The leading contributors to the US space program were Nazi scholars forgotten at their crimes.
In 1945, US President Harry Truman issued a decree recruiting German specialists for American industry. Theoretically, the entry only applied to people who did not belong to the NSDAP, while the most important scientists in Hitler's state were zealous Nazis belonging to the party.
The leading contributors to the US space program were Nazi scientists who were forgotten at their crimes. In the photo, among others von Braun at the US Air Traffic Control Center.
For the American intelligence the question of this ambiguous affiliation and the criminal past of the recruits were not a problem, however.
Recruitment of criminal scientist
Immediately after the war, a special military intelligence unit was established in the USA - the Joint Intelligence Agency. The organization searched for people who were responsible for the development of modern technologies in Nazi Germany. If there were members of the NSDAP among the recruits, the Agency forged their CVs.
The desire to recruit Nazi scientists for American industry was not the only reason why the recruitment was made. The United States had to do everything to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Soviets. They would probably use them for tasks directed against the USA. The recruitment was codenamed Operation Paperclip. The few opposing voices of Albert Einstein or Eleonore Roosevelt were of no avail. Thanks to the Nazi physicists, the Americans were able to maintain their domination in the post-war world.
Operation Paperclip was carried out by US secret services in the late and post-war period. Its goal was to transfer the leading German scientists (104 of them in 1946) to the US.
SS, Walt Disney and NASA
One of the scientists recruited by the US was Wernher von Braun. This man not only belonged to the Nazi party, but was also an SS major, decorated with, inter alia, Knight's Cross of the Cross of Merit. In 1944, he worked on the construction of the V2 missiles that attacked England and Belgium during the war. These missiles were the first to exceed 100 km in height, entering outer space.
However, it was not the conquest of space that was the overriding goal of using rockets, but killing as many people as possible. The missiles fell on London or Antwerp, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians. When the war was over, von Braun turned himself over to the Americans, realizing that he would be treated especially as a rocket constructor. And he was right . The German scientist and his companions were secretly transported to the USA. After being enlisted by the Americans, the matter quickly came to light. The scientist caught the attention of the press, and he almost proudly admitted that he was the "creator and guiding force" in the production of deadly rockets.
Some American intelligence officers rubbed their eyes with astonishment as the recent enemy took pictures of himself with previously officially hostile soldiers, gave interviews to the press, and later appeared on television. He posed almost like a celebrity and showed no remorse. In the States, Braun quickly set to work for the US Army. He was appointed director of the military's guided missile research center. The public became more and more interested in him, not quite bothering about his career in the Third Reich.
The stay in the USA was a real idyll for the German scientist and his colleagues. Yes, Tom Wolfe in the book " The Best. Cowboys who went into space Describes the bustling life of ex-Nazis in Cocoa Beach, Florida:
NASA people drank there, cooperatives with subordinates, and the Germans drank. Though they avoided all advertising, many employees of Wernher von Braun's team, V-2 rocket specialists, had serious tasks at the Cape. At such moments, they were happy to find a fraternal atmosphere here, take off their serious masks, jump onto the dance floor and dance. Cocoa Beach witnessed many such summer evenings (...) and drunk Germans tortured the piano in a cocktail room and roared "Horst Wessel Lied" .
Singing the Nazi anthem did not bother anyone. Braun even signed a contract with Walt Disney and appeared in the program "Man in Space", which attracted 42 million viewers on American television!
Among the most important achievements of the German scientist was the construction of the Jupiter C missile, which launched the first American artificial satellite of the Earth into orbit. In 1959, Braun became director of NASA's Space Flight Center. He led the Saturn V rocket that allowed the Americans to land on the moon. In the book " The Best. Cowboys who went into space "There is a memory of Tom Wolfe, who watched the launch of a rocket constructed by a former Nazi:
I am interested in who has the courage to sit on top of these giant rockets. As far as I remember, the Saturn rocket was thirty-six stories high. They light a match and - bababuch! - Toto soars into the sky. God, I thought how they sit there.
Walt Disney and von Braun in 1954 with a model of a passenger ship. The German scientist also appeared in his program, which achieved millions of viewers in the US.
In the following years, the German scientist lived peacefully in Washington and continued to work for NASA. He was rich and respected. He died in 1977, and after his death, President Jimmy Carter gave a touching speech saying - horror of horrors - that the benefits of his work served "people all over the world." But not only von Braun was a Nazi who made a career in America. Among the Nazi scientists who came to the USA there were also those who had much greater crimes on their conscience than the co-creator of the V2 battle missiles.
Nazi citizen of America
He joined the NSDAP two years before the party took power in Germany. His specialty was the assembly of rocket engines. A Nazi idealist who escaped justice by offering his services to the Americans. Such was Arthur Rudolph - the executive director of the Mittelwerk factory, where slave laborers produced V2 missiles under inhumane conditions. Dozens of people were hanged in it every day, and the director not only knew about it, but also sometimes watched the executions . Annie Jacobsen in the book "Operation Paperclip" described the tragic situation of the then "slaves" from the plant led by Rudolph:
There were no wash basins or sanitary facilities. Barrels cut in half served as latrines. The workers suffered and starved (...) The people looked like walking skeletons, only skin and bones.
After the defeat of the Third Reich, Rudolph changed the ideological banner and turned himself into the hands of the Americans, hoping to find a job in the USA. He had to be convinced that it would work because he started learning English quickly.
Artur Rudolph showing the model of Saturn V, on which he worked with von Braun. At first the Americans didn't trust him, but they turned a blind eye to his past.
At first, the Americans did not trust him. During the first interrogations, he was identified as a dangerous Nazi who should be interned. Eventually, however, he turned a blind eye to his criminal past, was granted citizenship, and Rudolph began working as the leader of the team developing short-range missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.
In the following years he was von Braun's deputy in the implementation of the Saturn V program. It was not until 1980 that the Special Investigations Office at the Department of Justice became interested in him. As a result of the investigation of crimes against humanity, the authorities gave Rudolph a choice - either to prepare for trial or to renounce his citizenship and leave the United States. The scientist chose the second solution, and the case hit the headlines. The German engineer left America in 1984.
Crisis of justice
It was April 30, 1945 when Adolf Hitler committed suicide and this news reached Wernher von Braun. Then the scientist suggested to one of his associates to surrender to the Americans. “I agree with you (…) We have to put our child in good hands,” said Walter Dornberger.
The aforementioned "child" were, of course, V2 rockets. During the war, Dornberger was chief of staff at Mittelwerk and was responsible for the production of weapons. In the United States, he worked for the US Air Force and for the private company Bell Aircraft Corporation. He also collaborated with NASA and often visited the Pentagon. He lived in the USA undisturbed for his past. At the end of his life, he returned to Germany, where he died in 1980.
The article was inspired by Tom Wolfe's book " The Best. Cowboys who went into space ”(Agora 2018), about the beginnings of space programs.
There were more people like von Braun, Rudolph or Dornberger. Among the Nazi scientists who worked for America after the war was - released under mysterious circumstances after the Nuremberg Trial - doctor Theodor Benzigner, who invented the ear thermometer in the USA.
In turn, the head of the murderous IG Farben factory in Auschwitz - Otto Ambros - in America worked for chemical companies and in the Department of Energy. The fate of the so-called "Father of space medicine" - Hubertus Strughold, director of the Research Institute of Aviation Medicine in Berlin. During his work for Germany, he conducted experiments on prisoners of concentration camps, where he tested their resistance to freezing and vacuum . After the war, the Americans employed him, among others. at the School of Aviation Medicine in Texas.
There were many more people with similar biographies. By recruiting Nazi scientists, the United States was able to compete with the USSR in a space race. Tom Wolfe in the book " The Best. Cowboys who went into space ”Quotes President John Kennedy's 1961 statement:
Now it's time to extend the step. Time for a great new venture, time for the nation to take the lead in the conquest of space, which could prove to be the key to our future on Earth. (...) I believe that the nation should exert its strength to enable man to stand on the moon before the end of this decade.
Walter Dornberger was the "father" of the Third Reich's rocket program. After the war, he worked in the USA, mainly for Bell Aircraft Corporation. In the photo with von Braun in 1945.
Eight years later, the American Apollo 11 crew made this dream a reality, and Neil Armstrong was the first man to stand on a silver globe. It would not have been possible without the US recruiting Nazi scientists. The V2 missile designs served as the prototype for the improved rockets that brought man to the moon. The Americans got their way.
In total, about 700 Nazi scientists were brought to the US under the "Operation Paperclip" . The overwhelming majority concealed and falsified their past. And justice has bypassed the criminals a great deal.
Bibliography:
- Jackobsen Annie, Operation Paperclip , Akurat Publishing House 2015.
- Makowski Marcin, Wernher von Braun - Hitler's engineer, America's hero , WP.pl [access:5/06/2018].
- Piszkiewicz Dennis, Through crime to the stars , Bellona 2000 Publishing House.
- Wolfe Tom, The best cowboys who went to space, Agora Publishing House 2018.
- Zimmerman Mateusz, Walt Disney, Nazis and space travel, Onet.pl [access:5/06/2018].