swastikas painted on their tails: Wright Field Air Fair footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXTHMtX5Nc.
make use of cutting-edge science: The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America, Volume 12, Title 15, p. 2306.
questions for Putt: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1020.
Putt wrote in a memo: Ibid., 1027–29; Lasby, 128, 306n.
Air Material Command: Note nomenclature change, from USAF.gov: Redesignated Army Air Forces Technical Service Command on August 31, 1944; Air Technical Service Command on July 1, 1945; Air Materiel Command on March 9, 1946.
“letters of interest”: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1021–1029.
continued to voice objections: Lasby, 129–32.
temporary military program: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 0938.
Wallace urged the president: Office of Technical Service, Letter from Wallace to Truman, December 4, 1945; Lasby, 133.
once they found out about it: On October 1, 1945, the War Department Bureau of Public Relations issued a two-paragraph press release about the program with instructions to bury the story. No major news organizations reported on it. The headline of the press release was “Outstanding German Scientists Being Brought to U.S.”
air of democracy: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1044–1050 (includes Wallace letter to Honorable Robert Patterson, Secretary of War, November 9, 1945); Lasby, 33–35.
likened Hitler to Satan: Henry A. Wallace, U.S. vice president, in an address to the Free World Association, New York, August 5, 1942.
a major news scoop: Weindling, 83.
their meeting in Saint-Germain: Bullard and Glasgow, 54.
war work in Heidelberg under army supervision: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1208.
“follow-on plan”: Benford, “Report from Heidelberg,” 9, notes.
Control Council Law 25: Gimbel, 175. Peaceful research was allowed.
Armstrong: USAF biography. At the time, his official title was surgeon of the Air Division of OMGUS, with headquarters in Berlin.
Nickles who inspired Armstrong: Bullard and Glasgow, 2.
When Nickles “hinted”: Ibid., 18–20.
closed his practice in Minneapolis: Dempsey, 1.
arrived with his family at Wright Field: Bullard and Glasgow, 3, 6.
He envisioned a future: Benford, Doctors in the Sky, 29.
spotted a trapdoor: Bullard and Glasgow, 21.
unusual-looking chamber: Ibid.; photographs from Wright Field archives.
wrote a letter to the engineering division : Bullard and Glasgow, 6–8; Mackowski, 20.
death at high altitude was caused by: Bullard and Glasgow, 18–20.
he dissected the rabbit: Ibid., 19.
Armstrong’s discovery: Dempsey, 5, 63, 116.
Halley’s comet: Kokinda, 4. Halley’s comet lasted fourteen days.
“When I looked”: Ibid., 6.
pursued auto-experimentation: Mackowski, 43; his PhD thesis, which earned him a medical diploma in 1922, was called “The Distribution of Pain Spots on the Skin.”
Adolf Hitler needed a pilot: Mackowski, 46.
Strughold packed his bags: Hasdorff, 10, 20.
until one of them blacked out: Thomas, 27–28; Hasdorff, 3.
apes and humans: Thomas, 32; Mackowski, 51.
a haven for risk takers: Thomas, 37–38.
officials from the Nazi Party: Ibid.; photographs, Bundesarchiv Ludwigsburg Collection. Note: In “Biologists under Hitler,” Ute Deichmann explains that Nazi Party membership was never a requirement for doctors or professors. To be appointed to a university teaching position (Habilitation in German) did not require NSDAP membership. Only 45 percent of doctors joined the Nazi Party. Of scientists between the ages of thirty-one and forty, 63 percent became members (Mackowski, 65).
“Our studies are all very risky”: In his interview with Thomas, Strughold uses the story as a means to illustrate how he had to regularly outfox the Nazi Party in order not to succumb to their pressure to join. He says that he suggested the Nazi Party officials try out the low-pressure chamber test themselves. “That did it,” Strughold told Thomas. “The older one said to the younger one, ‘Herr Oberregierungsrat, we must go in five minutes. We can not stay.’ ”
the pilot physiology challenges grew: Heinz Beauvais, “Performance and Characteristics of German Airplanes in Relation to Aviation Medicine,” German Aviation Medicine in World War II, Volume I, 55–68; Eckart, Man, Medicine, and the State, 117.
Dr. Theodor Benzinger: RG 330 Theodor Benzinger; Benford, “Report from Heidelberg,” 6. Benzinger was also head of medical work in the research department of the Technical Division of the Reich Air Ministry.
put each man in charge: Ibid.
a committed Nazi: Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv Freiburg, Benzinger file, Pers 6/138768; RG 330 Theodor Benzinger, JIOA Form No. 2.
In service of this idea: Benford, “Report from Heidelberg,” 6.
In addition to researching aviation medicine: RG 330 Theodor Benzinger, JIOA Form No. 2, June 1947; War Department, Intelligence Division, Basic Personnel Record, n.d.
Ruff was an avowed and dedicated: HLSL Item No. 28, 995.
Dr. Ruff who oversaw: Alexander, “Exposure to Cold,” 17, 39; HLSL Item No. 28; HLSL Item No. 995.
coauthored several papers: Weindling, 23. Weindling says the U.S. Air Corps circulated 250–300 copies to individual flight surgeons and air force bases across the country.
coauthored a book: Weindling, 372n.
His wartime research work: HLSL item 1878.
A contest was proposed: HLSL Item No. 80; HLSL Item No. 83, NMT Trials Document No. 02626002.
Becker-Freyseng was held in great esteem: HLSL Item No. 229.
a self-experiment he did in a chamber: Ibid.,; HLSL Item No. 83.
symptoms of paralysis: HLSL No. 2626.
continued their work: Benford, “Report from Heidelberg,” 3–28.
military pose: Ibid., 4.
“This property”: Ibid., 36; Exhibit 5.
There was equipment here: Ibid., 1, 10–16. A photograph shows the Freising chamber being installed in a corner of the institute. The caption reads, “[T]he low pressure chamber… was moved to Heidelberg from the Munich Institute of Aviation Medicine at Freising.”
number of German doctors believed: Weindling, 1, 162.
classified list: Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel, APO 124-A. U.S. Army. List of Personnel Involved in Medical Research and Mercy Killings, n.d. (FOIA).
Chapter Twelve: Total War of Apocalyptic Proportions
end of January 1946: Lasby, 185. Lasby writes that the secretary of war revealed that there were 130 scientists in the country and that approximately 140 more would arrive in the near future. A group of rocket men arrived January 15, and it took them a little more than a month to get to Fort Bliss.
men resided in a two-story barracks: McGovern, 210.
“romantic Karl May affair”: Neufeld, Von Braun, 222; Neufeld says that work on the sci-fi novel began in 1947.
“Frankly we were disappointed”: Quoted in Lasby, 116; V-2 Firing Tables summarizing all flights at White Sands—www.wsmr.army.mil.
The actual rocket firings: McGovern, 211.
one of the fins fell off: Neufeld, Von Braun, 220.
marry his first cousin: Ibid., 228.
“The conditions of employment”: Huzel, 217.
swimming pool: Franklin, 102.
“half a dozen discredited SS Generals”: RG 65 Magnus von Braun, September 25, 1948; RG 330 JIOA list: Neufeld, Von Braun, 508n.
job of club manager: Bower, 200.
some work opportunities: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1030–1050.
the groups’ complaints: Ibid., 0989; Bower, 158.
Patin’s industrial vision: RG 319 Albert Patin, “Statements Made by Paperclip Specialist Albert Patin, 18 Oc
tober 1948.”
Patin acknowledged that his wartime access: Ibid.
“improve the morale”: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 0989–990; Bower, 158–60.
Brigadier General Samford’s office: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1008, 1055.
created a perfect storm: Bower, 161.
Patterson, now secretary of war, shifted: Maxwell AFB History office document, Memo, Patterson to Secy, General Staff, May 28, 1945, Subj: “German Scientists”; Lasby, 71, 303n.
left to their own devices: Bower, 165–68.
new program protocols: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1190–1192; Bower, 168.
program would be called Operation Paperclip: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1190-1192.
McNarney wrote to JIOA: RG 319, JIOA, General Correspondence 1946–1952.
“These [men] cannot now”: Bower, 176.
America’s “national interest”: Ibid.; Lasby, 174–75.
legendary Long Telegram: Thompson, 59. The telegram was sent on February 22, 1946. Keenan’s official title was “The Charge in the Soviet Union.”
regarding Soviet-American relations: “American Relations with the Soviet Union,” September 24, 1946; Report by Clark Clifford, Subject File; Conway Files; Truman Papers.
one thousand German scientists: The word “Austrian” was also added to the mission statement, even though there were only twelve Austrians on the list.
With presidential approval official: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 1190–1192; telephone interview with Clarence Lasby, March 23, 2013. On June 3, 1963, Lasby interviewed Truman and asked the former president about his classified decision to hire Hitler’s former scientists en masse. Truman told Lasby that because of America’s precarious relationship with Russia at the time, “this had to be done and was done.” These former Nazis, Truman insisted, “should always have an American ‘boss.’ ”
“in the capacity of a doctor”: RG 238 Kurt Blome, 201 Prisoner file, May 9, 1946.
unwanted spotlight: Deichmann, 282–89.
like Posen, only bigger: Covert, 21. Of the 2,273 personnel, 1,770 were military.
199 other germ bomb projects: Regis, 79.
Top Secret program: Covert, 15; Regis, 93.
made and sold vaccines: “Key Facts About Merck,” Associated Press, November 3, 2005.
he held the title: RG 330 Walter Schreiber, File RT-758-48, December 17, 1948.
Schreiber held the position: RG 330 Walter Schreiber, “Memorandum to President Truman from Boston physicians,” February 1952.
moved around various interrogation facilities: RG 330 Walter Schreiber, “The Case of Walter Schreiber,” February 17, 1952.
Dr. Schreiber took the stand: HLSL Item No. 286.
Wehrmacht’s medical chain of command: RG 330 Walter Schreiber, Report: Interrogation of General Schreiber, December 16, 1948.
invited Holzlöhner: RG 330 Walter Schreiber, Dr. Alexander and Hardy’s letter to the Physicians Forum, February 1952; NMT-1 Document No. 922.
Dr. Blome’s plague research: HLSL Item No. 286.
employed by the army: RG 238 Kurt Blome, 201 Prisoner file, May 9, 1946.
the prison complex: Henkel and Taubrich, 32.
“confidential change of status report”: RG 238, Kurt Blome 201, Prisoner file, No. 31G5173069.
fifty-eight German physicians: Benford “Report from Heidelberg,” 1–5, photograph Exhibit 16; the army also requisitioned the Helmholtz Institute and set up Strughold as director there, with a salary of 28,000 marks a year. The Helmholtz Institute had been home to Philipp Bouhler, head of the Action T-4 euthanasia program.
They all reported: Benford, “Report from Heidelberg,” 37.
regularly visited the facility: Ibid., 20.
compiled into a two-volume monograph: Ibid., 1–2.
five arrest warrants: RG 238 Theodor Benzinger, 201 File.
twenty-three defendants: Weindling, 6; sixteen Nazi doctors, four non-Party physicians, and three SS administrators.
“beyond the pale”: New York Times, “Germans on Trial in ‘Science’ Crimes,” December 10, 1946.
university skeleton collection of the Untermenschen: RG 319 August Hirt, OSS Biographical Report, n.d. A student of Hirt’s described him as missing part of his jaw, which made him speak with a “hissing sound.”
“the dregs of”: New York Times, “Germans on Trial in ‘Science’ Crimes,” December 10, 1946.
once been internationally esteemed: Interview with Dr. Götz Blome, August 3, 2012, in Germany; Report on the Third International Congress for Medical Postgraduate Study, 1937 and 1938.
listed the individual names: “Nazi ‘Doctors’ to Be Tried Next,” Stars and Stripes, October 12, 1946.
October 1942 conference: Bundesarchiv Ludwigsburg, Dr. Hubertus Strughold file, 828/73.
film screening: HLSL Item No. 1320; NMT-I Document No. 224.
that was not a crime: interviews with Rolf Benzinger, February 19, 2013, and April 10, 2013.
“After the showing of the film”: NMT-1 Document No. 224, August 21, 1946.
Benzinger insisted: Wright Library Papers. “Sworn Statement of Theodor Hannes Benzinger,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations, November 22, 1983; telephone interviews with Rolf Benzinger, February 19, 2013, and April 10, 2013.
a month in the Nuremberg jail: RG 238, Theodor Benzinger, 201 File.
Wright Field circulated his report: Weindling, 192. Years later, in an interview with journalist Linda Hunt, Theodor Benzinger blamed his arrest and incarceration at Nuremberg on Dr. Strughold. Benzinger said he was “set up” by Strughold—that Strughold did so as a means of deflecting his own participation in war crimes. Strughold “had to put the blame on someone [else] because he was so vulnerable,” Benzinger told Hunt. “He was wedged in amongst all the criminals and his way out was to finger me.”
“interrogations were sloppy”: Weindling, 193.
thirty-four of the doctors remaining: Bullard and Glasgow, 64–66.
what sentences would be imposed: Steinbach, 84.
“I wanted the condemned men”: Andrus, 186.
alternating its hiding place: Ibid., 184. Taylor, in his book, suggests that Göring might have had help from an American guard from Texas in hiding the poison vial.
river: Andrus, 198. Taylor also refers to this in his book, but adds that he could not verify it as fact.
“I hanged those ten Nazis”: Quoted in Time, October 28, 1946, p. 34.
Chapter 13: Science at Any Price
“State would accept as final”: Bower, 180.
Russian army’s newspaper: New York Times, “U.S., Britain Hold German Experts, Berlin Communist Papers Charge,” October 27, 1946.
“apply for citizenship”: “U.S. To Offer Citizenship to German Scientists,” Associated Press, November 24, 1946.
sanitized version of its program: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 0874–0875.
“I wish we had more of them”: “Nazi Brains Help Us,” Life, December 9, 1946; Newsweek, December 9, 1946, pp. 68–69; Herbert Shaw, “Wright Field Reveals ‘Project Paperclip,’ ” Dayton Daily News, December 4, 1946.
“This Command is cognizant”: RG 330 Emil Salmon, JIOA Form No. 3.
provided photographs: Time and Life photographs are now Getty Images and were taken by Thomas D. McAvoy.
news stories about the scientists: History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip, 0867–0871; Lasby, 186; Hunt, 36.
“We object not because they are citizens”: Bower, 189.
With its more than thirty rooms: O’Donnell, 24.
Raven Rock Mountain Complex, or Site R: Interviews with Dr. Leonard Kreisler, 2012–2013, in Nevada. Kreisler served as the post doctor at Fort Detrick and Site R in the mid- to late 1950s.
Reich’s Demag motorcar company: Bundesarchiv Ludwigsburg, Georg Rickhey file, B162/25299.
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oversaw the construction: RG 330 Georg Rickhey, “Condensed statements of my education and my activities,” March 4, 1948; “Transcript of Conference of May 6, 1944 in the office of Director General Rickhey.” This document is from the DOJ, Office of Special Investigations.
Rickhey and Patin’s black market business: RG 319 Georg Rickhey, Summary, “Georg Rickhey’s mail from wife, sister, brother,” October 7, 1946.
liked to gamble: Ibid.
Nehlsen decided he had had enough: RG 330 Hermann Nehlsen, October 17, 1947.
Putt had a gentleman’s agreement: RG 330 Georg Rickhey, May 19, 1947; Hunt, 38.
Wright Field mail censors: RG 330 Hermann Nehlsen, October 17, 1947; Hunt, 37–42.
“One of the group who acted”: RG 330 Georg Rickhey. Memorandum for the Director of Intelligence, December 19, 1946.
The Pentagon assigned: Ibid. Colonel Lewis also requested “a more comprehensive investigation of scientists requested for shipment into the Unites States.”
five-year contract: RG 330 Georg Rickhey, Document No. 1258.
Putt suggested: RG 319 Georg Rickhey, December 19, 1946.
Nehlsen swore: Ibid.
Voss also testified: Werner Voss changed his story twice. Smith interrogation of Werner Voss, in United States of America v. Arthur Kurt Andrae et al., Preliminary Investigation file, roll 1.
At Fort Bliss, in the evenings: Huzel, 215: According to Dieter Huzel, these were “simple, average people who were happy to have escaped the more serious consequences of the war, and who, with nothing else to do, devoted themselves with enthusiasm to their tasks.… As a result, the food was excellent.”
his findings: Major Eugene Smith to Air Provost Marshal, “Investigation Regarding Activities of Dr. Georg Rickhey, Former Director-General of the Underground Mittelwerk Factory Near Nordhausen, Germany,” June 10, 1947, in United States of America v. Arthur Kurt Andrae et al., Preliminary Investigation file, roll 1; Hunt, 62–69.
three thousand SS officers: Aalmans, postscript.
“I just saw a tiny headline”: Bower, 201. Author’s note: Coming across this quote in Bower’s book was one of my favorite moments researching the book.
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