26 Facts About Erich Traub

Erich Traub was a German veterinarian, scientist and virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease.

Erich Traub worked directly for Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, as the lab chief of the Nazis' leading bio-weapons facility on Riems Island.

Erich Traub was transported from the Soviet zone of Germany after World War II and taken to the United States in 1949 under the auspices of the United States government program Operation Paperclip, meant to exploit the post-war scientific knowledge in Germany, and deny it to the Soviet Union.

Erich Traub worked at the University of Giessen, Germany, from 1938 to 1942.

Erich Traub was a member of the Nazi NSKK, a motorist corps, from 1938 to 1942.

From 1942 to 1948, Erich Traub worked as lab-chief at the Reich Research Institute for Virus Diseases of Animals on Riems Island, a German animal virus research institute in the Baltic Sea, now named the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.

Erich Traub was assisted by Anna Burger, who was later brought to the United States after the war, to work with the Navy's biological warfare program.

On orders from Himmler and Blome, the Deputy Reich Health Leader and head of the German biological warfare program, Erich Traub worked on weaponizing foot-and-mouth disease virus, which has been reported to have been dispersed by aircraft onto cattle and reindeer in Russia.

In 1944, Blome sent Erich Traub to pick up a strain of Rinderpest virus in Turkey; upon his return, this strain proved inactive and therefore plans for a Rinderpest product were shelved.

Immediately after the war Erich Traub was trapped in the Soviet zone of Allied occupied Germany.

Erich Traub was forced to work for the Soviets from his lab on Riems Island.

Erich Traub denied this claiming that his only interest was foot-and-mouth disease in animals.

Erich 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 in Germany, and deny it to the Soviet Union.

Months into his Operation Paperclip contract, Erich Traub was asked to meet with US scientists from Fort Detrick, the Army's biological warfare headquarters, in Frederick, Maryland.

Erich Traub discussed work done at the Reich Research Institute for Virus Diseases of Animals on Riems Island during World War II for the Nazis, and work done after the war there for the Russians.

Erich Traub gave a detailed explanation of the secret operation at the institute, and his activities there.

Erich Traub's publicly published research from his time in the United States reports disease research not directly related to weaponization.

Erich Traub served as an expert on foot-and-mouth disease for the FAO of the UN in Bogota, Colombia, from 1951 to 1952, in Tehran, Iran, from 1963 to 1967, and in Ankara, Turkey, from 1969 to 1971.

In 1960, Erich Traub resigned as Tubingen's director due to the scandal related to accusations of financial embezzlement.

Erich Traub continued with limited lab research for three more years, but then ended his career at Tubingen.

In 1964, Erich Traub published a study for the Army Biological labs in Frederick, Maryland on Eastern Equine Encephalomyeltitis immunity in white mice and its relationship to Lymphocytic choriomeningitis, which had long been a research interest of his.

Erich Traub retired from the West German civil service in 1971.

In 1972, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Erich Traub received an honorary doctorate degree in Veterinary Medicine for his achievements in basic and applied Virology.

On 18 May 1985, Erich Traub died in his sleep in West Germany.

Erich Traub visited the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York on at least three occasions in the 1950s.

Erich Traub was offered a leading position at Plum Island in 1958 which he officially declined.