a post about how many nazis remained in positions of power is made, the op is called a tankie and people defend the decision to keep nazis around
a post about how many nazis remained in positions of power is made, the op is called a tankie and people defend the decision to keep nazis around
The 3 who were high-up Nazis and were in their political positions due to being Nazis is definitely worse than Von Braun. I don't understand how you defend that. You're telling me they couldn't find 3 non-nazis to do that stuff, and that those Nazis had special experience due to trying to move politically up under fascism?
Von Braun is more understandable to defend out of ignorance, even if I disagree with it. He was a Nazi party member, had an SS ranking, and saw the conditions of the slave labour used in the rocket program. But also it's questionable how much of that was because he wanted to keep doing rocket science, and how much was because he was a Nazi.
He was also a good rocket scientist with actual technical knowledge, unlike the other 3 who were military guys on a side that lost the war. If you told me that you couldn't find a non-nazi who would be able to head a rocket program as well then I'd be more inclined to believe that.
He also should've never been the head of NASA, and his career advancement should've been capped so we don't see his name praised in history books. It's disrespectful to have a guy who definitely used concentration camp labour to be a well-known rocket scientist. Meanwhile nobody can name the nazi scientists the USSR took.
Not even getting to recruited Nazi torturers like Klaus Barbie used for Gladio shit.
Von Braun was a stone-cold, evil bastard monster who personally saw to the hangings of his slave workers, often right there on the spot if they pissed him off enough. It's a disgrace that he got to live a full life after the war.
Agreed. It's even more of a disgrace that he became a celebrity, and was head of NASA in a time where black people and suspected communists would have never been allowed to rise higher in rank than a Nazi.
Using him should've been a secret held in shame, but they paraded this guy around and let him do stuff. At the very least he shouldn't be a household name. Extradite him to be tried after using him to make rockets. Or just life in jail. Or never use him at all and send him to jail. So many better options.
I regret to inform you that we are not the good guys in this story, and once you frame our treatment of our fellow war criminals and genocide enthusiasts as extending a neighborly helping hand to an old friend that has fallen on rough times, the last 80 years of recorded history makes so much more fucking sense
It sounds like he was a Nazi, you don't get to join the SS, oversee slave labour camps and executions, and not be a Nazi. I don't think his motives mattered if he was willing to kill 20,000 people in his slave rocket factory. He should have been hanged, his expertise be damned.
I don't think the USSR would've hanged him if they got him first.
They'd probably treat him worse and not let him head any agency though. Which would be a better course of action.
Oh I agree, I doubt anyone who got their hands on Von Braun would have hanged him due to his expertise, that's mainly wishful thinking on my part
The Soviets did kill quite a few experts when they were too corrupted. It was of course a strategic decision how to act towards them, but it wasn't as easy as in the USA.
Gather round while I sing you off Werner Von Braun
A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown
"Hah, Nazi-schmazi" says Werner Von Braun