Comments (0)Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race
October 23, 2009Barbara Pash
Associate Editor
Wayne Biddle
W.W. Norton & Co. 2009, 220 pages (hardcover), $25.95
In America, the name Wernher von Braun is synonymous with the United States space program, which von Braun led in the 1950s and ’60s. In the Cold War that heated up after World War II, von Braun’s background was conveniently overlooked.
After all, it would have been difficult to lionize a man who was a Nazi Party member, used slave labor from the infamous Dora concentration camp and built deadly V-2 rockets at Peenemunde.
In post-war speeches, interviews and his (ghost-written) biography, von Braun was vague about his background. The American press portrayed him as a space explorer, not a war criminal. Von Braun abetted that illusion by comparing himself to the Wright Brothers and the romantic pursuit of flight.
Mr. Biddle, a former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, paints a different picture. In investigating the myth and uncovering the facts, Mr. Biddle comes to some unpleasant conclusions.
Von Braun came from the aristocratic Junker class. His father was an influential member of German society. Von Braun’s blond good looks and pedigree didn’t hurt, either, with the Nazi Party, which he joined in 1937 and rose to the rank of SS major.
Although in America von Braun was touted as a genius, Mr. Biddle has something to say about that, too. Some of his contemporaries in the German program thought him an opportunist, not the brains behind the program. Rather, his strength was in coordinating and facilitating a large project — in today’s terminology, systems engineering.
The American cover-up started after von Braun came to America. Mr. Biddle cites the 1947 Dora war crimes trial. The U.S. Army helped von Braun avoid testifying, despite testimony that placed him inside the camp. When the trial ended, the proceedings were classified.
Mr. Biddle can only speculate on why the U.S. embraced von Braun; but all the dirty linen comes out in this fascinating, highly readable book.