Scientist Working Group on Biological and Chemical Security member Gregory Koblentz, the Director of the Biodefense Graduate Program at George Mason University, was quoted in a National Geographic piece on Nazi’s biological lab at Dachau concentration camp:
Gregory Koblentz of George Mason University’s biodefense graduate program remains unconvinced of the offensive nature of the Dachau work.
“Research to assess the threat posed by different biological agents and vectors, such as May’s research on mosquitoes and malaria, is especially hard to categorize as offensive or defensive,” Koblentz says. “Even if May’s intent was offensive, it was very preliminary-many steps away from actually producing a viable insect-borne biological weapon.”
Proving that Nazi Germany planned biological warfare is difficult, Reinhardt acknowledges, especially given the chaos in Germany at the end of the war.
“With Nazis fleeing, the Allies taking over, and the U.S. engaging in similar research after the war, employing some of the Nazi researchers,” Reinhardt says, “any evidence that has remained is quite likely the least incriminating.”
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