This episode we dive into the ins and outs of Wernher von Braun’s wartime credentials, before the Americans would be faced with the decision of whether or not his file needed a paperclip to begin with. (It did!) Contrasting heavily from last episode’s Klaus Fuchs, we look at someone whose humanity always came second to his ambition as a scientist in Nazi Germany, and contextualise his role into the broader scope of the Nazi concentration camp system. Who were some of the more sinister characters he met along the way? What did the Summer of 1945 look like for him and his fellow engineers as the Third Reich crumbled around them?

++++++

 
 💸 Donations keep us running.

Click below to support the show 

🤩 Donate €50

😆 Donate €20

😄 Donate €10 

🙂 Donate €5

++++++

🎟️ You can get in touch and book Jonny or Pip for a tour of Berlin via www.whitlams-berlin-tours.com.

Don't forget to subscribe for more Berlin history every two weeks!

++++++

You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!

++++++

Mixed and Produced by Alex Griffiths
https://www.instagram.com/alexgriffiths_music/
https://alexgriffiths.bandcamp.com/
 
++++++

📚 Sources:

Wernher von Braun, the SS, and Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political, and Criminal Responsibility. Michael J. Neufeld

The Nazi Smoke and Mirrors Escape That Launched America Into the Space Age. Amy Shira Teitel

Germans in Russia: Cold War, Technology Transfer, and National Identity By Asif A. Siddiqi 

Podcast: Paperclip: America's Nazi Scientists, Monique Laney, Michael Ian Black.