toÂ go back to Soviet-dominated Poland. While the PSM and most of the Polish hospitals in Britain were closed, Polish medical qualifications were eventually recognised by an Act of Parliament. Many Polish doctors subsequently found employment in the emerging NHS or joined the Colonial Medical Service, but some of them experienced hostility andÂ discrimination in early post-war Britain and decided to emigrate to other countries, such asÂ the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

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Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815â1949

ä¸ç¼ï¼ Studies in Global Social History, å·ï¼ 55/18and Studies in Global Migration History, å·ï¼ 55/18

ISBN:: 9789004689145

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 13 Mar 2025

Subjects
- History
  - Modern History
  - Migration History

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Part 1 Introduction

Part 2 The Metropole

Part 3 British Imperial Experiences

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Chapter 8 Polish Medical Refugees in Britain during and Immediately after the Second World War

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Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815â1949

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