- Two typhus victims in Montenegro. Some of the most affected populations were Serbian soldiers, and the Austrian Prisoners of War who were taken to prison camps in southern Serbia. (MSS 97 Item 56, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. , Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.)
“At the entrance we had to step through pools of filthy water which collected in the holes of the mud floor. . . Many were lying hidden under greatcoats, some shuddering some quite still. As we lifted the coats to look under we found six dead bodies in a single building and no one to carry them away.” Lady Paget in With our Serbian Allies, 1915.
After Lady Paget arrived in Skoplje to set up a typhus hospital, she soon learned of the deplorable conditions in which Austrian Prisoners of War were held, just outside of the city. After inspection, Lady Paget insisted that she and the Relief Fund take over the Prisoner of War camp, which was a stable, in which men were housed, crowded and filthy. The toll that both typhus and the war had on the Serbian army left no one responsible for feeding the prisoners, who were neglected and emaciated. The Relief Fund immediately took over the feeding, care, and cleanliness of the prisoners. With the incentive of clean clothes and regular meals, Austrian prisoners began volunteering to work within the hospitals as orderlies and were accepted—as long as they had already had typhus. The kindness shown to enemy prisoners would later serve as proof to Bulgarian and Austria-Hungarian forces that the American and British mission was neutral with a truly humanitarian intent.
Doctors Beyond Borders: Serbian Relief in 1915 
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