Project Rebirth (1459)

The **Project Rebirth** is a Strategic Scientific Reserve project to create a new line of Super-Soldiers for its World War II effort. It began with a collaboration between US, British and German scientists led by Dr. Abraham Erskine.

## Identity and Affiliations

### Overview

**Project: Rebirth**, also called **Operation: Rebirth**, and **Project: Super Soldier**, was a U.S. government project originally administered by the U.S. Army to create a new line of Super-Soldiers for its World War II effort. Its success allowed the concept to grow and expand, becoming the larger operation known as Weapon Plus.

In February 1941, Nazi scientists; Dr. Abraham Erskine, Professor Hans Bruder and Professor Eric Schmitt worked for Project Nietzsche. They hoped to create the first "Ubermensch" Dr. Erskine however defected to the United States of America.

Now in the US the project began as a collaboration between American and British governments. He was given the code name of "Joseph Reinstein" and became the primary source of the American program. Dr. Erskine independently created both the chemical portion of the project, the Super-Soldier Serum, that has been recreated to certain degrees, as well as the Vita Ray housed in the Vita-Ray Chamber treatment that has not been recreated since. Not wanting to create another Schmidt, Erskine would take great care in selecting a test subject with the correct qualities. While reviewing test subjects at a recruiting station at inventor Howard Stark's Stark Expo in 1942, Erskine encountered a frail, sickly-looking young man named Steve Rogers who had attempted to enlist under assumed names in four different cities. Intrigued by the lengths Rogers had gone to enlist, Erskine asked Rogers if he wanted to kill Nazis. Rogers said he did not wish to kill anyone but simply disliked bullies. Rogers' answer satisfied Erskine enough to approve him as a possible test subject.

Though Rogers would struggle through basic training due to his small size and poor health, his perseverance and ingenuity impressed Erskine, who regarded Rogers as the clear choice. Erskine resisted Colonel Chester Phillips' efforts to persuade him to select another recruit, Gilmore Hodge, who was physically superior, but whom Erskine regarded as a bully. Erskine's confidence in Rogers' was cemented when he witnessed Rogers throw himself on what he thought was a live grenade in order to protect his fellow soldiers.

The night before the test, Erskine visited Rogers and admitted his reasons for selecting him. Erskine told him about Schmidt and explained while someone like Schmidt, who has known power all his life might lose respect for that power, a weak man like Rogers would know the value of strength, as well as compassion. Erskine urged Rogers not to forget who he was, not a perfect soldier, but a good man.

The next day, at the SSR's secret facility in Brooklyn, Erskine, with the assistance of Howard Stark, sealed Rogers in a special chamber, where he received multiple injections of the formula and was bombarded with vita-rays. Erskine nearly stopped the procedure when it appeared Rogers was having difficulty enduring the procedure, but Rogers urged him to continue. Moments later, Rogers emerged from the chamber significantly taller and noticeably more muscular.

Erskine's satisfaction was short-lived however, as Heinz Kruger, a HYDRA operative sent by Schmidt to sabotage Erskine's work, had infiltrated the facility disguised as an observer from the State Department, detonated a bomb, destroying Erskine's machinery and shot him before attempting to escape with a vial of the formula. When Rogers rushed to the fatally wounded Erskine's side, Erskine's final act was to point to Rogers' heart, to remind him of who he was.

### Camp Cathcart

With Erskine's murder, Wilfred Nagel took over the American program under the code name of Josef Reinstein. Nagel's attempt to recreate Erskine's successful process with Rogers, did not succeed in mass production. Nagel's early attempts to recreate Erskine's successful chemical formula resulted in African-American super soldiers (most prominently Isaiah Bradley). Three hundred African-American soldiers were taken from Camp Cathcart and subjected to potentially fatal experiments at an undisclosed location in an attempt to recreate Erskine's successful Super-Soldier Formula. Only five men survived the original trials; hundreds of test subjects left behind at Camp Cathcart and the camp's commander were executed by US soldiers in the name of secrecy. The families of the three hundred were told that they had died in battle.

While Nagel failed to create a working mass-production version of Erskine's formula, Nagel did make relatively successful samples, such as the one that kept then Colonel Walker Price younger than his chronological age and still muscular and fit into his 90's.

## Successful Test Subjects

1. Steve Rogers-1942
2. Isaiah Bradley-1943
3. James Harper-1943
4. Steve Trevor-1943
5. Clinton Mcintyre-1951
6. John Walker-1966
7. William Nasland-1976
8. Jeffrey Mace-1997
9. Christopher Smith-2001
10. Benjamin Lockwood-2020
11. William Burnside-2022