The Nazis behind the moon landing
A little known quirk of NASA’s history
The Apollo moon landing 49th anniversary is this year. In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo Lunar Module and took one small step for a man, and a giant leap for mankind. A massive statement about the technological achievements of American brain power, a massive propaganda victory over the soviets, and a milestone for humanity. There’s a lot to appreciate about this event. Behind every great story are interesting backstories about how it was made possible. What few people appreciate is that the men who made this possible once swore an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
About 35 years earlier, Wernher von Braun among others, joined the Nazi Party of Germany, his loyalty was very ambivalent because nazi party membership wads required to have any high-level career under Hitler’s Germany. Based out of Peenemunde on the Baltic coast. Von Braun and his team designed and tested the V-2 rocket program. The V-2 Rocket was designed as a new way to attack a land target, It was the predecessor to the modern ballistic missile which is in use by militaries around the world today. The facility and rockets were built by the slave labour of the concentration camp prisoners. Knowing of the coming defeat, Von Braun decided that surrender was in his best interest. He and his associates defied orders, forged documents and traveled to central germany away from the soviets to surrender to the Americans to receive better treatment from the Americans than the Russians.
After their surrender they were transferred to the US with falsified work histories and expunged Nazi Party Memberships to begin working for the US Army and eventually NASA. This was part of Operation Paperclip. Near the end and the immediate aftermath of World War 2 there was a scramble between the Western Allies and the Soviets to find as many of Germany’s scientists as possible to gain their rocket knowledge.
After the establishment of NASA, Von Braun and his team were assigned to develop the Saturn Rockets, which were eventually used to carry the Apollo Astronauts to the moon. Von Braun’s loyalty to the Nazi party and it’s ideology were nominal. His passion was science and to eventually help humanity reach space.
The United States, has and continues to see itself as a shining moral example of freedom and justice to the world. Yet conveniently employed the expertise of men complicit in some of the worst crimes against humanity to its own advantage. Was beating the soviets to the moon worth using the work of people who tested their theories using slave labor? Regardless of Von Braun and his teams true ideological loyalty. They were complicit in the holocaust. This piece of history like most history deserves to be viewed with nuance and complexity. The US did prevent precious knowledge from getting into the wrong hands. In the process they employed men who were complicit in one of the worst atrocities in human history, but they were put to work to embark on one of humanity’s greatest achievements.
