A group of “repatriated” German scientists. Bundesarchive/Wikimedia Commons.
13. Operation Paperclip enabled some of the worst German war criminals to escape justice and enjoy luxurious lives in the United States
Whilst “Operation Paperclip” is moderately well known among historical enthusiasts, popular understanding of the covert undertaking remains woefully misguided. On the surface, Paperclip appears as merely a routine post-war recruitment exercise, designed to acquire and harness the best and brightest German scientists to assist the United States in the emerging Cold War and prevent these geniuses from falling into Soviet hands. Between 1945 and 1959, more than 1,600 such scientists and technicians were relocated to the United States and employed by the U.S. government; with expertise from rocketry, to chemical and biological weapons, to medical science, these individuals provided significant research boon and offered technological leaps otherwise years away.
However less commonly recognized is that many of these German scientists were unrepentant and egregious war criminals, offered lucrative and comfortable employment whilst being protected from prosecution by the United States for their offenses in exchange for their experience and knowledge. Several were leading members of the Nazi regime, whilst others were responsible for unlawful experimentation on innocent civilians. Despite almost unanimously being involved with serious war crimes, of the scientists transported to the United States just one, Georg Rickhey, faced trial whereupon under immense American political pressure he was found innocent; others, including Walter Schreiber, were relocated by the U.S. military to safety in Argentina after being identified in association with human experimentation, whilst another, Arthur Rudolph, was resettled in West Germany amid allegations of wartime forced labor. Even today more information is being learned about these sheltered war criminals, with the Strughold Award, named for renowned space medical scientist Hubertus Strughold, canceled in 2013 by the Aerospace Medical Association after the Wall Street Journal exposed his connection to unethical human experiments during the Second World War.
It should be noted that the United States was not unique in this regard and other Allied countries engaged in similar activities, with British Intelligence conducting Operation Backfire, Operating Surgeon, and the Fedden Mission to a similar conclusion.