Purity and Epidemic Danger in German Occupied Poland during the First World War

During the First World War, German public health authorities set out to cleanse occupied areas of formerly Russian Poland of pathogenic hazards. The wide‐ranging programme involved not only sanitary measures but also educational programmes designed to encourage the local population to adopt a more hygienic lifestyle. The German public health officers identified a number of hazards associated with Jewish rituals and customs, and the educational programmes were initially designed to be culturally sympathetic. However, as the general economic and strategic situation worsened, German medical experts became increasingly antisemitic.