hermod wrote:....
Serbia was devastated by typhus in 1915 and a major British newspaper claimed in 1916 that the Austrian & Bulgar allies of the Germans had just slaughtered numerous Serbian civilians in gas chambers. Turning victims of diseases into victims of mass murderers was a propaganda trick already used during WWI.
The Health disasters during the world wars are highly underreported. And also not thoroughly investigated by historians. What's well known is the so-called "Spanish Flue".... But that was mostly after WW2. There the issue is rather the question what and how that was caused. E.g. If it was "physical transmission" or, if there were other causes... Which can get quite complex, since there can be more than one cause for a condition.
Typhus was a killer during both world wars and it is attributed to transmission by lice. Although... mass psychogenic disease may also play a role.
How many people died and how disease and death rates developed is another matter there.
And yes, one can use the death statistics to shift the blame onto some mysterious 'extermination program'... The corpses can be quite useful for atrocity propaganda.
