The Life and Death of Joseph Meister

|

Most people don’t recognize the name Joseph Meister, but it is partially thanks to him that we have the rabies vaccination today. As a child, Meister was the first person to be inoculated with the still-experimental rabies vaccine that was under development by Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux. Meister was spared from certain death by the efforts of these French scientists, yet he could not escape – or so he thought – the certain death accompanying the invading Nazi armies. Here is his story.