Third Reich - Sudeten Crisis 1938 (b/w photo)

A view into a Sudeten German hospital in Czech Elbogen (Looket) in May 1938. The picture was used by the Nazis to shows the bad living conditions of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia. The Nazi news service writes on the back of the picture: "We accuse! (Visit with Sudeten Germans.) The hospital in Elbogen. The 'isolation barracks' from the inside! The picture was taken at a time when the hospital was sparsely occupied. Otherwise, 4 children lie in every bed, mixed together from various families with various infectious illnesses. Scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria. All under one blanket. No stone floors, which are easy to clean. Instead there are wooden floors. In the Falkenau district, the most diphtheria affected region in Europe, 500 new cases were reported in seven month and 51 children died. They died like they are pictured here in shared rooms and beds."