Erich Traub

Dr. Erich Traub (1906-1985) was a German veterinarian and scientist/virologist. During the 1930s, he performed research on vaccines and viruses, including pseudorabies virus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, NJ. [Traub E, "A filterable virus recovered from white mice", "Science", 1935, volume 81, pages 298-99.] [Traub E, "Cultivation of Pseudorabies Virus", "J Exp Med", November 30, 1933, 58(6), 663-81.] [Barthold SW, "Introduction: microbes and the evolution of scientific fancy mice", "ILAR J", 2008, 49(3), 265-71.]

Traub worked at the University of Giessen, Germany, from 1938 to 1942, and from 1942 to 1948 at the Reichsforschungsanstalt (für Viruskrankheiten der Tiere) on the Insel Riems (Riems Island), a German animal virus research institute in the Baltic sea, now named the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. The Reichsanstalt was headed by Prof. Dr. Otto Waldmann; Traub was vice-president. From 1949 - 1953 he was associated with the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, MD (Operation Paperclip). Subsequently (1953) he founded and led a new branch of the Loeffler Institut in Tübingen, Germany, and headed it from 1953 to 1963. [ [http://www.fli.bund.de/9+M52087573ab0.html Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health] , History: Isle of Riems]

Traub was brought to the United States in 1949 under the auspices of the United States government program Operation Paperclip, meant to exploit scientific knowledge gained during Nazi rule in Germany. [Hunt, Linda. Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1991. 340 pages] In the book Lab 257, author Michael Carroll claims that Traub supposedly was a Nazi (Traub was a member of the NSKK (motorist corps, a subsidiary of the SA, from 1938-1942; he was not a member of the NSDAP or SS; Traub and his wife were members of the Amerika Deutscher Bund from 1934-1935). Carroll further claims that Traub worked for Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and Gestapo, who in 1943 took over the Innenministerium (Ministry of the Interior); the Reichsanstalt was transferred administratively to the Ministry of the Interior in 1943 Carroll, Michael (2004). Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-001141-6] . Carroll claims that Traub visited the Plum Island biological research facility in New York on at least three occasions in the 1950s. The Plum Island facility, operated by the Department of Agriculture, conducted research on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) of cattle, one of Traub's areas of expertise. Traub was offered a leading position at Plum Island in 1958 which he declined. Carroll, along with author John Loftus, has alleged the United States performed bioweapons research on Plum Island. [Loftus, John (1982). The Belarus Secret. Knopf. ISBN 0394522923.] With regard to Traub's alleged role in biological warfare during WW II, the reader is referred to Erhard Geissler's book: Biologische Waffen, nicht in Hitlers Arsenalen. Biologische und Toxin-Kampfmittel in Deutschland von 1915 bis 1945. LIT-Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2. edition, 1999, pp. 483 - 516, ISBN 3825829553. One might wish to consult Erhard Geissler. Biological Warfare Activities in Germany, 1923 - 1945. In: Geissler, Erhard and Moon, John Ellis van Courtland eds., Biological warfare from the Middle Ages to 1945. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-19-829579-0. Interested readers might also wish to consult the Alsos Report (1945) and Bernstein, Barton J.: Birth of the U.S. Biological Warfare Program. Scientific American 256: 116 - 121, 1987. These publications confirm that Nazi Germany did not produce offensive biological weapons (see also: PBS 'Living Weapon' film features MIT expert on U.S. biological weapons program (Ms. Jeanne Guillemin)--http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/bioweapons.html - February 2, 2007). Hitler had blocked the development of biological weapons. Rather, vaccines against animal viral diseases, in particular FMD, served defensive purposes. See also: Paul Maddrell: Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany 1945 - 1961. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0199267502. References:Bernstein, Barton J.: Birth of the U.S. biological warfare program. Scientific American 256: 116 - 121, 1987.Geissler, Erhard: Biologische Waffen, nicht in Hitlers Arsenalen. Biologische und Toxin-Kampfmittel in Deutschland von 1915 - 1945. LIT-Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2nd ed., 1999. ISBN 3825829553.Geissler, Erhard: Biological warfare activities in Germany 1923 - 1945. In: Geissler, Erhard and Moon, John Ellis van Courtland, eds., Biological warfare from the Middle Ages to 1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0198295790. Maddrell, Paul: Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany 1945 - 1961. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0199267502.John Rather: New York Times, February 15, 2004: Heaping more dirt on Plum I.

References