German Cleanliness The Germans were scared of catching diseases from the people and in their military fashion issued appropriate Befehle (orders).
The first order was that every person had to be vaccinated. We were instructed to come to the military hospital which they brought with them. Soldiers were sent into every neighborhood to carry out the order. They pushed people out of their homes and followed them to the hospital. Sometimes, we waited for hours and some of the older people were on the verge of fainting. They complained: “If we had enough to eat we wouldn't need this kind of medicine.”
The second Befehle was that every person had to go to the public bath-house and bathe once a month. And while you bathed your clothes were disinfected with dry carbolic acid which gave off a horrid smell for a long time after. It was astonishing to us to observe these German soldiers perform the Befehle as if they were God-given laws.
Editor's Notes: It is difficult to believe that the German garrison was large enough to justify more than a small medical dispensary.
