From what I’m finding about him, the only reason he really joined in with the nazi party was to be able to make rockets and do aerospace engineering. It’s not the best look but it’s not like he was also a psychopath strong desire to kill Jewish people.
I’m not gonna defend his actions. But also, they choice there’s would’ve been to abandon rocketry and become an armed rebel…or keep your good position while trying to ignore all the nasty shit that goes into it.
I’m not excusing his behaviour, but from a rational, realistic, perspective how many of us would really be up for throwing everything away, risking everyone you love and know, etc etc.
If everyone would’ve been against the nazis, they wouldn’t have gotten that powerful to begin with.
Oh yeah. I absolutely think that the US did the right thing with Von Braun with Paperclip, including his naturalized citizenship and the eventual National Medal of Science, that was well-earned.
I just think we should absolutely not white wash the history at the same time. People are complex entities who are capable of both evil and good.
The V2 assembly site was located right next to a concentration camp, and they used slave labor from that concentration camp to build the rockets.
Do we know for certain that he believed in the ideals of the Nazi party? No. Did he ever try to fight the system in even the smallest way? Also no.
The best you can say for him is that he was indifferent to the suffering of the slaves being used to assemble the rockets, and willing to allow the rockets to be used to attack London.
In the “Nazi bar” analogy, he’s a Nazi who goes to the Nazi bar wearing a Nazi uniform, and the best you can hope for is that he’s going for the beer and not because he likes hanging out with the other Nazis.
Which honestly would have been fine (relatively) given the situation had he fucking addressed it after the fact
“Yes, Jewish slaves built my rockets before being killed. Had I not helped, I’d have been one of them” is all he needed to say, it’s a very easy to understand position
“I’m apolitical” is what he said instead
Verner was a fucking Nazi, only a guilty man would say that shit
From what I’m finding about him, the only reason he really joined in with the nazi party was to be able to make rockets and do aerospace engineering. It’s not the best look but it’s not like he was also a psychopath strong desire to kill Jewish people.
He also oversaw slave labor as part of his job, and he was well aware that the rockets were terror bombing civilians in England.
More prisoners died building the V-2 rockets than were killed by them in attacks.
I’m not gonna defend his actions. But also, they choice there’s would’ve been to abandon rocketry and become an armed rebel…or keep your good position while trying to ignore all the nasty shit that goes into it.
I’m not excusing his behaviour, but from a rational, realistic, perspective how many of us would really be up for throwing everything away, risking everyone you love and know, etc etc.
If everyone would’ve been against the nazis, they wouldn’t have gotten that powerful to begin with.
“Since we’re stuck in here, you might as well answer my question about the French resistance…”
Again not defending or excusing nazi fucks. Just pointing out hindsight is 2020
Oh yeah. I absolutely think that the US did the right thing with Von Braun with Paperclip, including his naturalized citizenship and the eventual National Medal of Science, that was well-earned.
I just think we should absolutely not white wash the history at the same time. People are complex entities who are capable of both evil and good.
Problem is he pretended he was apolitical and that he didn’t know after the fact
When a simple “yeah they’d have fucking killed me had I tried escaping” would have been a lot less self-incriminating than “idc, me like rockets :)”
There was always defecting. He was a respected rocket scientist
The V2 assembly site was located right next to a concentration camp, and they used slave labor from that concentration camp to build the rockets.
Do we know for certain that he believed in the ideals of the Nazi party? No. Did he ever try to fight the system in even the smallest way? Also no.
The best you can say for him is that he was indifferent to the suffering of the slaves being used to assemble the rockets, and willing to allow the rockets to be used to attack London.
In the “Nazi bar” analogy, he’s a Nazi who goes to the Nazi bar wearing a Nazi uniform, and the best you can hope for is that he’s going for the beer and not because he likes hanging out with the other Nazis.
Ok but he did knowingly benefit from aiding genocide. And not in a “halfway across the world” way, in a “used concentration camp labor” way
Which honestly would have been fine (relatively) given the situation had he fucking addressed it after the fact
“Yes, Jewish slaves built my rockets before being killed. Had I not helped, I’d have been one of them” is all he needed to say, it’s a very easy to understand position
“I’m apolitical” is what he said instead
Verner was a fucking Nazi, only a guilty man would say that shit
Yeah. The bar isn’t at Schindler, it should’ve been, but it’s definitely above apolitical