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d) Health and Medical Services77. Medical ServicesThe OT provides medical service for all its members whetherthey are OT-Eigenes Personal (OT organic personnel) orPirmenangehttrige (Firm personnel). This service is controlledby the section Sanit&tswesen composed of German and foreign personnel.Originally all the doctors were German, but, in the course of time,the shortage of qualified German medical men became so acute thatforeign doctors were freely accepted into the OT Medical Service.The picture as of 1944 shows foreign doctors surpassing in numberthose of German origin. The rank given foreign doctors, however,was very low, none being able to attain a grade higher than thatof a Haupttruppfahrer, (equivalent to that of a Master Sergeant inthe American Army).The organization of the medical service in the various OTunits can be best described by quoting some examples. OBL CHERBOURGwhich comprised about 15,000 men employed 1 chief doctor,2 assistant doctors, 7 foreign doctors, 1 dentist, 10 medical aid menand 4 nurses. Einsatz Seefalke in ROME was composed of 4 doctors,10 medical aid men, 6 Sankra (Ambulances) with drivers, 4 assistantdrivers, 1 administrative officer, 15 Italian doctors and50 Italian nurses. In the organizational scheme for Russia,A Sanitatseinheit (Medical Unit) was composed of 1 doctor and10 medical aid men; 1 Sankra (Ambulance) and 1 lorry were attachedto each unit of the size of an OBL. Every third or fourthSanitBtseinheit had as its chief a dentist instead of a doctor.Every 0T man is covered by medical insurance which varies forthe different classes of personnel working for 0T. The insuranceis collected by the Deutsche Krankenkassen 0T (0T Health InsuranceCompanies), one to each Einsatzgruppe and aU part of theKrankenkassenverband 0T (0T Health insurance Association) inBERLIN. (J3ee HIE).0T has its own hospitals (Lazarette) and dispensaries (Reviereand Grossreviere) staffed chiefly with foreign personnel.Characteristic of the attitude of the 0T to foreigners is the factthat the hospitals have separate wards for German nationals and forforeigners. Sometimes existing hospitals in the occupied territorieswere placed directly at the service of the 0T. 0T personnel, beingpart of the Wehrmacht, can also be treated in the Array, Navy andAir Force hospitals, but their bills have to be covered by the 0T:moreover the foreign manpower in the 0T is, as a rule, not grantedWehrmacht facilities in this respect.There are also mobile units for First Aid Treatment as well astravelling dental clinics to take care of men who, presumablybecause of the urgency of work, cannot leave the construction sites.Several convalescent homes (Erholungsheime and Kurhotele)beautifully situated in the mountains are at- the disposal of 0Tpersonnel (e.g. Schloss St. M&rgen in LSNGSEE, for NSKK-OT personnel;Island of Mainauon Lake Constance).78* Sanitary ConditionsAlthough the Germans are rather proud of their achievements inimproving the sanitary conditions of the camps, the reports at ourdisposal 3how that the picture is not so rosy as painted by Germanpropaganda. While the Germans have cleaner barracks and generallylive under all round better sanitary conditions than the foreigners,the conditions in some of the camps for the latter were appalling.The delousing process was one of the perpetual tasks of the personnelorganized in the so-called "Entwesunftstruppe", mobile units which- 65 ­