Blome spoke in English, pausing on occasion for the interpreter to help him with a word. “In 1943 I received orders from Goering for all the research of Biological Warfare,” Blome explained, “all the research for BW [would fall] under the name Kanserreseach.… Cancer Research had already started long before that, and I was already working all the time but in order to keep this development secret [the Reich] disguised it.”
Dr. Blome laid out the command structure of those involved in biological weapons work under Himmler, and where the men were now. It was a surprisingly small group of “around twenty” men. As head of the Reich Research Council, Blome explained, G?ring was at the top, as the Reich’s dictator of science. There were three men in equal positions directly under G?ring, Dr. Blome explained. Blome was in charge of all research and development of pathogens. Doctors and scientists working in this area reported to him. Major General Dr. Walter Schreiber—the Russians’ surprise witness at Nuremberg and the man who had pointed the finger at Blome—was in charge of vaccines, antidotes, and serums for biological weapons. All doctors and scientists working in these areas ultimately reported to Schreiber. Finally, Blome explained, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel oversaw the Lightning Rod Committee, Blitzableiter, the code name for the ordnance experts who worked on delivery systems for biological bombs. Anyone conducting tests with these kinds of weapons had to go through Keitel.
G?ring had committed suicide and Keitel had been hanged at Nuremberg after the trial of the major war criminals. Major General Walter Schreiber was working for the Russians now. It appeared that Dr. Blome was the last available man standing with extensive inside knowledge of the Third Reich’s bioweapons program.
Dr. Gorelick asked, “Can Dr. Blome give us actual locations of various laboratories?”
Blome spoke of the Reich’s outpost on the island of Riems, a facility that specialized in “Sickness of Cattle” research, including rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease. Blome said that because “the isle was completely isolated except by wire,” it was a perfect place to conduct this kind of dangerous research. The scientist in charge of the laboratory was Professor Otto Waldmann and his assistant was Erich Traub “of international fame.” Blome was referring to the fact that before the war, Traub spent several years in America doing research at the Rockefeller Institute, in New Jersey.
Rinderpest was a terrible disease, Blome said. In many ways it was the biological weapon he feared most. “Germany depended on milk and butter for 60% of her fat resources,” said Blome. “In 1944 it would have resulted in a great catastrophe if foot-and-mouth disease had been used against Germany. It would have been the greatest catastrophe ever faced,” according to Blome, “[i]f a country relies on all its fat resources to get milk and butter. Once the disease starts there is no stopping it.” The Detrick scientists were very interested to learn more.
How did the Reich acquire and develop the pathogen, Batchelor asked? Blome had already explained this to the Operation Alsos interrogators, but that was two years ago, before the doctors’ trial, and apparently these Detrick scientists were not familiar with what Blome had said when he was at Dustbin. “By international law it was prohibited to have the virus for this sickness in Europe,” Blome said. “The virus was in Turkey and Himmler ordered that for the Isle.” Blome confirmed that Dr. Erich Traub went to Turkey on direct orders from Himmler and acquired a strain of the dangerous virus there. At Riems, Traub then succeeded in producing a dry form of the virus. Dry forms were the deadliest of all, said Blome. “After a period of seven months based on experimentation on the Isle, this virus was still effective. After seven months they still spread and the cattle were all infected.”
Blome then spoke of experimental tests conducted by Luftwaffe pilots in Russia, where the disease was sprayed from low-flying aircraft over fields of grazing cattle.
“Positive results,” said Blome.
Where were Dr. Traub and Dr. Waldmann now?
“I believe that they have been taken prisoner of the Russians and they are still active in their research for the Russians,” Blome said.
The conversation shifted to plague research at Posen, where Blome had set up an institute during the war. “Perhaps we would like to talk about the human angle,” Dr. Phillips asked, trying to veil the uncomfortable subject by using the royal “we.”
Dr. Blome had been acquitted of war crimes charges five weeks earlier. Seven of his codefendants were to be hanged. Clearly, the subject of experiments on humans was not something he was going to discuss. The question was rephrased: What did Blome believe was the most groundbreaking biological weapons work conducted by the Reich? Blome said that at Posen, he had been working at dispersing biological agents in a “combination with gas that [a]ffects the throat. When membranes are hurt [that is, damaged]… bacteria have a better chance to infect,” Blome said.