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Project Paperclip 13 April 08

Section: article

Categories: Mention

Excerpts from Shining a harsh light on dark Nazi crimes (iht.com) →

Germany’s chief Nazi prosecutor is now more likely to be consoling the grandchild of a war criminal than chasing Hitler’s murderous henchmen.

[...]

Correcting history has also become an important part of the work of Eli Rosenbaum, head of the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Department of Justice. Rosenbaum has unmasked Nazis who settled inconspicuously into suburban America and knocked prominent citizens off their pedestals.

When Rosenbaum discovered Arthur Rudolph in about 1980, the architect of the Saturn V rocket that put a man on the moon was one of America’s most celebrated adopted sons.

But during the war, Rudolph had managed a “hell-like” underground factory in Germany, where slave workers built the V-2 rocket that was used on Allied targets, Rosenbaum said. Prisoners were tortured, killed and, on one occasion, forced to watch a mass hanging of inmates.

After the war, Rudolph and others were hired by the U.S. military and brought to their new home under a secret program called Project Paperclip, formerly known as Operation Overcast.