<small>[[Poland]] | [[Nazi Germany (Third Reich)]] | [[N.A.S.A]] | [[V-2 Rocket]] | [[WW II]] | [[Operation Paperclip]] | [[Magnus von Braun]] | [[Arthur Rudolph]] | [[Kurt Debus]] </small> # From Hitler's Vengeance Weapon to America's Moon Rocket **Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun** (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977): German-American aerospace engineer who designed Nazi Germany's V-2 ballistic missile built by concentration camp slave labor, then became architect of America's Apollo moon landing—embodying Cold War moral compromise where scientific talent trumped war crimes accountability. ## Prussian Baron Turned Rocket Dreamer Born Wirsitz, Prussia (now Wyrzysk, Poland). Father Baron Magnus von Braun (Weimar Republic Agriculture Minister). Mother Baroness Emmy von Quistorp. Raised traditional aristocratic conservative-nationalist household. **Age 13**: Read Hermann Oberth's _The Rocket into Interplanetary Space_ (1923), mastered calculus/trigonometry to understand rocket physics. **1925**: Mother gave confirmation telescope, sparked space obsession. **1928**: Age 16, joined German Society for Space Travel (VfR), assisted Oberth in liquid-fuel experiments. **Education**: Berlin Institute of Technology, aeronautical engineering BA 1932. University of Berlin physics PhD July 27, 1934 (army-funded secret dissertation on liquid-propellant rocketry). ## The Nazi Bargain: Joining the Party to Build Rockets **Late 1932** (two months before Hitler's rise): German Army hired von Braun to develop liquid-fuel missiles. Not automatically Nazi sympathizer—aristocrat skeptical of "plebeian, radical-right National Socialists"—but as Hitler threw money at rearmament benefiting rocket program, **grew increasingly sympathetic to regime**. **Nazi affiliations**: - **1933-34**: Member SS equestrian unit (riding group), Berlin—paramilitary student activity - **1937**: Age 25, technical director Peenemünde rocket center, **received letter asking to join Nazi Party**—complied to protect career - **Spring 1940**: SS approached with "invitation" from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to join SS as officer. Military superior Walter Dornberger advised **"politically inconvenient" to refuse**. Von Braun agreed. **By 1943**: Rank of **SS-Sturmbannführer (Major)** thanks to Himmler's appreciation for rocket work. PBS historian Michael Neufeld: Von Braun "right-wing nationalist by upbringing but seems to have taken little interest in Nazi ideology or anti-Semitism." Joined organizations because **"lacking any convictions that would make him say no"**—moral void enabling complicity. ## V-2: First Space Object, Built on Corpses **1936**: Peenemünde Army Research Center established on Baltic coast (location partly von Braun's recommendation). Von Braun named technical director age 25. **October 3, 1942**: **First successful A-4 (later V-2) launch**—world's first ballistic missile. **June 20, 1944**: V-2 became **first artificial object crossing Kármán line into space**—technical triumph, humanitarian catastrophe. **March 1944**: Gestapo arrested von Braun, brother, two associates for "defeatism"—drunken party remarks Germany would lose war, "main task" was building "spaceship." Imprisoned two weeks until Hitler personally released him to continue V-2 production. **Himmler never trusted him again** but protected by Army/Armaments Ministry. **Deployment**: September 8, 1944 offensive began. V-2s killed approximately **9,000 Allied civilians** (primarily London, Antwerp). But **at least 20,000 concentration camp prisoners died producing them**—more than twice combat casualties. Senior Curator Michael Neufeld: **"The Nazis inflicted so much suffering and death just to produce these flawed and often ineffective icons of high technology."** ## Mittelbau-Dora: The Underground Death Factory **August 1943**: After RAF bombing raid on Peenemünde, Hitler/Himmler decided to move V-2 production underground to Kohnstein tunnels near Nordhausen. **Mittelwerk factory/Dora concentration camp** (later Mittelbau-Dora main camp, October 28, 1944): - **Over 60,000 prisoners** from Buchenwald, later Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen - Produced **~6,000 V-2 rockets** August 1943-April 1945 - **Death toll: 20,000-25,000** (roughly 30% of those who passed through) - **At least 10,000 deaths directly attributable to V-2 program**—twice those killed by the weapon **Conditions (fall 1943)**: 10,000+ prisoners excavated tunnels, worked 72-hour weeks minimum on 1,100 calories/day. One shift slept in frigid damp tunnels while other excavated. Little water, relieved themselves in cut oil barrels. Deadly disease. **First six months: 6,000+ died**. Bodies sent Buchenwald for cremation. Dora later got own crematorium, couldn't keep pace—dying shipped Bergen-Belsen/Majdanek for killing. Medical supervisor Doctor Poschmann (Nuremberg testimony): Described starvation rations, brutal hours, mass death. **Von Braun's direct involvement**: - **1969 testimony**: Visited Mittelwerk/Nordhausen area **~15 times** between late 1943-February 1945 (typically one-day visits) - Purpose: Communicate V-2 design changes, final acceptance criteria from Peenemünde testing - **January 25, 1944 visit**: Toured plant - **May 6, 1944 visit**: Met Dornberger, Arthur Rudolph, Albin Sawatzki—**discussed enslaving another 1,800 skilled French workers** - **Admitted to West German court 1969**: Saw "terrible conditions underground" but claimed never saw dead bodies or sabotage hangings - **Summer 1944**: Tried helping French physicist prisoner Charles Sadron, but also **talked to Buchenwald commandant about transferring skilled prisoners** for laboratory (Sadron refused) NASA history: **"Von Braun was well aware of the terrible conditions and was involved in decision-making about the use of slave labor."** ## Operation Paperclip: Escaping Justice **Late 1944**: Von Braun realized Germany would lose, began planning postwar. **Ordered to destroy rocket documents**—**disobeyed, hid papers in abandoned Harz Mountains mine**, later retrieved them. Terrified of Soviet capture, fled westward with team. Nazi SS pursued with orders to kill scientists, destroy records. **May 2, 1945**: Von Braun **surrendered entire group to U.S. Army** in Austrian Alps. **Operation Paperclip**: June 1945, von Braun + ~1,600 German scientists/engineers/technicians **secretly moved to United States**. U.S. wanted rocket technology, feared Soviets acquiring it. **Moral calculus: Beat Soviets > accountability for war crimes**. **1945-1950**: Fort Bliss, Texas with 125 initial team, worked U.S. Army guided missiles, assisted V-2 launches White Sands, New Mexico. **1950**: Moved Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. Designed Army's Redstone, Jupiter ballistic missiles, Jupiter C, Juno II, Saturn I. ## NASA and the Moon: Sanitized Hero **July 1, 1960**: Army team transferred to NASA, became core of **Marshall Space Flight Center**. Von Braun first director. **Key achievements**: - **Saturn I** (1961): Largest rocket ever built at time - **Saturn IB** (1966): Launched Apollo spacecraft to Earth orbit - **Saturn V**: Massive three-stage rocket, 13 perfect launches (never lost payload/crew) - **July 16, 1969**: Saturn V launched Apollo 11 - **July 20, 1969**: **Moon landing**—von Braun's dream realized, became "father of American space program" **1970**: NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning (Washington DC). **1972**: Retired, became VP Fairchild Industries. **1975**: Co-founded National Space Institute (promoting spaceflight), advocated human Mars mission. **June 16, 1977**: Died cancer, age 65, Alexandria, Virginia. **Awards**: National Academy of Engineering (1967), National Medal of Science (1975). ## The Coverup and Reckoning **1945-1968**: Von Braun + U.S. Army **effectively neutralized uncomfortable questions**. Stuck to line: **"apolitical scientist who only wanted to go into space"—built missiles because national duty in wartime. Nazi Party membership "nominal and necessary to protect career." Army classified camp information.** **November 1968** (six weeks before Apollo 8 moon orbit): West German court requested testimony in trial of three former Mittelbau-Dora SS men. Von Braun feared publicity would damage NASA reputation. **February 7, 1969**: Testified at West German consulate, New Orleans. Press interview: **Denied personal responsibility, distanced Peenemünde from Mittelwerk**. Press person Ed Buckbee noted von Braun received few such inquiries. **1984 breakthrough**: Associate **Arthur Rudolph** (production manager Mittelwerk) voluntarily returned Germany rather than contest Justice Department denaturalization hearing. **DOJ released records on Rudolph, von Braun, Mittelbau-Dora**. **Von Braun's SS membership became widely known**—Communist East Germany tried publicizing 1960s with little Western success. **1980s-1990s**: Investigative journalists, scholars revealed everything: Party membership, SS rank, thousands of prisoner deaths, potential war crimes complicity. **Belatedly, many became aware**. **Death toll context**: Tom Lehrer's 1965 satirical song captured moral: _"Once the rockets are up / who cares where they come down? / that's not my department / says Wernher von Braun"_ and _"call him a Nazi / he won't even frown / Nazi-Schmazi / says Wernher von Braun."_ ## Geopolitical Legacy: Cold War Moral Compromise **The tradeoff**: U.S. granted von Braun immunity from war crimes prosecution, citizenship, hero status in exchange for rocket expertise to beat Soviets. **Cold War imperatives > Nuremberg principles**. Same calculus applied ~1,600 Paperclip scientists. **Huntsville, Alabama**: Von Braun celebrated as local hero. U.S. Space & Rocket Center displays his desk. Marshall Space Flight Center named buildings for him. **February 1970 plaque unveiling**: Praised contributions. **Plaque didn't mention**: Nazi Party, SS, Hitler meetings, Mittelwerk visits, slave labor, deaths. **Family defense**: Daughter Margrit von Braun (born Huntsville): **"Things that happened during wartime very difficult to unravel. You may be asked to do things, but it's not like you can say no. I don't think people have kinds of choices we living in democracy in America can relate to."** Doesn't appreciate term **"the Nazi Wernher von Braun."** **Historical assessment divide**: - **Strident critics**: War criminal who escaped justice - **Contextualists**: Man with little choice under totalitarianism - **Nuanced scholars**: Reject reducing to hero/villain—examine complicity, moral choices, consequences **Bottom line**: Von Braun made Faustian bargain—pursued space dreams by building weapons killing thousands, using slave labor killing tens of thousands. Post-war, U.S. made complementary bargain—granted war crimes immunity for Cold War advantage. Both sides prioritized technological advancement over moral accountability. **The price**: 20,000+ concentration camp prisoners died so von Braun could perfect rockets that killed 9,000 civilians, which enabled him to build rockets that landed 12 Americans on Moon. His legacy: inseparable triumph and atrocity—technological genius, moral catastrophe, Cold War expedience enshrining war criminal as American hero. **As Michael Neufeld concluded**: More prisoners died building V-2s than were killed by them—the weapon's greatest harm inflicted on those forced to create it.