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The Untold Story of an Anti-Nazi, Gay Jew Who Thrived Under Hitler
How a visionary gave hope to Hitler’s greatest fear
On June 21, 1941, just hours before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Otto Warburg was summoned to meet with SS leaders.
He was considered the most talented biochemist of his generation. However, before being a Nobel Prize winner, Warburg was a Jew, a homosexual, and the Reich did not really tolerate his attitude.
He had banned the Nazi salute and flag at his institute and excluded Nazis from his staff. On top of that, his relatives were members of one of the most prominent Jewish families in finance.
Warburg was panicked, and he had every reason to be. But if for any other Jew, gay, or Anti-Nazi that day would have meant the end, the SS instead reallocated Warburg to another workplace and allowed him to continue working undisturbed.
Some years before
It was the second time the Reich had put its head in the sand for him.
The first had occurred, years earlier, when a Nazi official came to Warburg’s laboratory to ask why he had not yet completed the declaration of Aryan origin.
