Abstract
Little has been written about the 150,000 Czechs or other nationalities who left the frontier regions of Czechoslovakia, which were ceded to Germany after the Munich diktat. These people suddenly found themselves in alien surrounding in the Czechoslovak interior, often only with the barest of necessities, Most Czechs refugees were placed in camps, of which there were three categories.
First-category camps had the best facilities; third-category camps, where most of the refugees were housed, were the most primitive. From the outset, concerns were raised about dangers to public health and order, which were posed by the uprooting of so many people.
Despite various bureaucratic obstacles, the Czechoslovak health authorities (the Mobile Epidemic Unit), in cooperation with Czechoslovak ministries, the armed forces, domestic and foreign charities, as well international organizations such as the International Red Cross, managed to ensure that the refugees would be well looked after and, ultimately, could rebuild their lives. The article cites materials mainly from the papers of the author's late grandfather, Professor Karel Raška who, as a young army officer and epidemilogist, played a leading role in the Mobile Epidemic Unit.