Favus patient being x-rayed in a Joint-sponsored hospital

In post-World War I Europe, poverty caused by wartime destruction and dislocation bred disease. These children have their heads wrapped; they are being treated for favus, a fungal skin disease that usually affects the scalp. In the 1920s, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (“the Joint”), which had formed in 1914 to provide wartime relief to Jewish communities, continued its work, including support for the establishment of Jewish hospitals, child care institutions, and food distribution stations throughout Poland.