(preface - I've found my SG Friends very rewarding to read up on this weekend. Thanks for all the Comments and Journals from all I've seen since Friday; great stuff.)
For Memorial Day - a story of Polish ingenuity versus Nazi occupation
Countering the notion of dumb Polish people is the most clever deception this side of Oskar Schindler; it was masterminded by two doctors from villages 200 km. south of Warsaw, Eugeniusz Lazowski and Stanislav Matulewicz, during WW2.
A slave-laborer came back to their town on two-weeks leave, saying even suicide would be preferable to returning to the brutal conditions given Polish laborers by the Germans. Lazowski and Matulewicz remembered a footnote from biochemistry studies, in an experiment performed in WW1 Poland; when humans produce antibodies in the blood for typhus, antibodies for a harmless bacterium, Proteus 0X19, also are produced. Since the laborers health was at risk regardless of experimentation, they decided to inject him with Proteus 0X19 and see if German lab tests would be fooled by the bloods reaction as if typhus was present.
The ruse worked. Germany had escaped typhus epidemics for 25 years, and risks of infections were avoided with any means possible (Auschwitz prisoners regularly served 6 to 8 weeks of quarantine before contact with anyone else). The laborer was released from duty back to his family in Poland.
The doctors began to use the plan with many villagers in the regions of Rozvadow and Zbydniowie, attempting to scare the Germans out of the area with a mass epidemic. This also worked, and occupation of the area by Germans dropped drastically.
One dangerous glitch in the plan occurred when an informant claimed that phony or rehashed blood samples were being forwarded. German inspection-doctors were sent to the towns. Lazowski and Matulewicz had to figure out a way to keep the senior official occupied and produce some sign that the area had a deadly virus on its hands.
For the first part of the plan, the doctors hosted a big party for the senior doctor, with vodka, food, and more vodka. Eventually, the chief of the German staff was pretty hammered. Meanwhile, the assistants collected more blood from villagers, also filled with Proteus 0X19, and were shown an old patient, dying of pneumonia, who was described as having typhus fever.
The Germans were convinced, and for the rest of the war these villages escaped the brunt of occupation.
About 1/5 of Polands population was killed by wars end. By preventing full occupation of Rozvadow and Zbydniowie, and preventing slave-labor for many people in the area, well never know how many hundreds or thousands of lives were saved by Drs. Lazowski and Matulewicz, using no other weapons than courage and knowledge.
(source -- Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World by Bernard Dixon.)
For Memorial Day - a story of Polish ingenuity versus Nazi occupation
Countering the notion of dumb Polish people is the most clever deception this side of Oskar Schindler; it was masterminded by two doctors from villages 200 km. south of Warsaw, Eugeniusz Lazowski and Stanislav Matulewicz, during WW2.
A slave-laborer came back to their town on two-weeks leave, saying even suicide would be preferable to returning to the brutal conditions given Polish laborers by the Germans. Lazowski and Matulewicz remembered a footnote from biochemistry studies, in an experiment performed in WW1 Poland; when humans produce antibodies in the blood for typhus, antibodies for a harmless bacterium, Proteus 0X19, also are produced. Since the laborers health was at risk regardless of experimentation, they decided to inject him with Proteus 0X19 and see if German lab tests would be fooled by the bloods reaction as if typhus was present.
The ruse worked. Germany had escaped typhus epidemics for 25 years, and risks of infections were avoided with any means possible (Auschwitz prisoners regularly served 6 to 8 weeks of quarantine before contact with anyone else). The laborer was released from duty back to his family in Poland.
The doctors began to use the plan with many villagers in the regions of Rozvadow and Zbydniowie, attempting to scare the Germans out of the area with a mass epidemic. This also worked, and occupation of the area by Germans dropped drastically.
One dangerous glitch in the plan occurred when an informant claimed that phony or rehashed blood samples were being forwarded. German inspection-doctors were sent to the towns. Lazowski and Matulewicz had to figure out a way to keep the senior official occupied and produce some sign that the area had a deadly virus on its hands.
For the first part of the plan, the doctors hosted a big party for the senior doctor, with vodka, food, and more vodka. Eventually, the chief of the German staff was pretty hammered. Meanwhile, the assistants collected more blood from villagers, also filled with Proteus 0X19, and were shown an old patient, dying of pneumonia, who was described as having typhus fever.
The Germans were convinced, and for the rest of the war these villages escaped the brunt of occupation.
About 1/5 of Polands population was killed by wars end. By preventing full occupation of Rozvadow and Zbydniowie, and preventing slave-labor for many people in the area, well never know how many hundreds or thousands of lives were saved by Drs. Lazowski and Matulewicz, using no other weapons than courage and knowledge.
(source -- Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World by Bernard Dixon.)
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I heard this one classic metal song on the radio about a month ago, and I've been trying DESPERATELY to find the song. It's called something like "All I Wanted was a Soda" or "I Just Wanted a Soda" or something to that effect. It's a song about a kid who holes himself up in his room and listens to music, and when he does finally come downstairs to get a drink, his parents accuse him of being antisocial, doing drugs, and God knows what. It was pretty great - ever heard of it? Do you know who it's by?
might get a chance to meet you in the flesh at the sgva bowlarama thing!