Sitting here, sheltered from the current pandemic, I came upon a pair of documents that made me think how lucky we have been, in the last century, to have not struck such a thing before ...
These two papers are from Vienna, 1855. From the Josefstadt area where my family lived ...
Two death certificated. Dated ten days apart. From nearly adjacent houses. Micheal Bauer and Rosalia Kroder ...
Cholera.
Bodies to be buried within 48 hours.
The local press listed the dead ...
Yes, there is Rosalia. 53 years old. Manual worker. 123 Josefstadt ... Cholera. There are still the usual deaths from Lungentuberculose and Krebs and Brechdurchfall (gastro-enteritis etc), but again and again and again... Cholera.
A pandemic to end all pandemics.
1 comment:
My great-great grandfather lived in Josefstadt while getting his medical degree at the Univesity of Vienna. My great-grandmother was born there, then they moved back to Krakau where he served the poor (Armenarzt) until he died early of Typhus.
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