Dr med. Kazimierz Habicht, generał tytularny Wojska Polskiego, wobec problematyki zwalczania chorób zakaźnych w Polsce po 1918 roku

Abstract

The opinion of Dr med. Kazimierz Habicht, a generał tytularny of the Polish Army, in reference to the problems of combatting contagious diseases in Poland after 1918
The purpose of the article is to present a lesser-known (it is omitted in many research works) figure of Kazimierza Habichta (1868-1943), brigadier general, doctor of medicine. In the light of bibliographical and archival research, the author managed to establish that the person in question had an immensely interesting biography and a military career. He served for many years in the Austro-Hungarian navy; subsequently he worked as an internist in the St. Lazarus hospital in Kraków. After the end of the First World War he volunteered for service in the Polish Army. Until 1923 he distinguished himself in the field of combatting extremely dangerous epidemics of contagious diseases, due to which more people died than due to military activities associated with armed conflicts in the years 1914-1920. He collaborated, or rather he headed the civil and military International First-Aid Missions in Poland. The seriousness of the epidemiological threat is attested by the fact of the engagement associated with attempts to contain the epidemic on the part of the American and international Red Cross, the League of Nations, and even the peace conference in Versailles in the years 1919-1920.