crowd the dirty mingled with the showered. Hence, those who arrived without lice could end up bringing the pest back home
.
People in special overalls bustle around. They walk from flat to flat, snooping and sniffing around. Last year a large part of the possessions of many Jews ended up in the deep pockets of those overalls. But then it stopped. A fee exempted your belongings and bedding from delousing and your flat from being sprinkled with disinfecting liquid.
Many scams were carried out in that setting, [37] with the participation of the clerks responsible for disinfections. For instance, tenement inhabitants were threatened with disinfection unless they paid a briber. [Clerks] extorted the last dime from people who wanted to save their last clothes. Feeding on people’s ignorance, they took advantage of people’s aversion to showers—a sad characteristic of our lower middle class.
The situation has improved over the last couple of weeks. Tenements are closed for a maximum of one day, during which their inhabitants are sent to the showers. Flats deemed as typhus-free are exempted from disinfection. Only dirty flats undergo disinfection. Inspections are conducted by commissions consisting of representatives of three nationalities: Jewish, Polish, and German. Despite all these efforts the epidemic has not subsided. On the contrary, it is spreading.
[38] Those in isolation make one of the particularly saddening images in the kaleidoscope of incidents taking place in the quarantines.
There are those whose relatives or neighbours living in the same flat have come down with typhus. They are sent to quarantine, where they spend at least two weeks in outrageous conditions (written in February 1941), hungry and exhausted from sleeping on wooden cots.
The quarantine at Leszno Street 109 is located outside the Jewish residential district. Those in quarantine cannot purchase food because of the ordinance outlawing all sales to Jews in the Aryan district. Hence, those in isolation cannot buy anything even if they have money.
The refugee centre is located right above the ground floor [39] of a former elementary school. Those in isolation are on the next two floors. They usually
