Delousing and resistance during the Holocaust

The Germans were convinced that typhus was primarily a Jewish fever, because of its high incidence among the Jewish population, particularly during 1915-16. Their aim was to persuade Jews to abide by the delousing regulations: they were to shave hair and beards. Jews resisted this during the epidemics of 1919-21 because they associated the shaving of hair with bodily assault during the pogroms. When the Germans sought to impose delousing in World War II, they encountered widespread lack of compliance