"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun

Wernher Von Braun was one of NASA's founders and its first director. He was also previously an SS officer, nazi rocket scientist, and had approved the use of concentration camp victims as slave labor.

Come learn about 🖇️Operation Paperclip📎 in the comments.

  • BillNyeTheCommieGuy [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Von Braun joined the Nazi party in 1937, specifically the SS, Hitler's paramilitary force for political violence. He joined before the war broke out. Willingly. It was his choice.

    • Puggo [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The whole section on his Nazi involvement on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#Involvement_with_the_Nazi_regime is absolutely disgusting. Just full on apologia and taking everything he said at face value after the war ended. The guy wasn't stupid, he knew damn well to distance himself from his Nazi involvement, but of course they're going to just parrot what he said without any kind of analysis. I know it's Wikipedia and redundant to be mentioning all this, but still.