Overview

Wernher von Braun is known to many as a brilliant pioneer of rocketry who left Germany in 1945 to become a key advisor in America's space program. Until now, few realize the bloody legacy he left behind. The Nazi Rocketeers tells the story of how von Braun and his fellow scientists abandoned their initial dreams of space exploration in favor of creating the devastating V-2 ballistic missile. This weapon enabled the Nazis to precipitate mass destruction and loss of life. Contrary to previous accounts, this history proves that von Braun and his colleagues were not forced under duress to turn their rockets into weapons of war. They were, in fact, highly ambitious members of the Nazi movement who willingly put their creation to lethal use. In return, honors were bestowed on them from the Third Reich and Hitler himself. Perhaps the most shocking revelation is the collaboration between the scientists and the SS in the exploitation of concentration camp slave labor for the building of the V-2 missiles. In addition to addressing an overlooked portion of World War II study, this book is a sobering testament to the consequences of corrupted genius. In the late 1920s, Herman Oberth, an early theoretician of space travel, told the world of his plan for using liquid-fueled rockets as vehicles for space travel. To his surprise and delight, he found himself with a group of young German disciples, prominent among them Wernher von Braun, who wanted to turn this dream into reality. During the years of the Third Reich, with von Braun as their technical leader, these men developed the first modern rockets and attended at the birth of the Space Age. Although von Braun and his fellow rocket scientists dreamed of exploring space, they readily embraced the goal of creating weapons of terror and mass destruction. The myth they encouraged after the war described them as brilliant visionaries whose genius was exploited by the Nazi regime. Now, 50 years later, The Nazi Rocketeers tells the true story of how these men enthusiastically participated in the Nazi cause and crimes. The Nazi Rocketeers describes how Hermann Oberth, Wernher von Braun, and their colleagues progressed, from the innocent dream of space travel, through the development of the V-2 ballistic missile, to the transfer of their technological legacy to the Americans. Other notable Nazi Rocketeers are Army General Walter Dornberger, career soldier and von Braun's mentor; Albert Speer, technocrat and advocate of the rocket as a weapon; and SS General Hans Kammler, architect of Auschwitz and director of the V-2 rocket war. The book tells how Wernher von Braun and many of his fellow rocket scientists were early and active members of the Nazi movement; von Braun was both a member of the Nazi party and a major in the SS. For their service to the Nazi cause, they were honored by the Third Reich and by Hitler himself. Most damning is the revelation that they actively collaborated with the SS in the exploitation of concentration camp slave labor to build the V-2 missile. This rocket, when used as a weapon, killed thousands; yet tens of thousands of prisoners died at the Dora concentration camp, where the rockets were built under the direction of the SS and the rocket scientists. The Nazi Rocketeers tells the story of the technical genius and moral corruption of the creators of the first modern rockets.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Praeger Publishers Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.652kg
ISBN:  

9780275952174

ISBN 10:   0275952177
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   14 September 1995
Recommended Age:   From 7 to 17 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Dreams and Illusions When Space Travel was Science Fiction The P. T. Barnum of Rockets The Baron's Son and the Soldier The Birth of the Third Reich and the Death of Conscience Rockets for the Reich Rocket City: The Secret Base at Peenemuende War Ascending Casualties of the Blitzkrieg The Architects of Destruction: The Men Who Built Armaments and Auschwitz The First Spaceship and the Fuehrer's Dream The Missile Arsenal: Demonstrations for Leaders of the Reich A Command Performance for the Fuehrer Terror and Counter Terror The Flames of Peenemuende Rockets Rising From the Ashes The Nazi ""Metropolis"": A Subterranean Rocket Factory Dangerous Occupations: Rockets and Politics in the Third Reich The Business of Death The Plot to Kill the Fuehrer The Rocket War Vengeance Weapon-2 ""Compared to Dora, Auschwitz was easy!: Death and Survival at the Rocket Factory Final Flights from Peenemuende: Von Braun Plans for the Future Scorched Earth: Hitler's Solution to Defeat The Alpine Redoubt: A Refuge and a Trap Defeat and Triumph Twilight of the Trolls: The Death of the Third Reich Weapons for the Next War Aged Warriors and Astronauts Epilogue Time's Vengeance on the Rocket Warriors References and Notes Maps Photographs Index"

Reviews

?Piszkiewicz tells how the dream of space exploration was perverted by the complicity of its developers in Nazi military goals.... In the course of a decade's work as the inspirational figure and chief engineer in the program that developed rockets for Hitler, von Braun joined the SS, was promoted to major, and regularly curried favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust. In the final years of the war, construction of the rockets was carried out by slave laborers in two giant underground facilities... Thousands died of starvation and abuse, and mass executions were common. Yet at war's end von Braun and his colleagues thought only of how they might trade in on their skills to guarantee good treatment. They managed to continue their work in America virtually without interruption.... This is a gripping tale.?-Kirkus Reviews

Medical-products scientist Piszkiewicz tells how the dream of space exploration was perverted by the complicity of its developers in Nazi military goals. It is a sickening story, and after reading it, you will no longer laugh at that old joke in which Werner von Braun says: I aimed for the stars - but I hit London. Hitting London was the least of it. In the course of a decade's work as the inspirational figure and chief engineer in the program that developed rockets for Hitler, von Braun joined the SS, was promoted to major, and regularly curried favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust. In the final years of the war, construction of the rockets was carried out by slave laborers in two giant underground facilities, which were comanaged by SS General Hans Kammler, the architect who built Auschwitz, and by Arthur Rudolf, von Braun's right-hand man, who decades later would manage development of the Saturn V rocket that carried the first men to the moon. Conditions were appalling at the underground factories, which, by the author's estimate, von Braun must have visited at least 25 or 30 times. Thousands died of starvation and abuse, and mass executions were common. Yet at war's end von Braun and his colleagues thought only of how they might trade in on their skills to guarantee good treatment. They managed to continue their work in America virtually without interruption. This is not in its essentials a new story. Rudolf was exposed as a war criminal in the late 1970s and was deported from the United States; von Braun's record was there for anybody who wanted to take an honest look at it, although not many did. Piszkiewicz does. And while his style of presentation is clumsy and unsophisticated, this is nonetheless a gripping tale. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

DENNIS PISZKIEWICZ has been an enthusiast of space exploration since his childhood in the 1950s. In the post-Sputnik era, he chose a career in science. During his years of teaching college-level chemistry and biochemistry, he received a NASA fellowship. For the past 10 years he has been a scientist in the medical products industry, and he has spent his spare time exploring the origins of rocket development and space exploration.

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