Fresh Air Remembers Actress And Singer Elaine Stritch

July 22, 2014

Guests: Arthur Allen - Elaine Stritch

TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in World War II, Nazi commanders had another worry besides the Red Army - the disease of typhus. Epidemics of typhus, which is transmitted by body lice, killed untold numbers of soldiers and civilians during and after the First World War. As World War II raged, it reappeared in war-torn areas and in Jewish ghettos, where cramped, harsh conditions were a perfect breeding ground for lice. Our guest Arthur Allen has a new book about two scientists, one Christian and one Jewish, who were employed by the Nazis to produce a typhus vaccine. One technique involved raising millions of infected lice in the laboratory and harvesting their intestines to get the materials for a vaccine. What's remarkable about the story is that the labs of these two immunologists actually sent weakened, ineffective vaccines to the German army while smuggling the real product to Jews in a Polish ghetto and a concentration camp. One lab sheltered Polish intellectuals and resistance fighters from the Nazis by employing them as lice feeders, meaning they allowed hundreds of lice to suck their blood. Arthur Allen has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Science and other publications. He spoke to FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies about his latest book, "The Fantastic Laboratory Of Dr. Weigl."

DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Arthur Allen, welcome to FRESH AIR. Let's start by just talking about the disease typhus. Now, this is distinct