Two Polish doctors working at the Red Cross hospital during World War II saved more lives than Oskar Schindler.

The story took place in Rozwadów near Stalowa Wola. A freshly graduated doctor, Eugeniusz Łazowski, arrived at the local Polish Red Cross hospital, invited by Princess Anna Lubomirska. Soon, he brought his colleague Stanisław Matulewicz, a doctor with a passion for science, who set up a laboratory in the back of his staff apartment. Here, the idea was born that saved the lives of thousands of people.

In his makeshift laboratory, Matulewicz discovered that the commonly occurring and naturally harmless bacterium Proteus vulgaris OX19 gave the same reactions in the Weil-Felix test as the microorganisms that cause typhus. And it was the Weil-Felix test that the Germans used to confirm whether a patient’s blood was contaminated with typhus. It happened that Matulewicz was visited by a resident who had returned from a forced labor vacation in Germany. He begged the doctor to amputate his arm or leg so he wouldn’t have to return. Matulewicz's medical ethics prevented him from amputating healthy limbs, but he injected the young man with Proteus intramuscularly, instructing him to pretend to be dazed (as is the case with typhus), feverish and curled up in agony due to the truly typhus-like abdominal pain. He sent the patient's blood to the German doctors for examination, and after a few days received a red telegram: "Weil-Felix reaction" positive. The patient did not return to work. Matulewicz would probably have ended the experiment there if Łazowski had not found a war application for this discovery. For over three years, they injected the residents of Rozwadów with Proteus bacteria, causing an epidemic that did not exist. The patients themselves were even unaware of this, which allowed the entire matter to be kept secret for so long, saving many lives.

The police and gendarmerie stopped venturing into the vicinity of Rozwadów, the area of several communes was placed under quarantine, and warnings were hung on the border posts and trees: "Achtung! Fleckfieber. The occupiers were afraid of this disease. Especially an epidemic in the army, which is why the Germans avoided contact with the sick at all costs. After testing the blood of the residents of Rozwadów and the surrounding areas, they announced an epidemic and banned entry to this town. Łazowski and Matulewicz were successful because the lack of visits from Germans meant no deportations for forced labor, as well as a postponement of the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto.

The doctors continually inflated the number of sick people, ordering new supplies of typhus medication. However, the occupier's attention was eventually drawn to the low mortality rate among the locals. Finally, the Germans sent a delegation to the town to see for themselves what life was like in the isolated epidemic center. The doctors greeted the delegation on the outskirts of the town, generously providing bread, salt, and alcohol. This managed to get the chief doctor drunk, while the other representatives were taken to real residents who were genuinely suffering from typhus and were told to take blood samples. The Germans were frightened they might get infected and ordered Łazowski to take samples. After some time, the Gestapo discovered that Dr. Łazowski was cooperating with the AK, secretly treating and dressing wounded partisans, and therefore issued a warrant for his arrest. Łazowski had to flee to Warsaw, where he remained until the end of the war.

In 1945, Dr. Łazowski began working at the Mother and Child Institute, and in the 1950s he moved with his family to the USA, where he continued his pediatric practice and earned a professorial title. Matulewicz went through Belgium to Zaire, where he became a renowned radiologist. The world learned about the incredible actions of both Polish doctors from Łazowski's memoirs, written in the 1970s entitled.Private war. Memoirs of a doctor-soldier 1933-1944. According to calculations, "their typhus" saved about 8,000 people from death, deportation to concentration camps, and forced labor in the Reich.