Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1942-1945 (Creation)
Extent
- 4 boxes (20 inches)
- 1 16" acetate recording disk
Name of creator
Administrative history
"The 3rd General Hospital was the Mount Sinai unit of doctors and nurses in active duty during World War II. The Mount Sinai Hospital staffed and supported the hospital, at considerable time and expense, from 1942 until its closing in 1945.
On Friday, August 28, 1942, personnel from the Mount Sinai World War I unit of the United States Army, Base Hospital No. 3, A. E. F., participated in a formal presentation of their colors to the new Mount Sinai unit, the 3rd General Hospital. The colors were accepted by Dr. Herman Lande, the 3rd General unit director, in a ceremony held at the Hospital's Blumenthal Auditorium.
On September 1, 1942, a group of 15 enlisted officers, all practicing physicians, left New York City to report for Army basic training. They arrived at Camp Rucker in Alabama shortly after 3:00 pm on September 2. The first detachment of nurses arrived the next day. All of the 26 nurses, then led by Margaret G. Blake, ANS, were either graduates of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing or affiliated with the Mount Sinai Registry for Nurses. These officers, the first of many, represented the main contingent of enlisted doctors and nurses from The Mount Sinai Hospital to serve their country at the 3rd General Hospital in World War II.
Basic training for the first group of clinicians lasted from September 7 through November 5, 1942. Doctors spent the next few weeks at Camp Rucker's Station Hospital acclimating to a military hospital setting before the group of officers was deployed to North Africa to serve in active duty. At the Station Hospital, the medical officers were assigned to the services to which they would most likely be assigned at the 3rd General. Nurses had been rotating at the hospital for over a month when the doctors were assigned and were, therefore, well acquainted with the routine by the time the doctors arrived. For the doctors, this was the first patient contact they had since their arrival at Camp Rucker.
Wartime training and instruction continued at the Station Hospital. Although physical conditioning was greatly lessened, callisthenic drills remained a part of their daily lives. The doctors and nurses received lectures on map reading, various causes of shock, treating venereal diseases and wound infections, and identifying and treating other ailments common to the geographic region. They also received education on various types of body trauma, including providing first aid in the event of exposure to chemical warfare.
To relieve the stress of their military life, continued training, and later, their work at the Hospital, the unit participated in various diversions. These activities included dances, both formal and informal, picnics, a baseball league and swimming. There were many evenings spent listening to classical music recordings in the nurses' recreation hall.
Notification that an advance team was to be relocated overseas came on April 14, 1943. A few weeks later, on May 3, 1943, a small group of 33 men began the journey from Camp Rucker to the ferry that would return them, along with the rest of the unit who joined them the next day, to New York. There they boarded the H.M.S. Pasteur, a French ship that had been adapted to transport as many soldiers as possible in single trip. The doctors and nurses travelled with a cramped 24 – 36 people to a room. Even the mess hall did double duty as a barracks by adding hammocks and using the tables as beds. They travelled in this fashion all the way to Casablanca, where the unit remained, waiting out the fighting between the French and the Germans, until the order to relocate arrived on June 14, 1943. In the early days of July 1943, the advance party made its way to the 3rd General Hospital in Tunisia to begin the work for which they had spent 8 months training.
The 3rd General Hospital was originally conceived as a 1,000 bed facility, but demand required an expansion. Use of military tent expansions increased capacity by a much-needed additional 1,000 beds. The 3rd General Hospital treated more than 5,000 wounded soldiers in Tunisia. In May 1944 the doctors and nurses followed the front to Italy where they set up camp just outside of Naples. In September, the medical staff followed the Army to Aix-en-Provence, France, where they remained until the war ended in Europe. Then, with no more soldiers to attend, the 3rd General Hospital was closed in August 1945, and the unit was formally deactivated in September 1945.
The Mount Sinai Hospital contributed a total of 421 doctors, 216 nurses, 158 employees and 7 trustees to the war effort. In 1945, The Mount Sinai Hospital received a letter of appreciation from the Surgeon General for the 3rd General Hospital's work in the war."
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The files in this collection primarily cover The Mount Sinai Hospital's doctors and nurses stationed at the 3rd General Hospital. Details about Mount Sinai clinicians and staff in active duty stationed at other locations during World War II are found in the publication Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services. The records cover the time period from 1942 through 1945.
A prominent item in this collection is Ralph Moloshok's unpublished historical account. The manuscript provides a detailed chronicle of Dr. Moloshok's experiences in basic training at Camp Rucker, and his active duty at the 3rd General Hospital in North Africa. The document is approximately 400 pages long. The first 118 pages are written as a journal, with entries appearing almost daily. These entries provide in-depth descriptions of the weeks spent in basic training at Camp Rucker. The second portion of the manuscript details the move to Casablanca, and finally the order to begin duty at the 3rd General Hospital in Tunisia.
The value of this manuscript is not just in its detailed descriptions of people, living conditions and medical military life, it also includes affixed original documents outlining the officers' schedules and basic training routines, anecdotes, illustrations (with no identifiable artist attribution), and photographs from Camp Rucker, Casablanca, Italy and France.
With so much of Mount Sinai's attention and resources turned toward the war effort, the Hospital moved to address the growing interest in information about the men and women in service at the 3rd General Hospital, as well as those assigned to other units in the war. Two members of Mount Sinai's administration, Sol Weiner Ginsburg, MD and Bella Trachtenberg responded by collecting, printing, binding and distributing the letters written by doctors in the war. These quarterly editions, called Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services, became wildly popular at home and among the soldiers serving abroad and within the United States. The compilation contains World War II letters and letter excerpts from September 1943 through October 1945.
Other important items in this collection are two scrapbooks on the nursing staff's military service during World War II. One was created by the Department of Nursing, the other by the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. The scrapbooks include official military and hospital correspondence to and from the nursing staff in the form of letters and memoranda that range from 1942 through 1945. An interesting part of the Dept. of Nursing's scrapbook is the more casual correspondence such as greeting cards, personal notes, marriage and birth announcements, and Victory Mail (V-Mail). The greeting cards are addressed to the unit as well as to individuals. Some of the cards are hand painted. Samples of unused V-mail, intended to send holiday greetings (Mother's Day, Easter, and Christmas), are also included. Other loose items in the scrapbook include programs from amateur performances by the nurses and medical officers, concerts and religious services. The religious programs represent both Christian and Jewish faith observances at the 3rd General Hospital.
Other noteworthy scrapbook items include an original April 13, 1945 issue of Stars and Stripes announcing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. There are also various newsletters produced by and for the officers. These include issues of BBC News, Stethoscope 3rd General, and The Trooper. Several issues in this sampling are incomplete.
The bound pages of the scrapbook from the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing contains numerous keepsake items, mementos from various events, and personal and official correspondence to 1st Lt. Ruth Chamberlin, who served as Chief Nurse at the 3rd General Hospital.
In addition to this print material, the collection also includes an audio recording (VM_012) and printed transcript of The Story of Two Hospitals, as recorded by Robert St. John, an NBC war correspondent, in November 1943. There is also film footage related to the 3rd General Hospital that was taken by Dr. Henry Horn, a Mount Sinai staff member who was in the Unit. This includes footage from the Unit starting in North Africa and continuing through France, including a trip to Paris and the Follies Bergère. His wife later gave the film to the Hospital. All six reels of the film were digitized in 2005.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This material is available for use. Contact the Archives (MSArchives@mssm.edu) for access to these materials.
Physical access
The collection has been digitized. The 16" acetate disk has been digitized as EVE 084.
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Legacy ID from CMS
OCLC Number
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
This collection was processed and partially digitized by Ramona Tirado in 2014.
Access points
Subject access points
- Health Occupations » Medicine » Military Medicine
- Health Occupations » Nursing » Specialties, Nursing » Military Nursing
- Persons » Veterans
- Humanities » History » History, Modern 1601- » History, 20th Century » World War II
- Health Care Facilities, Manpower, and Services » Health Personnel » Medical Staff
Place access points
Name access points
- Moloshok, Ralph (Subject)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.) (Subject)
- St. John, Robert, 1902-2003 (Subject)
- United States. Army (Subject)
- Horn, Henry, 1906-1966 (Subject)
- Chamberlin, Ruth, 1903- (Subject)