Wernher Von Braun
Wernher Von Braun is perhaps the most well-known of the German scientists and technical specialists to come to the United States as a result of Operation Paperclip. Von Braun is widely regarded as the Father of American Rocketry, his contributions to technology led to the success of the American space program and intercontinental ballistic missiles. In Germany the V-2 rockets of which he spurred the development and deployment rained terror on the British during the war, and much of his history in Nazi Germany was covered up with the complicity of the American government.
Von Braun was a member of the Nazi Party, which he joined in 1937, later telling American interrogators that he was forced to join in order to continue his work. Von Braun told the Americans that he joined in 1939. He also joined the SS in 1940, though he claimed that this too was to allow him to continue his work. He explained a photograph of himself with Heinrich Himmler while wearing the SS uniform as being the only time he ever wore it, but fellow workers at Peenemunde testified that Von Braun routinely wore the SS uniform at work. He held the rank of Lieutenant when he joined and rose to the rank of Major.
Building the V-2 rocket was a dangerous job, and Von Braun approved of the use of slave labor in the assembly plants. Von Braun later claimed to have visited the Mittelwerk assembly facility but never observed any harsh conditions or mistreatment of any workers there; numerous workers claimed that Von Braun was the source of the harsh conditions and participated in cruel treatments of the workers which contributed to the dangers of assembly. One of the cruel ironies of the German rocket program was that the V-2 killed more people building it than it did when fired at an enemy.
Von Braun was later arrested by Himmler, who was trying to consolidate his power in a deteriorating Germany, and released under the specific order of Hitler, who also ordered his continued protection as long as the V-2 program moved forward. In the general collapse at the end of the war Von Braun and other members of the V-2 program surrendered to American troops in Austria. By June of 1945 Von Braun’s transfer to the United States was approved.
Von Braun was one of the first group of seven Peenemunde rocket scientists who arrived in the United States bearing credentials which had been created for them by US intelligence agents falsifying much of their past. Allegiance to the Nazi Party and SS were outright denied or presented as having been forced on the engineers. During his long career in the United States the background created for him during Operation Paperclip held up in the public eye, despite early opposition to his freedom and presence in America by other German scientists.