Thread by @18airbornecorps

1 of 24:

We mention Wernher von Braun being seen as a “hero” of the US space program but we don’t actually go further into that topic because it’s kind of beyond the scope of the Market Garden series. I thought I’d include a few notes on what happened after the war.

2 of 24:

While writing this series we discussed whether or not it was reasonable to label this guy evil when we start by saying he was basically building these weapons from the age of 14. I mean, what does a 14-year-old know?

3 of 24:

Well, it turns out, Wernher had applied for membership to the Nazi Party of the Third Reich in 1937, when he was 25. After he had been designing these rockets for Hitler for more than a decade, with slave labor being used to build them.

4 of 24:

Michael Neufeld wrote that Wernher had claimed that he was more or less forced to join the Nazi Party in 1939, with the explanation that if he did not join he would have to abandon his life’s work. “My membership in the party did not involve any political activity.”

5 of 24:

Neufeld explains that it’s unclear if this was an intentional falsification of the date or simply a mistake, and “there is no evidence that he did more than send in his monthly dues. But he is seen in some photographs with the party’s swastika pin in his lapel.

6 of 24:

Wernher himself acknowledged that he did quite well under totalitarianism. He criticized Hitler years after the war.

7 of 24:

In 1947, Wernher explained his SS involvement to the US War Department as being under similar conditions as his Nazi Party membership. He was “invited” to join the SS in 1940, and told that if he wished to continue his work he had no choice but to join.

8 of 24:

He claimed to have only worn the SS uniform one time, when presented a photo of himself in uniform with Heinrich Himmler. Records show he was promoted three times from 2Lt. to Maj. Wernher explained these promotions as annual promotions. reformation.org/wernher-von-br…

9 of 24:

The Gestapo arrested Wernher in 1944, as part of a mess Himmler was involved with. Himmler had said that Wernher and others were communist sympathizers, but we don’t need to go into it.

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He was released after a couple weeks, with Hitler allegedly saying something to the effect that Wernher was to be protected as long as he was necessary.

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As the war was coming to an obvious end in 1945, Wernher and others on his staff came together and decided to surrender to the Americans, rather than the approaching Soviets.

12 of 24:

Things didn’t go too smoothly, but eventually making it to Austria, Wernher’s brother flagged down a US Army Private with the 44th Infantry Division and they surrendered to the Americans.

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In June 1945, the US granted approval to transfer Wernher and his specialist team to the US, but this was not made public until October of that year. Through a series of transfers, they made it to Fort Bliss, Texas and were put to work.

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This led to jokes of them being “Prisoners of Peace” (since the war was over).

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During the Korean War they were moved to Alabama and over the next 20 years worked in ballistic missile development and related projects for the US military.

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At the same time, Wernher worked on space designs and considered the possibilities of space travel and space stations. His designed would get him transferred to NASA in the late 1950s.

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He designed the Apollo Saturn V rocket and would serve as the engineering program manager at NASA. Here he is in his NASA HQ office in 1970.

18 of 24:

Despite doing the work for the US, and regardless of any accomplishments made in the process, the mainstream media continued focusing on Wernher’s past – serving as an SS officer, being a member of the Nazi Party, and the slave labor used in building the V-2 rockets.

19 of 24:

Whether or not that media focus was fair, we’ll leave for others to decide. Maybe he was just a kid that got caught up with the Third Reich in order to keep making rockets.

20 of 24:

In looking into the background for this series, this article came up talking about a time Wernher spoke out against segregation in Alabama, ready to go toe-to-toe with George Wallace.

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His decisions didn’t always make sense, however, and addressing racial issues within NASA was another story altogether. pbs.org/wgbh/americane…

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President Kennedy said, “Forgive your enemies, but don’t forget their names.” Despite knowing his past, Wernher’s contribution to NASA and the US Space Program were seen as worth honoring, thus we have his statue outside the US Space and Rocket Center.

23 of 24:

The Germans have proven less forgiving. Just a few years ago, a science and engineering school in Friedberg, previously named after Wernher von Braun, was finally renamed in an effort to create distance from von Braun who was “no role model” for their students.

Final:

Perhaps he should have always been held accountable for the slave labor used to produce his designs and for his association with the SS and the Nazi Party.