As World War II came to a close in mid 1945, the Allied and Soviet forces marched through a
conquered Germany. With the Nazis out of the way, and a mutual enemy defeated, the U.S.
believed it would need to maintain technological superiority over the Soviet Union as a national
security imperative. The Allies scrambled to capture important Nazi scientists and technological
assets before the Soviets could get their hands on them.
Under President Harry Truman's authorization, "Operation Paperclip" was initiated, which saw around
1,600 Nazi scientists, engineers and technicians recruited by the U.S under the guise of
"denazification".
The outcome of the operation led to numerous Nazi scientists aiding in the advancement of rocket
technology, such as the development of V-2 rockets and the Apollo program's Saturn V rocket that
enabled the U.S. to win the space race. Other German scientists and chemists would go on to
continue developing chemical weapons, and contribute to more covert programs, such as Project MKUltra
.
The operation raised ethical questions, with many of the Nazi scientists having direct ties to WWII
atrocities, details that were erased by the U.S. government, indicating that the Allies prioritised
technological advancement over moral accountability.
In 1944, U.S. intelligence, including the Office of Strategic Service (precursor to the CIA) began
collecting data on Nazi scientists of significance, particularly those involved in rocketry and
aviation, due to Germany's impressive V-2 missile technology.
In 1945, WWII came to a close, with the U.S. subsequently launching "Operation Overcast", which saw
Allied forces capturing around 1,600 German scientists in a bid to recruit them before the Soviet
Union could.
On September 3, President Harry Truman authorized Operation Paperclip, enabling the U.S. to
covertly
recruit scientists with close ties to the Nazi regime, allowing them to avoid prosecution at the
upcoming Nuremberg Trials.
In August, the Potsdam Conference saw the distribution of German technology among the Allies.
In 1946, the first wave of 350 German scientists arrived in the U.S. under Project Paperclip. These
scientists were given immediate citizenship and employment at army facilities. The operation was
brought to the attention of the public in December through an article entitled "German Scientist
Says American Cooking Tasteless; Dislikes Rubberized Chicken" that featured ex-Nazi Scientist
Walther Riedel.
In 1947, Paperclip expanded to include medical and chemical experts. The CIA was created, with
several Nazi scientists going on to take key intelligence roles.
In 1948, prominent Nazi Scientist Werner von Braun helped develop the Redstone missile, setting the
stage for his later work at NASA.
In 1949, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency expunged Nazi records to help incoming Nazi
scientists bypass immigration bans.
Between 1951 to 1954, Paperclip peaked, with 1,600 German relocations having taken place.
In 1955, a number of Nazi chemical experts, including Kurt Blome, were recruited through Paperclip
to contribute to the early phases of Project MKUltra.
1958 saw incresed U.S. investment in space exploration due to the Soviet's launch of the Sputnik
satellite. This led to the creation of NASA, with von Braun becoming the director of the Marshall
Space Flight Center.
In 1959, Paperclip came to its official end, with around 1,600 scientists being relocated to the
U.S.
In July, 1969, von Braun applied his V-2 missile technology to the Saturn V rocket used in Apollo
11, enabling the U.S. to win the space race against the Soviet Union by landing it successfully on
the moon.
By 1979, public pressure to oust Nazi war criminals being covered up reached a fever pitch. The
Department of Justice established the Office of Special Investigations to assist the CIA in
deportations.
Operation Paperclip saw around 1,600 German scientists covertly integrated into the U.S. While many would go on to be somewhat unremarkable, there were a number of those brought over that would assist North America in staying ahead of the rest of the world in technological advances.
By far the most famous asset obtained by the U.S. through Paperclip, Wernher von Braun was an
aerospace engineer, and the mastermind behind the Nazi's development of the V-2 rocket that rained
down upon Allied cities during WWII.
Due to labour shortages, Von Braun's rocket program was developed using concentration camp
prisoners as slaves. Former Nazi prisoners went on to state that von Braun would show indifference
to the plight of the slaves, would participate in punishments, and would cherry pick labourers from
concentration camps personally:
The German scientists led by Prof. Wernher von Braun were aware of everything daily. As they went along the corridors, they saw the exhaustion of the inmates, their arduous work and their pain. Not one single time did Prof. Wernher von Braun protest against this cruelty during his frequent stays at Dora. Even the aspect of corpses did not touch him: On a small area near the ambulance shed, inmates tortured to death by slave labor and the terror of the overseers were piling up daily. But, Prof. Wernher von Braun passed them so close that he was almost touching the corpses.
- Adam Cabala
Das KZ Mittelbau Dora,
1993
Once he was brought over to North America with Paperclip, von Braun was put in charge of creating the PGM-11 Redstone missile, which was used for the first live nuclear ballistic tests in the U.S. He then went on to help the U.S. win the space race against the Soviet Union by developing the Saturn V rocket that successfully carried its crew to the moon.
A major general in the German army, Walter Dornberger was an engineer who was in charge of
overseeing the Nazi rocket programs.
Dornberger came up with the idea of making the V-2 missile launch pads mobile, rather than having
them stationed in fortified bases. On capture, Dornberger was imprisoned by the British for the use
of slave labour in the rocket program before being handed over to the U.S., where they warned that
he was not to be trusted.
The British labeled him [Dornberger] a "menace of the first order" and warned their Allied partners of his deceitful nature... Dornberger's skill at manipulation was put to use by Army Ordnance, which had him write classified intelligence briefs.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being handed over to the Americans, Dornberger found employment with the United States Air Force, helped with the creation of the Space Shuttle, and developed the first guided nuclear air-to-surface missile, the ASM-A-2.
Arthur Rudolph was a chief engineer and an integral figure in assisting von Braun in the
development of the A-4 rocket engines that would later become the V-2 missile, the world's
first long-range guided missile.
It was estimated that 30,000 concentration camp labourers working on missile production died during
Rudolph's time as operations director in the Mittelwerk factory.
The dead were replaceable. Humans and machine parts went into the tunnels. Rockets and corpses came out. Workers who were slow on the production lines were beaten to death. Insubordinates were garroted or hanged. After the war, war crimes investigators determined that approximately half of the sixty thousand men eventually brought to Nordhausen were worked to death.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
In her 1991 book Secret Agenda:
The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945-1990,
Author Linda Hunt details how Nazi scientists considered for Paperclip were vetted by the military,
but in some cases, such as that of Rudolph, the dossier's were doctored from labelling him as a
"100% NAZI, dangerous type, security threat" to "nothing in his records indicat(es) that he was a
war criminal, an ardent Nazi, or otherwise objectionable".
After his naturalization as a U.S. citizen, Rudolph assisted von Braun at NASA, contributing to the
development of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo program. Rudolph would eventually renounce his U.S.
citizenship and emigrate back to Germany so as to avoid prosecution for war crimes, though he went
on to protest his innocence.
German Engineer Georg Rickhey was a loyal member of the Nazi party who went on to become the
general manager of the Mittelwerk factory as it developed the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 missile.
As part of his duties to the Third Reich, Rickhey oversaw the construction of around 1.5 million
square feet of underground tunnels, including Hitler's underground bunker, all dug by slaves that
he procured from the SS.
Days after becoming general manager of the Mittelwerk, Rickhey called a meeting to discuss how best to acquire more prisoners for slave labor. Wernher von Braun, Walter Dornberger, and Arthur Rudolph were all present. It was decided that the SS should enslave another eighteen hundred skilled French workers to fill the shoes of those who had already been worked to death. The record indicates that von Braun, Dornberger, and Rudolph showed no objection to Rickhey's plan.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being taken to the U.S. under Paperclip, Rickhey would obtain work at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, helping to establish a smuggling operation with the black market knowledge he obtained
as a Nazi.
During the Dachau Trials, fellow German scientists accused Rickhey of bragging about killing slave
labourers and hanging numerous prisoners from cranes for all to witness. Despite these accounts,
Rickhey was acquitted for a lack of evidence.
Aiding the Nazi war machine as a director for the V-weapons flight tests, Kurt Debus was an
integral rocket engineer that helped in the creation of the V-2 missile, serving directly under von
Braun.
A fervent member of the Nazi party, Debus became a member of the Sturmabteilung and
Schutzstaffel during their rise to power.
Debus was an ardent Nazi. He had been an active SS member who, according to the testimony of colleagues, wore his Nazi uniform to work. Most troublesome was the revelation in his OMGUS security report that during the war he had turned a colleague, an engineering supervisor named Richard Craemer, over to the Gestapo for making anti-Nazi remarks and for refusing to give Debus the Nazi salute.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being scooped up alongside von Braun as part of Paperclip, Debus went on to assist in NASA's Saturn launch facilities before becoming the first director of the Kennedy Space Center, overseeing the Apollo moon landing.
A scientist and engineer in the rocket design bureau, Walther Riedel worked on the motor and
structural design of the V-2 missile under von Braun.
One of only four Nazis to be an honoured guest at Castle Varlar to receive one of Hitler's highest
honours: the Knight's Cross of the War Service Cross, Riedel convinced the U.S. Army to take him as
part of Paperclip, lest the Russians get to him first.
His [Riedel] security report listed him as "an active Nazi who wore the uniform and the party badge. Ardent." Riedel joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and was a member of five Nazi organizations.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being taken under Paperclip, Riedel went to work for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss.
Hubertus Strughold was a physiologist that became director of the Nazi funded Research Institute
for Aviation Medicine. As it's director, Strughold studied the physical effects of high-altitude
and supersonic speed on the human body.
Physicians of the Research Institute for Aviation Medicine conducted a variety of inhumane
experiments using captives of the Dachau concentration camp in order to further their research.
Test subjects underwent pressure chamber tests, oxygen deprivation tests, freezing experiments,
were injected with salt water, and were dissected without anesthesia.
Dr. Strughold had allowed epileptic children to be experimented on inside the high-altitude chamber at Strughold's Aviation Medical Research Institute of the Reich Air Ministry in Berlin. Rabbits had been put to the test first and had died. Next, Reich medical researchers wanted to see what would happen to young children with epilepsy subjected to those same conditions. Strughold authorized the potentially lethal tests on the children.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After his arrival in the U.S., Strughold was assigned to research medical challenges posed by space
travel, coining the terms "space medicine" and "astrobiology". Strughold's studies would
revolutionise concepts of spaceflight, overseeing the creation of the space cabin
simulator, and helping design the pressure suits and life support systems used in NASA's Apollo
program.
It wasn't until after his death that Strughold's controversies truly came to light, with details of
his connection with the Dachau experiments irreversibly staining his reputation.
Director of the Aero Medical Division of the German Experimental Station for Aviation Medicine in
Berlin, Siegfried Ruff was in charge of supervising human experiments in Dachau.
Of the many experiments that took place in Dachau, including freezing experiments, Ruff, alongside
several peers, showed up in Dachau with a chamber that was used for experimentation in
explosive decompression.
Healthy young men—classified by the Nazis as Untermenschen—were strapped into a harness inside the low-pressure chamber and subjected to explosive decompression.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
While awaiting trial, Ruff was put in charge of experimentations with g-force at the Army Air
Forces Aero Medical Center in Heidelberg , going on to co-author the Compendium on Aviation
Medicine with Strughold, which details his findings in explosive decompression and
oxygen deficiency.
During his trial at Nuremberg, Ruff admitted that he oversaw human experimentation at Dachau, but
felt that what he was achieving was not considered immoral "especially in wartime." Ruff would go
on to be acquitted, but would never make it to U.S. soil due to leaks regarding his acquisition for
Paperclip.
Physiologist and high-altitude specialist Theodor Benzinger was the department chief of the
Reich's Experimental Station of the Air Force Research Center in Rechlin.
Benzinger had experimented with high-altitude parachute escapes using rabbits. His studies included
explosive decompression and oxygen deprivation. Benzinger would go on to admit he was aware of
medical experiments on non-consenting captives from concentration camps were taking place.
This was the same Dr. Benzinger who had overseen for Himmler the film screening at the Reich Air Ministry, in Berlin, of Dachau prisoners being murdered in medical experiments.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After facing trial at Nuremberg, Benzinger was released from prison into the custody of the U.S. Army Air Force, citing no evidence of his participation in any experiments. He would later go on to work for the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda.
A physiologist and chemist, Konrad Schäfer was famous with the Nazis for his revolutionary research
into making salt water drinkable.
Specialising in the pathology of thirst, Schäfer undertook a challenge from his superior,
Strughold, to make sea water drinkable. Schäfer came up with a tablet named Wolfatit that separated
the salt, thereby winning the challenge. Subsequently, Schäfer's process would be tested on Dachau
concentration camp prisoners, which involved the forced ingestion of salt water, starvation, and
biopsies without anesthetic.
The effectiveness of both the Schäfer process and the Berka method would be tested on the Untermenschen at Dachau.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
All but one of the seawater test subjects died, and whilst on trial in Nuremberg, the one remaining
eyewitness did not recognise Schäfer, leading to his acquittal.
Once he had been brought into the U.S. under Paperclip, Schäfer procured a job working with the
School of Aviation Medicine in Texas, but was fired for incompetence and moved to New York.
A physician and avian physiologist, Hermann Becker-Freyseng was an ardent scientists who performed
over one hundred experiments on himself to further his studies.
Assigned by Strughold to find out whether Schäfer's process or the Berka method was more efficient
at desalinating salt from water. For the test, 40 healthy camp inmates were either forced to ingest
or injected with salt water, with half of the subjects given a drug called berkatit.
Becker-Freyseng co-authored a document with Schäfer based on the experimentation process.
The resultant paper, called “Thirst and Thirst Quenching in Emergency Situations at Sea,” described saltwater medical experiments conducted on prisoners inside Experimental Cell Block Five.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
During the Nuremberg Trials, Becker-Freyseng was found guilty of war crimes and imprisoned, during which time he was recruited by the U.S. to assist in developments to win the space race.
Serving as the surgeon general of the Third Reich, Walter Schreiber was tasked with developing
vaccines to prevent the spread of infectious disease and defend against biological weapons.
While documentation and transcripts point to Schreiber opposing the Nazi's insistence on using
human test subjects for plague and disease experimentation, it is believed that he introduced the
method of lethal injections to rid the Nazi party of dissidents.
Schreiber had overseen a host of "hygiene"-related Reich medical programs in which countless humans were sacrificed in the name of research. Included were details of yellow fever experiments, epidemic jaundice experiments, sulfanilamide experiments, euthanasia by phenol experiments and the notorious typhus vaccine program "with its 90% death rate".
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being brought to America, Schreiber found employment in the Department of Preventative Medicine in Texas' Randolph Air Force Base. After investigations into his past connections with concentration camp experimentation began, Schreiber left the U.S. for Argentina with the help of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency.
One of the more notorious scientists that worked for the Nazi regime, Kurt Blome served as a
high-ranking Nazi scientist that specialised in the studies of biological warfare.
Given the title of deputy surgeon general of the Third Reich and put in charge of the
Bacteriological Institute at Nesselstedt, Blome oversaw the development of biological
weapons that included the uses of typhoid, plague, anthrax and cholera:
He [Kurt] had nearly completed a bubonic plague weapon when the Red Army captured his research institute in Poland
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
Among Blome's experiments, he subjected live test subjects to mosquitoes infected with malaria,
lice infected with typhus, and with nerve agents such as Tabun and Sarin.
After his capture by Allied forces, Blome gave up his research into biological weaponry and nerve
agents before being recruited by Sidney Gottlieb to work on Project MKUltra.
A professor, virologist and microbiologist that served the Reich at their State Research Institute,
Erich Traub helped facilitate the testing of germ warfare, particularly that of rinderpest, a
disease that spreads among cattle and has an extremely high death rate.
Due to international law prohibiting European countries from storing strains of rinderpest, Traub
was sent to Turkey to acquire the virus. Because the Germans feared the disease spreading to even
their own cattle, Traub was instructed to experiment with the disease on the isolated island of
Riems, where he managed to create a dry form of the virus.
Traub was the most talented scientist working on anti-animal research—biological weapons designed to kill the animals that a nation relies upon most for food.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
Once inducted into Paperclip, Traub went to work on virological research for the Naval Medical Research Institute and antianimal weapons research for Fort Detrick, helping the U.S. establish the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
The chairman of Committee-C for chemical weapons, Otto Ambros was pivotal in creating synthetic
rubber for the Nazis, and developing deadly nerve agents, earning him the reputation of being
Hitler's favourite chemist.
Whilst overseeing mass-production of mustard gas and tabun at Gendorf and the Dyhernfurth complex,
Ambros personally saw to the creation of sarin gas, a deadly agent that could have turned the tide
against Allied forcers. Whilst working with IG Farben, Ambros utilised numerous slave labourers
from Auschwitz to produce rubber for the Nazi war effort, and was aware of the use of Zyklon B to
exterminate captives in concentration camps.
As the plant manager at Farben's Buna factory at Auschwitz, Otto Ambros had been linked to atrocities including mass murder and slavery.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
After being arrested by the U.S., Ambros spent three years in Landsberg Prison before earning an early release. He went on to advise the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and other American chemical companies.
Jürgen von Klenck was a chemist that worked with IG Farben and served as deputy chief to Ambros on Committee-C. After being put in charge of the Falkenhagen production plant, von Klenck ensured that the Nazis had a steady stream of sarin gas.
By war's end, the factory at Falkenhagen had produced more than five hundred tons of sarin gas.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
As the war neared its end, Klenck assisted Ambros in the destruction of evidence and the disguising
of the Farben factory in Gendorf as a soap factory instead of a producer of chemical weapons.
Once captured by the U.S., Klenck revealed the location of sensitive documents he had hidden which
led to the arrest and conviction of many of his peers. Klenck went on to work for General Loucks's
Heidelberg working group on sarin production.
A gifted doctor and organic chemist, Friedrich Hoffmann was in charge of tabun production for the Nazi regime, though he admitted to being anti-Nazi.
Nerve agents were Hoffmann's area of expertise; he had synthesized poison gas at the Luftwaffe's Technical Academy, Berlin-Gatow, and also at the chemical warfare laboratories at the University of Würzburg during the war.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
Once he was scooped up by the U.S. in Paperclip, Hoffman joined the U.S. Army Chemical Corps, travelling the world and procuring toxic substances for the CIA's antiplant division in Fort Detrick to experiment on. As the Vietnam War waged on, Hoffman was integral in the creation of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used on the jungles of Vietnam that had horrific repurcussions to the Vietnamese.
A keen aeronautical engineer and one of Germany's most prominent pilots, Siegfried Knemeyer
specialised in espionage flights, becoming the first pilot to make a high-altitude sortie over
North Africa.
As the technical adviser to Hermann Göring, Knemeyer had the Reichsmarschall's
favour when it came to all things aircraft development related. As the tides of the war turned and
Allied aircrafts were bombing airstrips, Knemeyer was tasked by Albert Speer, Hitler's minister of
armaments and war production, to pilot his escape from Berlin to Greenland, but was captured before
the plan could be executed.
He [Knemeyer] knew, apparently more so than Speer, that attempting to fly out of Germany and into Greenland transporting one of the most wanted war criminals of the Third Reich during the final days of the war would be a near-to impossible feat.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
On capture, Knemeyer was imprisoned at thr Latimer prison camp before being folded in Paperclip where he was awarded a permanent job with the U.S. Air Force, Air Material Command.
Engineer Emil Salmon worked at an aircraft factory and was an ardent Nazi supporter, holding the
position of Troop Leader in the SA.
Though the U.S. were aware of the accusations of atrocities levied against Salmon during the war,
his extensive knowledge on aircrafts was found to be "difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate."
During the war Emil Salmon had been involved in burning down a synagogue in his hometown of Ludwigshafen.
- Annie Jacobson
Operation Paperclip,
2014
Under Paperclip, Salmon got to work building aircraft engine test stands for Army Air Forces at Wright Field.
Physicist and engineer Hans von Ohain was a leading expert on turboget engines, helping design the
very first aircraft to utilise one.
Whilst working for the Nazis, von Ohain helped design the first operational jet engine and
aircraft, known as the Heinkel He 178. Though his work was fundamental towards creating the first
operational jet fighter, it was too late to impact the war.
On his arrival in the U.S., von Ohain worked as a research engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base before becoming Chief Scientist of the Aero Propulsion Laboratory at the Air Force
Aeronautical Research Laboratory.
While Operation Paperclip is often remembered and cited as the key operation that saw the U.S. covertly acquire Nazi scientists, there were a number of other operations taking place in and around the end of WWII that had similar objectives.
A joint British-U.S. mission that sought to investigate, report on, and disrupt Nazi Germany's
nuclear weapons program, the Alsos Mission saw the targeting of significant scientists, documents
and materials for capture.
The program confirmed that Germany was far behind in atomic research, and the capturing of key
researchers and uranium stockpiles ensured that the Manhattan Project would stay at the forefront
of nuclear weaponry.
Considered to be the British version of Paperclip, Operation Surgeon was a covert mission whose aim
was to forcibly remove scientists and technicians from Germany to deny their skills to
the Soviet Union and bolster their own post-war technology.
In total, the operation saw the removal of some 1,500 German scientists from their country, with
100 choosing to stay and find employment in the UK.
While the Allies were sweeping across Germany and scooping up German scientists in their own covert
operations, the Soviet Union were enacting their own operation to take German scientists, engineers
and technicians back to Russia as war reparations, and have them replicate their work for the Nazis
to bolster the Soviet Union's weapons technology.
Operation Osoaviakhim saw the capture of around 2,500 German specialists, and a total of 4,000
Germans, who were all taken back to the Soviet Union.
