Operation Paperclip brought possible Nazi criminals to U.S.

Operation Paperclip was the code name used for an extraction process of German scientists from Nazi Germany during and immediately after the last stages of World War II, which brought together a team at White Sands Proving Grounds (now White Sands Missile Range) that assembled and tested the Nazi V-2 rocket, with all initial components having been brought from the fatherland as well.

The immigration process allowing for the entry of these individuals, some with questionable ties to the Nazi party, is only known by bits and pieces that have been gleaned by government documents, historians, authorities and some people who knew these men personally, including Clare Lasby, author of "Operation Paperclip," White Sands Missile Range Museum, Hans Steinhoff and George House.

It is a part of the history of Otero County that, by its very technology, ushered in the rocket age for America.

Capturing the booty

At the end of World War II, a search began in occupied Germany for military and scientific secrets, but more importantly, the scientists themselves.

The U.S. military rounded up Nazi scientists with the intention of debriefing them and sending them back to Germany, but when the full extent of the scientists' knowledge and expertise was realized, combined with a sentiment that the United States needed to control this technology, the U.S. War Department set in motion a plan that became known as Operation Paperclip.

The biggest problem to surmount at that time was that it was illegal.

U.S. law explicitly prohibited Nazi officials from immigrating to America and as many as three-quarters of the scientists in question had been faithful to the Nazi party. President Harry Truman, convinced that German scientists would be a valuable asset to America's postwar efforts, agreed to and authorized the project, but expressly excluded anyone found "to have been a member of the Nazi party and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Naziism or militarism."

The War Department's Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) conducted background investigations of the scientists. In February 1947, JIOA Director Bosquet Wev submitted the first set of scientists' dossiers to the State and Justice departments for review.

The dossiers were damning. Samuel Klaus, State Department representative for the JIOA, claimed all scientists in the first batch of dossiers were "ardent Nazis." Consequently, their visas were denied.

Wev was furious, and drafted a memo warning that "the best interests of the United States have been subjugated to the efforts expended in beating a dead Nazi horse." He also stated in his memo that "the return of these scientists to Germany, where they could be exploited by America's enemies, presented a far greater security threat to this country than any former Nazi affiliations which they may have had or even any Nazi sympathies that they may still have."

Hiding a dark history

It appears, according to documents compiled by the JIOA, that Wev decided to sidestep the problem by having many of the scientists' dossiers rewritten to eliminate incriminating evidence, ultimately "cleansing" the files of any Nazi references.

By 1955, more than 760 German scientists had been granted citizenship to the U.S. and given prominent positions within the American scientific community. Many had been longtime members of the Nazi party and the Gestapo. Some had even conducted human experiments on humans in concentration camps, had used slave labor and had committed other war crimes.

In a 1985 article that appeared in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, author Linda Hunt indicated that she had personally examined more than 130 reports on Operation Paperclip subjects, and "that every one had been changed to eliminate the security threat classification."

President Truman, who had explicitly ordered "that no committed Nazis were to be admitted under Operation Paperclip" was evidently never aware that his directive had been violated. State Department archives and memoirs of officials from that era confirm that fact.

In fact, according to Clare Lasby's book, "Operation Paperclip," it is stated that project officials "covered their designs with such secrecy that it bedeviled their own president; at Potsdam he denied their activities and undoubtedly enhanced Russian suspicion and distrust," quite possibly fueling the Cold War even further.

Bits and pieces of facts surrounding Paperclip, inclusive of local happenings, suggest that there was a broad spectrum of individuals who departed Germany, some who were merely scientists doing their respective jobs, some who had questionable affiliations, and others that were confirmed war criminals who escaped execution by virtue of the project itself. It appears by the documents held by the JIOA that unbeknownst to Truman, several dossiers containing incriminating evidence were simply changed to erase the pasts of those people in exchange for their willingness to contribute to America's future.

Wernher von Braun

A good example of how these dossiers were changed is the case of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, whose dossier, on Sept. 18, 1947, stated "Subject is regarded as a potential security threat by the Military Governor."

In February 1948, a new security evaluation of von Braun said "No derogatory information is available on the subject. It is the opinion of the Military Governor that he (von Braun) may not constitute a security threat to the United States."

Von Braun became NASA's associate administrator in 1970.

George House, the curator at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, is an authority on Paperclip and its history.

"We know that von Braun had been a major in the SS," said House. "We are also aware of the fact that these individuals brought into the U.S. by Paperclip were given the choice of falling into the hands of the Americans or the Russians, and they certainly did not want to end up in the hands of the Russians. When they were active in their respective professions in Germany during the Third Reich, it would have been suicidal for anyone of prominence to have not at least appeared to have been loyal to the Nazi party."

Truth revealed

about inductee

Another individual, Dr. Hubertus Strughold, was among the many who made it to the U.S. under the project. Considered to be "the father of space medicine," Strughold had been honored at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and was also one of the inductees of the Hall of Fame at the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

"Last year, a Jewish man was visiting our museum and saw the picture we had on our wall of Strughold, and asked us why he was displayed as one of our inductees," House said.

House explained the significance of Strughold to the space program.

"He then told us that Strughold had experimented on humans in Germany's concentration camps," said House.

It was learned that Strughold's experiments on Jewish inmates had included the use of sarin gas, a chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve gas, originally developed in Germany as a pesticide in 1938.

"We immediately removed him from our Hall of Fame," House said. "He was also removed from all honors at Brooks Air Force Base by order of the Air Force Chief of Staff."

According to House, Strughold had been acquitted at the Nuremburg War Trials. There was a process initiated in 1985 for extradition to face other charges in Germany, but Strughold died before the process actually reached the deportation phase.

House concurs with the fact that the dossiers of many of the scientists were altered so that America could glean the technology of these individuals because of the Cold War.

"The complete list of all the scientists and other individuals who were named under Paperclip remains classified to this day and has never been released," House said.

Klaus Barbie 'The Butcher of Lyons'

One name that did appear on the Operation Paperclip list was Klaus Barbie, known as "the butcher of Lyons" (Lyons, France) during World War II. He personally tortured prisoners, is blamed for the deaths of 4,000 people and is best known primarily for one of his "cases," the arrest and torture of Jean Moulin, one of the highest ranking members of the French Resistance during World War II.

While Barbie never came to New Mexico, it was Paperclip that spared him from the hangman's noose. But even more amazing is the fact that in 1947, Barbie became an agent for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). In 1951, he fled to Juan Peron's Argentina. Barbie later emigrated to Bolivia where he lived under the alias Klaus Altmann. He was identified in Bolivia as early as 1971 by the Klarsfelds, who were Nazi hunters but his extradition did not go through until Jan. 19, 1983, at which time he was arrested and sent to France to stand trial. Barbie's trial did not actually take place until July 4, 1987, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. He died in prison on Sept. 25, 1991, of leukemia.

Ernst Steinhoff

One of the scientists who had worked with von Braun at the Peenemunde facility in Germany was Ernst Steinhoff, who also came to the U.S. under Paperclip.

"Steinhoff had first come to the U.S. and worked with John Goddard before the war," said House.

"My father then came back to the U.S. in June or July of 1945," said Hans Steinhoff, who lives today in Cloudcroft and is the eldest son of Ernst. "We moved so many times during the war. Near the end, my dad and von Braun already knew that Germany was going to lose the war, and they knew how Germany was going to be divided. They wanted to be on the American side (later to become West Germany) so they made sure that their families stayed with them where they were."

Steinhoff recalled one incident from his childhood.

"When I was 6 or 7, I saw Hitler in a parade," Steinhoff said.

After the scientist departed, it would be two long years before Hans would see his father again.

"The government kept him at Fort Bliss, Texas for two years and then let him make a choice between staying or going back to Germany. He decided to stay. I came from Germany with my family in June of 1947 when I was 10."

When school started, Hans attended in El Paso.

"We lived in the Beaumont Annex at Fort Bliss," Steinhoff said. "My father was working at White Sands with von Braun and the other scientists."

The V-2 Project

The sole project for the Paperclip team when they arrived was the further development and testing of the V-2 rocket.

"In 1945, there were 300 train cars of V-2 engines, fuselages, propellant tanks, gyroscopes and associated equipment lines up outside of Las Cruces," said Monte Marlin, public affairs officer at White Sands Missile Range.

"The contents were then trucked to White Sands. The program was designed to give Americans a chance to handle large rockets and to obtain valuable information about this new technology."

Despite the technology brought by the scientists from Germany, not all launches were successful.

"Only 68 percent of the flights were considered successful," Marlin said. "One failure occurred on May 29, 1947, when a V-2 headed south instead of north. It ended up flying over El Paso and crashed just outside of Juarez, Mexico. Luckily, no one was injured."

Hans Steinhoff said in 1949, the government split up the group.

"Von Braun and several others went to Huntsville, Ala.," Steinhoff said. "A few went to Dayton, Ohio, to work with the Navy. My father and several others stayed at White Sands."

Later that same year, Ernst Steinhoff became the chief scientist at Holloman Air Force Base but continued to work closely with WSMR.

"My dad was not the best guy to talk to his kids," Steinhoff recalled. "He had bigger things on his mind. When it came to father things, I did not get too much from him."

Ernst Steinhoff passed away Dec. 7, 1987.

Hans Steinhoff also recalled Von Braun.

"I saw Von Braun many times when he and my father were discussing things or visiting," Steinhoff said.

Several things are certain about the history of the American space program. We know that it began with Nazi technology, House said. Many of the scientists who came into the country had questionable backgrounds connected with the Nazi party, many of which were altered. This technology evolved into the space program as we know it today. While there are answers to many questions, there are others that will never be answered as there was a cover-up of information that was done at the time in the best interest of the nation's security during the Cold War.

"I believe that the scientists that were there in Germany were there as scientists and not involved with the Nazi party," Steinhoff said.

"I heard a few years ago from someone who had known my dad, that he (my dad) had worked with UFOs from outer space or some secret government project," Steinhoff said. "You would have thought that after all those years, we would have seen one of them if there was any truth to that."

Today, the gantry (the structure that supports a rocket until liftoff) at WSMR that launched the V-2 rockets still stands at Launch Complex 33. The blast pit that deflected the flames is still blackened from the smoke that billowed from the V-2 engines as they were propelled skyward in 1946.

The building where von Braun, Steinhoff and their colleagues stood to observe the launches from within concrete walls 26 feet thick is still in place.

Information used in this story is attributed in part to Clare Lasby, author of "Project Paperclip," JOIA files and documents, George House, curator at the New Mexico Museum of Space History; Hans Steinhoff; Monte Marlin, public affairs officer at White Sands Missile Range; Wikipedia; and www.thirdworldtraveler.com.