![JFK_Tour_of_KSC_-_GPN-2000-000605](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/JFK_Tour_of_KSC_-_GPN-2000-000605.jpg)
Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
to the U.S. for government employment after
the end of World War II in Europe
The final battle of the European Theatre of World War II continued after the definitive overall surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. After German dictator Adolf H ...
, between 1945 and 1959. Conducted by the
Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency
The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) was the organization directly responsible for ''Operation Paperclip'', an OSS and Army CIC program for recruiting German scientists for U.S. government employment, primarily from 1945 to 1959. Ma ...
(JIOA), it was largely carried out by special agents of the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
's
Counterintelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
(CIC). Many of these personnel were former members and some were former leaders of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
.
In February 1945,
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
(SHAEF) set up
T-Force
T-Force was the operational arm of a joint US Army–British Army mission to secure German scientific and industrial technology before it could be destroyed by retreating German forces or looters during the final stages of the Second World War an ...
, or Special Sections Subdivision, which grew to over 2,000 personnel by June. T-Force examined 5,000 German targets with a high priority on synthetic rubber and oil catalysts, new designs in armored equipment, V-2 (rocket) weapons, jet and rocket propelled aircraft, naval equipment, field radios, secret writing chemicals, aero medicine research, gliders, and "scientific and industrial personalities”.
When large numbers of German scientists began to be discovered in late April, Special Sections Subdivision set up the Enemy Personnel Exploitation Section to manage and interrogate them. The Enemy Personnel Exploitation Section established a detention center, DUSTBIN, first in Paris and later in
Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg (incorporated into Usingen in 1971), a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus mountains in the German state of Hesse. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearan ...
outside Frankfurt. The US
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
(JCS) established the first secret recruitment program, called Operation Overcast, on July 20, 1945, initially "to assist in shortening the
Japanese war and to aid our postwar military research". The term "Overcast" was the name first given by the German scientists' family members for the housing camp where they were held in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
.
[''Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War'', 1971, Clarence G. Lasby, ''et al.'' page 155] In late summer 1945, the JCS established the JIOA, a subcommittee of the Joint Intelligence Community, to directly oversee Operation Overcast and later Operation Paperclip. The JIOA representatives included the army's director of intelligence, the chief of naval intelligence, the assistant chief of Air Staff-2 (air force intelligence), and a representative from the
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
. In November 1945, Operation Overcast was renamed Operation Paperclip by
Ordnance Corps officers, who would attach a paperclip to the folders of those rocket experts whom they wished to employ in the United States.
The primary purpose for Operation Paperclip was U.S. military advantage in the Soviet–American
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and the
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
. The
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
responded by relocating more than 2,200 German specialists—a total of more than 6,000 people including family members—with
Operation Osoaviakhim
Operation Osoaviakhim ()
was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former Nazi German specialists
(; i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians who worked in specialist areas)
from companies and institutions relevant to military a ...
during one night on October 22, 1946.
In a secret directive circulated on September 3, 1946,
President Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
officially approved Operation Paperclip and expanded it to include 1,000 German scientists under "temporary, limited military custody".
[Lasby, page 177.]
Osenberg List
In the later part of World War II,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
was at a
logistical
Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
disadvantage, having failed to conquer the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
with
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
(June–December 1941), and its
drive for the Caucasus (June 1942–February 1943). The failed conquest had depleted German resources, and its
military–industrial complex
The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...
was unprepared to defend the
Greater Germanic Reich
The Greater Germanic Reich (german: Großgermanisches Reich), fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (german: Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation), was the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany ...
against the Red Army's westward counterattack. By early 1943, the German government began recalling from combat a number of scientists, engineers, and technicians; they returned to work in research and development to bolster German defense for a protracted war with the USSR. The recall from frontline combat included 4,000 rocketeers returned to
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...
, in northeast coastal Germany.
The
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government's recall of their now-useful intellectuals for scientific work first required identifying and locating the scientists, engineers, and technicians, then ascertaining their political and ideological reliability. Werner Osenberg, the engineer-scientist heading the ''Wehrforschungsgemeinschaft'' (Defense Research Association), recorded the names of the politically cleared men to the Osenberg List, thus reinstating them to scientific work.
In March 1945, at
Bonn University
The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...
, a Polish laboratory technician found pieces of the Osenberg List stuffed in a toilet; the list subsequently reached
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
, who transmitted it to U.S. Intelligence.
Then U.S. Army Major Robert B. Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the
United States Army Ordnance Corps
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...
, used the Osenberg List to compile his list of German scientists to be captured and interrogated;
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, Germany's premier rocket scientist, headed Major Staver's list.
Identification
![Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Bundesarchiv_Bild_141-1880%2C_Peenem%C3%BCnde%2C_Start_einer_V2.jpg)
In Operation Overcast, Major Staver's original intent was only to interview the scientists, but what he learned changed the operation's purpose. On May 22, 1945, he transmitted to the U.S. Pentagon headquarters Colonel Joel Holmes' telegram urging the evacuation of German scientists and their families, as most "important for
hePacific war
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
" effort.
Most of the Osenberg List engineers worked at the Baltic coast
German Army Research Center Peenemünde, developing the V-2 rocket. After capturing them, the Allies initially housed them and their families in
Landshut
Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...
, Bavaria, in southern Germany.
Beginning on July 19, 1945, the U.S. JCS managed the captured ARC rocketeers under Operation Overcast. However, when the "Camp Overcast" name of the scientists' quarters became locally known, the program was renamed Operation Paperclip in November 1945.
Despite these attempts at secrecy, the press interviewed several of the scientists later that year.
Capture and detention
![Germany occupation zones with border](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Germany_occupation_zones_with_border.jpg)
Early on, the United States created the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS). This provided the information on targets for the
T-Force
T-Force was the operational arm of a joint US Army–British Army mission to secure German scientific and industrial technology before it could be destroyed by retreating German forces or looters during the final stages of the Second World War an ...
s that went in and targeted scientific, military, and industrial installations (and their employees) for their know-how. Initial priorities were advanced technology, such as
infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
, that could be used in the war against Japan; finding out what technology had been passed on to Japan; and finally to halt the research.
A project to halt the research was codenamed "Project Safehaven", and it was not initially targeted against the Soviet Union; rather the concern was that German scientists might emigrate and continue their research in countries such as Spain, Argentina or Egypt, all of which had sympathized with Nazi Germany. In order to avoid the complications involved with the emigration of German scientists, the CIOS was responsible for scouting and kidnapping high-profile individuals to block technological advancements in nations outside of the US.
Much U.S. effort was focused on
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
and
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
, which by July 1, 1945, would become part of the Soviet Occupation zone. Many German research facilities and personnel had been evacuated to these states, particularly from the Berlin area. Fearing that the Soviet takeover would limit U.S. ability to exploit German scientific and technical expertise, and not wanting the Soviet Union to benefit from said expertise, the United States instigated an "evacuation operation" of scientific personnel from Saxony and Thuringia, issuing orders such as:
By 1947, this evacuation operation had netted an estimated 1,800 technicians and scientists, along with 3,700 family members. Those with special skills or knowledge were taken to detention and interrogation centers, such as at
Adlerhorst
The Adlerhorst ("Eagle's Nest") was a World War II bunker complex in Germany, located near Langenhain-Ziegenberg, the later settlement of Wiesental and Kransberg within the districts of Wetteraukreis and Hochtaunuskreis in the state of Hesse ...
, Germany or one code-named DUSTBIN (located first in Paris and then moved to
Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg (incorporated into Usingen in 1971), a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus mountains in the German state of Hesse. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearan ...
outside
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
) to be held and interrogated, in some cases for months.
A few of the scientists were gathered as a part of Operation Overcast, but most were transported to villages in the countryside where there were neither research facilities nor work; they were provided stipends and forced to report twice weekly to police headquarters to prevent them from leaving. The Joint Chiefs of Staff directive on research and teaching stated that technicians and scientists should be released "only after all interested agencies were satisfied that all desired intelligence information had been obtained from them".
On November 5, 1947, the
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS; german: Amt der Militärregierung für Deutschland (U.S.)) was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in Allied-occupied Germany, occup ...
(OMGUS), which had jurisdiction over the western part of occupied Germany, held a conference to consider the status of the evacuees, the monetary claims that the evacuees had filed against the United States, and the "possible violation by the US of laws of war or Rules of Land Warfare". The OMGUS director of Intelligence R. L. Walsh initiated a program to resettle the evacuees in the
Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
, which the Germans referred to as General Walsh's "Urwald-Programm" (jungle program); however, this program never matured. In 1948, the evacuees received settlements of 69.5 million Reichsmarks from the U.S., a settlement that soon became severely devalued during the currency reform that introduced the
Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...
as the official currency of western Germany.
John Gimbel concludes that the United States held some of Germany's best minds for three years, therefore depriving the German recovery of their expertise.
Arrivals
![Project Paperclip Team at Fort Bliss](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Project_Paperclip_Team_at_Fort_Bliss.jpg)
In May 1945, the U.S. Navy "received in custody"
Herbert A. Wagner Herbert Alois Wagner (22 May 1900 – 28 May 1982) was an Austrian scientist who developed numerous innovations in the fields of aerodynamics, aircraft structures and guided weapons. He is most famous for Wagner's function describing unsteady lift ...
, the inventor of the
Hs 293
The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or sink ...
missile; for two years, he first worked at the Special Devices Center, at Castle Gould and at Hempstead House, Long Island, New York; in 1947, he moved to the
Naval Air Station Point Mugu
Naval Air Station Point Mugu was a United States naval air station near Oxnard, California, which operated as an independent base from 1941 to 2000, when it merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base V ...
.
In August 1945, Colonel
Holger Toftoy
Major General Holger Nelson Toftoy (31 October 1902 – 19 April 1967) was a United States Army career officer instrumental to the development of the United States' early rocketry after World War II, such as the Redstone missile. He persuaded ...
, head of the Rocket Branch of the Research and Development Division of the U.S. Army's
Ordnance Corps, offered initial one-year contracts to the
rocket scientists
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
; 127 of them accepted. In September 1945, the first group of seven rocket scientists (aerospace engineers) arrived at
Fort Strong
Fort Strong is a former U.S. Army Coast Artillery fort that occupied the northern third of Long Island in Boston Harbor. The island had a training camp during the American Civil War, and a gun battery was built there in the 1870s. The fort was ...
, located on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
harbor:
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, Erich W. Neubert, Theodor A. Poppel,
William August Schulze
William August Schulze (November 23, 1905 – November 4, 2001) was a German-American rocket scientist and Operation Paperclip hire. After involvement with the development of numerous German rockets during World War II, he became one of the first ...
,
Eberhard Rees
Eberhard Friedrich Michael Rees (April 28, 1908 – April 2, 1998) was a German-American (by becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States) rocketry pioneer and the second director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Biography
Rees ...
, Wilhelm Jungert, and Walter Schwidetzky.
Beginning in late 1945, three rocket-scientist groups arrived in the United States for duty at
Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...
, Texas, and at
White Sands Proving Grounds
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
, as "War Department Special Employees".
In 1946, the
United States Bureau of Mines
For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral r ...
employed seven
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
synthetic fuel
Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reforming ...
scientists at a
Fischer–Tropsch chemical plant in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
.
On June 1, 1949, the
Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army
The Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army is a general officer who is responsible for the Army Ordnance Corps and serves as the Commandant of the U.S. Army Ordnance School at Fort Lee, Virginia. The Chief of Ordnance is primarily focused o ...
designated
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison f ...
in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...
, as the Ordnance Rocket Center, its facility for rocket research and development. On April 1, 1950, the Fort Bliss missile development operation—including von Braun and his team of over 130 Paperclip members—was transferred to
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison f ...
.
In early 1950, legal U.S. residency for some of the Project Paperclip specialists was effected through the U.S. consulate in
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez ( ; ''Juarez City''. ) is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is commonly referred to as Juárez and was known as El Paso del Norte (''The Pass of the North'') until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Ju ...
,
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to:
Places
*Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state
**Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state
**Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state
**Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state
**Chihuahua Mun ...
, Mexico; thus, German scientists legally entered the United States from Latin America.
Between 1945 and 1952, the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
sponsored the largest number of Paperclip scientists, importing 260 men, of whom 36 returned to Germany and one (
Walter Schreiber
Walter Paul Emil Schreiber (21 March 1893 – 5 September 1970) was a medical officer with the German Army in World War I and a brigadier-general (''Generalarzt'') of the Wehrmacht Medical Service during World War II. He would later serve as a ke ...
) reemigrated to Argentina.
Eighty-six aeronautical engineers were transferred to
Wright Field
Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility and, under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Loca ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, where the United States had Luftwaffe aircraft and equipment captured under
Operation Lusty
Operation LUSTY (LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY) was the United States Army Air Forces' effort to capture and evaluate German aeronautical technology during and after World War II.
Overview
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces Intelligence ...
(Luftwaffe Secret Technology).
The
United States Army Signal Corps
The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...
employed 24 specialists—including the physicists
Georg Goubau, Gunter Guttwein, Georg Hass, Horst Kedesdy, and
Kurt Lehovec
Kurt Lehovec (June 12, 1918 – February 17, 2012) was one of the pioneers of the integrated circuit. While also pioneering the photo-voltaic effect, light-emitting diodes and History of the battery#Invention, lithium batteries, he innovated ...
; the physical chemists Rudolf Brill, Ernst Baars, and Eberhard Both; the geophysicist Helmut Weickmann; the optician Gerhard Schwesinger; and the engineers Eduard Gerber, Richard Guenther, and
Hans Ziegler.
In 1959, 94 Operation Paperclip men went to the United States, including
Friedwardt Winterberg
Friedwardt Winterberg (born June 12, 1929) is a German-American theoretical physicist and was a research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is known for his research in areas spanning general relativity, Planck scale physics, nucle ...
and Friedrich Wigand.
Overall, through its operations to 1990, Operation Paperclip imported 1,600 men as part of the ''intellectual reparations'' owed to the US and the UK, valued at $10 billion in patents and industrial processes.
Major awards (in the United States)
The
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...
is the highest award which may be bestowed by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
(NASA). After more than two decades of service and leadership in NASA, four Operation Paperclip members were awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1969:
Kurt Debus
Kurt Heinrich Debus (November 29, 1908 – October 10, 1983) was a Nazi party member, rocket engineer, and NASA director. Born in Germany, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II, where he served as a V-weapons flight test d ...
,
Eberhard Rees
Eberhard Friedrich Michael Rees (April 28, 1908 – April 2, 1998) was a German-American (by becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States) rocketry pioneer and the second director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Biography
Rees ...
,
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who was a leader of the effort to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. After World War II, the United States Government's Office of Strategic Servic ...
, and
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
.
Ernst Geissler
Ernst Geissler (3 August 1915 in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany – 3 June 1989 in Huntsville, Alabama, United States) was a German-American aerospace engineer. After World War II, he came to the United States on 16 November 1945 as part of the Ar ...
was awarded the medal in 1973.
The
Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award
The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest civilian award given by the United States Department of Defense. This award and accompanying Distinguished Civilian Service Medal is the department's highest award given ...
is the highest civilian award given by the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
. After two decades of service, Operation Paperclip member
Siegfried Knemeyer
Siegfried Knemeyer (5 April 1909 – 11 April 1979) was a German aeronautical engineer, aviator and the Head of Technical Development at the Reich Ministry of Aviation of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Early career
Knemeyer attended t ...
was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1966.
The Goddard Astronautics Award is the highest honor bestowed for notable achievements in the field of astronautics by the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...
(AIAA). For their service, three Operation Paperclip members were awarded the Goddard Astronautics Award: Wernher von Braun (1961),
Hans von Ohain
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 191113 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine. Together with Frank Whittle he is called the "father of the jet engine". His first test unit ran ...
(1966), and
Krafft Arnold Ehricke
Krafft Arnold Ehricke (March 24, 1917 – December 11, 1984) was a German rocket-propulsion engineer and advocate for space colonization.
Biography
Born in Berlin, Ehricke believed in the feasibility of space travel from a very young age, ...
(1984).
The
U.S. Space & Rocket Center in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...
, owns and operates the
U.S. Space Camp
Space Camp is an educational camp in Huntsville, Alabama, on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It provides residential and educational programs for children and adults on themes such as ...
. Several Operation Paperclip members are members of the Space Camp Hall of Fame (which began in 2007): Wernher von Braun (2007),
Georg von Tiesenhausen
Georg Heinrich Patrick Baron von Tiesenhausen (May 18, 1914 – June 4, 2018) was a Baltic-German-born American rocket scientist.
After being brought to the United States in 1953 as part of Operation Paperclip, he was part of Wernher von Braun ...
(2007), and
Oscar Holderer
Oscar Carl Holderer (November 4, 1919 – May 5, 2015) was an engineer who worked for Nazi Germany during World War II before coming to the United States and working in the Apollo space program.
Early life
Oscar Carl Holderer was born on Novemb ...
(2008).
The
New Mexico Museum of Space History
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of Spa ...
includes the International Space Hall of Fame. Two Operation Paperclip members are members of the International Space Hall of Fame: Wernher von Braun (1976) and
Ernst Steinhoff
Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff (February 11, 1908 – December 2, 1987) was a rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at the Peenemünde Army Research Center (1939–1945). Ernst Steinhoff saw National Socialist (Nazi) d ...
(1979).
Hubertus Strughold
Hubertus Strughold (June 15, 1898 – September 25, 1986) was a German-born physiologist and prominent medical researcher. Beginning in 1935 he served as chief of aeromedical research for Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation, holding this posi ...
was inducted in 1978 but removed as a member in 2006. Other closely related members include
Willy Ley
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
(1976), a German-American science writer, and
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth (; 25 June 1894 – 28 December 1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Ts ...
(1976), a German scientist who advised von Braun's rocket team in the U.S. from 1955 to 1958.
Two lunar craters are named after Paperclip scientists:
Debus Debus is a French name in origin. It is commonly used as a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Allen G. Debus (1926–2009), American historian of science
* Bob Debus (born 1943), Australian politician
* Jon Debus (born 1958), play ...
after
Kurt Debus
Kurt Heinrich Debus (November 29, 1908 – October 10, 1983) was a Nazi party member, rocket engineer, and NASA director. Born in Germany, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II, where he served as a V-weapons flight test d ...
, the first director of NASA's
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
, and
von Braun.
Scientific accomplishments
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
was chief architect of the
Saturn V
Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...
launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...
, which enabled human missions to the moon.
Adolf Busemann
Adolf Busemann (20 April 1901 – 3 November 1986) was a German aerospace engineer and influential Nazi-era pioneer in aerodynamics, specialising in supersonic airflows. He introduced the concept of swept wings and, after emigrating in 1947 to t ...
was responsible for the
swept wing
A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction.
Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...
, which improved aircraft performance at high speeds.
Controversy and investigations
Before his official approval of the program,
President Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, for sixteen months, was indecisive on the program.
Years later in 1963, Truman recalled that he was not in the least reluctant to approve Paperclip; that because of relations with the Soviet Union "this had to be done and was done".
Several of the Paperclip scientists were later investigated because of their links with the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
during the war. Only one Paperclip scientist,
Georg Rickhey
Georg Johannes Rickhey (25 August 1898, Hildesheim – 1966) was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau.
Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050 ...
, was formally tried for any crime, and no Paperclip scientist was found guilty of any crime, in the United States or Germany. Rickhey was returned to Germany in 1947 to stand at the
Dora Trial
The Dora Trial, also the "Dora"-Nordhausen or Dachau Dora Proceeding (german: Dachau-Dora Prozess) was a war crimes trial conducted by the United States Army in the aftermath of the collapse of the Third Reich. It took place between August 7 and ...
, where he was acquitted.
In 1951, weeks after his U.S. arrival,
Walter Schreiber
Walter Paul Emil Schreiber (21 March 1893 – 5 September 1970) was a medical officer with the German Army in World War I and a brigadier-general (''Generalarzt'') of the Wehrmacht Medical Service during World War II. He would later serve as a ke ...
was linked by the ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' to human experiments conducted by
Kurt Blome
Kurt Blome (31 January 1894 – 10 October 1969) was a high-ranking Nazi scientist before and during World War II. He was the Deputy Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Co ...
at
Ravensbrück, and he emigrated to Argentina with the aid of the U.S. military.
In 1984,
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who was a leader of the effort to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. After World War II, the United States Government's Office of Strategic Servic ...
, under perceived threat of prosecution relating to his connection – as operations director for V-2 missile production – to the use of
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
from
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour ...
at the
Mittelwerk
Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...
, renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to West Germany, which granted him citizenship.
For 50 years, from 1963 to 2013, the Strughold Award – named after
Hubertus Strughold
Hubertus Strughold (June 15, 1898 – September 25, 1986) was a German-born physiologist and prominent medical researcher. Beginning in 1935 he served as chief of aeromedical research for Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation, holding this posi ...
,
''The Father of Space Medicine'', for his central role in developing innovations like the
space suit
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...
and
space life support systems – was the most prestigious award from the Space Medicine Association, a member organization of the
Aerospace Medical Association
The Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) is the largest professional organization in the fields of aviation, space, and environmental medicine. The AsMA membership includes aerospace and hyperbaric medical specialists, scientists, flight nurses, p ...
.
On October 1, 2013, in the aftermath of a ''Wall Street Journal'' article published on December 1, 2012, which highlighted his connection to human experiments during WW2, the Space Medicine Association's Executive Committee announced that the Space Medicine Association Strughold Award had been retired.
Key recruits
; Advisors brought into the United States
:
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth (; 25 June 1894 – 28 December 1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Ts ...
;
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...
and
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
ry
:
Hans Amtmann
Hans H. Amtmann (1906–2007) was a German aircraft designer.
He is best known for his work at Blohm & Voss, where he worked as Head of New Projects under Chief Designer Richard Vogt during the World War II era. After the war, he moved the United ...
:
Herbert Axster
: Erich Ball
: Oscar Bauschinger
: Hermann Beduerftig
: Rudi Beichel
: Anton Beier
: Herbert Bergeler
:
Magnus von Braun
Magnus "Mac" Freiherr von Braun (10 May 1919 – 21 June 2003) was a German chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, rocket scientist and business executive. In his 20s he worked as a rocket scientist at Peenemünde and the Mittelwerk.
At age 26, ...
:
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
:
Ernst Czerlinsky
:
: Walter Burose
:
Adolf Busemann
Adolf Busemann (20 April 1901 – 3 November 1986) was a German aerospace engineer and influential Nazi-era pioneer in aerodynamics, specialising in supersonic airflows. He introduced the concept of swept wings and, after emigrating in 1947 to t ...
: GN Constan
:
Werner Dahm
Werner Karl Dahm (February 16, 1917 in Lindenthal, Germany – January 17, 2008 in Huntsville, Alabama) was an early spaceflight scientist of the Peenemünde Future Projects Office who emigrated to the US under Operation Paperclip and was the ...
:
Konrad Dannenberg
Konrad Dannenberg (August 5, 1912 – February 16, 2009) was a German-American rocket pioneer and member of the German rocket team brought to the United States after World War II.
Early years
Dannenberg was born in Weißenfels, Province of ...
:
Kurt H. Debus
Kurt Heinrich Debus (November 29, 1908 – October 10, 1983) was a Nazi party member, rocket engineer, and NASA director. Born in Germany, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II, where he served as a V-weapons flight test d ...
: Gerd De Beek
:
Walter Dornberger
Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger (6 September 1895 – 26 June 1980) was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects a ...
- head of rocket programme
: Gerhard Drawe
: Friedrich Duerr
:
Ernst R. G. Eckert
Ernst Rudolph Georg Eckert (September 13, 1904 – July 8, 2004) was an Austrian American engineer and scientist who advanced the film cooling technique for aeronautical engines. He earned his Diplom Ingenieur and doctorate in 1927 and 1931, respe ...
: Rudolph Edse
: Otto Eisenhardt
:
Krafft Arnold Ehricke
Krafft Arnold Ehricke (March 24, 1917 – December 11, 1984) was a German rocket-propulsion engineer and advocate for space colonization.
Biography
Born in Berlin, Ehricke believed in the feasibility of space travel from a very young age, ...
: Alfred Finzel
: Edward Fischel
: Karl Fleischer
:
Anton Flettner
Anton Flettner (November 1, 1885 – December 29, 1961) was a German aviation engineer and inventor. Born in Eddersheim (today a district of Hattersheim am Main), Flettner made important contributions to airplane, helicopter, vessel, and automo ...
:
Anselm Franz Anselm Franz (January 20, 1900—November 18, 1994) was a pioneering Austrian jet engine engineer known for the development of the Jumo 004, the world's first mass-produced turbojet engine by Nazi Germany during World War II, and his work on turbosh ...
: Herbert Fuhrmann
:
Ernst Geissler
Ernst Geissler (3 August 1915 in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany – 3 June 1989 in Huntsville, Alabama, United States) was a German-American aerospace engineer. After World War II, he came to the United States on 16 November 1945 as part of the Ar ...
: Werner Gengelbach
:
Dieter Grau
Dieter Grau (April 24, 1913 – December 17, 2014) was a German-born American aerospace engineer and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at Peenemünde (1939–1945) working on the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was among the engineers who ...
: Hans Gruene
: Herbert Guendel
: Fritz Haber
:
Heinz Haber
Heinz Haber (May 15, 1913 in Mannheim – February 13, 1990 in Hamburg) was a German physicist and science writer who primarily became known for his TV programs and books about physics and environmental subjects. His lucid style of explaining ...
: Karl Hager
: Guenther Haukohl
:
Karl Heimburg
Karl Ludwig Heimburg (January 29, 1910 - January 26, 1997) was a German-American engineer and Operation Paperclip hire. Heimburg was a member of the " von Braun rocket team" and served as the initial director of the Test Division at the Marshall ...
: Emil Hellebrand
:
Gerhard B. Heller
Gerhard B. Heller (January 24, 1914 - October 1, 1972) was a German-American rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket team." He worked at Peenemünde Army Research Center during World War II and later, through Operation Paperclip, mo ...
: Bruno Helm
: Rudolf Hermann
: Bruno Heusinger
: Hans Heuter
: Guenther Hintze
:
Sighard F. Hoerner Dr. Sighard F. Hoerner (born 18 April 1906, Münster, Germany — d. 22 June 1971, Brick Town, USA) was an important figure in the aerodynamics field and is known worldwide for his two compendiums of aerodynamic knowledge, ''Fluid-Dynamic Drag'' a ...
:
Kurt Hohenemser
Kurt Heinrich Hohenemser (January 3, 1906 – April 7, 2001) was a German-born American aerospace engineer and pioneer in the field of helicopter design.
Life in Germany
Kurt Hohenemser was born on January 3, 1906, in Berlin, Germany, to the Germ ...
:
Oscar Holderer
Oscar Carl Holderer (November 4, 1919 – May 5, 2015) was an engineer who worked for Nazi Germany during World War II before coming to the United States and working in the Apollo space program.
Early life
Oscar Carl Holderer was born on Novemb ...
:
Helmut Horn
:
: Dieter Huzel
:
Walter Jacobi
: Erich Kaschig
: Ernst Klauss
: Theodore Knacke
:
Siegfried Knemeyer
Siegfried Knemeyer (5 April 1909 – 11 April 1979) was a German aeronautical engineer, aviator and the Head of Technical Development at the Reich Ministry of Aviation of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Early career
Knemeyer attended t ...
:
Heinz-Hermann Koelle Heinz-Hermann Koelle (22 July 1925, in Danzig, Free City of Danzig – 20 February 2011, in Berlin, Germany) was an aeronautical engineer who made the preliminary designs on the rocket that would emerge as the Saturn I. Closely associated wi ...
: Gustav Kroll
: Willi Kuberg
:
Werner Kuers
Werner Richard Kuers (April 18, 1907 - May 14, 1983) was a German-American engineer and expert in guided missiles. Kuers worked at Peenemünde Army Research Center in manufacturing and later, as part of the "Wernher von Braun, von Braun rocket gr ...
: Hermann Kurzweg
: Hermann Lange
: Hans Lindenberg
: Hans Lindenmayer
:
Alexander Martin Lippisch - aeronautical engineer
:
Robert Lusser Robert Lusser (19 April 1899 – 19 January 1969) was a German engineer, aircraft designer and aviator. He is remembered both for several well-known Messerschmitt and Heinkel designs during World War II, and after the war for his theoretical study o ...
: Hans Maus
: Helmut Merk
: Joseph Michel
: Hans Milde
: Heinz Millinger
: Rudolf Minning
:
William Mrazek
William "Willi" Mrazek (October 20, 1911 - February 8, 1992) was a German-American loads engineer and member of the " von Braun rocket group." Mrazek worked first at Peenemünde Army Research Center and later, through Operation Paperclip, at Fort ...
:
Hans Multhopp
Hans Multhopp (17 May 1913 – 30 October 1972) was a German aeronautical engineer/designer. Receiving a degree from the University of Göttingen, Multhopp worked with the famous designer Kurt Tank at the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG during World ...
: Erich Neubert
:
Hans von Ohain
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 191113 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine. Together with Frank Whittle he is called the "father of the jet engine". His first test unit ran ...
(designer of German jet engines)
: Robert Paetz
: Hans Palaoro
: Kurt Patt
: Hans Paul
: Fritz Pauli
: Arnold Peter
: Helmuth Pfaff
: Theodor Poppel
:
Georg Rickhey
Georg Johannes Rickhey (25 August 1898, Hildesheim – 1966) was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau.
Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050 ...
: Werner Rosinski
: Heinrich Rothe
:
Ludwig Roth
Ludwig Roth (June 10, 1909 – November 1, 1967) was the Aerospace engineer who was the head of the Peenemünde Future Projects Office
which designed the Wasserfall
and created advanced rockets designs such as the A9/A10 ICBM.
Roth ar ...
:
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who was a leader of the effort to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. After World War II, the United States Government's Office of Strategic Servic ...
:
: Edgar Schaeffer
: Martin Schilling
: Helmut Schlitt
: Albert Schuler
: August Schulze
: Walter Schwidetzky
:
Ernst Steinhoff
Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff (February 11, 1908 – December 2, 1987) was a rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at the Peenemünde Army Research Center (1939–1945). Ernst Steinhoff saw National Socialist (Nazi) d ...
: Wolfgang Steurer
:
Heinrich Struck
Heinrich Georg "Heinz" Struck (December 3, 1925 - March 11, 2020) was a German-American rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket team." Struck worked in aerodynamics in both the private and federal sectors, particularly NASA, where h ...
:
Ernst Stuhlinger
Ernst Stuhlinger (December 19, 1913 – May 25, 2008) was a German-American atomic, electrical, and rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, he developed guidance systems with Wernher von Braun's t ...
:
Bernhard Tessmann
Bernhard Robert Tessmann (August 15, 1912 in Zingst – December 19, 1998) was a German expert in guided missiles during World War II, and later worked for the United States Army and NASA.
Life
Tessmann first met rocket expert Wernher von Braun i ...
:
Adolf Thiel
Adolf Karl Thiel (also spelled Adolph; February 12, 1915 – June 2, 2001 Los Angeles) was an Austrian-born German expert in guided missiles during World War II, and later worked for the United States Army and TRW.
Thiel had been an associate pr ...
:
Georg von Tiesenhausen
Georg Heinrich Patrick Baron von Tiesenhausen (May 18, 1914 – June 4, 2018) was a Baltic-German-born American rocket scientist.
After being brought to the United States in 1953 as part of Operation Paperclip, he was part of Wernher von Braun ...
: Werner Tiller
: JG Tschinkel
: Arthur Urbanski
: Fritz Vandersee
:
Richard Vogt
: Woldemar Voigt (designer of
Messerschmitt P.1101
The Messerschmitt P.1101 was a single-seat, single- jet fighter project of World War II, developed as part of the 15 July 1944 Emergency Fighter Program which sought a second generation of jet fighters for the Third Reich. A prominent feature ...
)
: Werner Voss
: Theodor Vowe
:
Herbert A. Wagner Herbert Alois Wagner (22 May 1900 – 28 May 1982) was an Austrian scientist who developed numerous innovations in the fields of aerodynamics, aircraft structures and guided weapons. He is most famous for Wagner's function describing unsteady lift ...
: Hermann Rudolf Wagner
: Hermann Weidner
: Walter Fritz Wiesemann
: Philipp Wolfgang Zettler-Seidel.
(see
List of German rocket scientists in the US
The following lists contain names of engineers, scientists and technicians specializing in rocketry who originally came from Germany but spent most of their careers working for the NASA space program in Huntsville, Alabama.
Particularly after Worl ...
).
;
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
:
Heinz Hilten
Heinz Hilten (April 29, 1909 – March 3, 2013) was a German-American architect and member of the " von Braun rocket team." He was a later Operation Paperclip hire and was involved in the design of numerous buildings in Space Age-era Huntsville, ...
and Hannes Luehrsen.
;
Electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
- including
guidance systems
A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in po ...
,
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
and
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
:
:
: Josef Boehm
:
Hans Fichtner
: Hans Friedrich
: Eduard Gerber
:
Georg Goubau
:
Walter Haeussermann
Walter Haeussermann (also spelled Häussermann; March 2, 1914 – December 8, 2010) was a German-American aerospace engineer and member of the " von Braun rocket group", both at Peenemünde and later at Marshall Space Flight Center, where he was ...
:
Otto Heinrich Hirschler
: Otto Hoberg
: Rudolf Hoelker
:
Hans Hollmann
Hans Erich (Eric) Hollmann (4 November 1899 – 19 November 1960) was a German electronic specialist who made several breakthroughs in the development of radar.
Hollmann was born in Solingen, Germany. He became interested in radio and even as ...
:
Helmut Hölzer )
, image = File:HolzerHelmut Huntsville.jpg
, image_size = 100px
, caption = Helmut Hölzer in Huntsville, Alabama
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bad Liebenstein, Thüringen, German Empire
, death_date =
, death_place = Huntsville, Alabam ...
: Horst Kedesdy
:
Kurt Lehovec
Kurt Lehovec (June 12, 1918 – February 17, 2012) was one of the pioneers of the integrated circuit. While also pioneering the photo-voltaic effect, light-emitting diodes and History of the battery#Invention, lithium batteries, he innovated ...
: Kurt Lindner
: JW Muehlner
:
Fritz Mueller
Fritz K. Mueller (1907 – 2001 Huntsville, Alabama, USA) was a German engineer.
Mueller was hired by Kreiselgeräte Company in 1933. He developed the PIGA accelerometer. and worked on gyroscopes for Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. Later on ...
:
Johannes Plendl
Johannes "Hans" Plendl (6 December 1900 – 10 May 1991), German radar pioneer, was the scientist whose airplane navigation inventions made possible the early German bombing successes in World War II.
Early life
Plendl was born in 1900 in Munich, ...
:
Fritz Karl Preikschat
Fritz Karl Preikschat (September 11, 1910 – September 2, 1994) was a German, later American, electrical and telecommunications engineer and inventor. He had more than three German patents and more than 23 U.S. patents, including a dot matrix te ...
:
Eberhard Rees
Eberhard Friedrich Michael Rees (April 28, 1908 – April 2, 1998) was a German-American (by becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States) rocketry pioneer and the second director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Biography
Rees ...
:
Gerhard Reisig
Gerhard Herbert Richard Reisig (March 3, 1910 - March 9, 2005) was a German-American engineer and rocket scientist. He worked at the Peenemünde Army Research Center during World War II and later, through Operation Paperclip, at the Marshall Spa ...
: Harry Ruppe
:
Heinz Schlicke
Heinz Schlicke (December 13, 1912 – April 18, 2006), German-born engineer and author, an Operation Paperclip scientist, and engineer at the Allen-Bradley Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He received both his Master's and Doctor's degrees in engineer ...
: Werner Sieber
: Othmar Stuetzer
: Albin Wittmann
: Hugo Woerdemann
: Albert Zeiler
:
Hans K. Ziegler
Hans K. Ziegler (March 1, 1911, Munich, Germany – December 11, 1999 Colts Neck Township, New Jersey, United States) was a pioneer in the field of communication satellites and the use of photovoltaic solar cells as a power source for satel ...
;
Material Science (high temperature)
: Klaus Scheufelen and Rudolf Schlidt.
;
Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
– including
biological weapons
A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...
,
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized Ammunition, munition that uses chemicals chemical engineering, formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be an ...
, and
space medicine
Space medicine is the practice of medicine on astronauts in outer space whereas astronautical hygiene is the application of science and technology to the prevention or control of exposure to the hazards that may cause astronaut ill health. Both ...
: ,
Kurt Blome
Kurt Blome (31 January 1894 – 10 October 1969) was a high-ranking Nazi scientist before and during World War II. He was the Deputy Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Co ...
, ,
Konrad Johannes Karl Büttner,
Fritz Laves
Fritz Henning Emil Paul Berndt Laves (27 February 1906 – 12 August 1978) was a German crystallographer who served as the president of the German Mineralogical Society from 1956 to 1958. He is the namesake of Laves phases and the Laves tilings; ...
,
Richard Lindenberg
Richard Lindenberg (1911-1992) was a physician and pathologist, a Luftwaffe Captain during World War II, later Chief Neuropathologist of the State of Maryland. He testified before the Rockefeller Commission on the death of President John F. Kennedy ...
, ,
Walter Schreiber
Walter Paul Emil Schreiber (21 March 1893 – 5 September 1970) was a medical officer with the German Army in World War I and a brigadier-general (''Generalarzt'') of the Wehrmacht Medical Service during World War II. He would later serve as a ke ...
,
Hubertus Strughold
Hubertus Strughold (June 15, 1898 – September 25, 1986) was a German-born physiologist and prominent medical researcher. Beginning in 1935 he served as chief of aeromedical research for Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation, holding this posi ...
, Hans Georg Clamann, and
Erich Traub
Erich Traub (27 June 1906 – 18 May 1985) was a German veterinarian, scientist and virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease. Traub was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), a Nazi ...
.
;
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
: Gunter Guttein, Gerhard Schwesinger, Gottfried Wehner, Helmut Weickmann, and
Friedwardt Winterberg
Friedwardt Winterberg (born June 12, 1929) is a German-American theoretical physicist and was a research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is known for his research in areas spanning general relativity, Planck scale physics, nucle ...
.
;
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
and
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
: Helmut Pichler, Leonard Alberts, Ernst Donath, Josef Guymer, Hans Schappert, Max Josenhaus, Kurt Bretschneider, Erich Frese
Similar operations
*APPLEPIE: Project to capture and interrogate key Wehrmacht,
RSHA
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...
AMT VI, and General Staff officers knowledgeable of the industry and economy of the USSR.
*DUSTBIN (counterpart of
ASHCAN): An Anglo-American military intelligence operation established first in Paris, then in
Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg (incorporated into Usingen in 1971), a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus mountains in the German state of Hesse. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearan ...
, at Frankfurt.
*ECLIPSE (1944): An unimplemented Air Disarmament Wing plan for post-war operations in Europe for destroying
V-1 V1, V01 or V-1 can refer to version one (for anything) (e.g., see version control)
V1, V01 or V-1 may also refer to:
In aircraft
* V-1 flying bomb, a World War II German weapon
* V1 speed, the maximum speed at which an aircraft pilot may abort ...
and
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...
missiles.
**Safehaven: US project within ECLIPSE meant to prevent the escape of Nazi scientists from Allied-occupied Germany.
*
Field Information Agency, Technical The Field Information Agency, Technical (FIAT) was a US Army agency for securing the "major, and perhaps only, material reward of victory, namely, the advancement of science and the improvement of production and standards of living in the United Nat ...
(FIAT): US Army agency for securing the "major, and perhaps only, material reward of victory, namely, the advancement of science and the improvement of production and standards of living in the United Nations, by proper exploitation of German methods in these fields"; FIAT ended in 1947, when ''Operation Paperclip'' began functioning.
*On April 26, 1946, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued directive
JCS 1067/14 to General Eisenhower instructing that he "preserve from destruction and
take under your control records, plans, books, documents, papers, files and scientific, industrial and other information and data belonging to ... German organizations engaged in military research";
and that, excepting
war-criminals, German scientists be detained for intelligence purposes as required.
[ Much of the FIAT information was adapted commercially, to the degree that the office of the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas requested that the peace treaty with Germany be redacted to protect US industry from lawsuits.]
*National Interest/Project 63: Job placement assistance for Nazi engineers at Lockheed, Martin Marietta, North American Aviation, and other aeroplane companies, whilst American aerospace engineers were being laid off work.
*
Alsos Mission
The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II. Its chief focus was on the German nuclear energy pro ...
,
Operation Big
Operation Big was an operation of the Alsos Mission, the Allied seizure of facilities, materiel, and personnel related to the German nuclear weapon project during World War II. It was tasked with sweeping several targeted towns in the area of sout ...
,
Operation Epsilon
Operation Epsilon was the codename of a program in which Allied forces near the end of World War II detained ten German scientists who were thought to have worked on Nazi Germany's nuclear program. The scientists were captured between May 1 and ...
,
Russian Alsos
The Soviet Alsos or Russian Alsos is the western codename for an operation that took place during 19451946 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, in order to exploit German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, material resource ...
: American, British and Soviet efforts to capture German
nuclear
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
* Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear space
*Nuclear ...
secrets, equipment, and personnel.
*
Operation Backfire: A British effort at recovering rocket and aerospace technology, followed by assembling and testing rockets at
Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...
.
*
Fedden Mission
The Fedden Mission was a British scientific mission sent by the Ministry of Aircraft Production to Germany at the end of the Second World War in Europe, to gather technical intelligence about German aircraft and aeroengines. It was named for the ...
: British mission to gain technical intelligence concerning advanced German aircraft and their propulsion systems.
*
Operation Lusty
Operation LUSTY (LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY) was the United States Army Air Forces' effort to capture and evaluate German aeronautical technology during and after World War II.
Overview
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces Intelligence ...
: US efforts to capture German aeronautical equipment, technology, and personnel.
*
Operation Osoaviakhim
Operation Osoaviakhim ()
was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former Nazi German specialists
(; i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians who worked in specialist areas)
from companies and institutions relevant to military a ...
(sometimes transliterated as "Operation Ossavakim"), a Soviet counterpart of Operation Paperclip, involving German technicians, managers, skilled workers and their respective families who were relocated to the USSR in October 1946.
*
Operation Surgeon Operation Surgeon was a British post-Second World War programme to exploit German aeronautics and deny German technical skills to the Soviet Union.
A list of 1,500 German scientists and technicians was created, with the goal of forcibly removing th ...
: British operation for denying German aeronautical expertise to the USSR, and for exploiting German scientists in furthering British research.
*Special Mission V-2: April–May 1945 US operation, by Maj. William Bromley, that recovered parts and equipment for 100 V-2 missiles from a
Mittelwerk
Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...
underground factory in
Kohnstein
The Kohnstein is a hill in Thuringia, Germany, 2 kilometres southwest of the village of Niedersachswerfen and 3 kilometres northwest of the centre of the town of Nordhausen. Gypsum mining created tunnels in the hill that were later used as a fu ...
within the Soviet zone. Major James P. Hamill co-ordinated the transport of the equipment on 341 railroad cars with the 144th Motor Vehicle Assembly Company, from
Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to:
* Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany
** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district
**Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city
* Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen)
* Narost ...
to Erfurt, just before the Soviets arrived.
(See also
Operation Blossom,
Project Hermes, and
Operation Sandy
Operation Sandy was the codename for the post-World War II launch of a captured V-2 rocket from the deck of the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS ''Midway'' on September 6, 1947. It marked the first launch of a large rocket, and the only tim ...
)
*
TICOM
TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee) was a secret Allied project formed in World War II to find and seize German intelligence assets, particularly in the field of cryptology and signals intelligence.
It operated alongside other Western Allied ef ...
: US project to exploit German
cryptographers
This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries.
Pre twentieth century
* Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...
.
See also
*
American cover-up of Japanese war crimes The occupying US government undertook the cover-up of Japanese war crimes after the end of World War II, granting political immunity to military personnel who had engaged in human experimentation and other crimes against humanity, predominantly in ...
*
Brain drain
*
Carmel Offie
Carmel Offie (September 22, 1909 – June 18, 1972) was a U.S. State Department and later a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official. He was dismissed from the CIA in 1950 after an arrest a few years earlier brought his homosexuality to the atte ...
*
List of Axis personnel indicted for war crimes
The following is a list of people who were formally indicted for committing war crimes on behalf of the Axis powers during World War II, including those who were acquitted or never received judgment. It does not include people who may have commi ...
*
Operation Bloodstone
Operation Bloodstone was a covert operation whereby the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sought out Nazis and collaborators living in Soviet-controlled areas, to work undercover for U.S. intelligence inside of the Soviet Union, Latin America, an ...
*
Project MKNAOMI
MKNAOMI is the code name for a joint Department of Defense/CIA research program from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Unclassified information about the MKNAOMI program and the related Special Operations Division is scarce. It is generally reported ...
*
Ratlines (World War II)
Ratlines (german: Rattenlinien) were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe in the aftermath of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in Latin America, particularly Argentina, though also ...
*
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentatio ...
– Japanese human experimenters who were recruited for their biological weapons technology
*
Upper Atmosphere Research Panel The Upper Atmosphere Research Panel, also known as the V-2 Panel, was formed in 1946 to oversee experiments conducted using V-2 rockets brought to the United States after World War II. The experiments studied the upper atmosphere, solar radiation ...
In fiction:
*''
Dr. Strangelove
''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and t ...
'' – a 1964 movie where the title character was said to have been brought to the USA via Operation Paperclip
*''
Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' – a 2014 movie in which an antagonist character was said to have been brought to the USA via Operation Paperclip
*''
Moonglow'' – a 2016 novel which features a subplot which is based on Operation Paperclip
Notes
References
*Yves Beon, ''Planet Dora''. Westview Press, 1997. .
*Giuseppe Ciampaglia: "Come ebbe effettivo inizio a Roma l'Operazione Paperclip". Roma 2005. In: Strenna dei Romanisti 2005. Edit. Roma Amor
*Henry Stevens, ''Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science and Technology.'' Adventures Unlimited Press, 2007.
*John Gimbel, "''Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany''"
Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...
, 1990
*
Linda Hunt
Lydia Susanna "Linda" Hunt (born April 2, 1945) is an American actress of stage and screen.
She made her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in ''Popeye'' (1980). Hunt portrayed the male character Billy Kwan in '' The Year of Living Dangerously'' ...
,
Arthur Rudolph of Dora and NASA', Moment 4, 1987 (Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)
*Linda Hunt, ''Secret Agenda:The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990.'' St Martin's Press – Thomas Dunne Books, 1991.
*Linda Hunt
U.S. Coverup of Nazi ScientistsThe Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
April 1985.
*Matthias Judt; Burghard Ciesla, ''Technology Transfer Out of Germany After 1945'' Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996.
*Michael C. Carroll, ''Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory.'' Harper Paperbacks
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
, 2005.
*John Gimbel "
U.S. Policy and German Scientists: The Early Cold War''"
Political Science Quarterly
''Political Science Quarterly'' is an American double blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering government, politics, and policy, published since 1886 by the Academy of Political Science. Its editor-in-chief is Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia Uni ...
, Volume 101, Number 3 (1986), pages 433–51
*Clarence G., Lasby ''Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War'' Scribner (February 1975)
*Christopher Simpson, ''Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War'' (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld a ...
, 1988)
*Wolfgang W. E. Samuel ''American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets'' (University Press of Mississippi
The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi.
Universities
* Alcorn State University
*Delta State University
*Jackson State University
*Mississippi State U ...
, 2004)
*Koerner, Steven T
"Technology Transfer from Germany to Canada after 1945: A Study in Failure?"
''Comparative Technology Transfer and Society'', Volume 2, Number 1, April 2004, pp. 99–124
*John Farquharso
"Governed or Exploited? The British Acquisition of German Technology, 1945–48"
''Journal of Contemporary History'', Volume 32, Number 1 (January 1997), pp. 23–42
1995 Human Radiation Experiments Memorandum: Post-World War II Reccruitment of German Scientists – Project ''Paperclip''
UK National archives releases March 2006.
*
Dr. Wernher von Braun First Center Director, July 1, 1960 – Jan. 27, 1970.
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center History Office. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
Further reading
*
*Brian E. Crim. 2018. ''Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State''. Johns Hopkins University Press.
*Laney, Monique (2015). ''German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
*
Eric Lichtblau
Eric Lichtblau (born 1965) is an American journalist, reporting for ''The New York Times'' in the Washington bureau, as well as the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Time'' magazine, ''The New Yorker'', and the CNN network's investigative news unit. He ha ...
(2014).
The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men.''
Mariner Books
Mariner Books, originally an imprint of HMH Books, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in trade paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcou ...
.
*Simpson, Christopher (1988). ''Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War.'' New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
External links
*
In Cold War, U.S. Spy Agencies Used 1,000 Nazis Eric Lichtblau for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
.'' October 26, 2014.
The Nazis Next Door: Eric Lichtblau on how the CIA & FBI Secretly Sheltered Nazi War Criminals– video report by ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'', October 31, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paperclip, Operation
Operation Paperclip
Brain drain
Aftermath of World War II in the United States
Allied occupation of Germany
Cold War history of the United States
German-American history
Office of Strategic Services
Research and development in Nazi Germany
Science and technology during World War II
Science in Nazi Germany
United States intelligence operations
World War II operations and battles of Europe
Wernher von Braun
American secret government programs