Overview

Kurt August Blome was the Deputy Surgeon General of the Third Reich and director of Nazi Germany's biological weapons program. Under Blome's direction; Nazi scientists conducted experiments with plague; cholera; typhus; and other pathogens; including experiments on concentration camp prisoners. Blome reported directly to Heinrich Himmler and was tasked with developing biological weapons for potential use against Allied forces. At the 1947 Nuremberg Doctors' Trial; Blome was charged with conducting human experiments and involvement in the euthanasia program. Despite evidence of his role in biological weapons development and human experimentation; Blome was acquitted in a controversial verdict; partly because key evidence of his plague experiments was suppressed by U.S. intelligence agencies who wanted to recruit him. In 1951; the U.S. Army Chemical Corps recruited Blome through Operation Paperclip (the program that brought Nazi scientists to the United States). He was interviewed at Camp King in Oberursel; Germany and provided the U.S. military with his knowledge of Nazi biological weapons research. Blome's recruitment epitomizes how the Cold War imperative to acquire military and scientific advantages led the U.S. government to shield Nazi war criminals from accountability.

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Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

3 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports