Wernher von Braun - The Nazi inside NASA Documentary

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#Biography #History #Documentary

[karlkarlos]

Lets be honest. The allied only prosecuted Nazis if they weren't useful to them.

[dustynewman]

In the mid 1970s, I met a gentleman who was one of the scientists who came to the US with VonBraun. He worked for NASA for many years, and gave me the best birthday gifts a 7 year old space fan could have. A stack of photos of the Earth taken from the moon. Keep in mind, this was years before the internet. You couldn't download things. The back of the photos were stamped "genuine Kodak Paper. Property of NASA". He said "We were going to throw them away. I thought you might like them".

[taylorqueensbury]

My grandfather worked for Von Braun. As a German-American family, we took pride in no longer being nazis. The space program is a German American contribution. It makes me happy.

Werher, ich liebe dich

[Ekphrasys]

Germany during Nazism had the best professionals you could find on earth…. Ranging from philosophy to anthropology, engineers, scientists, doctors, mechanics
And so on …. If you consider all that knowledge (yes it was pre-existent) was put on the road in nearly 10 years it’s amazing …

[iammamasan]

I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama during the 60's and let me tell you when they did night-time static testing of those Saturn boosters it shook the earth and lit up the sky. I wondered if the end of the world had come. I attended school with the kids of those NAZI rocket scientists and they were some of the nicest people I have ever known, both the kids and their parents. One of my teachers in high school was a Baron, son of a NAZI scientist. Ain't life a funny thing?

[garysangiacomo]

I can’t answer the narrator’s question per se, but I would make two comments: the first is that Van Braun and the other German engineers, I believe, were doing what they were interested in, which was designing and building rockets with the goal of space travel. Once Hitler and the Nazi’s took complete control, the rocket engineers, like every other German could not refuse commands from the top. Else they’d be executed or sent to concentration camp. My second thought is that following the end of WWII, neither the German engineers nor the American troops wanted the Russians to obtain those resources.

[NapFloridian]

Without this German, the US would have never send anybody to the moon... true

[carolbutler]

I was born in 1945 at the Redstone Arsenal Hospital near Huntsville, Alabama. Growing up I spent many summers in Huntsville with my grandparents.I remember heated conversations about Wernher Von Braun and his exalted position in the space industry. After many years he became a respected member of that community.

[FLORATOSOTHON]

In the beginning the "Germans" as they were called, were marginalized and only when the US Navy's program Vanguard failed to put a satellite in orbit, Von Brown and his team were called in to save the day. The rocket used to launch explorer 1 was not Jupiter but an evolution of Redstone called Juno 1. Jupiter and Thor missiles were developed later and were larger rockets using kerosene as fuel instead of alcohol. Initially these were military IRBM rockets but later found their way in to the space program. Thor had a very successful carrier as a satellite launch vehicle, while Jupiter surrounded by Redstone derivatives burning Kerosene, were used as the basis for the first stage of the Saturn 1B rocket, used to test the Apollo space craft in low Earth orbit.

[henschthedane]

I don't think Wernher von Braun was a nazi in his heart, but he was surely an opportunist.
The songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer illustrated this very well in his song about Wernher von Braun.
Youn can find the song here on Youtube.

[gilbertogarbi]

In spite of everything one can raise against this genius, it is undeniable that he made a huge contribuition for the cientific progress of mankind.

[geoffm]

Von Braun was a brilliant engineer and scientist. A gifted individual whose work led directly to the US landing the first man on the moon.

[beany]

Never realised how young he was at the beginning of the war let alone to be a rocket engineer at that point and coming with the ideas he had that would change the world.

[joshjosh]

The more I learn about this guy the more I like him!

[ethanramos]

“Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you it to a surgeon or murderer, each will use it differently”
Wernher von Braun

[erhardspies]

Please don't call Wernher von Braun a Nazi. Joining the party was often unavoidable, in some cases you could even lose your job.
Both my grandfathers were in the party for this reason. But they did not support the ideology. One of them was a factory director, and of couse he had to work with POWs, because they were assigned to him. But he treated them well, and that saved his life, because when the Russians captured his city and took him prisoner, his POWs defended him, so the Russians set him free.
My parents, who were teenagers at that time, used to say that who grew up in a democracy has no idea what it means to live in a dictatorship. You cannot trust anybody, even your closest friends and relatives could have been spies and reported you.

[richardgoffin-lecar]

I believe that Von Braun was a brilliant scientist, who happened to be a German. What was he supposed to do? If he had refused to work for the Nazi regime, he would have probably finished his life in Dachau.
I have also heard, from several sources, tha Von Braun played a substantial part in the Apollo 13 rescue. Because of his history, he never received the rightful credit for it. It does not alter the fact that those three astronauts Lovell, Haise, and Swigert, returned to Earth alive!

[jamesjackovich]

Robert Goddard invented the first liquid fueled rocket in 1920, when Von Braun was captured he said he used Goddards calculations but on a larger scale

[OilHist]

My great uncle Dr. Edward van Driest was a rocket scientist and worked on the Apollo project alongside Wernher von Braun. I'm not sure how close they were, but they did know each other. My uncle was about a year younger than Wernher. I'm sure my uncle did not know it at the time, but they were 16th cousins twice removed. I'm sure he would be proud.

[willengel]

are you going to do a documentary on the Japanese war criminal who was responsible for Unit 731 then became consultant to Fort Detrick?