Walka ze zjawiskiem prostytucji i jej konsekwencjami w Łodzi w latach Wielkiej Wojny
The fight against prostitution and its consequences in Lodz in the years of the Great War

Summary/Abstract: After the outbreak of the First World War, a tremendous poverty emerged in the city and led to rapid development of numerous pathological and socially inappropriate activities, such as prostitution. According to numerous calculations, during the war the number of women working as streetwalkers had increased sevenfold. There was no denying of presence of notorious bawdy houses in Lodz. Moreover, data gathered by the officials pointed out the omnipresence of pimps and human traffickers. Up to the middle of 1915, the Public Morality Protection Militia had been making numerous efforts in order to fight with the problem. After its dissolution, the issue was taken up by the members of the German Police. Nevertheless, their undertakings were not aimed at complete forbidding of such activities, but rather on limitation of threatening outcomes of prostitution, such as the possibility of customers to suffer from venereal diseases. Numerous social and religious organizations were trying to prevent the moral fall of females, as well as to rehabilitate prostitutes, especially by training them to perform tasks that were considered more decent and to exercise other professions.

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