The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War

By Dennis Piszkiewicz

Book Overview

Wernher von Braun is known to many as a brilliant pioneer of rocketry who left Germany in 1945 to become a key advisor in America's space program. Until now, few realize the bloody legacy he left behind. The Nazi Rocketeers tells the story of how von Braun and his fellow scientists abandoned their initial dreams of space exploration in favor of creating the devastating V-2 ballistic missile. This weapon enabled the Nazis to precipitate mass destruction and loss of life. Contrary to previous accounts, this history proves that von Braun and his colleagues were not forced under duress to turn their rockets into weapons of war. They were, in fact, highly ambitious members of the Nazi movement who willingly put their creation to lethal use. In return, honors were bestowed on them from the Third Reich and Hitler himself. Perhaps the most shocking revelation is the collaboration between the scientists and the SS in the exploitation of concentration camp slave labor for the building of the V-2 missiles. In addition to addressing an overlooked portion of World War II study, this book is a sobering testament to the consequences of corrupted genius.

In the late 1920s, Herman Oberth, an early theoretician of space travel, told the world of his plan for using liquid-fueled rockets as vehicles for space travel. To his surprise and delight, he found himself with a group of young German disciples, prominent among them Wernher von Braun, who wanted to turn this dream into reality. During the years of the Third Reich, with von Braun as their technical leader, these men developed the first modern rockets and attended at the birth of the Space Age. Although von Braun and his fellow rocket scientists dreamed of exploring space, they readily embraced the goal of creating weapons of terror and mass destruction. The myth they encouraged after the war described them as brilliant visionaries whose genius was exploited by the Nazi regime. Now, 50 years later, The Nazi Rocketeers tells the true story of how these men enthusiastically participated in the Nazi cause and crimes.

The Nazi Rocketeers describes how Hermann Oberth, Wernher von Braun, and their colleagues progressed, from the innocent dream of space travel, through the development of the V-2 ballistic missile, to the transfer of their technological legacy to the Americans. Other notable Nazi Rocketeers are Army General Walter Dornberger, career soldier and von Braun's mentor; Albert Speer, technocrat and advocate of the rocket as a weapon; and SS General Hans Kammler, architect of Auschwitz and director of the V-2 rocket war. The book tells how Wernher von Braun and many of his fellow rocket scientists were early and active members of the Nazi movement; von Braun was both a member of the Nazi party and a major in the SS. For their service to the Nazi cause, they were honored by the Third Reich and by Hitler himself. Most damning is the revelation that they actively collaborated with the SS in the exploitation of concentration camp slave labor to build the V-2 missile. This rocket, when used as a weapon, killed thousands; yet tens of thousands of prisoners died at the Dora concentration camp, where the rockets were built under the direction of the SS and the rocket scientists. The Nazi Rocketeers tells the story of the technical genius and moral corruption of the creators of the first modern rockets.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0275952177
• ISBN13: 9780275952174
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A 20th century Faustean pact.

Operation Paperclip allowed top Nazi scientist and engineers who were clearly involved in death camp "use of labor" and members of the Nazi party to immigrate to the US. At the time the US State Department opposed and strongly disapproved of the policy but eventually these "spaceflight scientists and Engineers" where relocated and made US Citizens by the assistance of Operation Paperclip and the US military-industrial complex (on the pretext of the Cold War). These Scientists and Engineers conveniently expounded the propaganda that they where members of the Nazi party strictly to facilitate their spaceflight dream. A Faustian pact if you ever saw one. One of the most prominent members of this group if not the most prominent member was Werner Von Braun. Von Braun co-operated with the SS in the infamous Dora cave complex. Von Braun immigrated to the US with offers of full US Citizenship by the US military-industrial complex. These so-called V-2 scientist and engineers exploited death camp inmates with the full knowledge that these inmates will possibly die in the Dora V-2 cave complex. What, to advance the course of spaceflight, rubbish! Most inmates did die horrible deaths at the hands of the SS camp guards. If anyone douts this I challenge you to research post-war Paperclip documents and Nuremberg war crimes documents. If we are to uphold our Democracy and maintain a Democratic society with morality and human decency, I think it is important that we look at books like "The Nazi Racketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War" and start making questions. To maintain a true Democracy requires very hard constant work and vigilance.

The Nazi Rocketeers

I thought the book covers a lot on the effort of the Nazi's to build a new weapon to win the war, but obviously it cannot cover every little fact in the story about the team that build the V-2's. It was very interestingly how the SS finely took charge of the V-2 program in the end. The book is worth the time to read. I thought it was very interesting reading.

Wernher von Braun

I got this book since the Dora Concentration Camp was liberated by the 3d Armored Division during WWII and my father was in the 3d Armored Division at that time. Even though I learned a lot from the book that I did not know, to me the author was very biased against Wernher von Braun due to his participation in developing the V-1 and V-2 rockets that did so much damage to London. The way I look at it, Wernher von Braun joined the SS just to keep his dream alive of building rockets to go into space. He was successful in that attempt when he joined NASA where the Saturn rocket was built that took man to the moon. There is nothing in the book that I could find that definitely states that von Braun even went to the concentration camps though he did go to the factory in the mountain where the rockets were built and could see first-hand the conditions under which the prisoners worked. The one thing about this book is that the whole chronology of the Nazi rocket program is laid out from beginning to end so you are not looking backwards to find something that happened at one space in time. That makes it a lot easier to find out how the Nazi rocket program developed over time up to the end of WWII. What is not played out is the further development of the rocket program after the scientists came to the United States where they proceeded to be the forefathers of the United States journey into space. What is not brought out in detail is the way the United States used the Nazi rocket scientists to further develop the rockets that put man on the moon, satellites in orbit that we now depend on for everything from television, communications, weather forecasting, etc. And, let us not forget the satellites that have gone to the various planets in our solar system and beyond to learn more about this rock in space we live on. I would like to see a book devoted to the Nazi rockets scientists who more then likely were the developers of this technology. And,I wold like to see a more unbiased biography of Wernher von Braun come out that pertains to the contribution he made to the United States rocket program.