02966cam a22003373u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000090010610000510011524500300016626400510019630000470024733600260029433700260032033800360034650000310038250801820041352016370059553400690223265300500230165300570235170000940240885600640250285600430256699900190260978203UtSlPG20260610134819.0mcr n260607r20261916utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aD5011 aBlanesburgh, Robert Younger, Baron,d1861-194614aThe horrors of Wittenberg 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2026-03-14  aBob Taylor, Brian Coe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)  aThe horrors of Wittenberg by Baron Robert Younger Blanesburgh et al.. is an official government report written during the First World War era. It investigates the treatment of Allied prisoners of war—especially Britons—at the Wittenberg camp, focusing on a devastating typhus outbreak. The report’s likely topic is the causes, course, and human toll of the epidemic, the failures of German camp authorities, and the courage of British medical staff and volunteer orderlies.

The report assembles testimony—chiefly from Major Priestley, Captain Vidal, and Captain Lauder—showing how extreme overcrowding, cold, vermin, poor food, and almost no sanitation primed the camp for typhus. When the disease erupted, the German military and medical staff abandoned the prisoners behind barbed wire, issuing orders only from outside and denying basic medical aid and supplies. Patients lay without beds or clean clothing; lice spread unchecked; rations were meagre and unsuitable; tables served as stretchers; and dressings, soap, and stimulants were largely unavailable, leading to bedsores, gangrene, and amputations. The British doctors reorganized care, concentrated cases, improvised disinfection, and, alongside volunteer orderlies—many of whom died—gradually contained the outbreak. The report records roughly 250–300 British cases and about 60 deaths, condemns systemic cruelty and neglect by German officials (while noting later improvements under outside scrutiny), and closes by honoring the bravery and self-sacrifice of the British medical officers and their helpers. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cLondon: C. Arthur Pearson, Litmited, 1916  aWorld War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons  aWorld War, 1914-1918 -- Medical and sanitary affairs1 aGreat Britain. Government Committee on Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War4 uhttps://archive.org/details/horrorsofwittenb00grea/mode/2up40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78203  c118923d118923