Explanation: While the US welcomed many Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany (not for humane, but practical reasons - many other civilian refugees were refused and suffered horrible deaths for that very reason), after WW2, a large number of Nazi scientists were offered free tickets to the US through Operation Paperclip, primarily for their rocketry work.
And what Cold War drama would be complete without the mirror effort of the opposing side, in the Soviet Operation Osoaviakhim?
One must imagine some of the NASA office meetings were a bit uncomfortable.
As part of Operation Paperclip, the OSS (which would soon become the CIA) quite notably did a lot of work to scrub prior existing reports classifying various Nazis as ‘ardent Nazis’… by basically just retyping said documents and altering a few words, adding ‘not’ in front of ‘an ardent Nazi’.
Thats what you call retroactive plausible deniability.
Von Braun was one of the people whose past was scrubbed in this way.
… He oversaw a goddamned series of underground slave mines and construction facilities where thousands were worked to death, to keep the Nazi rocket program going.
If he hadn’t been genius rocket man and had instead been building a super tank… he would have been hanged at Nuremberg.
PS: Another ‘fun’ fact: IBM built the computers that tabulated the accounting of the Holocaust, managed the databases that kept track of all the ‘undesirables’.
IBM shipped those computers over to Germany, and sent some of their employees over Germany to assist with technical support.
… The numbers tattooed on Holocaust Survivors?
Those are their UIDs in IBM’s system.
…
What, IMO, should have happened to all these Nazis and collaborators?
Explanation: While the US welcomed many Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany (not for humane, but practical reasons - many other civilian refugees were refused and suffered horrible deaths for that very reason), after WW2, a large number of Nazi scientists were offered free tickets to the US through Operation Paperclip, primarily for their rocketry work.
And what Cold War drama would be complete without the mirror effort of the opposing side, in the Soviet Operation Osoaviakhim?
One must imagine some of the NASA office meetings were a bit uncomfortable.
At the Nuremberg war crimes trials, witnesses for the defence and prosecution were accommodated at the same guest house.
I am not sure if I should imagine them fighting, or imagine them fucking. 🤔
…what?
I think a movie where two scientists like that become friends would be amazing.
No friends with Nazis, that’s my motto
Unless they want to kickstart your rocket program to take you to the moon
I said my motto, sadly I have little influence over my government
Right same, but what about Ex-Nazi?
As part of Operation Paperclip, the OSS (which would soon become the CIA) quite notably did a lot of work to scrub prior existing reports classifying various Nazis as ‘ardent Nazis’… by basically just retyping said documents and altering a few words, adding ‘not’ in front of ‘an ardent Nazi’.
Thats what you call retroactive plausible deniability.
Von Braun was one of the people whose past was scrubbed in this way.
… He oversaw a goddamned series of underground slave mines and construction facilities where thousands were worked to death, to keep the Nazi rocket program going.
If he hadn’t been genius rocket man and had instead been building a super tank… he would have been hanged at Nuremberg.
PS: Another ‘fun’ fact: IBM built the computers that tabulated the accounting of the Holocaust, managed the databases that kept track of all the ‘undesirables’.
IBM shipped those computers over to Germany, and sent some of their employees over Germany to assist with technical support.
… The numbers tattooed on Holocaust Survivors?
Those are their UIDs in IBM’s system.
…
What, IMO, should have happened to all these Nazis and collaborators?
Bare minimum.