In 1876, the Swiss theologian Walter Bion (1830-1909), concerned about the poor health of children from poor families and the disastrous hygienic conditions in which they lived, came up with the idea to send them to the countryside at public expense – this is how the first holiday camp for poor children was created, organized in the same year. Bion’s idea initiated similar activities in other countries: such camps began being organized in Germany and Denmark, then in England and Austria, France and Italy.
From 1881, summer camps for poor children were organized by the Municipality of Warsaw. Their initiator was Stanisław Markiewicz (1839-1911) – a doctor, hygienist and social activist. Other cities followed the example of Warsaw: Lublin, Łódź, Częstochowa, Radom, Lviv, Cracow and Poznań.
In Płock, the first person to raise issues related to balneotherapy was Stanisław Posner – in a series of articles in “Echa Płockie i Łomżyńskie” magazine he tried to present the idea and work of both pastor Walter Bion and dr. Stanisław Markiewicz, as well as the development of summer camps for poor children in the country and abroad. His articles were to serve both, an academic and a purely practical purpose – he wanted to initiate a project to create a summer camp for poor children of the town of Płock.
Stanisław Posner was a member of the Summer Camp Society, operating from 1882 in Warsaw. He organized summer camps for poor children on his estate in Kuchary near Płońsk (their initiator was Posner’s mother – Matylda née Bornstein).
In 1902, a group of people caring for poor Jewish children in Płock organized a 5-week treatment in Ciechocinek for a group of 10 most needy youngsters. The following year, in the rooms of the Hotel Warszawski in Płock, a series of talks and lectures on hygiene and the woman’s body were held, initiated by Dr. Zofia Paperna. The talks were held in an almost full hall, and the knowledge conveyed by Dr. Paperna was accessible to the audience. The profits from the lectures were allocated to the organization of Christian and Jewish summer camps for poor children.
In 1905, the board of the summer camp for Jewish children in Płock sent 11 girls to Ciechocinek, whose maintenance cost 2,133 rubles and 83 kopecks. Private donors, apart from material support, donated 233 rubles and 83 kopecks, and the “Merkury” Shipping Society provided free transport for the children. Medical assistance was provided by doctors Józef Kunig in Płock and Tenenbaum in Ciechocinek. The children were taken care of selflessly by Paulina Goldman.
Supporting summer camps with donations were, among others, Maurycy Markusfeld, attorney at law, Maurycy Sachs, a merchant, as well as Franciszka and Alfred Blay. In 1914, the board of the summer camp at the Jewish Charity Society sent 25 poor children to Ciechocinek for a 5-week treatment.
In the interwar period, summer camps for Jewish children from Płock were organized by the Committee for the Care of Jewish Children and Orphans in Płock at the Jewish Charity Society. Poor children were sent to summer camps in Ciechocinek, Leszno and Zenonowo. These were the camps created by the Hipolit Wawelberg Summer Camp Society and the Central Society for the Care of Orphans in Warsaw.
According to the “Report on the activities of summer camps organized by the Committee for the Care of Jewish Children and Orphans in Płock in 1928”, children from Płock stayed at the summer camp named after Hipolit Wawelberg in Ciechocinek in the third and fourth season. 69 children were qualified to Ciechocinek, but due to lack of funds, only 34 – 17 boys and 17 girls, were sent. One of the goals of the camps was to improve the physical condition of the children, including weight gain. According to a report by Rubinstein’s camp physician, four children gained weight up to 1 kilogram, eleven to 2 kilograms, fifteen to 3 kilograms, three to 4 kilograms, one child gained more than 4 kilograms. The report also lists the types of disease with the result of treatment: scrofulosis – excellent health improved in four children, good – nine, slight – one, rickets – good improvement in four children, active surgical tuberculosis – good improvement was achieved in one child, closed surgical tuberculosis – health improvement concerned three children (one to a slight degree, two to a good degree), diseases of non-tuberculous origin – improvement good in five children, slight in three, heart disease – slight improvement in one child, joint and muscle rheumatism – one child showed good improvement, similarily to the cases of diseases of the nervous system, ears, throat and nose. The calculation of the costs of the camp was as follows: the Hipolit Wawelberg Summer Camp Society was paid 3060 zlotys for the stay in Ciechocinek, 82 zlotys and 75 grosz for treatments, the cost of travel and various minor expenses was 261 zlotys and 1 grosz. On average, 100 zlotys was allocated for one child.
In the same year, the children were sent to the summer camps of the Hipolit Wawelberg Summer Camp Society in Leszno and the Central Society for the Care of Orphans in Zenonowo (a total of fourteen children, 5 boys and 9 girls). One child in Leszno gained weight up to 1 kilogram, five to 2 kilograms, three to 3 kilograms, one – up to 4 kilograms, one child gained as much as 6 kilograms. Children sent to camps suffered from anemia (health improved significantly in one child, good health in five, slight in one), adenopathy (good health improved in one child), heart diseases (good improvement in one child) and scrofulosis (good improvement of health occurred in two children struggling with this disease). There was no report from Zenonowo, however, as Dr. Rubinstein claimed, “the children looked great when they returned”. The children’s stay in Leszno cost 792 zlotys, apart from the transport amounting to 81 zlotys and 50 groszy, the stay in Zenonowo – 180 zlotys. The average cost of organizing a camp for one child was about 80 zlotys.
At the end of June 1928, 27 pupils and 2 Jewish shelter personnel were sent to summer camps in the village of Emilin, located near the “Socha” government forest (Duninów commune). The summer camp in the village of Emilin was specially arranged for children in poor health who needed forest air. As a child from the shelter, Gustaw Puk, recalled years later: “Every year, during the summer holidays, the children went to a country residence on the estate of Mr. Lubraniecki in the village of Emilin. These days were the happiest days for children …”
Jewish children from Płock also benefited from summer camps co-financed by the Jewish community organized in Cekanowo. Summer camps in Cekanowo were established by the Town Council of Płock on forest land leased from the Directorate of State Forests.
In the summer of 1936, the Society for the Protection of Jewish Children in Płock launched a day camp for pre-school children deprived of home care and from unemployed families, along with food, on a rented garden square at 6 1 Maja Street. 50 children signed up for the camps. The cost of feeding one child was about 30 grosz a day. In 1939, 70 boys and 70 girls participated in the summer camps organized by the Society from 1 July to 31 August.
Stanisław (Salomon) Posner was born on November 21, 1868 as the son of Leon and Matylda née Bornstein. He was an outstanding lawyer-theoretician, a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the Imperial University of Warsaw. His merit was Poland’s ratification of the ban on night work and the admission to industry of children under the age of 14, recognized at the First International Labor Conference in Washington in 1919. He was also one of the authors of the Geneva Declaration of 1924, in which children’s rights were written down for the first time, and one of the founders and vice-president of the League for the Defense of Human and Civic Rights. He was one of the founders and a board member of the Polish Association of the League of Nations. He was active in the Interparliamentary Union – an international organization founded in 1889 to protect peace and drive positive democratic change through political dialogue and concrete actions. He also worked for young people in an institution close to his heart, which was the State Institute of Special Pedagogy, under the supervision of prof. dr Maria Grzegorzewska – founder of special education in Poland. His lectures in sociology at the Institute, the slogan of which was: “There is no cripple – there is a man”, were a great manifestation of goodness and humanitarianism, a right of a citizen to a full life “in the sun”. The genesis of Posner’s educational work was the rational, social love of a child, the love of a human being. Stanisław Posner died on May 8, 1930. He was buried at the Evangelical-Augsburg cemetery in Warsaw.
