How certain German Nazis became American scientists after World War II

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Last summer, I slipped back into one of my pre-pandemic pastimes by showing up at the local AMC Theater early on a Friday morning to watch "Oppenheimer," recent winner of eight Academy Awards, in an almost empty theater. When it comes to historical movies, I've always preferred to view such in mostly empty theaters so that the light from my cell phone—on because I am using Google to fact check in real time—doesn't disturb other movie watchers 😂.

“Oppenheimer” (2023) was a phenomenal (albeit long) movie…

While I learned all about the real J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project during my school days, the movie version afforded me a chance to brush back up on the specifics—the who, what, and why of not just America's rush to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis during World War II, but the ethical issues surrounding the decisions in the decades that followed as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union heated up and launched two parallel races—the nuclear armaments race, and the Space Race. 

On the latter issue, I was reminded during (and after) the movie "Oppenheimer" just how much Adolf Hitler's scientists frightened American scientists who feared that the Nazis were much further along in the development of a bomb. History now shows that the Nazis were actually several years behind Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project cronies due to a lack of critical supplies necessary to produce an actual bomb, but where the Germans were clearly ahead of the Americans was with regards to rocket technology and jet propulsion—as evidenced by the unmanned German V-2 rockets that wreaked havoc by exploding in France, Belgium, and Great Britain, and by German jet fighter planes that appeared towards the end of the war (when it was too late to turn the tide of Allied victory). 

German V-2 rockets killed over 5,000 people in Europe during the last days of World War II

After seeing "Oppenheimer," I was also reminded how at the conclusion of World War II, over 1,500 German Nazi scientists were brought to the United States to work on, you guessed it, atomic/nuclear weapons, and rocket technology that would be crucial to the later Space Race against the Soviet Union.

One of the most pivotal former Nazis turned American scientists was Wernher Von Braun, one of the pioneers of V-2 rockets who deliberately surrendered himself and his team to the Americans during the waning days of World War II. In a Smithsonian Magazine article that I read late last year, historians Frederick Ordway and Mitchell Sharpe, authors of "The Rocket Team," quoted one German rocket engineer attached to Von Braun as saying, “We despise the French, we are mortally afraid of the Soviets, we do not believe the British can afford us. So that leaves the Americans.”

Indeed, it did leave the Americans and in time, many of those former Nazis enjoyed the same luxuries that the growing (and mostly white) middle class enjoyed due to America's post-war economic boon. 

But the legacy of Nazis turned American scientists extends far beyond the comforts of suburban life, as many gained status as leaders at NASA and private business operations that were heavily indebted to the federal government for contracts that built weapons, satellites, and the very rockets that soon sent American astronauts into outer space. 

Wehrner Von Braun (black suit in the top middle), stands for a group photo with Adolf Hitler and members of the Nazi High Command circa 1941

Back in 1945, this American "de-Nazification" program was given the codename "Operation Paperclip," named for the new identities that were clipped alongside their old Nazi identification papers in files that were held by the federal government.

Upon arrival in America that year, Wehrner Von Braun was secretly sent to Fort Bliss, where he trained Army soldiers in the complexities of rocket technology. Von Braun and his team were transferred to Huntsville, Alabama in 1950 and from there, they were instrumental in designing numerous rockets, including Explorer I, that signaled the start of America's formal space exploration program. 

Wehrner Von Braun’s American military identification card circa 1951—six years after his former leader, Adolf Hitler, and his top minions died via suicide (or execution).

Another prominent German turned American was Kurt Debus, an electrical engineer who morphed from a Nazi working on Hitler's V-2 rockets, to a NASA Director who gained the trust of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson in the 1950's and 60's. 

NASA Director Kurt Debus, a former Nazi SS member, comfortably sits between then President John Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson on the front row during a briefing circa 1961.

If you were living at the time and didn't realize that high level Nazis were spared war crimes tribunals because of their intellectual skills to make war, or if you have never heard of Operation Paperclip, Wehrner Von Braun, or Kurt Debus, do not be dismayed—the American government wasn't all that interested in heralding this information in real time (or in history books).

Former Nazi SS members Wehrner Von Braun and Kurt Debus strike a pose at Cape Canaveral

But now that you know, I am curious as to how such information makes you feel, especially considering that these Nazis used Jewish concentration camp laborers to build the very rockets that were responsible for many thousands of Allied civilian and military deaths during World War II, and then switched sides and lived happily ever after in Jim Crow America; drop me an email or comment in the notes if you're so moved!

What's clear to me is that for all of the jingoistic "God Bless America—and no one else" type bombast that I've heard and read my entire life, that the entire Nazis at NASA bit is but another example of American hypocrisy run amok! Hypocrisy because it is clear that some Nazi SS members, like Adolf Eichmann, were rightly hunted down and executed following World War II for their crimes against humanity via the Holocaust, but others, due to their high intellectual quotients or other skills that would help in the fight against global communism, were given a pass by the U.S. and her allies! 

While the pragmatic part of me understands what Nazis like Von Braun and Debus brought to the table, there's a part of me that feels as if the U.S.’s decision to use them for armament and space supremacy was akin to cheating off of the next person's test or essay in school. And yes, I struggle with this legacy due to knowing that these men were never held accountable for their actions during World War II—while wondering out loud how much their presence in NASA may have held back American born and raised scientists, especially early Black pioneers who were subjected to all manners of racial discrimination at NASA and on military bases, from getting their just due? 

Who knows...

But what I do know is that here in America, certain facts are often conveniently omitted, obfuscated, or overlooked, especially when those facts cut against the popular narrative that ours is a "nation of laws, land of the free," so on and so forth. 

Lest we forget...