The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl: How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis (60 page)

The more the Germans retreated
:
Friedrich Hansen,
Biologische Kriegsführung im Dritten Reich
(Frankfurt: Campus, 1993), 114.

During three years
:
Karl-Heinz Leven, “Fleckfieber beim deutschen Heer während des Krieges gegen die Sowjetunion (1941–1945),” in
Sanitätswesen im Zweiten Weltkrieg
, ed. Ekkehart Guth et al. (Herford: E. S. Mittler, 1990), 127–35. See also Alexander Neumann, “
Arzttum ist immer Kämpfertum”: Die Heeressanitätsinspektion und das Amt “Chef des Wehrmachtssanitätswesens” im Zweiten Weltkrieg (1939–1945)
(
Düsseldorf: Droste, 2005), 223.

At the outbreak of war
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 331–32.

Gildemeister would work
:
François Bayle,
Croix gammée contre caducée: Les expériences humaines en Allemagne pendant la deuxième Guerre mondiale
(Neustadt, 1950), 1148–54, 1179–97, 1241–60, 1275; E. Haagen and B. Crodel, “Versuche mit einem neuen getrockneten Fleckfieberimpfstoff,” Z
entralblatt für Bakteriologie
151 (1944): 369–73. See also Weindling, “Virologist and National Socialist: The Extraordinary Career of Eugen Haagen,” in
Infektion und Institution: Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte des Robert-Koch-Instituts im Nationalsozialismus
, ed. Marion Hulverscheidt and Anja Laukötter (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2009), 232–49.

Meanwhile, IG Farben
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 344–45.

The leading scientists mistrusted
:
Ibid., 331–45. See also Gerhard Rose, NA, RG238, ser. M1019, roll 60, frames 123–46.

The differences were partly
:
Eyer, “Die Fleckfieberprophylaxe der deutschen Wehrmacht im 2. Weltkrieg,”
Wehrmedizin und Wehrpharmazie
(1979): 60.

The louse was the
:
See interrogation of Gen. Gerhard Rose, NA, RG331, box 93; CIOS Report, item 24, file #XXIV-5/3 Institut für Fleckfieber- und Virusforschung des Oberkommandos des Heeres at Roth, Bavaria, 1945; Nov. 1942 meeting notes, BA-Berlin, R86/4153.

Although Gildemeister
:
Rose interrogation, NA, RG238, frames 138–41.

The army medical chief
:
Siegfried A. Handloser interview, NA, RG238, ser. M1019, roll 24, 83.

Rose, on the other
:
Rose interrogation, NA, RG238, frames 138–40.

By the end of 1941
:
File memo on Reich Interior Ministry Conference on Nov. 29, 1941, “The Fight against Typhus,” HNOC, HLSL 722. See also Hans Arsperger, “Sonderbericht über den Besuch des Institutes für Fleckfieber- und Virusforschung in Krakau,” BA-Freiburg, RH12/23/360, and Eyer, “Fleckfieberprophylaxe,” 56–61.

But Behringwerke
:
J. Craigie memo, Jan. 1941, Kew, FD1/6614. See also Felicja Meisel-Mikołajczyk, interview by Wójcik.

The Weigl vaccine
:
Bieling reports from Feb. 1942, BA-Freiburg, RH12/23/187. See also Fleck,
Denkstile
, 582.

Finally, the shortage
:
Reichsministerium des Innern, “Akten betreffend Fleckfieber Impfstoff,” Jan. 1942–March 1943, BA-Berlin, R1501/3644.

At the urging of Gildemeister
:
See HNOC, HLSL 722.

However, other German officials
:
Demnitz affidavit, HNOC, HLSL 721.

Standartenführer
(Colonel) Joachim
:
Ibid.; Bieber note on meeting, HNOC, HLSL 2235; Bayle,
Croix
, 1131–32.

Mrugowsky, who was Erwin
:
Florian Bruns, “Staatshygiene und Menschenversuche: Das medizinische Ethos des Joachim Mrugowsky,” in
Medizinethik im Nationalsozialismus: Entwicklungen und Protagonisten in Berlin (1939–1945)
(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2009), 147.

After being named in 1938
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 248–50.

Mrugowsky’s staff of 200
:
Pierre Joffroy,
A Spy for God: The Ordeal of Kurt Gerstein
, trans. Norman Denny (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971).

He was responsible
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 254–57; Bruns, “Ethos des Joachim Mrugowsky,” 135–47.

As the scholar Paul
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 255; Gerhard Peters, general: Himmler memo: BA-Berlin R1501/3644; Degesch shipment in Nov 1941: Staatsarchiv Nürnberg, KV-Anklage, Interrogations REP502 VI Nr P25, courtesy of Paul Weindling; Höss decision: Weindling,
Epidemics,
294–302, 304–5; Joffroy,
Spy for God
, 258–66
.

The Pasteur scientists Paul
:
Hélène Sparrow, “Essais d’immunisation avec le virus murin I de Tunis, introduit par la voie nasale,”
Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences
201 (1935): 1441.

Durand brought the vaccine
:
Paul Giroud and Jean Jadin, “Conceptions actuelles concernant les rickettsioses et leur vaccinations,”
Annales de la Société Belge de Médicine Tropicale
3 (1961); Paul Giroud and René Panthier, “Adaption au poumon de lapin des Rickettsies de Typhus Historique,”
Annales de l’Institut Pasteur
68 (1942): 381–86; Paul Giroud, “Vaccination against Typhus,” in
Medical Research in France during the War (1939–1945)
, ed. Jean Hamburger (Paris: Flammarion, 1947), 31–37.

Many tricks were
:
Giroud and Panthier, “Adaption”; PIA, DirMIN1, “Reunion de 27 Fevrier 1942 sur le Typhus Examthématique.”

In January 1942
:
Hubert Duboc, ed.,
Barbelés et Typhus
(Luneray: Bertout, 1992), 40–44, 123, annexe 1-12.

The Pasteur Institute, rife
:
See Louis Aublant, speech of Nov. 9, 1979, PIA, box DirMIN1.

To give a flavor . . . French POWs
:
Trefouel to Ministry of Health, March 7, 1942, PIA, box DirMIN1.

By war’s end, Giroud
:
“Medical Research in Paris,” Sept. 5, 1944, NA, RG331, box 94, CIOS Medical, item 24; “Minutes of 28 Feb 1942 meeting,” PIA, box DirMIN1; Memo, “Vaccine anti-Rickettsia delivré gratuitement.”

While the typhus vaccine
:
Weindling,
Epidemics
, 325–28.

One of the first
:
Knapp to Fourneau, July 8, 1942, PIA, DirMIN1.

Chapter 9: The Terrifying Clinic of Dr. Ding

There were really two
:
Dov Levin,
The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry under Soviet Rule, 1939–1941
, trans. Naftali Greenwood (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995); Albert Kirrmann, “Buchenwald, la grande ville,” in
De l’université aux camps de concentration: Témoignages strasbourgeois
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1947), 67.

Conditions improved
:
Kogon,
Hell
, 260–61; Ernst von Salomon
The Captive: The Story of an Unknown Political Prisoner
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961), 118–22; David A. Hackett, ed. and trans.,
The Buchenwald Report
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 207.

The work required skill
:
Hermann Langbein,
Against All Hope: Resistance in the Nazi Concentration Camps, 1938–1945
, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Paragon House, 1994), 108.

At times, it went
:
Hoven interrogation, NA, RG238, ser. M1019, roll 29, frames 360–85.

Given his erratic behavior
:
“Dienstleistungszeugnis für SS-Unter-scharführer Waldemar Hoven,” June 29, 1939, BA-Berlin, NS19/507; Hoven interrogation, NA, RG238.

Hoven was a rakish
:
Hackett,
Report
, 336; Shoah Foundation, 21084 Peter Schenk Sr.

Inmates would sometimes
:
Kurt Titz and Herbert Froboess testimony in Buchenwald trial, at NA, RG153, box 255, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 4 (folder 10); ibid., box 246, pt. 8; Kurt Sitte testimony in Buchenwald trial, ibid., box 254, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 2 (folder 2), 366–81; Shoah Foundation, 11111 John Berman (wartime name Hans Baermann).

None of this seemed
:
Christian Bernadac,
Les médecins maudits: Dans les camps de concentration, des cobayes humains
(Paris: Michel Lafon, 1996), 188.

Hoven was also known
:
Kogon, Hell, 149; Interrogation of Waldemar Hoven by Iwan Devries, Oct. 22, 1946, HNOC, HLSL 221, 19–32; Fritz Rieckert, Affidavit concerning Hoven’s work at Buchenwald, HNOC, HLSL 675, 20.

“
And what supremacy
”:
Rudolf Gottschalk, affidavit concerning Hoven’s work at Buchenwald, HNOC, HLSL 672, 12.

Arthur Dietzsch
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 123–24; Kogon,
Hell
, 158–60.

In November 1941
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 118–22.

Ding had studiously courted
:
Oskar Hock, Affidavit on SS medical programs, HNOC, HLSL 435, 7. See also, Fritz Kranz, Affidavit on work of Hygiene Institute, HNOC, HLSL 802; Genzken in Bayle,
Croix
, 1221.

Ding had left
:
Hygiene Institut der Waffen-SS, Versuche mit Impfstoffen gegen Diphtherie, Fleckfieber, Typhus, Cholera usw 1941–44, BA-Berlin NS33/343 #185.

“
Since animal experiments
”:
Kogon,
Hell
, 156–57.

Shortly after Block
:
NA, RG153, box 257, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 7 (folder 2), 3107.

As the nature of
:
NA, RG153, box 250, v. 1, clemency, pt. 6 (folders 1 and 2).

The sight of a single louse
Shoah Foundation, 15132 David Dantus; Hackett,
Report
, 65–66; Dietzsch testimony, Buchenwald Trial, NA, RG153, box 257, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 7 (folder 2), 3118–19.

Since there was no
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 128–32.

After recovering, Ding
:
Carl Blumenreuter, affidavit concerning Genzken’s responsibilities in the Waffen-SS medical service, typhus vaccine program, Feb. 6, 1947, HNOC, HLSL 449, 36–37; Bayle,
Croix
, 1191–201.

In November 1942
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 128–32; Ernst Klee,
Auschwitz: Die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer
(Frankfurt: Fischer, 1997), 296–97.

On November 30, 1942
:
Hoven quoted in Rieckert, affidavit; Dietzsch testimony, HNOC, HLSL 671, 2.

Haas, sensing
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 128–32; testimony by Fritz Kirchheimer, NA, RG153, box 255, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 4 (folder 1), 1149; Shoah Foundation, 41857 Jacobus Van der Geest.

While convalescing at home
:
Salomon,
Captive
, 133.

Later subjects were
:
Kogon,
Hell
, 156–58.

Ding and Dietzsch
:
Waitz, “Au block 46,” in
Témoignages strasbourgeois
, 113.

The many vaccines
:
“
Tagebuch der Abteilung für Fleckfieber- u. Virusforschung am Hygiene-Institut der Waffen-SS”
(manuscript), HNOC, HLSL 1547.

In practice, though, many of
:
Christian Pineau,
La simple vérité, 1940–1945
(Paris: René Julliard, 1960), 381–82.

To get the Block 46
:
Waitz, “Au block 46,” 109–11.

The prisoners were “stuffed”
:
Yeo-Thomas, Buchenwald trial, NA, RG153, box 254, v. 1, trial rec. (folder 1), 147.

Said a prisoner who
:
Shoah Foundation, 51743 Henryk Mikols.

Having already stuck
:
Letter from Dietzsch to Frankfurter Hefte Verlag, IWM, FFEYT3/7.

Stranded in the building
:
Dietzsch testimony, Buchenwald trial, NA, RG153, box 257, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 7 (folder 1), 3133.

He could more
:
Max Umschweif testimony, NA, RG153, box 258, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 12, 5513–14.

But he also
:
Dietzsch testimony, NA, RG153, box 357, v. 1, pt. 7 (folder 2), 3146.

And before long, everyone
:
Kogon,
Hell
, 158–60.

One day in the fall
:
Willy Bahner, NA, RG253, box 256, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 5 (folder1), 1647–49.

By the time the camp
:
Kogon,
Hell
, 156–57.

Ding knew
:
James J. Weingartner, “Law and Justice in the Nazi SS: The Case of Konrad Morgen,”
Central European History
16 (1983): 276–94; Konrad Morgen testimony at Buchenwald trial, NA, RG153, box 257, v. 1, trial rec., pt. 7 (folder 1), 2797.

He had already
:
Morgen affidavit, medical experiments at Buchenwald, HNOC, HLSL 794.

Nothing could have
:
Kogon,
Hell
, 156–57.

Despite this, the German
:
Bayle,
Croix
, 1173, 1216–38.

The vaccine tests
:
Ding’s publications—no coauthors were ever listed—include the following: “Zur serologischen und mikrobiologischen Diagnostik des Fleckfiebers,” excerpted in
Bulletin of War Medicine
3 (1942–43): 675; “Über das Ergebnis der Prüfung verschiedener Fleckfieber-Vaccinen gegen das klassische Fleckfieber,”
Arbeitstagung Ost der beratenden Fachärzte
3 (1943): 108; “Über die Schutzwirkung verschiedener Fleckfieberimpfstoffe beim Menschen und den Fleckfieberverlauf nach Schutzimpfung,”
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten
124 (1943): 670–82; “Fleckfieberrezidiv,”
Medizinische Klinik
39/40 (1944); “Beitrag zur Frage der Tröpfcheninfektion bei Fleckfieber,”
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten
125 (1944): 431–36.

Typhus was not the only
:
Shoah Foundation, 51743 Henryk Mikols.

For some of the prisoners
:
Shoah Foundation, 21884 Peter Schenk; Hoven interrogation, NA, RG238, ser. M1019, roll 29, frames 360–62.

Ding also tested
:
Stephen H. Lindner,
Inside IG Farben: Hoechst during the Third Reich
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 311–33; Klee,
Auschwitz
, 296–313; Salomon,
Captive
, 133; Kogon interview, Nov. 28, 1946, NA, RG238, ser. M1019, roll 36, frame 3582.