Nazis

The most notorious spy was Klaus Barbie, "The Butcher of Lyon" who would march into orphanages supposedly hiding Jews and Catholics and just shoot them in the street with provocation or orders from above. Originally employed by the Gehlen Organization, he was brought to New York. He had difficulty keeping a low profile when brought to the United States and have pressure from the public the US Government helped him flee to South America, where he remained on the CIA payroll for the rest of his life.

Otto Von Bolschwing was a SS officer and senior aid to Adolph Eichmann, the director of the entire concentration camp operation. He Was recruited in 1945 by the Army CIC (counter intelligence) as an operative to recruit other Nazi intelligence officers to use as spies. SS Obersturmfuher Robert Verbelen had been sentenced to death in absentia for his war crimes and the US Government still contracted him as a spy. Dr. Kurt Blome actually stood trial at Nuremburg. He admitted he was in charge of biological warfare research for the Nazis, which was experimenting on prisoners in the death camps. He was hired by the US Chemical Army Corps.

It was quite evident that German military technology was far superior to that of the allies. Allied leaders especially fear serious disadvantage with the Normandy Invasion. This proved true with disaturous results. The Sherman tanks were no match for the German Panzers. The Nazi tanks were more heavily armoured and US guns could not penetrate them. In return the Nazis treated the US tanks as if it were shooting through cardboard. Even the New York Times had possession of this information. Between July 20 and August 16 1944, the United States in Normandy lost 70 percent of its tanks and 50 percent of its soldiers. Similar mismatches occured with the air forces. Sir Ronald Weekes, the Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff ordered the immediate seizure of all possible German research, designs, development projects. After defeating the Germans the war with Japan was estimated it could take up to three years. Weekes proposed keeping the German munitions plants open after surrender and using German weapons against the Japanese. British weapons would be sold to the liberated allies of Europe. When implemented the plan itself had insuffucient resources and yielded small amounts of information. The United States followed with its own Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) and the Alsos Mission, the US Intellegence operation to steal German nuclear secrets and turn it over to the Manahattan Project, the US bomb developing effort. The Nazis had been working on their bomb since 1938. By 1944 12 agencies amd many other commissions were created to seize has much weapons and other resources as possible to extract information and technology. Operation Plunder, Lusty and others were put into effect to retrive these items after battles.

Major Robert Staver would head Project Hermes. The sole objective was to track down the V2 rocket, the most advanced in the world. The United States had nothing close to it. Any existing rockets and their technology were to be recovered and sent to White Sands, New Mexico where the US was working on their rockets. The idea was to use these V2 rockets against the Japanese to win the war. The V2 would later be used to start NASA.

The V2 underground assembly plant was at Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains. As the US Army reached to capture the plant, the German scientists had tried to escape through an elaborate system of tunnels. Accompaning the factory was Camp Dora, a concentration camp filled with slave laborers who dug the tunnels and built the rockets. The atrocities at this camp were not any different from the better known camps like Dachau or Auchwitz. Only Himmler and the SS had the authority and manpower to oversee the camps. Werner Von Braun himself was a Major in the SS. Other self proclaimed Nazis working there included Herbert Axster, an accountant; Kurt Bebus, responsible for rocket launching; and Arthur Rudolph, deputy production manager. Rudolph had joined the Nazi party long before the war in 1931. Even before the first concentration camp, Dachau, was erected in 1933. He has been quoted saying "I read Mein Kampf and agreed with a lot of things in it". He joined the SA (Brown Shirts). As prisoners died at Camp Dora, only Von Braun or Rudolph could order more prisoners. According to survivors, the SS officers stationed at Camp Dora took all their orders from the scientists.

Among documents that had survived the war, one was from May 6, 1944. There was a meeting to discuss a problem with production. Von Braun, Rudolph and many other scientists who would later work in America were present, along side many SS officers who would later be charged with war crimes. It was decided that 1800 skiller workers in France would be abducted and brought to Camp Dora. They were clothed in striped suits. The scientists were all aware that the prisoners would suffer maltreatment and Rudolph even said "I knew people were dying." The life expectancy in the camp was at most six months.

When Major Staver arrived at Nordhausen he berated the army for their treatment of the Von Braun and his scientists. The army arrested them and prepared to treat them as war criminals after seeing that they had been responsible for the concentration camp. Staver demanded they be released and treated as friendly human beings knowing full well they would be brought to the United States to continue their work. He even downplayed the horrors of Camp Dora contradicting all official investigations and reports by the US and other allied forces. Von Braun and his team were prepared for what was happening. They sought to auction off their services to the highest bidder and withheld information until they got the deal they wanted. The US had to act fast because the Russians and the other allies were after them too.

As Major Staver took the material from the V2 plant to Paris, the Counter Intelligence Corps interrogated the scientists back in Germany. Von Braun and Debus admitted to joining the SS in 1940. In fact, during the war Debus was regularly seen wearing his SS uniform while performing his scientific duties. He also turned in a colleague to the Gestapo because he didn't share Debus' view that the British had started the war. Debus called the scientist anti-nazi because he argued the merits of Mein Kampf. The scientist was relieved of his duties, arrested, convicted in a special military tribunal and imprisoned. For General Walter Dornberger, the military man in charge of the project, the interrogators recommneded internment. They called him a menace to the allies, a man with extreme views of German world domination and a third world war. He was actually held as a POW by the English for two years after the war, and they wanted to charge him with war crimes. But the US protected him and brought him to the United States. Rudolph was determined to be "100% Nazi, dangerous type, a security threat." They suggested internment for him too. It had been determined by the allies that all SS officers be automatically arrested, but the scientists were given special treatment because of their work and were able to stay where they were being held and investigated in Bavaria. Arthur Rudolph was given US citizenship but eventually fled the United States in 1984 to avoid War Crimes Charges. It was only when France tried to extradite him (which the US blocked) was he exposed publicly. He was never brought to justice.

From Paris, Major Staver requested the scientists be given contracts to work in America and brought to the US for further interrogation. In order to achieve his goal, Staver lied in his letter to the Chief of Ordinance in Washington. First he said that if the top 100 scientists were brought to America immediately they could have the missles ready for production in 3 months to use against the Japanese. This was a ridiculous time table and Staver knew it. He also said that the Russians had set up loud speakers along the River Elbe to entice German scientists to come and work for them. Yeah right. Its amazing that the US Government bought this unbelievable story. He closed the request with "future scientific importance outweighs their present war guilt". American companies were also inquiring about harvesting this sicentific knowledge for their own gain.

However, Staver still had to get through the State Department. Howard Travers was a visa section official who was weary of the Germans. He is on record as saying "We should do everything everything we consistently can to prevent German chemists and others from entering this country". Travers was overruled by his superiors. Kermit Gordon, also fron the State Department encouraged the importation of the scientists. His arguement that by doing so we could avoid another war. This time they would be working for us. Their assimilation into American society would ensure loyalty to the US, not Germany.

To this day, most of these Nazi war criminals have not been prosecuted and the US Government still keeps the documents hidden way. Even Russia and Germany have opened their archives. Former US Representative Elizabeth Holztman and current Rep Carolyn Maloney, both of New York have petitioned the government since the 1970s. Holtzman is the author of the bill-the Holtzman amendment- passed in 1978, that banned Nazi immigrants to our shores. The bill to release the atrocities, The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act wasn't even brought up for a vote until 1998, thanks for members of the executive branch, the intelligence community and the State Department. Here is the link to her testimony for that bill: