In my research I cover Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell along the Western Front. However, quite many Swedish born individuals also fought or were active on other duties on the Eastern Front.
In this small article I will tell the story about a Swedish nurse who ended up together with the Austria-Hungarian Forces during the Russian Siege of the town of Przemysl 1915.
Ester Hildur Maria Wijk was born on December 29, 1881, in Skara city parish in Västra Götaland county in the Western part of Sweden. She was raised by her parents, her mother, Hildur Greta Josefina Forsell, and her father, Per Alfred Wijk.
In the Swedish Church books it is mentioned that Ester was a nurse, and from some sources it is known that she went from Sweden to Vienna in Austria in 1908, and worked as a private nurse for several years, and up to 1911 she contacted the Swedish Red Cross organisation every year to update her address and activity, but after 1911, to 1914, there are no exact details known about her activities or locations.
I assume she was aware about the upcoming war and probably it was a natural thing for her to support the Austrian-Hungarian Forces from her location in Vienna when they needed support by her profession.
There are some photos to be found which are donated by individuals to different archives. Below a photo of Ester as a nurse, and she looks a bit older on this photo, however, I haven’t been able to get the facts about the background of the photo, if it is from the Swedish or Austrian service as a nurse, but the Red Cross symbols are very clear.
I recognize the eyes from each photo, she always have this serious look, and it would be very interesting to know what she was thinking about. It seems that she was very determined, and that was later proved in a way, from different witness accounts from her service during the siege of the Fortress of Przemysl.
The town of Przemysl is today located in the south-east corner of Poland, and it is not very far from the Ukrainian town of Lviv. As I understand the Fortress quickly became a medical station or like a military hospital due to the increasing amount of injured soldiers during the fightings.
In 1914 the No 8 Fortress Hospital was situated with the Fortress. It was a large, beautiful, high-situated building, which in peacetime was used as Seminary.
On November 13th, 1914, the German Red Cross sister, Frida Ohlenshläger, wrote down her first meeting with Ester Wijk at the Fortress Hospital.
“On November 13, 1914, I sent a wagon and a soldier to the commandant of the fortress hospital No. 8 at Przemysl. In the vestibule of the main building, I met a blonde sister and asked her for the regimental doctor.
“The commander is assigned to a completely different building,” she said, and then asked if I was familiar with him in Przemysl.
When I denied it, the sister offered to accompany me. As neither the coachman nor the orderly understood German, and we both knew a word of Polish, the matter was rather complicated, but we finally parted after many difficulties as good friends at my destination. Before that, however, the sister had urged me to visit her often in her free hours. That’s how I got to know Ester Wijk.” (Svenska Dagbladet 1915)
Even before the first siege, from September 22 to October 11, 1914, the Austrian Red Cross had sent Ester to Przemysl and thus she had been separated from her friend Karin Widforss, also a Swede, with whom she had collaborated in a sanatorium in Vienna. For her work during the first siege, Sister Ester received an order (probably the Elisabeth Order). However, the news of this only reached Przemysl after her death.
The first siege was a time of strenuous work for the medical staff of Przemysl. Over 18,000 wounded were confined in the city. In the 8th hospital they lay in all the corridors, and sometimes even in the courtyard. The sisters had to live in the cellars, and from that time on Sister Ester, who, according to everyone’s unanimous statements, had tirelessly fulfilled her duties, complained of her ill health.
Below the story from Frida continues:
“All the doctors highly appreciated her. The chief physician, Dr. Säger, once said to me: “I have been very lucky with this sister. When she is on duty, I can trust that everything is conscientiously prepared antiseptically, without me having to look after it myself.”
On January 30th I went to the 8th hospital to get some information.
“Do you know that Sister Ester is seriously ill?” said the adjutant on duty.
“No,” I answered, and went immediately to her. Pale and very thin, she lay in her bed. My little dog immediately ran up to her and put his front paws on her pillow, while she stroked his shaggy head.
“Oh, just leave him alone,” she said, as I wanted to call the animal back. “It’s a change for me. I’ve been so lonely all this time.”
“If only I had known,” I said, “but now I will come to you more often. It is only a little difficult for me to go up the mountain, as I myself am ill.”
Yes, she replied, now I also feel much better and in a few days I will get up. The sister from the garrison hospital who was taking care of her came in and I said goodbye.
A big concert had been arranged for February 2nd, 1915. An officer I knew approached me and told me that Sister Ester had died that morning at five o’clock.
“But in God’s name, how is that possible!” I exclaimed. She only had an inflammation of the middle ear and was on the road to recovery.
Yes, but on the 31st she (Ester) developed tetanus. They gave her serum and tried every conceivable remedy. The case is quite mysterious, because in the 8th hospital no one had had tetanus for four weeks. On the afternoon of February 4, Sister Ester was buried. It was a windy day and frozen snow covered the streets. The small room on the ground floor of the hospital in which the coffin, decorated with the Swedish flag, stood, had been transformed into a chapel. The Evangelical priest (Przemysl had a small German-Lutheran congregation) blessed her body. ” (Svenska Dagbladet 1915)
The story continues.
Six soldiers carried the coffin down the steep mountain at the foot of which the hearse was waiting. Then the train, with the sisters first and the doctors after them, set off. In the corner of the cemetery where the fallen officers and soldiers rest under a large black cross with the inscription “Mortui pro patria”, a new grave had been dug.
The priest gave a simple, moving speech, after which the coffin was lowered to the loud sobs of the sisters. Many probably then asked the dead Ester for forgiveness for the wrongs that had been done to her.
Then the hospital commandant took the floor. He praised the dead sister, who had left her Nordic homeland to help the suffering, as a model of loyalty and sacrifice. Then he threw three shovelfuls of soil into the grave. The spade then passed from hand to hand. Everyone wanted to show the dead sister the last mark of honor. With that, the celebration was over and everyone dispersed quietly.
Since then Frida visited the grave of Ester once more. Sister Ester had by then had many neighbors, all of whom, like her, had fallen on the field of honor. The wreaths that adorned the grave were still fresh and at the head stood a wooden cross with her name on it, which in simple words tells of how a young, self-sacrificing sister died in a distant land. (Svenska Dagbladet 1915)
The young German nurse, Miss Frida Ohlenschlager from Munich, who was the person who gave the above mentioned context, was captured by the Russians at the fall of Przemysl and subsequently released. She stayed at the Romanish sanatorium to be treated for pneumonia, which she contracted in captivity.
Frida also said that Ester literally was idolized by them for her angelic patience and her unfailing courage, which was certainly put to the test during the days of terror in the enclosed fortress.
Ester died on February 2nd, 1915, and it is not known to me where her final resting place is located. The portrait of her in the newspaper of Svenska Dagbladet, 1915, still shows her serious and determined look in her eyes, and I am quite sure about that she did what she could in her line of duty and service as a Red Cross nurse.
Maybe I one day will be able to find some information about the location she was buried or commemorated. Until then, may she rest in peace.