# Why Did The Black Death Skip Poland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978 "2011-09-20T19:17:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/1 "2011-09-20T19:17:56Z")
I was listening to a podcast by Chuck and Josh of “How Stuff Works,” and they were mentioning that not all parts of Europe got hit by the Black Death. I looked it up in Wikipedia and it seems they are right. If you look at this [gif from Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackdeath2.gif) ([article is here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death)), the map shows the Black Death going right around, what looks like modern day Poland. Why is that? Does anyone know why it just skipped that area. It seems to have covered Europe pretty well otherwise. The maps show it skipping the area between France and Spain, and OK I can see that if I recall right, is high mountains, so that may make sense. But it also seemed to skip around the city, of what is now Milan too. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/2 "2011-09-20T19:32:13Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > I was listening to a podcast by Chuck and Josh of “How Stuff Works,” and they were mentioning that not all parts of Europe got hit by the Black Death. > > I looked it up in Wikipedia and it seems they are right. > > If you look at this [gif from Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackdeath2.gif) ([article is here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death)), the map shows the Black Death going right around, what looks like modern day Poland. > > Why is that? Does anyone know why it just skipped that area. It seems to have covered Europe pretty well otherwise. > > The maps show it skipping the area between France and Spain, and OK I can see that if I recall right, is high mountains, so that may make sense. But it also seemed to skip around the city, of what is now Milan too. Wasn’t the Black Death mostly carried by fleas on rats? If the area now known as Poland had closed borders, there wouldn’t be much commerce coming in. No carts, no rats. No rats, no fleas. No fleas, no Black Death. Mind you, this is a shoot-from-the-hip supposition while eating my lunch. Feel free to shoot it down mercilessly. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/3 "2011-09-20T19:57:02Z")
We just recently addressed this. Here’s my post with a direct quote from a respected historian: [link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14105557&postcount=17), but feel free to read the rest if the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/4 "2011-09-20T20:06:40Z")
“Lord, the people have sinned mightily, and per your instructions I have hit all of Europe with the Black Death” “You forgot Poland.” ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/5 "2011-09-20T20:11:26Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > We just recently addressed this. Here’s my post with a direct quote from a respected historian: [link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14105557&postcount=17), but feel free to read the rest if the thread. That is amazing. Does she say what happened with those houses afterwards? I assume they’d have to stay that way for quite some time to be sure. Or did they burn them down? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/6 "2011-09-20T21:42:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Why Did The Black Death Skip Poland? _Beeecause_ even rats have standards? \ Note I am partly of Polish ancestry–it is an “in joke”. ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-black-death-skip-poland/596978/7 "2011-09-20T21:55:19Z")
I will give you the reason the Sami people of northern Scandinavian countries (reindeer herders) escaped the Bubonic Plague. This is taken from Wikipedia, Sami People The method of movement of the plague-infested flea (Xenopsylla cheopsis) from the south was in wooden barrels holding wheat, rye, or wool – where the fleas could live, and even reproduce, for several months at a time.[34] The Sami having a non-wheat or -rye diet, eating fish and reindeer meat, living in communities detached from the Norwegians, and being only weakly connected to the European trade routes, fared far better than the Norwegians.[35] ETA: Perhaps Poland was closed off to the wheat, rye, or wool trade.