Was Wernher von Braun devout Nazist?

Question

He is well known for eventing V-2 during the Nazi Regime and contributing the Apollo Plan under the US Government. My question is, did von Braun MORALLY deserve to become major figure of the US space industry? I heard he wasn't only Nazi Party member but also involved in the SS. Was he a true Nazist and anti-Semite?

Answer 1

~From early childhood, Von Braun dreamed of rockets and space travel. He'd have sold his soul to the devil to be able to put his dreams into practice. He did just that. It will never be known if he did so willingly and joyfully or reluctantly and with disdain.

Yes, he was enrolled in the National Socialist party. Yes, he was a member of the SS (promoted three times by no less than Himmler himself). Yes, he did use slave labor from the camps at Peenemünde, where at least 10,000 of them died from the brutal condititions, starvation and the periodic execution designed to keep the drones in line.

Of course, the US (and the USSR) was so far behind the Germans in most technology, and particularly in rocket science, at the close of the war that the government chose to overlook and ignore these little foibles. They needed his knowledge more than their revenge, so when Von Braun said he was unaware of what was going on in the program over which he had full and absolute control, Washington decided to play the game and believe him.

Albert Speer was far less culpable, but he was expendable. Speer was tried at Nuremberg and got 20 years. He did express remorse at the trials and this gave the court an out. His talents were going to be needed to rebuild post war Germany. Otherwise, he'd have been hanged. Von Braun's knowledge was far too important to waste 20 years, particularly since the Soviets had snatched their share of the Peenemünde cream. So, while Speer and company were on trial for their lives, Von Braun was spirited off to the States and by 1950, he was in charge of the Redstone project. Hey, if he could build a primitive rocket for the Germans to kill Brits, why not have him build one for us that was nuclear capable to kill all that many more of our former allies, the Soviets?

Why would you question his politics. Your government didn't. After all, Andy Jackson, Nelson Miles, George Custer and William T. Sherman are heroes while the likes of Richard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler are genocidal devils. Not only does the victor get to write the history, but the victor gets to pardon the criminals as well.

Why pick on just poor Werner. Read a little about the rest of the boys from Operation Paperclip and what they did. Just don't read about it from the standard US apologist sources.

Answer 2

US history paints him kindly & may have muddied the water when it came to his background.
He was a party member , but there are claims that he "did'nt inhale" & used it as a way to follow his dream of spaceflight.
He was arrested once for not being a "good" Nazi.
He also knew things were going badly for Germany & surrendered himself to the Americans to "follow his dream " so to speak.
His skills & those of other Nazis were highly prized by the Americans ,Brits & Russians.
There was a lot of looking the other way when it came to him & other rocket scientists.even though they knew full well what their work was doing.
A brilliant man no doubt , but one wonders which way he would have gone if Germany was winning.

Answer 3

He was a major Nazi but after WW2 both the Russians and Americans were trying to get German technology and scientists to work for them so his past was ignored.