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Posted: May 20th, 2008
The Hunt for Nazi Scientists
In the closing days of the war, von Braun and a group of his rocket scientists surrendered to American forces. Although he had been a member of the German SS and had used slave labor at Mittelwerk, the Nazi underground rocket facility, von Braun and his colleagues were embraced by the United States government and began working for the Army on rocket technology. In 1960, von Braun became the first director of NASA’s new Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. During his 10-year stint at Marshall, von Braun spearheaded the development of the Saturn rockets, including the Saturn V rocket that launched the crew of Apollo 11 toward their historic landing on the moon. Von Braun died on June 16, 1977. Below, follow our timeline, Werner von Braun and the Evolution of the Rocket Engine. |
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German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), born in 1912 in Wirsitz, Germany, took an early interest in rockets and the possibility of space exploration. As a young man, he joined the German Rocket Society (Verein fur Raumschiffahrt). In 1932, von Braun joined the German army to work on the development of ballistic missiles. By 1937, he was the head of the Peenemeunde Rocket Center and leader of the Nazi rocket program that eventually developed the V-1 “buzz bomb” and the deadly V-2, the world’s first ballistic missile.
I am not too thrilled that this man was treated so well, when he knew that human beings were being starved while working for him and his earlier efforts. Shame on us, what a double standart we practice.
I am a 8th grade student working on a project on Wherher Von Bruan and I am wondering if you can help me find any primary sources?
Thank you.
You can try the book titled “A History of Space Travel” by Werner Von Braun. My son is doing a project on him also. We obtained many books on rockets and Von Braun at our local library.
diane, this man pioneered rocket science, designing the first ballistic missile and the rocket that sent man to the moon, and if he had stood up to the SS over treatment of those people, that would have meant death or torture. more like shame on you
Dear Diane, yes…they treated humans like slaves to build his rockets, the reason we used HIM was very self serving, it was to beat the Soviet Union in the race to develop intercontinental missles to deliver nuclear warheads, then the space race. We used him to save us from an even greater tragedy than the jews faced.
Well i am from germany staying in the US right now and my oppinion is that no brave person in that time would have work for the nazi government like wernher von braun did. I think many people feared for their lifes and were threatened by death but that does not excuse the killing of hundreds of thousandds of people by building the most advaced rocket of that time.
I think that he was an amazing person.
Designing and developing terror weapons does not make a war criminal. However, working men to death in the pursuit of National Socialist objectives does. The question of Wehrner Von Braun’s complicity in war crimes has been covered up. Von Braun would have known the answer to this. However, he defended himself on many occasions.