Jewish-Polish bacteriologist and science theoretician Ludwik Fleck survived the Lemberg ghetto with his wife and son thanks to his efforts as a physician, and because he was able to produce small amounts of vaccine against the rampant typhus spreading across Europe.
The Nazis lost almost as many soldiers to typhus as they did to the Soviets, and they did everything possible to contain this epidemic, spread by a bacterium carried by lice. They established a special laboratory and assembled prisoners who were forced to produce a vaccine. Under immense pressure from the evil SS doctor Erwin Ding (who also conducted experiments on prisoners), the men believed they had succeeded in making the vaccine, but they were actually mistaken.
When Fleck was transferred to Buchenwald from Auschwitz and discovered their misconception, he decided to let them remain in their delusion. With the only few physicians among the group of 50 men, they sustained this risky lie and provided the Wehrmacht with dozens of liters of fake vaccine in the final years of the war, simultaneously saving their own lives. Fleck’s pre-war theory on the formation of scientific facts was actually substantiated by the Buchenwald deception. After the war, Fleck’s work was plagiarized but eventually gained worldwide recognition.