of Health. This training covered basic knowledge of bacteriology, infectious diseases, disinfection, and disinsection. It took an average of 3 hours a day. Although the teachers were first-class experts, the course itself presented very little scientific value, due to the excessive concentration of information. Already during the course, sometimes at the same time it started, the new recruit would join in the work of a disinfection brigade. After that, there was no more training.
Working in the disinfection brigade consisted primarily in applying cresol459 [2] to floors and walls, both in vestibules and rooms, after which the bedding and clothing from all the flats was taken to a disinfection chamber on Spokojna street, where they remained for about 2 weeks and would often come back dirty and threadbare. Then, the building disinfection chamber system was introduced, which consists in putting bedding and clothes from all flats in one sealed room (sometimes more), where it is disinfected with gas for 24 hours. The latest development is another change, namely the selective system, wherein disinfection is carried out only on those flats which are qualified as dirty by a doctor.
The column consists of 18 people: 1 doctor, 1 director, 5 so-called three-man sections with section commanders, and 1 police officer assigned in case of intervention (such as resistance or a locked flat). Aside from that, there is [. . .] from the police, whose job is to lock down the building and escort all residents to the bath. There is also Jewish and German supervision. In each brigade, there are 2 or 3 women, involved mostly in setting up the gas chamber.460
There are usually two types of steaming: 1) caused by a case of spotted typhus having been diagnosed in the house; and 2) “block steaming”—when there is no particular reason. In the latter case, the Department of Health sends a letter to the House Committee requesting 90 zlotys to be paid for the commission fee. If the committee pays this amount, the house is visited by a medical commission which qualifies dirty flats. If the committee fails to pay, a disinfection brigade arrives at once.
[3] In any case, steaming is carried out in the house. The steaming procedure is as follows: the police lock the entrance gates very early in the morning and await the arrival of the brigade. As soon as it comes, the doctor inspects
