Disinfestation in a gas chamber.
Within Germany proper there was very little reason
for intensive pest and vermin control of railroad coaches and freight
cars.2 But the necessity for this was extremely great in several Balkan
countries, Spain, Africa and South America where, incidentally, the
German methods became predominant. The elimination of disease carriers
in the coaches and sleeping compartments often goes hand-in-hand with
the extermination of vermin that infest foodstuffs and provisions in
freight cars. Of the three methods which have been mentioned, the method
which is preferred almost exclusively employs fumigation chambers.
Figure 1: Facility in Budapest--Interior View
Probably the oldest published work on this subject was by Schumacher
and is entitled "The Disinfection of Railroad Coaches in Repair Shops."3
In Europe such chambers exist in Potsdam, Cologne-Nippes, Posen, Zagreb,
Budapest, Bucharest, Sarajevo, Skoplje. The most ideal arrangement is
a circulatory system, which can handle even the most poisonous substance
with ease and safety. There are also fumigation tunnels, as in Sarajevo
for example, which can handle two railroad cars at a time. Of importance
is the rapid and uniform distribution of the gas by means of circulation
ducts or blowers, at least partly because the speed of the operation
is the very key to its efficiency. Only relatively small amounts of
the gas are necessary for this work. A Zyklon container with 500 grams
of hydrocyanic acid is already sufficient to delouse a modern express
passenger railroad car (approx. 200 cubic meters); larger containers
are used in the fumigation tunnels where 500 to 1000 grams of hydrocyanic
acid, depending upon the temperature, are used per 100 cubic meters
of interior volume--the higher the temperature, the greater the effect
of any given amount of the gas.4
Figure 2: Schematic of a Circulatory Facility
Another hydrocyanic acid method which has recently been used here and
there is the spreading of Calcid, a powdery cyanide of calcium (zyanwasserstoffsäurem
Kalzium), which reacts with the moisture in the air and gives off quantities
of hydrocyanic acid but which leaves traces behind whose removal is
time-consuming. Because of the greater amounts of material which are
needed to achieve an effective gas concentration, one must also expect
longer fumigating periods (längere Arbeitsbelastung).
It should also be emphasized that the use of hydrocyanic
acid gas, on passenger railroad cars for example, has absolutely no
effect on upholstery, leather, fabrics, metals, paints and interior
furnishings of any sort.
On June 23, 1942 the Reich Ministry of Transport
issued an unpublished decree to plant managers and others which specifies
the measures to prevent the spread of typhus (Disinfection of passenger
cars and freight cars). Only a small number of disinfection substances
are mentioned.
In 1941 a decree was published regarding the removal
of contagious substances from trains and ships engaged in the transport
of livestock within the Generalgouvernement [those parts of German-occupied
Poland that were not annexed] which specified precisely when and under
what circumstances trains had to be immaculately cleaned and disinfected;
and also, which chemicals could be used for this purpose. The chemicals
which were permitted were primarily a mixture of cresol and sulfuric
acid, caustic soda solution, concentrated watersoluble chloride of lime
preparations or raw chloramin (Rohchloramin). It can be noted also that
a single certifiable cleaning and disinfestation made within the German
Reich, would be sufficient [to meet the regulation].
Dry heat together with vacuum (Unterdruck) has
also been used to disinfest railroad cars. This hot air process has,
however, not proven itself successful in the long run; furthermore,
it only works in stationary chambers, as long as sufficient fuel is
available for heating.
For all practical purposes, the best method for
the fumigation of small spaces on ships is probably with Tgas (ethyloxide).
No less important, but particularly during peace
time, are the methods for exterminating rats on ships. It is well known
that the rats which exist on every large ocean liner can spread the
plague bacillus, the germ of this terrible disease, which lives on or
in the rat flea. One used to try to kill off the ship rats with makeshift
methods. In America one tried at first to use poison gas. Ever since
the International Sanitary Convention which was ratified on June 21,
1926 in Paris by most countries of the world6 this despicable dangerous
parasite has been fought in an organized fashion. Of course, one has
tried to get rid of the rats, as already mentioned, from ships arriving
from countries which may be plague-infested. At this point, the method
which comes to mind is the very practical Nocht-Giemsa process (producer
gas) which was formerly used in the harbor of Hamburg. The fight against
ship rats became a universal responsibility only with the implementation
of the international treaty mentioned above which provided for uniform
procedures for the control of contagious disease and, of special importance,
even went so far as to specify the actual measures for controlling the
spread of diseases that are a public menace because of international
shipping.
In Germany one worked a great deal with sulfur
dioxide (according to the Clayton Method or through the generation of
SO2 from carbon disulfide, Salforkose, and sulfur preparations, etc),
but this was steadily replaced by hydrocyanic acid over the years. The
spreading of poisonous bait had only limited success on ocean-going
vessels because the rodents within the cabins, galleys, and cargo bays
were able to find more suitable food elsewhere. The "rat-proofing" system
which was introduced sometime ago in the United States of America did
not prove itself over the long run.
This method relied upon simple devices to prevent
rats from climbing onto ships at dockside without considering the fact
that these animals could also be brought on board with the cargo.
Regarding ship disinfestation in general, hydrocyanic
acid won hands down over the competition. Appropriate personnel for
the intended tasks are the exterminators, health inspectors and fumigation
companies. The certification of the fumigation results is the responsibility
of the harbor authorities.
Aside from pest rats--laboratory experiments in
Algiers have shown that a single rat may at times carry as many as 2500
fleas and each flea can be the host to 5000 pest bacilli7--one must
also mention mice (Weilsche disease), lice (typhus), mosquitoes (malaria,
yellow fever), and flies (typhoid, dysentery) as carriers of disease
on ships.8 With the regular control of the most dangerous parasites,
the rats, one is also controlling all other vermin on board as well;
of course, this includes bed bugs, fleas and cockroaches.
Hydrocyanic acid gas kills all vermin including
the brood and, because of its great ability to penetrate, is able to
fill every space as well as all cracks and hiding places as no other
gas available for pest control purposes and, as has already been mentioned,
is harmless to furnishings and cargo because of its chemical inactivity.9
Even foodstuffs need to be removed only if they happen to be uncovered
liquids. But live animals and plants, photographic products, raw coffee
and tea must all be removed from aboard ship. For years hydrocyanic
acid has been applied in the form of Zyklon. The ship being fumigated
must be cleared of all people except for the ship's watch and must be
distinguished until the ship is released by means of a special flag
by day and by a particular light by night.
A few words are still necessary regarding rat
elimination from decks with Calcid. On the basis of experience, rats
are often present, for example, in the steampipe insulation, under the
winches, in the potato bins, lifeboats and similar equipment. For the
procedure to be successful, it is necessary to exterminate these as
well. Whereas when one is working with Zyklon one simply spreads out
the contents of a can upon pieces of paper, on deck one normally uses
Calcid tablets [instead] which are ground into a fine powder in a pulverizer
and blown onto the locations to be disinfected.
Regarding the hygienic treatment of ocean-going
vessels in German harbors, there is a regulation from the Reich Minister
of the Interior dated December 21, 193110 in which the extermination
of rats is regulated in Paragraph 12.
That the field of hygiene for transportation vehicles
has been extended just recently to include airplanes is not really surprising
since it has been established that dangerous disease carriers can even
be carried by aircraft. The danger is especially great when the airplanes
land in regions which are still today a constant source for disease.11
In the International Sanitary Treaty for Air Travel of April 12, 1933
(The Hague) a series of preventive measures have been established for
the removal of vermin and rats as well as for sanitary services in airports
and the possible quarantine of travelers, the treatment of the sick
and-- under certain circumstances--the pest control of goods and mail.
Foremost among the diseases which can be carried are: plague, cholera,
yellow fever, typhus and smallpox. In the treaty just mentioned, the
controlling substances are not specified. However, at the conference
of the International Sanitary Office in Paris in May of 1937 a report
from the Quarantine Commission for Air Travel discussed pyrethrum powder,
hydrocyanic acid and other fumigating substances for killing mosquitoes
on aircraft and also indicated the toxicity of these gases for humans.
In reality, it is very difficult to disinfect
aircraft with gas even though it has been done in the past and will
continue be done again many more times. A fumigation of a covered aircraft
(often practically impossible because of the often immense proportions
of the wings) or an aircraft in a hangar is possible. However, it is
necessary to protect the expensive, important, often oil-enclosed and
not hermetically sealed instruments in the cockpit; oils can absorb
gas--they can even combine chemically with them.
Aedes and anopheles, the carriers of yellow fever
and malaria, are most effectively destroyed with gas but these species
of mosquitoes can also be exterminated with pyrethrum-based insecticides.
In the United States one is less particular. Griffiths and Michel12
recommend without any reservations the use of hydrocyanic acid preparations
and Carboxide, a mixture similar to the German Cartox which is made
from ethyl oxide and carbon dioxide. In South Africa and even North
America, airplanes were already treated without any hesitation with
Zyklon with special care for the wing interior spaces which could not
be sealed. Nonetheless, the use of highly toxic gas (by the natives)
in transcontinental air traffic has not yet established itself; similarly,
it has not been possible, at least for the time being, to implement
the plan to build mosquito-free aircraft.
Before World War 2 Germany had no special reason
to disinfest aircraft for hygienic reasons. However, many experiments
had been initiated which could not be completed under the circumstances--otherwise,
German discoveries would have certainly pioneered in this field once
again.
It is hardly necessary to mention the de-mothing
of automobiles (passenger vehicles) and the fumigation of trucks for
the extermination of vermin that infest foodstuffs. Clothes moths, including
their brood, as well as other vermin which infest foodstuffs and provisions
can be easily neutralized with sulfur dioxide (difficult to remove),
T-gas and, most of all, hydrocyanic acid. The methods are, as is apparent
from the above, simple and safe; but, these measures play almost no
role as far as hygiene is concerned. Delousing of passenger vehicles
(carriages, streetcars, boats) is regulated by a decree from the Reich
Minister of the Interior of February 13, 1941.13
In closing, it should be added that [supposedly]
louse-infested railroad trains, airplanes, etc., are in reality often
quite harmless because there simply may not even be a single louse present.
As Rose14 explains, it is not the suspected means of transportation
but quite often it is the louse-infested people themselves in close
proximity to one another in overcrowded vehicles who are the true source
of the lice. In other words, one should not overestimate the benefits
to be derived from a totally lifeless transport vehicle.
APPENDIX C
The Epidemiology of Typhus in the Generalgouvernement
(Zur Epidemiologie des Fleckfiebers im Generalgouvernement)
by Assistant Physician Prof. Dr. E. Zimmermann
(deceased at the front)
& translated by F. P. Berg and I. Steinwarder from:
& Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten, Vol.
123
(Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1942), Heft 5, pp. 552-7.
Typhus has always reigned as an endemic disease in the Eastern and
Southeastern provinces of the former Polish state. This was especially
true for the provinces of Wilna, Nowogrodek and Stanislawow. Here during
severe outbreaks, about 5-10% and more of the population would fall
ill annually whereas in the Western parts of Poland, the disease declined
steadily over the years so that it was virtually unknown in the present
Warthegau or else occurred only in isolated cases or clusters without
any tendency to spread. During the last years before the present war,
the pestilence had almost been eradicated within the central parts of
the country, just as conditions in the Eastern parts were also improving.
That the present wartime dislocations would again increase the frequency
of typhus was to be expected since it had always been a typical plague
of war, but the magnitude of the reoccurrence in 1940 was many times
less than had been expected. If we adjust the number of previously reported
cases [for all of Poland] in order to try to get numbers that only apply
to the area of the present day Generalgouvernement--obviously, these
values will be only rough approximations in order to be able to make
comparisons with those for 1940--we get the following.
Table 1.
Typhus occurrences per year in the
present-day Generalgouvernement.
| 1919 |
44,000 |
1930 |
320 |
| 1920 |
34,000 |
1931 |
420 |
| 1921 |
10,000 |
1932 |
500 |
| 1922 |
8,500 |
1933 |
680 |
| 1923 |
2,200 |
1934 |
1,000 |
| 1924 |
1,500 |
1935 |
800 |
| 1925 |
800 |
1936 |
740 |
| 1926 |
700 |
1937 |
680 |
| 1927 |
600 |
1938 |
700 |
| 1928 |
500 |
1939 |
? |
| 1929 |
400 |
1940 |
7,900 |
Obviously, the statistics can not show all occurrences
because it can be assumed that, at the very least, the undiagnosed,
mild cases were not reported. It is quite possible that the true morbidity
rates are actually double or triple the values which have been reported.
It is well-known that during the world war [World
War I], typhus had been widespread on the Eastern front and had caused
sickness among our own troops. Then in 1919-1920, the Russian-Polish
war came again with great troop movements, refugee treks, food shortages,
great poverty and from 1921-1922, the Poles returned in great waves
from plague-infested Russia. And so, it is not at all surprising that
Typhus exanthematicus developed dramatically at that time. With the
gradual consolidation of the political situation, which resulted in
an improvement in the general hygienic conditions, the pestilence subsided
quickly and steadily until the general economic crisis of 1930-33 with
its unemployment interrupted the favorable progress and brought with
it another peak in typhus mortality in 1934. After that, conditions
improved once again. Although many attempts have been made to try to
relate the reduction of the epidemic to the anti-typhus inoculations
given by Weigl after 1930, the contribution of these inoculations to
the favorable development could only have been rather modest since the
decline of the typhus had already begun earlier. According to Weigl,
67,893 persons had been vaccinated but these were predominantly doctors,
sanitary personnel, civil servants, people close to patients and others
who might be endangered by close contact.
It was inevitable that troop and refugee movements,
in addition to economic difficulties arising from the developments in
1939, would lead to a reemergence of the epidemic but an ever-increasing
number of cases in strength could only be expected at the beginning
of 1940 since the usual course of the typhus epidemic would produce
many cases. At any rate, since the morbidity rate did not increase more
than usual in 1940 and since our troops were practically unaffected
by the disease, a number of favorable factors were cited: on the one
hand, ideological beliefs of our troops resulted in less fraternization
with the Jewish population, i.e., the carriers of the epidemic, than
during the world war. On the other hand, this war was over too quickly
to allow the disease to establish itself and to spread. Additionally,
this time the refugee treks came, in contrast to the years after the
world war, not from a center of contagion (Seuchenherd), but from the
West, from a region which was free of the pestilence.
Although it was in the nature of earlier population
figures and epidemiological statistics in Poland that there are no exact
numbers available, nonetheless the Jewish share [(Anteil der Juden)
- emphasized as in the original] in the typhus phenomenon has obviously
always been rather high. Normally it seems to have been about 70%_80%,
but in 1940 the Jewish share in some communities was 95% or even more
of all typhus cases. We personally had the opportunity to study an outbreak
of the epidemic in greatest possible detail in one town with approximately
30,000 inhabitants of whom about 11,000 were Jews. Of the 303 cases
of the illness, 295 were among Jews, i.e., 97% among Jews and only 3%
among Poles. For our further investigations it was important that we
examined the significance of age of the people in the homes affected
by typhus. A total of 3464 Jewish persons, living more or less without
any non-Jewish intermingling, were evaluated statistically.
The mortality of the disease in all these years
seems to be surprisingly low. For the years following the world war,
the rate was 7%_9% with the exception of 13.4% for 1920. Thereafter,
the mortality rate decreased to 5.2% in 1938 and in 1940 to 5.6%. However,
many mild cases may not have been reported so that the hazards of the
illness might, in fact, be even less.
If it seemed as if Jews were especially resistant
to typhus, that picture changed as soon as age was taken into consideration
(Table 2, Column a). More than half of all the cases of illness which
were observed by us were of persons less than 20 years of age, and one
quarter of the total number of cases occurred among persons between
16 and 20 years of age. It should not be necessary to explain any further
that the usually favorable course of the disease for this age group
lessened the mortality rate in general. Contrary to the widespread opinion
that Jews are less susceptible to typhus, the mortality rate of approximately
of 5% for the 16 to 20 year old group and 25-30% for middle-aged adults
(Table 2, column C) is absolutely normal. This fact appears favorable
only because the typhus of 1940 affected primarily children and adolescents.
Perhaps this had also been the case in former years with the exception
of 1920 and its higher death rate.
Table 2.
Morbidity and Mortality of Typhus in 1940
| Age Group |
(a) Age Combination
of the ill in %
|
(b) % of ill
in age groups
|
Mortality |
| 1-5 |
5.6 |
6.4 |
0 |
| 6-10 |
12.4 |
11.3 |
0 |
| 11-15 |
15.7 |
10.4 |
0 |
| 16-20 |
25.7 |
20.9 |
5.2 |
| 21-25 |
8.6 |
8.2 |
11.5 |
| 26-30 |
3.6 |
3.5 |
18.2 |
| 31-35 |
5.4 |
5.7 |
|
| 36-40 |
6.6 |
8.3 |
35 |
| 41-45 |
5.6 |
8.9 |
30 |
| 46-50 |
5.4 |
8.3 |
31 |
| 51-55 |
2 |
4.2 |
33 |
| 56-60 |
2 |
5.84 |
|
| 61-65 |
1.4 |
4.0 |
|
The high percentage of adolescents among the ill
suggests an immunity of adults which might have been acquired during
the epidemic years following the world war which protected them now
even though typhus usually produces only limited immunity. This influence
can only be examined more closely if we calculate the percentages of
the affected within their respective age groups. To begin with, we can
make the following estimate. The Jewish population over 20 which might
have become immune after the heavy epidemics following the world war
could not be more than 1.2 million in the Generalgouvernement. Assuming
that 250,000 Jews had become ill at that time, then one can estimate
very roughly that 25-30% of those who are 20 years old today would be
immune while all the others in this age group and practically all adolescents
in 1940 would have been susceptible. Our age calculations (Table 2,
Column B) gave indeed few differentials which could have been appraised
as partial immunity of the 20-year olds. The percentage of the 16-20
year olds is conspicuously high because 77 out of 369 from the age group
fell ill, while the 15 year olds might either have an inborn immunity
or the illness developed abortive, which is typical at this age, and
remained undiscovered. It is, however, a fact that in the beginning
of 1940 enough people susceptible for the epidemic were available to
spread the ground for epidemics during the next year.
In the area for which we were responsible--about
a quarter of the Generalgouvernement-- according to statistics and reports
from doctors, typhus had occurred only sporadically before the year
1940. This was also evident from the fact that the younger people among
them were not personally acquainted with the clinical facts of Typhus
exanthematicus. Only a few towns showed an unexplained slight increase
of morbidity during 1938 and 1939, while only only half a dozen cases
showed up in towns with 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants.
Thus, the winter of 1939/40 started at first with
only a very limited number of cases. Only in 1940 did isolated cases
occur at the same time or quickly following each other, mostly in small
towns, in many cases in villages which had until now been untouched
by the pestilence and which were far removed from each other. Of course,
one imagined that a [single] carrier of typhus infected lice might have
caused the outbreak because of his wanderings, but this explanation
remained unsatisfactory for all practical purposes. Very often the villages
affected were 100 to 200 kilometers apart and it seemed unlikely that
at a time of unusually severe cold with masses of snow on the ground
that a person might have gone wandering over such great distances. It
seemed much more likely that several virus carriers were wandering around
who had sought shelter because of the weather conditions and had left
the infection behind. Beggars and tramps have traditionally been the
most important carriers. But it also has to be remembered for the first
cases of an epidemic that a virus can remain alive in the lice excrements
on clothing for a long time and that the reuse of winter clothing might
result in new infections. Experiments conducted by Weigl showed that
the virus is capable of infecting for several months.
After only a few individual cases had occurred
in January and the beginning of February, the interconnection of which
was unclear, the further course of the pestilence could be observed
accurately. Sometimes the illness disappeared by itself, even without
special protective measures being taken. In other cases, there were
cases within the vicinity or greater outbreaks, these only in towns
and often it could be verified how the typhus had been carried from
one community to another. Very often, but not always, beggars and vagabonds
were involved, but the principle cause was the lively Jewish wandering
which still prevailed at that time. The elders of the Jewish communities
were supposed to care for these wanderers, but this care often failed
since Jewish solidarity was definitely not always as dependable in crisis
as it should have been (Notfest) to include practical measures of disease
prevention. Arrivals were very often considered and treated as unwanted
guests in the communities. They were quickly urged to go away again
with a small contribution and thereby promoted the wanderings. In other
cases they were housed in mass quarters which quite frequently developed
into terrible epidemic hotbeds. In extreme cases only 3-4 square meters
of floor space and even less were made available per person.
Smaller communities with less than 7000 inhabitants
and the flat countryside were generally at first hardly affected by
the epidemic. Only in April and May, when under the influence of countermeasures
and other factors the Typhus exanthematicus started to subside in the
cities, several small farming communities were affected, even if the
occurrences were limited to isolated cases. Here too, it was mostly
Jews who became ill, but the Polish share was greater than in the cities.
With regard to the unpleasant result that the typhus spread to the countryside
and therefore evaded the measures used to combat the epidemic, this
was caused to a significant degree by the fact that many Jews had succeeded
in breaking out of the quarantine zones in the cities. Very often the
inhabitants of a community could give very exact information as to who
had brought the disease. Not infrequently, however, it was the Polish
farmer who brought a typhus infection upon himself when he, as was customary,
without comprehending the precariousness of his acts, took a wandering
Jew along on his vehicle for a ride for part of journey.
As the month of May came to an end, the illnesses
in the cities decreased markedly but the countryside was still very
much affected. Numerically the high point had passed but the danger
that farming communities would be dangerous endemic centers of contagion
was not eliminated. Contrary to expectations and without any apparent
reason, the number of affected persons declined suddenly in the second
half of June in the countryside. Since for a long time already, about
20-25 small towns had been identified in which new cases were reported,
the number suddenly fell back to 5 or 6. Shortly before there had been
an increase in the summer temperatures and perhaps the increased formation
of perspiration diminished the multiplication of lice and consequently
the virus. This development was of course consistent with the usual
decline for the disease during the summer months but the simultaneous
decline over a wide area was striking, nevertheless, on the whole, the
course of the epidemic was more or less typical because the late winter
and early spring months had, just as during many other typhus outbreaks,
brought the peak of the illnesses.
The subsequent course of the epidemic for the
rest of the year 1940 was typical also. The summer months showed only
isolated cases and it was only the month of November which slowly brought
once again the winter rise of the pestilence.
Summary
(1) The epidemiological circumstances of typhus in the Generalgouvernement
in the year 1940 were examined thoroughly. (2) The results showed that
the highest number of cases occurred within the age groups of 16-20,
and that the percentage of Jews affected by typhus was on the average
70-80%, in some communities even 95-97%. (3) The mortality rate generally
grew with increasing age. It was no less for Jews than for non-Jews.
APPENDIX D
Sanitary Conditions and Contagious Disease Control in the Generalgouvernement
(Gesundheitsverhaeltnisse und Seuchenbekaempfung im Generalgouvernement)
by Dr. Joseph Ruppert, MD
Chief Advisor for the Department of Hygiene for the Administration
of the Generalgouvernement and Hitler Youth District Doctor, Cracow
translated by F. P. Berg from:
Der praktische Desinfektor (Berlin: Hygiene-Verlag Erich Deleiter,
1941),
Heft 6, pp. 61-3 and Heft 7, pp. 72-5.
The inadequate hygienic conditions which existed earlier within
the present Generalgouvernement were always well-known throughout the
world. One referred to them in colloquial jargon when one was speaking
about uncleanliness or disorderliness. The expression "polnische Wirtschaft
[Polish housekeeping or `a terrible mess'1]" and what it implied was
understood by everyone.
In the past, as long as I was still living in
East Prussia, whenever I would occasionally make a weekend trip or travel
for a weekend by car "into the Reich" and would pass through Polish
territory, I would be immediately struck by the fact that I had left
the German border behind me and that I was now confronted by what the
expression "Polenwirtschaft" really meant: bad roads, rundown villages,
practically all houses in a poor and primitive state, dirty people clad
in rags, etc. On the approximately 130 km (80.8 miles) long road which
I travelled from the Eastern border to the Western border of the Polish
corridor, I would notice the oncoming automobiles. As I traveled on
the Polish territory, I would count twice as many German vehicles as
Polish. All of this, in addition to the inadequate road markings and
the absence of traffic discipline of the population, already gave me
after these few facts visible proof as to the backwardness of the Polish
state and its cultural niveau. I believed at that time, even though
I was only seeing the "outward facade (Kulissen)" of the Polish state,
that I had nonetheless acquired a one hundred per cent accurate impression
of the Polish state without even suspecting that what was actually hidden
behind this facade would, for any half-civilized human being, be the
most inconceivable, ultimate Dreckwirtschaft (filthy mess) of the highest
virilence. I had no more inkling about all of this than I did about
the now established fact that the hygienic-sanitary deficiencies of
this country would ever become, for me personally, such a deeply burning
professional problem. Nowadays, I must concern myself with these matters
day in and day out,--and not only with these, but also with those behind
the Polish facade. What is hidden there, is beyond one's wildest imagination.
An attempt, to try to convey in words those things which one has actually
seen, need not even be made. One must have seen for oneself in order
to hold these pictures accurately within oneself and true to life. And
what does one see! With one word--Dreck (filth), Dreck, and even more
Dreck. On the wooden steps of the hallway I would see the dirt, more
than once, as thick as on the mud-covered streets. Gloomy darkened apartments,
in which one almost stops breathing upon entering, the toilets of the
apartment in a disgusting condition, in the flat countryside often no
toilets at all. Whoever knows these conditions is not surprised, if
any further convincing is at all necessary, that even in hospitals they
would encounter totally inadequate sanitary facilities which led me
to comment once to the chief physician during a prearranged inspection:
"If your hospital would be a prison, then I as a German would say--poor
prisoners."
And now, we come to the Jewish milieu which one
encounters here in its totally undisguised (unverfaelscht) "prototypical
form"! If one is inclined to believe that the "specimens (Kostproben)"
which one sees in illustrated magazines are simply staged photographic
montages, here they will be confronted everywhere in Jewish apartments
by just how true those reproductions which have been published actually
are to reality. Here one encounters conditions which are astounding--that
human beings are at all capable of vegetating in such superb centers
of contagion for vermin and filth-related sicknesses (Schmutzkrankheiten).
In the houses one often finds a labyrinth of low vault-like passageways
where once in awhile shabby, bearded bodies dressed in caftans pass
by; or else, distinct criminal types of whom one can expect anything
talk with a Yiddish accent (mauschelnd), hang around in corners so that
one reaches instinctively for one's pistol to be sure it is ready to
fire at any moment. One gropes around in the dark to find the apartment
doors, behind which new scenes appear. In a half-darkened room in which,
if one steps firmly on the floor, the dust swirls about in the penetrating
light rays and where one will find as the only furniture: a dilapidated
oven, a prehistoric (vorsintflutliche) dresser from which old rags are
oozing, and a table with chairs to match the rest of the decorations.
The room is "alive (belebt)" with a number of typical characters--hats
tilted back to their necks--just like the ones I have already described.
There, in word and tone, the original "Yiddish" is spoken just as we
are accustomed to hear it spoken by our former Moses-descended livestock
dealers and other Jewish merchants in the flat countryside and of whom
we have had enough. "Mischpoke" in its purest form. The demeanor: grovelingly
devoted, of a sweetly dripping and offensive friendliness which, knowing
the Jew, can only arise from two motives--either the wish to conduct
a "Geschaeftche (a small business transaction)" or to get a probably
undeserved, merciful evaluation. This alone, but finally also the fear
that it could cost them their heads, makes them so sheepish and restricts
their relentless criminal inclination which is so thoroughly inscribed
in their faces.
Again and again, I have the silent wish that all
those who are occasionally still plagued by some kind of displaced humanitarian
impulse could accompany me. Here they will be guaranteed an instant
cure!
But by far, not everyone who comes to the East
can see this. The visitor lives and moves about mostly only within the
civilized portions of the city and goes, perhaps, once in awhile through
the streets of the Jewish section. This will already give him sufficient
impressions. But one must have been inside the "dwellings" in order
to get the true picture.
And so, how could it be otherwise, that Poland
with its large Jewish population who had over the years become closely
interrelated with the national Poles would ever since then be a pestilence-ridden
area. Sicknesses which we hardly know anymore in the Reich, which old
experienced doctors saw neither as students in the university clinics
nor in their practices later on, or sicknesses which we only see sporadically
are here so widespread and occur in such large numbers that one would
not imagine it possible on the periphery of the European cultural center.
With such "hygienic" conditions it is inevitable that infectious diseases
will remain indestructible, permanent guests if one is unwilling to
confront them with a thoroughness which is characteristic, thank goodness,
only of Germans.
In addition to the organizational buildup of the
Health Department under the expert professional and often admirable,
visionary guidance of the president of the Department of Health, the
Obermedizinalrat and District Health Commissioner Dr. J. Walbaum, it
was therefore decided from the very beginning to pay increased attention
to the fight against the pestilence. After this short war had spent
itself so quickly over the country with its inevitable accompanying
phenomena there was, logically enough, an increased danger.
As I have already mentioned, one glance at the
statistics for infectious diseases for former years for Poland shows
that the status of the pestilence was always extraordinarily high and
far beyond the bounds of conditions to which we are accustomed in the
Reich. To evaluate the status of the pestilence with the help of the
still available statistical material in comparison to the current information,
one can only use the numbers in a limited fashion since the area of
the Generalgouvernement is not identical to that of the former Poland
from where these numbers originate. Furthermore, we know that we cannot
get an exact picture from these available numbers about the status of
the pestilence in Poland since the statistical data was not at all thorough
but was only an approximation and the numbers are too far removed from
absolute values to be a practical basis for making decisions.
What one should believe about Polish statistics
was made clear by a highly placed Warsaw government medical official
of the Polish period in some self-compromising remarks he made some
years ago to a provincial doctor; literally translated: "There are three
kinds of lies, the simple lie, the arrogant lie and in its highest form--the
statistical lie." That was an authoritative Polish opinion and it says
it all! We personally have also seen how hard it was to educate Polish
doctors and administrative doctors--in many places only with pressure--to
be punctual and orderly in reporting illnesses and fatalities as has
been prescribed by law for years already.
On the basis of these facts and on the guidelines
established to fight contagious diseases, numerous ground-breaking measures
were necessary, since we were protecting not only the Germans in the
Generalgouvernement against infectious diseases so as to eliminate occurrences
in the Reich with which there was a constant traffic flow, but there
was also the danger which had to be eliminated that the disease would
spread among the Polish population because of wartime conditions. At
first there was a regulation that all German officials and civil servants
from the Reich were to be inoculated against typhus in order to give
them an immunobiological protection against the disease. The inoculations
were given partly by sanitary officers and partly by German civilian
doctors from the Reich. The protection lasts one year at most and has
to be renewed after this period with a one-time inoculation. As to a
thorough inoculation program for small-pox, it was not deemed necessary
because the Polish population had for years been inoculated against
small-pox so that one did not expect any cases of small pox. According
to Polish law, children in their first and seventh years are inoculated
against small pox; for that reason, measures were planned and implemented
in the summer of 1941 to also inoculate those children of these ages
against small pox. The inoculations are being given by Polish regional
health doctors who were subsequently reassigned to serve as field doctors
(Aussenbeamte) in the Polish provinces. To be sure that Reich and ethnic
German children would be inoculated by German doctors, we passed a special
regulation.
To be successful against the danger of the pestilence,
it was at first necessary to clearly understand the existing relevant
Polish law, since Polish laws are adhered to in administering the Generalgouvernement.
For health matters relating to infectious diseases the "Law to Fight
Infectious Diseases" and the "Inoculation Law" are adhered to. Those
two laws were translated and found acceptable since they are closely
modelled on the German Reich laws and, consequently, were adopted without
any change. Based on the existing laws which were also known to the
Polish doctors, necessary methods were decreed to fight against infectious
diseases.
Step by step, all Polish hygienic-sanitary laws
are being translated by an experienced former public health doctor and
a judicially trained German public health doctor into appropriate form
and distributed to all public health offices of the Generalgouvernement,
so that every German doctor in the public health service can become
thoroughly familiar with the Polish regulations. In this way, he will
be able to carry out all his responsibilities as well as observe and
supervise the practices of the Polish doctors so that the Polish laws
which are based, in most cases, on German experience are generally quite
acceptable but which have been heretofore neglected will be implemented
with German thoroughness. In so far as there were dangerous loopholes
within the Polish law, they were closed by additional regulations from
the Generalgouverneur at the request of the President of the Department
of Health Services. If one observes the current status of the pestilence,
we should only briefly apply ourselves to the diseases which are at
this time in the foreground or which are of special importance for the
health of the population. As such there are especially typhus, typhoid,
dysentery, rabies, trachoma and, finally also, venereal diseases.
Typhus is a serious infectious disease which is
not common in Germany and was only observed sporadically in peacetime
when it was carried in from foreign countries. The death rate for typhus
swings between 2.5 and 50 per cent of those infected by the disease.
The sickness becomes far more dangerous with increasing age. The responsible
micro-organism is the Rickettsia provazeki which is carried by a bacillus
carrier, the clothes louse. The importance of typhus for Poland is obvious
if one familiarizes oneself with the available statistics of past years.
One clearly sees that Poland has always been the country of diseases,
especially that of typhus. East and Central Poland were more affected
than were the western provinces which border on Germany where there
was almost no typhus at all.
Especially vulnerable were the big cities which
had primarily Jewish ghettoes with typical centers of contagion. Thorough
inspections and orientation regarding the disease condition right there
and then were necessary. One had to partially close off whole blocks
and sections while always guaranteeing the food supply for the inhabitants.
The diseased were immediately isolated, even special hospitals for infectious
diseases were constructed, the relatives and co-tenants were deloused
and quarantined, the hospital staff was given special training and,
since most of the diseased were Jewish, a Jewish security police was
established and given responsibility for the precise implementation
of the rules under the supervision of a special unit (Sonderkommando)
of the Polish police. To restrict the possible spread of the disease
even further, one had to perform sufficient delousings and construct
large numbers of delousing stations. Where such stations existed but
in a totally inadequate fashion, they had to be expanded considerably.
Since the Jew was practically the only carrier of the disease--even
if the diseased were not Jewish, one could in most cases trace the disease
contact to a Jewish source of infection--it did indeed seem to be urgently
necessary in order to protect the populace to curtail the free movements
of the Jewish inhabitants, to make the use of the railroads by the Jews
dependent on a special official medical permit and then only in urgent
cases, to designate special park areas for walks in the open (since,
for instance, by shared usage of the park benches it was very easy to
promote the transmission of lice), to forbid the use of busses for the
same reasons whereas in trolley cars the Jews had to be given special
compartments. The Jew represented an especially difficult problem within
the struggle against diseases anyway. With his removal as the source
of infection, the most important element of danger is already eliminated.
It could well be, that the strict measures which
we had to implement out of necessity will be seen by the Jewish or Jewish
sympathetic side as an opportunity to exaggerate and manufacture atrocity
propaganda which can then be spread throughout the world as we know
all too well (in der bekannt beruechtigten zusaetzlichen Aufbauschung
in die Welt hinausgehen.) But everyone who is familiar with local conditions,
even if only slightly familiar, has a chance to convince himself of
the absolute necessity of these protective measures.
If there should be any doubt at all that the Jew
is the carrier of the infectious diseases, we need only point to the
fact that the proportion of the Jew is not a piece of disseminated anti-Jewish
sham put out by the German side but that we are relying solely on those
reports which are coming in from German public health offices by the
Polish, and which are even supported in part by Jewish doctors. Because
of the implemented measures, we were able in all cases to stop mainly
typhus which is receding everywhere. The most recent reports of epidemic
diseases show only a fraction of the numbers in comparison to the same
month of the previous year.
Typhoid has always played a major role in Poland
and occurs even now relatively often among the population. There is
no danger at all for the Germans because inoculations were given immediately.
Furthermore, there were extensive control measures which were applied
mostly to the hygiene of the water supply, the sewage system, the dairy
processing plants and the Bacillus dischargers.
In special bulletins the public health doctors
were given thorough and detailed instructions in all the dangerous aspects
and control measures, so that every doctor had a necessary weapon against
the spread, and everyone in his place knows immediately at a point of
increasing danger what he has to do in this case to successfully prevent
and fight against the disease.
Every Polish and German public health doctor has
on hand an extensive service regulation, in which framework (scope??)
the disease protection because of its increased importance for the Generalgouvernement
has been given a special place.
Already in the fall months of 1939 we German doctors
saw that even cases of dysentery had increased several times. . . .
It seemed to us therefore that after extensive consultations with experienced
epidemiologists that it was not necessary to inoculate against this
disease. To us Germans it is self-evident to know and practice hygiene
everyday, therefore, we published memos to protect against dysentery
and in ten rules we would identify the several dangerous sources.
10 Commandments
- Cleanliness for you and your children is of utmost importance.
Wash your hands before eating and after using the bathroom otherwise
you can transfer the dysentery bacillus onto door handles, stairway
railings, foodstuffs, etc.
- Flies carry the disease organisms from the feces of people infected
with dysentery onto foodstuffs. Therefore, fight flies energetically
and protect all products which are designated for human consumption
against the arrival of flies.
- Wash all unpeeled raw food items before they are served several
times in cold water and dunk them briefly even in hot water. Then
you need not do without the nutritionally important fresh vegetable
produce.
- Avoid unripened fruit and spoiled foodstuffs since they can
give access to disease.
- Seek medical advice if in the summer or fall you are stricken
by dysentery and pay the utmost attention to the doctor's instructions.
- Limit yourself to boiled food if dysentery is established in
your area. Use only boiled water and avoid raw milk, ice cream,
etc.
- Shop only in hygienically ideal shops and only go to those restaurants
which vouch for absolute cleanliness.
- Seek only hermetically closed and clean bathrooms. Human wastes
discharged in the open should be carefully covered with soil.
- Avoid everything which could lead to intestinal disease.
- Seek professional help and treatment immediately in a hospital
if you are stricken with dysentery. You yourself will receive tbe
best care and your surroundings will therefore be protected against
infection.
For us Germans it is almost unbelievable if one
follows the statistics for rabies of the last years. In the Reich, this
disease is most rare. . . .
Even the Egyptian eye disease was found to be
very prevalent in Poland. . . .
Even venereal diseases always played a significant
role in Poland. This fact is illustrated sufficiently by the existence
of venereal disease in comparison to the existence in Germany on a proportion
of 1:7, that the effects of this epidemic which ravages the life of
the Polish people. . . .
In order to control contagious disease, in addition
to other facilities, the Federal Hygienic Institute in Warsaw with its
three affiliated institutions was put under recognized German leadership.
The institute also acquired a typhus research center which had in addition
to the research on the epidemiology of typhus the production of serum
to take necessary inoculations. That the control of contagious disease
in the Generalgouvernement was closely linked with the Wehrmacht, with
the Department of Veterinary Sciences and with all other interested
offices for the control of disease is self-evident and needs no special
mention. To complete this, one should briefly describe other organizational
methods: establishment of disease departments, addition to the reporting
systems, implementation of registration forms and disease report forms,
organization of the transport of the sick, distribution of instructions
to the Polish doctors, preparation of inoculation records [?], acquisition
of vaccine, regulation of the medical care of the population, implementation
of delousings. The overall situation as far as the danger of contagious
diseases in the Generalgouvernement is concerned is already more ideal
than it ever was at the time of an independent Poland, a result which
within the short time of the German administration of the Generalgouvernement
under the consideration of the war status, the connected environmental
conditions, the total lack of sanitary measures and the unhygienic lifestyle
of the populace seems hardly believable.
When we took over [in Poland] there were practically
no useful files with which to build an organizational structure; it
had to be built out of practically nothing at all. All of the files
from which we might have gained something were destroyed. If we were
nonetheless successful in creating the necessary conditions for public
health, then this is not only because of the organizational talent of
the Germans but also because of the painstaking conferences, negotiations
and the careful research into existing measures which could be applied
again . . . .
Translator's Footnote
- The expression "polnische Wirtschaft" is translated in The
New Cassell's German Dictionary (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.,
1958), p. 570 under the word-heading "Wirtschaft" as "a shocking
state of affairs, a terrible mess."
- Lewinson, "On the Method of Disinfection and Disinsection of
Railroad Cars," (russian), Hygiene des Verkehrwesens (1924) Heft
7/8, pp. 55-69.
- Gerhard Peters, "Leistungen und Erfolge deutscher Gasverfahren
in der Schädlingsbekämpfung (Accomplishments and Successes of German
Gas Processes for Pest Control)," Vierjahresplan, Vol. 3 (1939)
pp. 1246-49.
- Schumacher, "Die Desinfektion der Eisenbahn-Personenwagen in
den Werkstätten," Glasers Annalen für Gewerbe und Bauwesen, Vol.
66 (1910) Nr. 782.
- Gerhard Peters, "Durchgasung von Eisenbahnwagen mit Blausäure
(Fumigation of Railroad Cars with Hydrocyanic Acid)," Anzeiger für
Schädlingskunde, Vol. 13 (1937) Heft 3, pp. 35-41 and Gerhard Peters,
"Eine moderne Eisenbahn-Entwesungsanlage (A Modern Railroad Disinfestation
Facility)," Anzeiger für Schädlingskunde, Vol. 14 (1938) Heft 8,
pp. 98-99.
- Verordnungsblatt für das Generalgouvernement, December 4, 1941.
- L. Gassner, "La Dératisation moderne des Navires et Longements
et la Désinsectisation dans la Lutte contre les Maladies Infectieuses,"
Rapport du Troisième Congres International de Techniques Sanitaire
et de l'Hygiène Urbaine (Lyon: March 6-9, 1932).
- Bull. Mens. de l'Office international d'Hygiène publique, Vol.
23 (1931) Nr. 12.
- K. Peter, Die Bekämpfung hygienisch wichtiger Schädlinge an
Bord (The Hygienic Control of Important Pests Aboard Ship), Vol.
32 (1940) Heft 9, pp. 157-70.
- K. Peter. "Aus dem Aufgabengebiet des Hafenarztes (From the
Field of the Harbor Doctor)," Hansa (German newspaper for merchant
shipping), Vol. 73, (1936) Heft 28, pp. 1394-96.
- Reichs Gesundheits Blatt (1931), Part 2, Nr. 29.
- H. W., "Flugzeugentwesung in Afrika (Aircraft Disinfestation
in Africa)," Der Praktische Disinfektor, Vol. 30 (1938) Heft 6,
pp. 189-90.
- T. H. D. Griffiths, "Procédés efficaces pour la destruction
des moustiques à bord des aéronefs," Offices international d'Hygiène
publique, Vol. 27 (1935) Heft 3, pp. 550-53 and C. Michel, "Destruction
des moustiques et autres insectes à bord des aéroplanes," Office
international d'Hygiène publique, Vol. 27 (1935) Heft 3, pp. 553-57.
- Ministerialblatt für die innere Verwaltung (1941) Nr. 7.
- G. Rose, "Fortschritte in der Bekämpfung der Kleiderlaus (Progress
in the Control of the Clothes Louse)," Reichs Gesundheits Blatt,
Vol. 18 (1943) Heft 5, pp. 53-7.
RETURN TO "TYPHUS AND THE JEWS"
This article is a revised version of the original which appeared
in:
The Journal of Historical Review Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter,
1988-89.
INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW
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