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

Journalist Allen (Vaccine) shares the virtually unknown story of how two Polish scientists worked for the Nazis during WWII and used their positions to simultaneously conduct important medical research and save Jews from the Holocaust. Rudolf Weigl, who in the 1930s developed the first true vaccine against typhus, was put to work by the Nazis producing the vaccine and conducting research to improve it. Ludwik Fleck, a Jewish assistant to Weigl, was forced to conduct similar work for the Nazis from within the concentration camp system. Weigl smuggled typhus vaccines into the Jewish ghettos and used his institute to shield important Polish resistance fighters and intellectuals from the Gestapo. Meanwhile, Fleck used his status as a medical researcher to get the Nazis to protect his Jewish medical team from persecution inside the Buchenwald concentration camp as he produced bogus results for his Nazi supervisors. Both men were able to continue their research as they assisted those actively fighting the Nazis and survived the occupation of Poland. Allen delivers a captivating story of ethics during wartime and the perils of working with the enemy. Photos. (July)