Dr Klaus Reinhardt from Tubingen University has found historical evidence of biological weapons research in Nazi Germany.
While studying documents from the Waffen-SS Entomological Institute, an annex of Dachau concentration camp, Reinhardt wondered why the armed wing of the Nazi party needed to study insects.
It made no sense - during World War II, Germany already had several respected entomological research centers; nor did the SS institute study insects which presented a potential threat to Germany's important food supplies, Klaus said.
It has been debated for many years whether Nazi Germany sought to produce biological weapons despite Hitler's ban on them. Reinhardt's findings are likely to re-ignite that discussion, researchers said.
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Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), commissioned the Entomological Institute in Dachau in January 1942, presumably after reports of lice infestation among SS troops, and following an outbreak of typhoid fever at Neuengamme concentration camp.
Reinhardt said that in 1944, the SS Entomological Institute was also tasked with testing various species of mosquito for their ability to survive without food or water - and thus, their suitability to be infected with malaria and air-dropped into enemy territory.
Reinhardt examined notes by the institute's director, Eduard May.
He found lab reports which detailed experiments with anopheles mosquitoes, which can host malaria during part of its development.
Reinhardt said one reason why Dachau was chosen as the location for the insect study facility was one of the infamous experimentation programmes carried out there - the inoculation of prisoners with malaria by Professor Claus Schilling, who was later executed at Nuremberg.
However, Reinhardt found no evidence that May collaborated with Schilling.
The research is published in the journal Endeavour.