The story of "Jewish prisoner-scientists in Buchenwald who made a vaccine against ... typhus. Their untold secret: they provided the real vaccine to camp inmates but a fake one to German troops at the eastern front"--Dust jacket back. Describes the true story of how the eccentric Polish scientist tasked by the Nazis to create a typhus vaccine hid the intelligentsia from the Gestapo by hiring them to work in his laboratory.

Lice, war, typhus, madness -- City on the edge of time -- The louse feeders -- The Nazi doctors and the shape of things to come -- War and epidemics -- Parasites -- The fantastic laboratory of Dr. Wiegl [sic] -- Armies of winter -- The terrifying clinic of Dr. Ding -- "Paradise" at Auschwitz -- Buchenwald : rabbit stew and fake vaccine -- Imperfect justice.