ABSTRACT
Herbert Diercks, historian at the Memorial, realised that Choroschun was in fact the first survivor of the infamous Kurt Heibmeyer's tuberculosis experiments ever to get in touch with the Neuengamme Memorial. The trial of Kurt Heibmeyer in Magdeburg from 1963 to 1966 was one of the biggest on Nazi perpetrators in the former German Democratic Republic. One can only guess why until today the adult victims of Heibmeyer have generated so little interest in the public and the academic communities despite the excellent source material. One reason is certainly the enormous emotional response created by publications on the 20 children who were among Heibmeyer's victims. A second reason for the long silence on Heibmeyer's adult victims might be the fact most of them were Polish and Soviet prisoners. Heibmeyer's experiments were part of the global competition for a preventive vaccine or remedy against tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was one of the most feared infectious diseases until after 1945.
