Bath tubs supplied by the American Red Cross Sanitation Commission, 1915. (MSS 97 Item 56, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. , Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.)
As the American Red Cross traveled throughout Serbia and Montenegro, they encountered both Serbian military camps and compounds that housed Austrian prisoners of war. Both of these groups lived in conditions particularly suited to the rapid proliferation of the louse that carries typhus, making both groups particularly prone to the disease.
Red Cross Sanitation Commission Bath Train. (MSS 97 Item 56, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. , Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.)
The Red Cross brought bath tubs and rail cars that were outfitted with baths, sterilizers, and steam cars, as well as men and equipment to fumigate tents and bedding to the military camps and prisons. By attacking typhus in these highly populated areas, they hoped to keep it from spreading further among the civilian population as soldiers and prisoners moved throughout those areas.
Red Cross Sanitation Commission bath train. (MSS 97 Item 56, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. , Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.)
After the immediate threat of typhus declined, both the Serbian and Austrian military, acknowledged the vital role that the Red Cross and the Serbian Relief Fund were vital to the health and well being of soldiers and prisoners. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the relief they offered to the Austrian prisoners would be repaid with the protection of the Austrian army.
Doctors Beyond Borders: Serbian Relief in 1915 
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