The Krynica Conference of Nazi Doctors, October 1941

The minutes of a conference held on 13-16 October 1941 at Krynica¹ by the health department of the Generalgouvernement² (hereinafter GG) has been preserved and is kept in the archives of the Chief Commission for the Investigation of Nazi German Crimes in Poland (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce³). At the time, the Nazi German authorities considered the minutes of this Conference a top secret document. It comprises 206 pages of typescript. On 17 June 1949, the Third Criminal Division of the Kraków Municipal Court⁴ verified its authenticity, applying an official seal and the signatures of the members of the identifying team.

The Krynica Conference was called by the health department of the GG government and attended by representatives of its health service, military command, and police force, Air District VIII Command (Breslau), and attendees representing the health services of the following district authorities in German-occupied Poland: Krakau,⁵ Radom, Lublin, Warschau, and Galizien, as well attendees representing the local Nazi German authorities of Krynica (its military command, chief physician, and the head of the health resort). The list of the Conference’s participants is given at the back of this article.

A total of 100 German physicians and health workers attended the Conference.

The Conference was chaired by Dr Jost Walbaum, head of the health department in the Chief Division for Home Affairs⁶ of the government of the GG.

The theme of the Conference was epidemic disease in the GG. Papers were delivered on subjects such as the prevention of typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, trachoma, outbreaks of diarrhoea in the summer season, the water supply and waste disposal, the treatment of lambliasis intestinalis (giardiasis) etc. The papers were supplemented with discussion sessions.

To present the matters discussed in the Conference, I will summarise some of the contributions, with special attention to features characteristic for the period under Nazi German occupation and the activities of the Nazi German health service. I will not go into purely scientific issues or administrative matters.

As may be inferred from Dr Walbaum’s introductory speech, the aim of the Conference was to establish a plan of action for the staff of the German health service to protect the Germans in the GG against infectious diseases and stop these diseases from filtering through to Germany.

The main subject discussed at the Conference was the prevention of typhus. The first to speak on this matter was Dr Buurman,⁷ who said the disease had grown into an epidemic in all the districts of the GG except for Distrikt Krakau. According to him, the foci of the typhus epidemic were located in the ghettos, from where the disease was spreading out. Allegedly, the spread of typhus was due to the lack of discipline on the part of the Jews because of their vagrancy. One of the doctors from the City of Warsaw said that a Jewish woman who left the ghetto infected 11 persons with typhus. Apparently, already before the War the case of a Jewish beggar had been reported who had allegedly caused 200 infections.

Dr Buurman told the Conference that Prof. Heinrich Kudicke⁸ had been appointed Medical Officer with Special Powers for the Prevention of Typhus⁹ in the GG. He was to be assisted by the heads of special medical units established in all the districts, along with their disinfection and pest control teams, with sufficient supplies of petrol for fuel and for washing, and ancillary staff. A sum of 8 million złoty¹⁰ had been set aside for the anti-typhus campaign.

The authorities of the GG had issued executive regulations for the strict control of permits issued to Jews [passes allowing them to leave their ghetto] and very severe (“Draconian”) penalties had been prescribed for those who failed to observe these regulations.

A dramatic rise was reported in the epidemic curve for typhus in the city of Warsaw and the powiats of Distrikt Warschau,¹¹ with an annual incidence rate of 100–400 cases. Given such a large number of sources, the disease could easily spread despite a delousing project. Buurman continued to quote Prof. Kudicke and said that Distrikt Krakau was the only area of the GG where there had been no rise in the number of typhus cases. Prof. Kudicke added that the Jews were sabotaging efforts to conduct a delousing campaign, as could be observed especially in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Prof. Kudicke reported a distinct rise in lice infestation among the inhabitants. This was caused by the shortage of soap and washing powder, fuel for heating, and clothes and underwear. If the situation did not improve, the typhus epidemic would spread and, according to estimates, escalate to 180,000 cases within the next eight months. In view of this, he gave an account of the preventive means to stop the epidemic, based on the classical method integrating a prophylactic approach with treatment. The biggest obstacle to combating the typhus epidemic, according to Prof. Kudicke, was the Warsaw Ghetto, which the German health authority did not allow any outsiders even to enter. In his opinion, it was impossible to isolate off such a large focus of infection located in the very centre of the city, and the disease was bound to leak out. The situation called for action. Prof. Kudicke argued that it would be wrong to set up ghettos and Jewish labour camps, leaving them to the care of their own authorities and only Jewish doctors.

Prof. Kudicke was aware of the fact that even though the “care” dispensed to Jews was to be temporary, nonetheless their provisional concentration must not bring harm to Germans. A shortage of food was bound to give rise to the outbreak of an epidemic and no measures would be of any use if the fundamental cause of the problem was not removed.

In a reply to Prof. Kudicke, Dr Walbaum presented the position Nazi doctors took on the Jews, and said outright,

Of course, the best and simplest thing would be to give the people a sufficient supply of food, but that cannot be done, precisely because during a war this depends on the availability of food. That is why a rule has been adopted whereby any Jew found outside the ghetto without a special permit will be shot on sight. One has to be clear about this—and in this company I can say it outright—there are only two ways: either we condemn the Jews to death by starvation in the ghetto, or we shoot them. Even if the end result is the same, the latter is a better deterrent. Yet there is nothing we can do about it, not even if we wanted to, because we are to carry out one and only one task: to see that the German people are not infected and harmed by these parasites, and for us any means to do that is right. (Clapping and applause)¹²

Walbaum’s words are pretty much the same as Streicher’s¹³ statement in an article published in September 1939:

The Jew is a germ and a plague; he is not a human creature but an enemy, a malefactor, a spreader of disease, and it is on the interest of mankind to exterminate him.

In December 1941, Streicher wrote that there was only one way to deal with Jews: “to exterminate that nation, whose father is the devil.”

Gas Chamber—Cyclone B. Artwork by Marian Kołodziej. Photo by Piotr Markowski. Click the image to enlarge.

The discussion continued with a remark from Dr Lambrecht,¹⁴ that Polish disinfectors could not do an honest job in the ghetto on a salary of 180 złoty. In his opinion, it was quite right to punish Jews who left the ghetto without a permit—they should be tried before the Standgericht.¹⁵ (Interestingly, as the minutes imply, Dr Lambrecht’s remark gives official confirmation that a trial before the Standgericht was tantamount to a death sentence.) Dr Lambrecht went on to say that in January 1941 he had to admit 70 thousand Poles from Wartheland¹⁶ to the Warsaw Ghetto. In his opinion, “the more congested the ghetto got, the greater the pressure on its boundaries.” In addition, he was not given any food for the new arrivals. He concluded that in spite of all this, it was better for the Jews to die in the ghetto rather than be dispersed throughout the city and die there, because then they could infect the rest of the inhabitants.

By this time, the Nazi doctors must have been familiar with the general guidelines on Jews, since Rudolf Höss¹⁷ had received orders from Himmler already in June 1941 to get Auschwitz ready for the mass extermination of the Jews.

Preparations [to receive large numbers of Jewish prisoners] started in Majdanek [concentration] camp on 21 July [1941], and on 16 October 1941 Jews started to arrive in Poland from all over Europe. Kulmhof death camp was opened on 8 December 1941.

The next paper was presented by Dr W. Hagen, a physician from Warsaw, who spoke on the anti-typhus campaign in that city. He contributed a mass of new details. In his opinion, the cause of the epidemics raging at the time was hunger, cramped living conditions, and squalor. These three factors were responsible for the outbreak of the three main epidemics: typhoid fever, typhus, and tuberculosis. The population of Warsaw had risen due to the influx of those resettled from the areas incorporated in Germany.¹⁸ 20% of the houses in Warsaw had been destroyed,¹⁹ and a substantial number of buildings had been sequestered for use by the military and administrative authorities.²⁰ Thus, the housing density in the Polish parts of the city was 6 persons to a room, and 9 persons to a room in the Jewish quarter.

The mortality curve, especially for the Jewish quarter, had risen dramatically and the increase in the incidence of epidemic typhus and typhoid fever had brought the death rate for these diseases up to the same level as the death rate for tuberculosis. The incidence of typhoid rose in late 1939. For every [ethnic] Pole who contracted the disease, there were four Jews who fell sick with it. The cause of the proliferation of typhoid was the destruction of all the water installations, so that the inhabitants had to use river water drawn from the Vistula. In addition to the water shortage, the sewerage system failed as well. Given this situation, from late 1939 to the beginning of 1940, 1,170,000 persons were vaccinated against typhoid. The vaccination campaign was repeated in 1941, quickly bringing the typhoid epidemic to an end. Vaccination brought a good effect in the Jewish quarter as well, despite the hunger, overcrowding, and squalor.

The typhus epidemic broke out in Warsaw already in 1939. In March 1940, there were 59 deaths due to typhus. The epidemic gathered momentum in the spring of 1941, and the official record for fatalities for July of that year was 182, though in reality this figure reflected only part of the overall picture. The rise in the incidence of typhus occurred in the Jewish quarter, and was still at the same high level in March 1941. The number of new cases reported in July 1941 was 1,800, and by September it had gone up to 3,000.

The foci of the epidemic were in the Jewish quarter, which is in the centre of Warsaw and has boundaries which it is impossible to guard. In January, there were 30 cases of typhus in the Jewish quarter, and 2 cases of [ethnic] Poles living in its vicinity contracting the disease. At the time of the Conference, the situation in the Jewish quarter had reached a point where it was impossible to isolate places where there had been an outbreak, and the number of such places had gone up in the Polish part of the city as well. By this time, it was impossible to treat all the persons who needed to be deloused. One million złoty had been spent to build three new bath-houses to protect the city’s Polish population.

The epidemic spread because 40 thousand Jews were sent to Warsaw from the west. They arrived in March 1941, in daily transports of a thousand persons, bringing typhus. At this time, the Jewish quarter was closed off completely and consignments of food stopped being sent in to use up the existing reserves. The consequence was the impoverishment of most of the inhabitants [of the ghetto]. In Hagen’s opinion, leaving the administration [of the ghetto in the hands of the Jews was a mistake. The 700 Jewish physicians²¹ currently resident there did not manage to control the epidemic. Mortality in the Jewish quarter reached a figure of a thousand per week. In most cases, the cause of death was inanition. Children and the elderly, mainly males, accounted for most of the deaths. Prof. Kudicke’s findings showed that 10% of those who died had gone through typhus shortly before. These people had never been in hospital before. Assuming a 12% death rate for the Jewish population, one may conclude that for every 12 Jewish deaths of typhus per day on record for victims who had not been hospitalised, there must have been about a hundred unreported cases of the disease. This was for a period when there were only about 35 new cases reported per day. Only 10% of those summoned to report for a bath and delousing came forward on a voluntary basis. If a Polish physician, disinfecting officer, and policeman attended, they could manage to send only 50% of the inhabitants of an infected house to a bath-house and delousing station. The street with the highest incidence of the disease was Krochmalna. One Friday at five in the morning, 25 houses in the area were cordoned off by a group of 25 German policemen, 60 Polish policemen, and 200 Jewish law enforcement men. The inhabitants were assembled in a local precinct, whereby 90% of the local population was deloused. In the course of this treatment, 97 cases of typhus were discovered, 11 of them for individuals registered for residence in the area.²² A total of 4,900 persons were deloused on this occasion. An attempt to get Jewish doctors to carry out inspections in individually allocated housing blocks only worked for a week. During that week, the number of cases reported doubled. At this time, the incidence of typhus in the Polish parts of the city was rising, and by September 1941 reached a figure of 300 cases, each of which was proved to involve contact with the Jewish population. Dr Hagen²³ expected the rise in the number of typhus cases to continue, its main cause being hunger and squalor.

Hagen observed that a 500 calorie daily ration of food per person was well below the standard. The calorific value of the foodstuffs allocated to the city’s Polish inhabitants oscillated from around 700 calories per day in 1940 to 400 in 1943; and for the Jewish population it was about 180 calories a day in 1941, so it was well below the minimum required for survival. The daily calorific value of the food rations for Germans was 2,600 calories in 1943.

Hagen acknowledged that the people of Warsaw were making up for this shortfall by buying food on the free market outside of the rationing system and from the clandestine, illegal sale of foodstuffs designated for the rationing system.²⁴ There was a discernible shortage of fats and protein. By the beginning of 1941, prices on the illegal market had risen to three times the price of the same goods on the ration card system, and by the summer of that year they were 12–15 times as high. The cause of this situation was the quota system for the military.²⁵ Hagen anticipated that not even the demand for potatoes would be met. Employees were being paid only 6–7% of their pre-war earnings. He viewed this as a disastrous situation, with inflation and a food shortage.

In his Diary, [Hans Frank] formulated his policy in the Poles:

Before the German nation experiences the disaster of famine, first the occupied territories and their inhabitants will starve. This territory is Germany’s war booty, and I am not ashamed to say that should just one German be shot, we will shoot a hundred Poles, and I am pleased to inform you officially, Party Comrade Sauckel,²⁶ that up to now we have sent over 800 thousand Polish workers to Germany. (source 1)

By 1943, the occupied countries had supplied Germany with 1.8 million workers, 76% of whom came from Poland. By the end of the War, a total of 2.46 million persons had been deported from Poland (source 2) [for slave labour].²⁷

Dr Hagen expected that in the coming winter [1941-42] the civilian inhabitants [of Warsaw] would not be given [ration cards for] even a kilogram of coal to heat their homes. There would not be enough coal even for the delousing stations. Also, there would be a shortage of soap and detergents for washing laundry and a shortage of clothing, which would rule out the possibility of a change of undergarments. People would keep the same underwear on even during their sleeping hours. Given these conditions, the battle against the typhus epidemic would be doomed to fail. Thus, Hagen expected the epidemic to spread and affect the army and railway workers, the population of Warsaw and people working for the army. In his opinion, a supply of food, coal, and soap could be the crucial factors helping to win the battle against typhus.

Finally, Dr Hagen addressed the subject of tuberculosis and observed a rise in the incidence of this disease and the TB death rate

Hard living conditions and the repressive measures the German occupying authorities used against individuals and against the community at large made disease spread. Tuberculosis and neurological disorders were some of the most prevalent diseases. The overall death rate rose from 13 to 18 ‰. (After the War) about one and a half million people in Poland were suffering from tuberculosis; there was also a prevalence of psychiatric conditions and neuroses, as well as a rising tide of alcoholism and drug addiction. (source 1)

Hagen went on to say that surprisingly, in data collected for deaths due to tuberculosis (on a population of 100 thousand inhabitants), Jews accounted for only one-third to half of the fatalities. In 1940, the tuberculosis mortality curve rose, affecting elderly men most of all, though the death rate was high among children as well.

Also the results of a mass chest X-ray screening project carried out on a group of 10 thousand Volksdeutsche²⁸ showed a higher incidence of tuberculosis than for other German citizens.²⁹ Dr Hagen recommended that first all the inveterate cases of tuberculosis should be diagnosed and treated, which would help with the diagnosis of recent infections.

Hagen was highly critical of the anti-TB campaign carried out in Poland before the War. He said that 80% of those receiving treatment in the [Polish] TB clinics were patients who reported for treatment at their own instigation. The German anti-TB campaign conducted at the time of the Conference involved a greater number of chest X-rays and doctor’s home visits, though an increase in the number of beds available in sanatoria was out of the question for financial reasons. For Hagen, the battle against tuberculosis in the East³⁰ was important for the protection of the German nation. More and more reports were coming in about workers sent to Germany contracting tuberculosis. The crucial factors contributing to this were similar to those responsible for the typhus epidemic—hunger, cold, and overcrowded housing. Hagen was in favour of a long-term anti-TB plan, as the problem would continue after the War. He was against the idea of combating tuberculosis only by isolating chronic cases. In his opinion, the first thing that had to be done was to identify and treat the inveterate cases, and only then to diagnose and treat new infections.

The session continued with a paper by Dr Steuer,³¹ head of the Military Research Station for Hygiene and Bacteriology,³² on the agglutination of dry blood in infectious diseases and its application in the treatment of epidemic and endemic typhus. This was a diagnostic method devised by Prof. Kudicke and Dr Steuer.³³ Dr Steuer said that the method had been used to examine cases of typhus in 26 towns and villages of the Powiats of Kraków and Miechów. From 25 to 88 cases of the epidemic form of typhus were found to occur in 10 places in Kreis Krakau. These were places where there had been no cases of typhus for many years. Here again, the cause of this outbreak of typhus was attributed to Jewish migration. Typhus was also being transmitted from place to place by lice-ridden Roma, vagrants, and illegal traders. These epidemics erupted in the spring of 1940. Mortality ranged from 2 to 20% and most of the victims were elderly. An average death rate of 11% was observed in the group of 544 cases diagnosed. 879 individuals were examined using the Kudicke and Steuer diagnostic method, and 206 of them tested positive. A recent infection was confirmed in 100 persons who tested negative; the rest of the cases were in the convalescent phase of the disease.

100 out of the 206 examined persons with a positive reaction to the test were found to be suffering from typhus at the time, and another 25 were in the convalescent phase. Typhus was not diagnosed in the rest of those who tested positive. However, some of them did have certain symptoms of typhus: they felt unwell and complained of headache, a high temperature, the symptoms of a cold, and backache reminiscent of flu. Others did not report any ailments, but on being examined were found to have a skin rash (exanthema). There were 41 such cases and they involved abortive infection in ambulant patients, most of them children or adolescents.

Dr Hellenbrandt’s report for the Powiats of Piotrków and Tomaszow showed that the incidence of typhus had been rising there, with about 100 cases over the past year, and another 130 new ones in September. The problems with controlling the epidemic in this area were caused by the shortage of hospital beds for typhus patients and persons in quarantine. The obstacle to setting up quarantine facilities was the fact that due to the resettlement of Jews from Warsaw to Piotrków and Tomaszów, the number of residents per room had risen from 6.5 to 10–11. This meant that 17 cases of typhus had to be left at home with their families, which of course had an effect on the spread of the disease. The effort to construct isolation barracks for typhus patients was still coming up against considerable difficulties. Dr Hellenbrandt observed that the right conditions for quarantine could not be implemented either, because of a shortage of basic food rations for persons who should be quarantined.

During the discussion, Dr Reichel said that 50 sick Jews had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto at Whitsun and were found on the streets of Lublin. How many others were not caught—that he did not know. Figures for typhus infections among the inhabitants of Lublin rose at a dramatic rate over the fortnight following the incident.

The discussion on typhus continued with a remark from Prof. Kudicke that he needed to know all the facts on the number of delousing centres and their location, the way they worked, their throughput and management. He also needed to know the demand for workers due to be sent to Germany. Dr Walbaum replied, informing him that all the skilled workers in the GG were due to be transferred to Germany and replaced with Soviet POWs. Prof. Kudicke observed that workers on transports bound for Germany were deloused before they left the GG but they were not lice-free. The typhus epidemic that broke out in Rostock should be attributed to these transports. So delousing should be repeated in Germany. The same should apply to Soviet POWs.

Dr Bruns, head of the dermatology ward in the district hospital for Germans in Kraków,³⁴ spoke on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

He said that in Poland there had been no legal provisions for the prevention of venereal diseases. In consequence, only 10% of those with syphilis were treated until fully cured. The rule of anonymity was observed in the way patients with syphilis were treated in Poland. Bruns alleged that in Poland the number of patients with VD was seven times higher than the corresponding statistic for Germany. On 22 February 1940, the German authorities issued a decree on the grounds of which all suffering from VD in the GG had to register and undergo treatment, even with the use of police enforcement if need be. This had to be done to wipe out the sources of infection. At first, the Polish doctors in Kraków sabotaged the scheme. In March 1940, they reported only 45 [Polish] cases of VD, whereas 57 Germans were diagnosed with VD in the same month. As a result of official warnings issued by Dr Buurman, 590 [Polish] cases of VD were reported in April, while at the same time the number of Germans with VD fell. Therefore, Polish medical practitioners were deprived of the right to treat Reichsdeutsche and Volksdeutsche³⁵ outpatients with VD.

The following directives were introduced in the City of Kraków as of 1 July 1940: 1) A medical examination centre was established for prostitutes; the Polish VD clinic continued its operations, and a similar facility was established for Germans; subsequently new Polish VD clinics were set up, equipped and opened. The Sittenpolizei (vice squad) helped to have 600 prostitutes who had been registered before the War brought in for a medical examination. Medical record books were issued for them and they were put under an obligation to report regularly for a medical examination. Some prostitutes tried to evade being diagnosed with gonorrhoea by taking a couple of Dagenan (sulphapyridine³⁶) tablets prior to the medical, and a dose of bismuth to prevent a syphilis diagnosis. A regulation was issued concerning prescriptions and mandatory medical examinations, regardless of whether or not a prostitute was in receipt of private medical treatment. Prof. Walter³⁷ and Dr Kaczyński³⁸ ran a VD prevention centre and 814 cases of VD, 509 in men and 305 in women, were reported between 1 March and 15 June [1941]. 156 cases of syphilis and 149 cases of gonorrhoea were diagnosed in the women’s group; and 168 cases of syphilis, 330 cases of gonorrhoea, and 11 cases of chancroid ulcer were diagnosed in the men’s group. Only 17 sources of infection were identified, with nearly three times more women than men disclosing the source of their infection. 974 VD patients were being treated in Kraków between 1 September 1940 and 31 December 1940. One-third of the cases were reported by private medical practitioners, and the rest by the hospitals. There were 437 cases of syphilis, 495 cases of gonorrhoea, and 42 cases of chancroid ulcer. The patients were 548 men, 409 women, and 17 juveniles. About 10 new cases of syphilis and about 64 new gonorrhoea infections were diagnosed a month, and 29% of the patients disclosed the source of their infection.

892 male, 741 female, and 18 juvenile patients were being treated for VD between 1 January and 1 September 1941. Four-fifths of them came from Kraków. The conditions diagnosed in this period were as follows: 948 cases of gonorrhoea, 621 cases of syphilis, 66 cases of chancroid ulcer, and 16 mixed or double infections. 552 men and only 140 women had recent infections, which made up a total of 692 cases. The 612 cases of gonorrhoea comprised 500 male and 112 female patients. It was assumed that about 50% of women with gonorrhoea were not diagnosed. 369 patients were identified corresponding to the 545 presumable sources of infection that patients disclosed, giving an overall percentage of 22.25% of identified sources of infection to the total number of VD patients receiving treatment.

The result of a year’s work in Kraków’s Polish treatment centres was as follows:

Total number of VD patients treated—2,625

• syphilis—1,058
• gonorrhoea—1,443
• chancroid ulcer—108
• mixed infections—16
• Including 824 recent infections.

An average of 31% of the sources of infection was determined.

German and Volksdeutsche patients with VD were treated in an analogous way to the treatment given in the Polish VD clinics, and healthcare providers consulted each other whenever such a need arose. 647 German VD patients were registered in 1940, and another 423 new cases were recorded in the first eight months of 1941.

In Dr Bruns’ opinion, if Germans who caught VD from sexual relations with a Polish woman were penalised for intercourse with Polish women, the outcome would only be that the source of the infection would never come to light. A regulation was introduced in the healthcare system for railway employees whereby a German who caught VD could not travel to Germany before the end of his treatment.

If a German named a Polish woman as the source of his infection, she would be summoned for treatment in a German VD clinic.

Less than 1% of the VD infections on record were reported from brothels. In 1941, a considerable rise was observed in the proliferation of VD due to clandestine prostitution, so the municipal starost³⁹ had a street designated as a red light area, by analogy to the Bremen System.⁴⁰

Dr Bruns attributed the good results obtained in the prevention of VD to the right conduct taken by some of the Polish doctors. Other Polish doctors, who were not allowed to treat German VD patients, merely submitted a diagnosis. “One of these doctors was prosecuted by the Special Court.”⁴¹

A regulation was issued ordering registered prostitutes to take a preventive dose of bismuth once a fortnight. Dr Bruns recommended that in cities with a sufficient number of German healthcare staff, Polish doctors should be prohibited from treating Germans suspected to be suffering from VD (they would not be allowed to put up notices in German advertising their medical specialisation in skin and venereal diseases).

The gynaecologist Prof. Schaefer contributed to the discussion, observing that sometimes it was very difficult to diagnose gonorrhoea in women, and that a woman’s smear test should be made when she was menstruating. He also said that often there was a shortage of sulphonamide medications for the treatment of VD in German women. Dr Hagen reported that the VD treatment available in Warsaw was not yet up to the standard provided in Kraków. In fact, Warsaw consisted of three cities, each a separate entity unto itself: a large Polish city, the Jewish city, and 10 thousand Volksdeutsche and about 5–10 thousand Reichsdeutsche employed in the municipal administrative offices. Polish doctors were not reporting VD cases, so they had been threatened with having their medical practice closed. A Polish paramedic had been sent to Auschwitz in connection with such behaviour. There was a shortage of staff and observation beds in Warsaw.

Dr Wiggers spoke on the situation in Lwów. The Russians had put an end to prostitution there and closed down all the brothels. The Wehrmacht wanted the restoration of the brothels, which would have to be re-opened in the next few days. There was no prohibition on German soldiers having intercourse with Ukrainian women. A system for the prevention of VD was to be set up in Lwów in the near future. In the next part of the discussion, Dr Reichel criticised the postponement of holiday leave for employees of the German railways who had contracted VD and were receiving treatment. The wives of these employees learned that their husbands’ leave had been suspended and travelled [from Germany] to visit them. He was critical also of the prohibition in the GG on sexual intercourse between German men and Polish women; severe fines were imposed on Germans who infringed this rule, they could even be demoted if they were in the police or SS. False accusations were rife and there was a good deal of trouble and quarrelling over this. Dr Becker added that a clear position had not been established on the matter. It would not be possible in the future to send an SS man or a policeman to a concentration camp for having intercourse with a Polish woman, whereas in the Wehrmacht such matters were hushed up and tolerated. Dr Bruns said that German women always disclosed the source of their infection, while German men did not, because most of them had had intercourse with Polish women. Also, in his opinion, heavy fines should be imposed on Polish doctors who did not report the source of a VD infection.

The next paper was delivered by Prof. G. Holler, who spoke on the wave of diarrhoea disorders that occur in the GG in the summer season. Diarrhoea occurred on a mass scale on hot days and followed different courses. It was associated with patients feeling unwell and sometimes with vomiting, headache, and fatigue. It could take an acute form, or sometimes develop into a chronic condition and cause serious damage to the bowels. Prof. Holler labelled diarrhoea “the Polish sickness.” It was caused by bacterial infection of the intestinal mucosa. Endemic summertime diarrhoea was typical for the countries of Eastern Europe, and occurred not only in the local inhabitants but also affected newcomers from Western Europe. The main cause of this disease in the GG and the USSR were dysenteric bacteria, mainly from the Flexner Y, Kruse, Shiga, Gärtner, or Breslau⁴² groups, or by paratyphoid bacteria. Sporadic cases of botulism had been reported, which gave rise to small-scale epidemics generally associated with specific localities, and the sources were particular inns or taverns, cheap restaurants, and food stores.

The course of infections caused by Breslau and Gärtner bacteria was associated with vomiting and diarrhoea. There were also symptoms of serious toxaemia with or without a high temperature. Death could occur at the initial stage if the condition was acute. Sometimes jaundice would emerge. Usually, no after-effects were observed. Paratyphoid intestinal inflammation was usually caused by the toxins of bacteria from the meat of animals subject to compulsory slaughter. These toxins are not destroyed by boiling. These conditions are often attended by jaundice and sometimes by paralysis. A patient may have a positive serological reaction and occasionally he may have an enlarged spleen. The symptoms observed for Clostridium botulinum were diarrhoea and vomiting, and sometimes paralysis of the cranial nerves developed within 24–48 hours.

On the other hand, dysentery with diarrhoea and vomiting as its symptoms only rarely ended in death. Colitis could occur, sometimes leading to acute necrotic conditions and ulceration. The condition was treatable at every stage of the disease. One of the distant after-effects was inflammation, which could occur in a variety of organs and tissues.

In the autumn of 1939, Prof. Holler observed 1,600 cases of dysentery in German soldiers treated in military hospitals in southern Poland. Those who had been through dysentery during the First World War now went through a mild form of the disease. In Holler’s opinion, special attention and care should be given to the after-effects of dysentery appearing in symptoms such as reactive arthritis caused by gastroenteritis, achylia gastrica, pernicious anaemia, inflammatory bowel disease, bone marrow damage, purpura, damage to the adrenal glands etc.

In his opinion, such a massive occurrence of dysenteric disorders in Eastern Europe was due to the territorial conditions and a negligent attitude to sanitary provisions. Therefore, this was the path of inquiry prevention should take. He said that not even mild cases of “the Polish sickness” should be ignored. Non-specific intestinal mucosal injuries such as catarrh of the stomach (gastritis) and food poisoning induce enteric bacterial settlement. The best treatment for such conditions was the right diet to make up for dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, for instance, consisting of salty gruel and a high intake of fluids (e.g. tea). Serious cases may be treated with a saline infusion. Medications such as Eubasin,⁴³ Eleudron,⁴⁴ or Cibazol⁴⁵ may be applied. Dr Wiggers supplemented Prof. Holler’s remarks with a recollection of the typhus epidemic which occurred in Dresden in September 1941 and affected 500 persons.

The next papers were delivered by Dr Corwin on the water supply and waste disposal; Dr Rissmann on Lambliasis intestinalis (giardiasis); Prof. Lauber⁴⁶ on the prevention and treatment of trachoma; Dr Gönnert on research on the aetiology of trachoma; and Müller’s paper on the provisions issued by the civil administrative authorities in the GG for the prevention of trachoma. I shall not go into the details of these papers, which were addressed to specialists.

The Conference was rounded off with an internal discussion in which the following points were made. There were immense problems with the provision of food for healthcare institutions; even potatoes were in short supply. The food and agricultural department was not keeping its promises. Speakers observed that the transfer of the Polish Red Cross health centres to local authorities was not proceeding in compliance with the regulations. The transfer was to finish by 1 October 1941, and in no circumstances could these places continue to receive a subsidy beyond that deadline. Dr Hoefert added that the equipment in the Polish Red Cross health centres should be taken over by the German authorities. Dr Lambrecht said that there were various foundations supplying the Polish Red Cross health centres with medications and other goods. Dr Kudicke suggested that the assets donated by the Americans should be registered and “taken over as a loan, which would make the entire business much easier.”

These “invaluable” discussions continued with an appeal to engage all the Polish (non-Jewish) medical staff, medical students, and new staff after a short training course in the battle against epidemics, employing them in junior posts. Dr Kroll demanded these people be paid fixed rates, since there were paradoxical situations where a German doctor took 12 reichsmarks for a medical examination, while a Polish doctor got just 2 złoty.⁴⁷ In view of the high prices at the time, such practices were bound to lead to corruption. Finally, Dr Hagen mentioned that he had attended a big anti-tuberculosis conference held in Baden on 8–10 October 1941, where it was announced that there had been a 10% rise in TB cases in Germany, whereas the rise in the GG was 50%. Hence there was a need for all workers due to be sent for work in Germany to be X-rayed before leaving.

Dr Walbaum delivered the concluding remarks and announced that the next conference would be held in 1942 in Radom. He hoped that the next session would be held in better conditions after the [German] victory. During the Conference, special telegrams were sent to the Führer, the Governor-General, and the head of the German health service.⁴⁸

The Krynica Conference was held in the third year of the War, at the height of Nazi Germany’s successes, when Nazi German troops were marching east into the interior of the Soviet Union.

From the epidemiological point of view, at the time the territory of the GG was subject to a considerable amount of migration, with people being resettled from the annexed areas [of Poland] incorporated in Germany, the establishment of Jewish ghettos, the deportation of Polish people for “work” in Germany, the transportation of Soviet POWs, the street round-ups and mass arrests, the setting up of labour camps, and the transportation of German troops heading for the eastern front.

On 11 July 1941, Hermann Göring⁴⁹ instructed Reinhard Heydrich⁵⁰ to draw up a solution to the Jewish problem. Earlier (15 November 1940) an enclosed ghetto had been set up in Warsaw, and as of 1 March 1941 Heinrich Himmler⁵¹ was getting a new section ready at Auschwitz for 100 thousand POWs. On 16 December 1941, Hans Frank made the following remark concerning Jews: “We must destroy the Jews wherever we find them, and wherever it is at all possible, in order to maintain the whole structure of the Reich...”⁵²

The persecution of the Jews started in the GG as soon as the Germans invaded Poland. There were 2.5—3.5 million Jews living on this territory. They were forcibly resettled in ghettos, stripped of all rights whatsoever, deprived of food, made to suffer hunger, and finally systematically and brutally murdered. By Frank’s estimate, by 5 January 1944 there were still 100 thousand Jews alive in the GG.

The aim of the discussion on the issues addressed during the Krynica Conference was to protect the Germans in the GG against epidemic diseases, stop epidemics from spreading to Germany, keep German military units safe from epidemics, and protect the Polish inhabitants insofar as to maintain the numbers of the Polish workforce exploited by Germay at the required figure. As many of the papers and comments show, by the time of the Krynica Conference the fate of the Jews of Poland had already been sealed.

The minutes of the Krynica Conference offer an interesting historical source for historians of medicine, epidemiologists, sociologists, and politicians. The papers German physicians delivered at this Conference present a one-sided view of the battle against epidemic diseases, waged solely in the interests of Germany. The contributions to the Conference are characterised by the fascist⁵³ mentality, brutality, ruthlessness, with no sense of humanitarianism. They are full of hatred of Jews, Poles, and people who are ill or in danger of catching an infectious disease. A dominant feature of the statements made by these German physicians is their approval of the Nazi German policy to exploit and exterminate the inhabitants of Poland under German occupation. The papers delivered by these German medical experts clearly show the real causes of the epidemics that proliferated in the GG, examine the epidemiological situation, and even give a forecast of what would happen if the Germans were to continue tolerating the negligent attitude they had up to that time, which would be dangerous for the people of the Third Reich and their war production. However, the remedy these German doctors proposed stopped short of dealing with the problem as a whole. They offered half-measures, taking care not to stray beyond the political and economic policy laid down for occupied Poland.

List of participants of the so-called Krynica Conference

1. The Government of the GG
• Chairman: Dr [Jost] Walbaum, head of the health department in the Chief Division for Home Affairs of the government of the GG.
• Medical consultant Dr [Otto] Buurman, deputy head of the health department in the government of the GG.
• Dr Ohrloff, medical consultant, head of the health division for the City of Kraków.
• Medical consultant Dr Hoeffert, administrative officer in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Dr Ruppert, administrative officer in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Pharmaceutical consultant Dr Weber, head of the sub-division for pharmacies and drugs in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Fritz Müller, administrative officer in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Dr Kleber, administrative officer in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Dr Schenk, administrative officer in the health department of the government of the GG.
• Dr Beck, head of the Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics Institute.
• Dr Giller, medical practitioner, head of the main department for employment.
• Dr Kroll, deputy head of the medical chamber in the government of the GG.
• Prof. [Jan/Hans] Lauber, head of the ophthalmic clinic in the Kraków state hospitals.
• Dr Gönnert, head of the Trachoma Research Institute, Kraków.
• Dozent⁵⁴ Dr Schörcher, head of the Surgery Clinic in the Kraków state hospitals.
• Prof. Schaefer, head of the Gynaecology Clinic in the Kraków state hospitals.
• Prof. [Walter] Kikuth,⁵⁵head of the IG-Farben research institute, Wuppertal and Kraków.
• Hansen, administrative director of the Kraków state hospitals.
• Kroll, administrative director of the Kraków state medical care and treatment institution at Kobierzyn.⁵⁶
• Starke, administrative director of the children’s trachoma hospital at Witkowice, Kraków.
2. GG Military Commanders
• General Staff Physician Dr Passauer,
• Chief Physician Dr Reibel,
• Chief Physician Dr Steuer,
• Staff Physician Dr Corwin,
• Chief Staff Physician Prof. Eyer.
3. GG Chief Police Officers
• Chief Physician Dr Becker,
• Chief Staff Physician Dr Altheimer,
• Chief Staff Physician Dr Petters,
• Staff Physician Dr Oberheide,
• Chief Staff Physician Dr Maass.
4. Air District VIII Command (Breslau)
• Chief Staff Physician Dozent Dr Wurm
5. Distrikt Krakau
• Dr Gorgon, deputy head of the district health department,
• Dr Makarowski, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Zaluznyj, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Magister Gebert, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Krinner, chief officer of the district health department,
• Dr Rissmann, chief physician of the internal medicine ward of the German district hospital,
• Dr Bruns, chief physician of the surgery ward of the German district hospital,
• Medical consultant Dr van Hove, medical officer of the City of Kraków health department,
• Dr Rauenbusch, medical officer,
• Dr Witt, medical officer,
• Dr Bock, ward physician,
• Dr Günter, physician, head of the ophthalmic ward in the Kraków state hospitals,
• Dr Balser, medical officer,
• Dr Herbold, physician at the Hermann Göring works,
• Dr Puppe, chief physician of the ZUS⁵⁷ social insurance company,
• Dr Motzkus, medical consultant, chief physician for war invalids’ welfare institutions,
• Dr Guttwein, chief dentist.
6. Distrikt Radom
• Dr Waizenegger, head of the district health department,
• Dr Königstein, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Krenek, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Hünnerscheidt, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Schirmer, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Hellenbrandt, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Spangenberger, dentist,
• Dr Lohnsdorf, chief physician of Kazimierz Hospital,
• Dr Winkelmann, medical officer,
• Dr Lohde, medical officer,
• Dr Hoffmann, medical officer,
• Dr Bünner, chief physician of Kielce Hospital,
• Dr Grau, medical practitioner from the district,
• Dr Offe, dentist from the district,
• Langer, branch manager in the district health department.
7. Distrikt Lublin
• Medical consultant Dr Reichel, head of the district health department,
• Engel, pharmaceutical consultant for the district health department,
• Dr Umlauf, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Raming, branch manager in the district health department.
8. Distrikt Warschau
• Dr Lambrecht, head of the district health department,
• Dr Kohmann, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Wirtz, chief physician of the internal medicine ward of the Warsaw district German hospital,
• Dr Weidenbusch, physician of the Warsaw district German hospital,
• Dr Scherbel, physician for the SS units in the district,
• Medical consultant Dr Hagen, head of the City of Warsaw health department,
• Dr Jung, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Kubliński, administrative officer in the City of Warsaw health department,
• Prof. [Heinrich] Kudicke, Head of the State Hygiene Institute in Warsaw and Medical Officer with Special Powers for the Prevention of Typhus in the GG,
• Dozent Dr Wahlrab, head of the division for the prevention of typhus at the State Hygiene Institute in Warsaw,
• Pharmaceutical consultant Dr Sydow, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Carl, dentist,
• Dr Petersen, dentist,
• Holjewilken, administrative officer.
9. Distrikt Galizien
• Medical consultant Dr [Wilhelm] Dopheide,⁵⁸head of the district health department,
• Pharmaceutical consultant Dr Fanselow, administrative officer in the district health department,
• Dr Wiggers, head of the district office for healthcare, director for medical affairs.
10. Senior SS and police officers for the GG
• SS Maj.⁵⁹ Dr Wladar, SS Lt.-Col.⁶⁰ Dr Schuhmacher, SS 2^nd Lt.⁶¹ Dr Konietzko, SS Capt.⁶² Dr Herzum.
11. Participants appointed by the local military command
• Dr Ernst, chief sanitary officer,
• Dr Schulz, chief sanitary officer,
• Dr Plins, staff physician,
• Dr Kellner, staff physician,
• Dr Fahr, chief staff physician,
• Dr Lippold, chief staff pharmacist,
• Dr Weiss, chief physician,
• Dr Saltzer, garrison physician,
• Dr Brindner, chief field physician.
12. Chief staff physician
• Dr Mühlbauer, director of Krynica health resort,
• Dr Bröser, managing sanitary officer,
• Minutes taken by Wick Ulecht, secretary to the head of the health department.

***

Translated from original article: Kłodziński, Stanisław. “„Konferencja Krynicka” lekarzy hitlerowskich w październiku 1941 r.” Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1963.

1. Krynica is a holiday and health resort in the mountains of southern Poland.^a
2. Das Generalgouvernement (hereinafter GG) was the name Germanygave to the part of occupied Poland which it did not annex directly. The GG was ruled by a German administration headed by Hans Frank as Governor-General.^a
3. The records of the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation are now held in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Commission_for_the_Prosecution_of_Crimes_against_the_Polish_Nation.^a
4. Sąd Grodzki w Krakowie Oddział III Karny.^a
5. In this article, we reproduce the original German names of the territorial divisions of German-occupied Poland, but in certain other contexts (especially where the Polish article has a Polish term), we use the Polish names for Polish cities and territorial divisions. See Note 11.^a
6. Oberführer SA Dr Jost Walbaum (1889-1969); a German physician who joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and became a member of the SA in 1932. Walbaum’s official title was Abteilungsleiter und Gesundheitsführer des Amtes Gesundheit im Generalgouvernement. One of his duties was to supervise the ghettos in Warsaw, Lublin and Łódź. Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 2007, p. 652. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jost_Walbaum.^{a, b}
7. Otto Taleus Eberhard Buurman (1890—1967). Philologist, medical practitioner; as of 1940 head of the Kraków health department, and as of 1941, deputy to the chief medical administrative officer in the German government of occupied Poland. Senior administrative officer in West Germany after the War. Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich . . .. https://de.wikiped,ia.org/wiki/Otto_Buurman(accessed 11 Feb. 2022).^{a, b}
8. Heinrich Robert Hellmuth Kudicke (1876–1961) German physician, epidemiologist and one of the leading experts on tropical diseases in his lifetime. Worked in Africa and China for several years. Long-time collaborator of Nobel laureate Robert Koch, known for his early 20^th-century work with African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). During the early Cold War era worked in several developing countries in connection with medical development aid programmes.^b
9. Kudicke’s official title in German was Sonderbeauftragter für die Bekämpfung des Fleckfiebers.^a
10. The German authorities in occupied Poland established Emissionsbank in Polen, their own issuing bank for the GG, and issued a wartime currency, calling it the złoty, the name of the pre-war Polish currency. The wartime złoty was “legal tender” only in the GG, not exchangeable for any other currency for ordinary users. However, officially 1 wartime złoty was worth half a reichsmark (the German currency). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Issue_in_Poland.^a
11. Powiat is the traditional term for the second-tier territorial administrative division in Poland. In this sentence and elsewhere in the article , Kłodziński has powiat, along with okręg, another Polish word, presumably for Kreis and Distrikt respectively, the German terms used by the occupying authorities for the territorial divisions in the GG.^a
12. In the Polish article, this passage is given in a Polish translation as well as cited in the original German (with a misprint): “Natürlich wäre es das beste und einfachste, den Leuten ausreichende Ernährungs-möglichkeiten zu geben, das geht aber nicht, das hängt eben mit der Ernährungs- und Kriegslage im allgemeinen zusammen. Deshalb wurde jetzt die Massnahme des Erschiessens angewandt, wenn man einen Juden ausserhalb des Ghettos ohne besondere Erlaubnis antrifft. Man muss sich, ich kann es in diesem Kreise offen aussprechen, darüber klar sein, es gibt nur 2 Wege, wir verurteilen die Juden im Ghetto zum Hungertode oder wir erschiessen. Wenn auch der Endeffekt derselbe ist, das andere wirkt abschreckender. Wir können aber nicht anders, wenn wir auch möchten, denn wir haben einzig und allein die Aufgabe dafür zu sorgen, das des (sic) deutsche Volk von diesen Parasiten nicht infiziert und gefährdet wird und dafür muss uns jedes Mittel recht sein (Beifall, KLatschen). Part of this passage is quoted in Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. . . ,” p. 652, and cited after him in several other publications.”^a
13. Obergruppenführer SA Julius Streicher (1885 - 1946), member of the Nazi Party; Gauleiter of Franconia, 1925 - 1940; organiser of pogroms and boycotts of Jewish businesses; editor and later publisher of Der Stürmer, a German antisemitic weekly which made a key contribution to the Nazi propaganda machine. Streicher was a teacher by profession.^b
14. SS Hauptsturmführer Arnold Lambrecht (1903—killed in action between 1941 and 1945). Head of the health department for Distrikt Warschau. On 3 September 1940, Lambrecht notified Governor-General Frank that the number of typhus cases in Warsaw was rising and that the gates to the ghetto had to be locked up for health reasons. A few days later, Frank summoned Walbaum, who expressed his support for Lambrecht’s postulates. On 12 September Frank issued his consent. On 2 October, Ludwig Fischer, Governor of Warsaw, issued an order establishing a Jewish residential area [i.e. the Warsaw Ghetto].^b
15. The German authorities occupying Poland instituted the Standgericht, a summary court for Polish citizens which handed down death sentences for minor offences and misdemeanours, in hearings that took a couple of minutes.^a
16. Following its invasion of Poland, Germanys divided up the country and annexed Poland’s western territories, incorporating them directly and giving them a new name, “Wartheland.” Next, Germany started a massive “resettlement” project in line with itsr racist policy, evicting the Polish and Jewish population of “Wartheland” to the GG, in order to clear the region for German settlement.^a
17. SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss (1901-1947). Commandant of Auschwitz, Nazi German war criminal. After the War, he was tried by the Polish Supreme Tribunal, convicted, sentenced to death and hanged on the same gallows he had used for inmates on the premises of the former concentration camp.^a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Höss
18. See Note 16
19. Kłodziński’s article reproduces the style of the original German minutes of the Conference, especially its euphemisms. Here “destroyed” is a euphemism for the air raids carried out on Warsaw in September 1939 by the German invaders.^a
20. Another euphemism. The German occupying authorities confiscated thousands of properties in Warsaw, especially the public buildings to accommodate German offices, and residential buildings to house German personnel.
21. In reality, there were over 800 Jewish physicians in the ghetto.^b
22. Presumably the unregistered cases were for individuals “resettled” (deported) from the annexed part of Poland. See Note 16.^a
23. Dr Wilhelm Hagen, medical officer (Amtsartzt) for the city of Warsaw as of 10 February 1941. Varsovians remembered him as a German official who tried to be helpful to the city’s Polish inhabitants. See Kłodziński’s article on Dr Hagen’s report on the sanitary situation in Warsaw, “Sytuacja sanitarna okupowanej Warszawy w sprawozdaniu Wilhelma Hagena,” in the 1975 issue of Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim.^b
24. To cope with the food shortage, the German occupying authorities introduced ration cards with a low allowance for Poles and Jews, and combated the black market by introducing heavy penalties, including death sentences for black marketeers.^a
25. The Germans enforced a mandatory quota system on farmers, who had to deliver a fixed amount of produce to the German authorities. The quotas were so high that many farmers could not meet them and were penalised with heavy fines, confiscations, or even the death sentence.^a
26. Fritz Sauckel (1894-1946), Gauleiter of Thuringia and General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment handling the German slave labour business. A German war criminal, he stood trial before the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, was found guilty of war crimes, sentenced to death and hanged.^a
27. The German authorities occupying Poland caught people who happened to be out on the streets in round-ups and sent them to Germany for slave labour. About 2 million Polish citizens are estimated to have suffered this fate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II.
28. In German-occupied Poland, Volksdeutsche were people with (real or alleged) German roots. THey were given preferential treatment by the German occupying authorities.^a
29. Actually, Volksdeutsche were not German citizens but only candidates aspiring to citizenship of the Third Reich. Persons with “full” German citizenship were referred to as Reichsdeutsche.^a
30. e. in the territories Germany occupied, Poland, the Baltic countries, and part of the USSR.^a
31. Waldemar Steuer, chief physician for the Wehrmacht in the GG.^a See Thomas Werther, “Fleckfieberforschung im Deutschen Reich 1914-1945,“ Ph.D. Dissertation (2004) p.104. Werther quotes Kłodziński.^a http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/diss/z2008/0157/pdf/dtw.pdf (Accessed 11 Feb. 2022)
32. Original German name: Die Hygienisch-Bakteriologische Untersuchungsstelle des Heeres in Warschau. According to Thomas Werther, p.58-59, Walter Menk was chief physician of this institution at the time^a
33. Kudicke and Steuer wrote a book on the subject entitled Agglutination und Schnellagglutination in der Klinik, Praxis und Seuchenhygiene (Stuttgart: Hippokrates, 1945).^b
34. In line with its racist ideology, the Germanys operated a system of segregation in its health service, securing the best hospitals for Germans and leaving inferior facilities for non-Germans. In Kraków, the brand new, state-of-the-art Narutowicz Hospital was turned into an institution for German patients only. https://niemieckikrakowblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/zajecie-szpitala-im-narutowicza-przez-niemcow.^a
35. See Notes 28 and 29.
36. A sulphanilamide antibacterial drug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfapyridine
37. Presumably Franciszek Ksawery Walter (1885-1950), who was head of the Jagiellonian University dermatology clinic in 1925-1950.^b
38. Perhaps Dr Bolesław Kaczyński, who was arrested and deported to Stutthof concentration camp just a few days after the Krynica Conference; his biography by Maciej Lambert is available in English on this website. Or alternatively Dr Jerzy Kaczyński, who served in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and is mentioned on this website in Zygmunt Kujawski’s article “From the Warsaw Uprising to Zeithain POW Camp” and in the biography of Dr Katarzyna Łaniewska (by Stanisław Kłodziński). A third, though less likely candidate is Dr Henryk Kaczyński, mentioned in J.S. Olbrycht’s autobiographical essay, “A forensic pathologist’s wartime experience,” also on this website.^a
39. In Poland the chief administrative officer of a powiat is called a starost.^a
40. In 1878, the municipal authority of the city of Bremen in northern Germany set aside Helenenstraße as a supervised red light street. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helenenstra%C3%9Fe.
41. This passage is another instance of the euphemistic style of the original German minutes of the Conference, reflected in the Polish article. See Note 15.^a
42. Bacteria of the Shigella type may be divided into various groups, e.g. Shigella flexneri. The names cited in this article come from the old, no longer used nomenclature. With the development of diagnostics methods, especially in serology, bacteria started to be classified according to their serological properties, and the nomenclature derived from the name of their discoverers or the places where they were discovered were abandoned. The exception to this rule is Shigella flexneri. Currently, Shigella bacteria are divided into four serogroups: A—Shigella dysenteriae; B—Shigella flexneri; C—Shigella boydi; D—Shigella sonnei^b
43. Eubasin is a drug used in the management of inflammatory bowel diseases. https://www.ndrugs.com/#doctor_indications
44. Eleudron is a sulphonamide drug, no longer used for the treatment of humans. https://www.ndrugs.com/?s=eleudron#doctor_indications.^a
45. Cibazol is effective against a wide range of gram positive and gram negative pathogenic microorganisms. https://www.ndrugs.com/#doctor_indications^.a
46. Most probably the Polish ophthalmic specialist Jan Zygmunt Artur (Hans) Lauber (1876-1952), who studied medicine at various German and Austrian universities and received the title of ordinary professor from the Jagiellonian University in 1931. He was appointed to an academic post in the Faculty of Medicine of Warsaw University, where he worked until the German invasion and Polish defeat in 1939, when he left for Kraków, where he worked in the ophthalmic clinic and served as head of the ophthalmic staff for the whole of the GG. In early 1945, he left for a visiting professorship at the University of Vienna. In 1946, the Polish government applied for his extradition. Lauber was accused of conducting pseudoscientific experiments on human subjects, mistreating patients, and denying medical assistance, but the charges turned out to be groundless and the Austrian government refused to extradite him. Four years later, a team of medical investigators called to conduct an inquiry cleared his name and Lauber was appointed to an ophthalmic consultancy for American forces stationed near Linz. He died two years later in Salzburg.^b
47. See Note 10.
48. e. Hitler, Hans Frank, and Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti.^a
49. Hermann Göring (1893-1946), German war criminal, one of the most powerful men in the Nazi Party; held numerous senior offices in Nazi Germany. After the War put on trial before the Nuremberg International War Tribunal on several charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity; found guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging.^a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring
50. Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942), high-ranking German SS and police official, Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia (the Czech territories under Nazi German occupation); co-initiator of the German genocide programme. Assassinated by the Czech underground resistance movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich.^a
51. Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), one of the top men in the Nazi Party, Reichsführer SS (Reich Leader of the SS), German war criminal. One of the chief perpetrators of the Holocaust. Captured by the Allies after the War, but committed suicide by taking cyanide before he could be put on trial.^a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler.
52. Quoted after the Yad Vashem translation of the original speech. https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%204016.pdf.
53. From the historical point of view, the terms “fascist” and “fascism” properly applies to the Italian Fascist Party and are a misnomer if used of Nazi Germany. However, they were often used in this way by Soviet commentators and their counterparts in the Warsaw Bloc countries.
54. Dozent—a senior academic title in German universities.^a
55. Walter Kikuth (1896-1968), virologist and tropical medicine specialist at Bayer AG. One of the substances he developed was later tested on concentration camp inmates at Buchenwald. Continued his scientific career after the War in West Germany. Klee, p. 308; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Kikuth https://www.wikibook.wiki/wiki/de/Walter_Kikuth.^a
56. In 1917, a mental hospital was founded at Kobierzyn on the outskirts of Kraków. On 23 June 1943, the Germans killed its 563 patients (35 bedridden ones on the spot, the rest were sent to Auschwitz). Later the Germans (and after 18 January 1945, the Soviets) used the facilities as a military hospital. https://www.gov.pl/web/rpp/szpital-w-kobierzynie-jego-historia-i-dzien-dzisiejszy.^a
57. During the War, the Polish social insurance company ZUS (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych) was taken over by the Germans and a large part of its assets was destroyed or confiscated. https://www.zus.pl/o-zus/o-nas/historia-zus.^a
58. Dr Wilhelm Dopheide (1901-1970), medical practitioner specialising in the treatment of lung diseases. Involved in the killing (by starvation) of 1,000—1,200 patients of Kulparków mental hospital in the City of Lwów, where he was responsible for the district health service. After a brief period of post-war internment (1945-1947), he continued to practise in medicine in West Germany. Klee, p.116f. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Dopheide.^a
59. SS-Sturmbannführer..^a
60. SS-Obersturm-bannführer.^a
61. SS-Untersturm-bannführer.^a
62. SS-Hauptsturm-bannführer.^a

a—notes by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, Head Translator for the Medical Review Auschwitz project; b—notes by Maria Ciesielska, Expert Consultant for the Medical Review Auschwitz project.

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