Wernher von Braun

“Born on March 23, 1912, in Wirsitz, Germany, Von Braun was the second of three children born to aristocrats Baron Magnus and Baroness Emmy Von Braun.”

“He received a telescope along with a copy of rocket pioneer Herman Oberth's A Rocket Into Interplanetary Space, which influenced him to experiment with rocket motors.”

“At the age of sixteen, he organized an astronomical observatory construction team”

“then went on to study mechanical engineering at the Berlin Institute of Technology, where he became a member of the German Society for Space Travel.”

“In 1932, he enrolled at Berlin University, where he assembled a team of over a hundred scientists. Von Braun's team, which included his younger brother, Magnus, performed early experiments in rocket development.”

“After World War I, Germany wanted to improve its artillery capabilities but they were specifically prohibited from working on "big guns" by the Treaty of Versailles. Recognizing Von Braun's early research and development skills in "alternative munitions," they offered the young scientist a grant to conduct various experiments on liquid-fueled rocket engines—which technically, were not prohibited by Germany's post-War Treaty restrictions.”

“Von Braun, who was still a student, operated at a secret laboratory on the Baltic Coast (near Peenemunde, a favorite summer vacation destination of his family), where his classified research doubled as his doctoral thesis.”

“Hermann Oberth is the godfather of, you know, German rocketry and Wernher von Braun's mentor.”

“When Hitler came to power in 1933, Von Braun remained in Germany, even though he could have left and gone to France, England or America.”

“Colonel Walter Dornberger was personally assigned by Hitler to oversee the research for "military applications."”

“In 1939, Adolf Hitler himself visited the young scientist's labs where he was treated to an impressive demonstration of the capabilities of the rockets Von Braun's team had been developing”

“a few weeks after the meeting Von Braun received a letter offering a commission in the SS from Himmler personally”

“it is now clear that Von Braun was a close personal friend of German Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, who offered him the SS degree and rank of Major.”

“A testament to this is the fact that at his induction into the SS, the only time he is known to have worn his SS uniform, Himmler himself was in attendance, and the two were photographed together”

“Debus, like Von Braun, was also a Nazi party member”

“The canonical history is that he was "pressured" by the Third Reich to become involved in many Nazi organizations and that he agonized over the decision, but this actually seems increasingly unlikely.”

“Clearly, as a Major in the SS, Von Braun met the minimum criteria of "ardent Nazi."”

“Fig. 5-24 -Official photograph of the 1939 briefing and rocket demonstration for Adolf Hitler (front row, center) by Von Braun’s (inset) “amateur” rocket team - which led directly to Von Braun being personally offered a commission in the S.S. by Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, and the V-2 Program at Peenemunde (National Archive)”

“Fig. 5-25 - The only known photograph of SS Major Wernher Von Braun in his black SS uniform, directly behind Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Taken at Von Braun’s induction ceremony into the SS. (Source: National Archives)”

“Von Braun perfected the A4, the world's first true ballistic missile, in the early 1940s.”

“As the Allies neared the capture of the V2 rocket complex, Von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his”

“Von Braun and his compatriots were brought to America under Project Paperclip, despite some objections by investigators in the JOIA.”

“despite some objections by investigators in the JOIA”

“In its evaluation of Von Braun, written on June 25, 1947”

“"It cannot be ascertained by this office what the reasons were which caused VON BRAUN to become a member of the SS. Neither can it be determined whether his positions in the SS were honorary, required by the Nazi party, or desired by VON BRAUN. No records of his arrest have been located."”

“The simple fact that Von Braun, Arthur Rudolph, Kurt Debus, Humbertus Strughold and many other German scientists with elaborate Nazi pasts were brought to the U.S. at all is a testament to Cold War convenience.”

“Fortunately (for Von Braun) he had "friends in high places," not just in Germany, but in the U.S.—in the personages of Drs. Bush and Von Karman. Their influence was so powerful, that doubts expressed by the field investigators about Von Braun's SS Nazi past were ultimately "conveniently" overlooked.”

“played a key role in bringing many of the German rocket scientists, like Wernher Von Braun, to the United States”

“Bush originally played a key role in bringing Von Braun and other "ardent Nazis" to the U.S. illegally, in direct violation of President Truman's executive orders.”

“After the war, Von Karman was sent to Germany to interview the German rocket scientists and tour the Nazi facilities at Pennemunde and Mittlework. He did meet Von Braun there, and recommended he be brought to the U.S., which (as previously noted) was in violation of the directives of Project Paperclip.”

“Documents serendipitously obtained via an "Enterprise Mission" research foray into the National Archives in the mid-1990's, confirm that Von Braun during World War II was nothing less than a Major in the SS, the fearsome and fanatically loyal arm of the Nazi war machine entrusted to carry out the most inhuman acts of the regime.”

“Linda Hunt found survivors of the Nazi missile factories at Mittlework and Peenemunde who told her that Von Braun not only "witnessed executions and abuse of prisoners at those facilities,"”

“but on at least one occasion ordered executions”

“Recently, new documents also show that Von Braun was commissioned to come up with a plan near the end of World War II to use one of his V-2 rockets to bomb New York City with a radioactive device”

“Once they cleared the hurdles imposed by Paperclip, Von Braun and his team were quickly sent out to White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico.”

“There, they conducted tests on the captured V2s and worked on developing bigger and more powerful rockets.”

“Von Braun immediately showed his expertise and abilities as an organizer, and was eventually rewarded by being appointed technical director of the U.S. Army ballistic weapon program.”

“Fig. 5-26 - Wernher Von Braun and fellow “Project Paperclip” scientists spend off-duty time in El Paso, Texas -- from nearby “White Sands Missile Range,” in 1945.”

“In 1950, Von Braun and his team of "former" Nazis were transferred to the Army's Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, where they developed the Redstone, Jupiter and Jupiter-C ballistic missiles.”

“where they developed the Redstone, Jupiter and Jupiter-C ballistic missiles”

“Von Braun and his cohorts were so certain of their "value" that they made no attempt to conceal either their Nazi pasts or, apparently, their love for the Third Reich; having beaten the system through Paperclip, they evidently didn't care who knew of their "ardent Nazi" histories.”

“The group freely displayed swastikas and other Nazi symbols on their clothes and on signs in the camps where they were kept for years after their immigration to the U.S.”

“In 1955, Von Braun became a U.S. citizen and served as the primary army engineer for space exploration support.”

“served as the primary army engineer for space exploration support”

“Von Braun boldly predicted that Vanguard would fail, but was expressly forbidden from launching a U.S. Army satellite with his separate group in response.”

“Von Braun's team was then, suddenly, frantically recruited "to save the day"—and get the U.S. some kind of "win" in the onrushing space race.”

“He wrote several articles in the popular quarterly magazine Collier's, and the success of these articles attracted the notice of 33° Scottish Rite Freemason Walt Disney.”

“Disney hired Von Braun to produce and star in three popular television films about space travel in the future.”

“These programs helped establish Von Braun as America's most notable space expert.”

“In the dramatization, Von Braun's rocket takes five days to get to the Moon, with a chance for one pass around the "dark side" before returning to Earth.”

“*Not a word* is spoken about it in the dramatization, nor at any point later in the film. Von Braun simply inserted it without comment.”

“Von Braun and Disney obviously *intended* to portray the Moon as "previously inhabited" … and, simultaneously, pay homage to the Masonic "33º."”

“In looking at the White Sands Missile Range, where Wernher Von Braun conducted his first V-2 tests in America, it came to light that there had, in fact, been only *one* launch pad at the range, yet it was numbered—"Launch Complex *33*."”

“NASA—remember, an Agency riddled at all levels by "German rocket scientists" from Operation Paperclip, former Nazis and SS members like Von Braun”

“Von Braun was appointed director of the new Marshall Space Flight Center in July 1960 and given the task of developing the rockets for the new Agency.”

“Once established as the head of the Huntsville rocket development site, Von Braun placed many of his old Nazi cohorts into key positions in the new Space Agency.”

“At Von Braun's behest, Kurt Debus, a former colleague of Von Braun's in World War II, was made the first Director of the Kennedy Space Center.”

“Kurt Debus, a former colleague of Von Braun's in World War II”

“Parsons and Ed Forman, his compatriot in chemistry and rocketry, are also known to have had early contact with German rocket pioneers Herrmann Oberth, and Oberth's "wunderkind" successor and protégé, Wernher Von Braun.”

“Parson's personal quest was to create powerful solid-fuel boosters, which could someday—by being far simpler, thus cheaper and more reliable—supplant the liquid fueled complexities (and spectacular accidents) of Goddard and Von Braun's painful efforts at practical rocket development.”

“both Wernher Von Braun and Von Karman named him as one of the "three most important pioneers" of the rocket age”

“it may well be that one of the major players in the saga of *Dark Mission*, Dr. Wernher von Braun himself, only discovered this private space program by stumbling upon it at the dawn of space age.”

“It could well be that von Braun never even knew he wasn’t at the top of the technological food chain until this seminal moment in time, when he *must* have discovered the theory that we now call Hyperdimensional physics was very real, and that he and his NASA co-workers had been carefully excluded from exploiting its potential benefits.”