On a frigid day in Copenhagen when Erik Hageman was 2 years old, he tripped over his wooden clogs. His face smashed into the floor. In the emergency room, a surgeon repaired his tongue, which had split, but in the months while he was recuperating he shrieked nonstop for water. His urine turned sticky and sweet. The doctor diagnosed diabetes, type 1, the autoimmune condition in which the body attacks its own pancreas.
This was 1942. The Nazis occupied Denmark and eugenics was their first medical principle. Trauma like Erik’s fall, some suggested, activated diabetes, and the bloodline of the diabetic was poisoned. Three short weeks of neglect, the doctor