Crimes in the Name of Research War, but Was Released in 1955
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NATURE|Vol 456|4 December 2008 OPINION at the Nuremberg trials after the Second World Crimes in the name of research War, but was released in 1955. According to journalist Ernst Klee, who exposed many medi- but there is no further mention of the others. cal crimes of the Nazis in his book Das Personen- Das Robert Koch-Institut im Three of the institute scientists discussed in lexicon zum Dritten Reich (Fischer; 2003), Rose Nationalsozialismus the book — Claus Schilling, Gerhard Rose and became a member of the Max Planck Society by Annette Hinz-Wessels Eugen Haagen — have been analysed previ- in 1962. Kulturverlag Kadmos: 2008. 192 pp. ously. Schilling was one of the group leaders who Hinz-Wessels also discusses Haagen, who ¤22.50 (in German) retired. He had once been a state medical doctor was a virologist. He was condemned to a jail in Togo, west Africa, where he became fascinated sentence by a French court for his murder- The Robert Koch Institute in Berlin was by malaria. After his retirement, he continued to ous experiments in a concentration camp in founded in 1891 and conducts research into try to construct a vaccine for the disease, and Alsace, in what is now eastern France. Released infectious bacteria and viruses. When it cel- between 1942 and 1945, he used prisoners from after a short time, he joined a virus laboratory ebrated its centenary, the crimes committed the concentration camp at Dachau in southern in Tübingen, Germany, and received grant by members of the institute between 1933 and Germany for his malaria experiments. Of the support from the DFG in 1957. Hinz-Wessels 1945 were apparently not of interest, and were quotes from a letter Haagen wrote in August not mentioned. Ten years later, after the Max 1943 to Rose, which reads: “I contacted the Planck Society and the DFG, Germany’s main central office of the SS [the Nazi protective research-funding agency, had investigated squadron] to receive sufficient human material their own histories, this changed. Scientist from worthless lives for our purpose”. Schill- Annette Hinz-Wessels has written the first ing, Rose and Haagen are the worst scientists history of the institute, concentrating on the described and, although their experiments years under National Socialism. were already broadly known, this book adds Das Robert Koch-Institut im Nationalsozial- new detail. GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY IMAGES GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY ismus (The Robert Koch Institute Under The book is well written and accurate. Some National Socialism) begins by presenting the material might have been better presented in history of the institute from 1891 to 1933. tables, such as the names of people fired from When the Nazis took power in 1933, it had one the institute in 1933, the names of the group director and six group leaders, all non-Jewish, leaders and those who were murdered. Pub- and the reigning powers saw no need to fire lished in German, it will be of interest to those any of them. But they were all of retirement Despite facing a death sentence, Schilling asked to now working in the Robert Koch Institute or age, so the intellectual power of the institute publish the results of his unethical malaria studies. at similar institutions. An English translation was reconstructed after 1933 according to the is warranted and will attract readers. wishes of the Nazis. 1,200 people he infected with malaria, between What is the bottom line? Do not try to write Twelve research scientists, including postdocs 300 and 400 died. Schilling was caught by the the history of bad scientists when any of them and technicians, were fired because they were Allies and executed in 1946. are still alive. Like Hinz-Wessels, do it only when Jewish. Any reader would like to know what Schilling’s successor as group leader was Rose, all of those who were involved are dead. ■ happened to these people during and after the who had worked in China and was interested in Benno Müller-Hill is emeritus professor of genetics Nazi era, yet the book says little about their fate. typhus. He too used prisoners from concentra- at the University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Was there an attempt to hire them again? One of tion camps and killed many people in his experi- Germany. He is the author of Murderous Science. them who survived in Berlin was invited back, ments. He was condemned to life imprisonment e-mail: [email protected] in on it as well? Or even Boyd? My mind reeled Conspiracy at the bench at the possible layers of conspiracy.” This scene, told by a lone researcher in his Experimental Heart: A Novel the assassin will take a shot at his target. Here laboratory, late at night, is from cell biologist by Jennifer L. Rohn is another climax: Jennifer Rohn’s first novel, Experimental Heart. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: 2008. “The answer clicked into place with an It takes place in a cancer-research centre in 364 pp. $13.99, £7.99 almost physical impact. Gina had inadvertently London, in which a biotech company called inserted the wrong gene into her herpes virus Geniaxis has inveigled itself like a tumour. vectors, having been led to believe that it was Cell-cyclist Andy O’Hara, a postdoc who has The scene in The Day of the Jackal, in which in fact FRIP. Clearly, Rouyle had never had any hitherto sublimated all romantic instincts into the lone assassin carefully assembles his rifle, intention of using FRIP in combination with work, sees Geniaxis virologist Gina Keyser each step and component carefully described, her gene therapy vectors at all. through her lit lab window late one night, and is one of the most memorable in literature. I slammed my fist onto the opened notebook. is smitten. O’Hara, ensnared, becomes involved Such detail tells us that the author, former The conclusion was inescapable. And there were in Keyser’s work and sinks into a quagmire of serviceman and war correspondent Frederick now two key questions remaining. One, what intrigue, only to be resolved when he is forced Forsyth, really knew his stuff. More impor- was the mystery gene that had been swapped in to carry out some risky detective work. tantly, it increases the tension to an almost FRIP’s place? And, two, was this substitution a At the heart of the story, which Rohn tells unbearable pitch, just before the climax when secret only of Rouyle’s, or was Pfeiffer-DeVries well for the most part, is a mystery that turns 575.