Gas on Gaza was the last that he touched. No one heard him move around the purpose of the Pasteur Institute, and there were no screams or notifications. At dawn, the researchers who slept in the construction halls met the news. Joseph MeteA, the center of the center and the first person vaccinated against rabies, Remote life June 24, 1940, a few hours before his family returned to Paris.
The most famous story attributes this to the suicide to the act of extreme fidelity. According to this version, the Meister committed suicide To prevent Nazi soldiers to defile Louis Pasteur.The field but this explanation does not correspond to what actually happened. The legend, repeated for decades in institutional books and tribute, began to stagnate when two researchers, Elois Dufur And Let B. Carroll They examined the archives of the Pasteur Institute itself. What they found completely dismantled the official story.
The legend of the victim of the Pasteur did not correspond to the facts
South WallmanResponsible for the laboratory of the bacteriophage of the center and the direct witness to what happened, he wrote in his diary that the Master was “very depressed” because it The family fled from ParisHis wife and daughters left a few weeks before suicide, before Inevitable arrival of the German armyField
The Meister, isolated in the occupied capital, came to convince themselves that they have Dead in the explosionThis suffering, added to fear, led him to close the kitchen and open the gas. According to the Volleman, they found him dead for inhalation The next day without signs of violence.
Volleman’s own words They completely exclude that the death of Meister is somehow connected with the crypt of pasteraThere were no German soldiers trying to enter, or threats, no one -liba heroic act in defense of the mausoleum. What was deep Personal despairWarm up by war and misinformation. Wife and daughter Meister They returned to Paris on the same dayNot knowing what happened. They already found him lifeless.
The family has reached Survive in German advance Shelter outside the capital. Meister, without news for a few days, Interpreted silence as a complete tragedyThe field precisely this wrong confidence made him commit suicide.
Family testimonies have just dismantled in industrial history
A The granddaughter of Joseph Meister confirmed this version In an interview collected Nature In 2013. He explained to the researchers, his grandfather did not die for protecting Pasteur, but From the panic caused by the separation of his familyHe believed that they died, and could not endure it. It was suicide, marked by the tragedy of confusion, and not with a symbolic gesture.
In addition to the Wollman newspaper, the archive of the Pasteur Institute and family certificates They agree that the Meister used gas as a method to put an end to his lifeThere was no weapon, and there were no testimonies that mentioned the presence of soldiers in the target that day.
The error remained for decades, because perfectly fits into the story that glorifies the figure of a scientist Like an untouchable hero. The transformation of the Meister in the last guardian of his grave served to strengthen the legend of Pasteur as a national figure. The story worked, even if it was false. The story was pure, epic and convenient.
Although this is a repeating lie thousand times, we should not reduce the value that the Meister lived. It was First person to get a vaccine against rabies And survive. Pasteur saved him with experimental therapy, which was not used in people. The Meister returned later to the place where he was cured and worked there until the end of his life. But this end had nothing epic. It was just sad.
