Richard Rashke - Useful Enemies

Sayer and Botting, America’s Secret Army.

Simpson, Blowback.

Spitz, Vivian. Doctors from Hell. Boulder, CO: Sentient, 2005.

Strughold, Hubertus. NA, RG 263, CIA Name Files, second release, Box 127.

Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, Vol. I. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949.

Weindling, Paul J. Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent. London: Macmillan, 2004.

74 T-teams or T-forces: Descriptions are based on Lasby and on Bower, The Pledge Betrayed.

74 For a detailed description of the loot, see Lasby, 25–26; and Bower, ibid., 96.

75 Operation Osavakim: Bower, ibid., 97.

75 “Competition is fierce… we were even stealing”: This and a description of the competition comes from Lasby, 8–30.

76 The description of the denazification program is based on Allied Control Authority Coordinating Committee Directive No. 38, “Arrest and Punishment of War Criminals, Nazis and Militarists and the Internment, Control, and Surveillance of Potentially Dangerous Germans,” NA, RG 59, 740.00.119, Box 3692, Oct. 14, 1946.

76 The sheer magnitude of the effort: Sayer, 293.

76 A U.S. denazification tally: “Monthly Denazification Report (MG/PS/13F) Based on Data Submitted by Ministers for Political Liberation as of September 30 1946.” Allied Control Authority Coordinating Committee Directive No. 38, ibid.

76 For “intelligence and military reasons”: Nazi War Crimes, 11. The quote comes from a May 10, 1945, directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

77 “normal Nazis”: Simpson, 35. Also Hunt, Bower, and Lasby.

77 “The Secretary of War has”: Oct. 1, 1945, as quoted in Goliszek, 99. 77 “The biggest, longest-running”: Hunt, 1.

77 Morton Hunt, who worked for the army recruiting scientists for Project Lusty, exposed the name in a two-part article in Nation, July 16 and July 23, 1949.

78 “It is the policy of the Government”: Proposed Policy for Exploitation, NA, RG 335, SWNCC 257/11, #1, Box 23; and Policy and Procedure to Facilitate Entry, NA, RG 335, SWNCC 257/14, Box 20. See also SWNCC 257/11, #2 (4).

78 “The War Department”: Department of State, “To the President,” Aug. 30, l946.

79 Simpson estimates that as many as 80 percent of the Paperclip scientists were former Nazis.

79 “Some of the world’s vilest”: Goliszek, 102.

79 The list of universities and industries comes from Lasby, 265.

79 The CIA Act of 1949 (Public Law 81–110) was passed by the 81st Congress. The one-hundred provision is found in section 8.

79 The list of universities and industries comes from Lasby, 265.

79 Neither a Nazi nor a Luftwaffe officer: Weindling, 66. Charles Allen refers to Strughold as a Nazi. The NYT incorrectly picked up the label from him.

80 “Jews had crowded”: “Strughold, Hubertus,” CIA memo A1–2062, NA, RG 263, Box 127, Dec. 28, 1951.

80 Rascher’s fellow doctors: Weindling, 75.

80 “Victims screamed in pain”: Trials of War Criminals, 11.

81 Victims called it the Skyride Machine: Allen, 8.

81 Described the murder of a thirty-seven-year old Jew: Ibid., 39. 81 “Some experiments”: Goliszek, 103ff. The author quotes a series of Rascher-to-Himmler reports.

81 He ordered the SS to execute: Hunt, 225.

82 Into a compendium: Ruff coauthored the compendium on aviation medicine with Strughold. The book, Compendium of Aviation Medicine (Grundriss Der Luft-Fahrmedizen ), has an introduction by their boss, Reich Surgeon General, Dr. Erick Hippke, Chief of the Medical Staff of the German Air Corps. The manual has a picture of the high-altitude pressure chamber used in the human experiments as well as tables and charts of the results.

83 Five of those scientists: The scientists were Herman Becker-Freyseng, Hans Romberg, Sigfried Ruff, Oskar Schroeder, and Georg Weltz. The Nuremberg Military Tribunals sentenced Becker-Freyseng to twenty years in prison (commuted to ten) and Schroeder to life (commuted to fifteen years). It acquitted the others because of probable doubt.

83 “Appropriately investigated”: Hunt, 232.

83 “Our inquiries about [Dr. Strughold]”: Ralph Blumenthal, “Drive on Nazi Suspect a Year Later: No U.S. Legal Steps Have Been Taken,” NYT, Nov. 23, 1974, which is based on Allen’s article in Jewish Currents.

Béon, Yves. Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. New York: Westview Press, 1997.

Biderman, Abraham H. The World of My Past. Melbourne: AHB, 1995. Self-published.

von Braun, Wernher. NA, RG 263, CIA Name Files, Boxes 151 and 152.

Dornberger, Walter. NA, RG 330, Foreign Scientists Case Files, Box 32.

Feigin, The Office of Special Investigations.

Michel, Jean. Dora. With Louis Mucera. Translated by Jennifer Kidd. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980.

Nahas, Mary. The Journey of Private Galione: How the Americans Became a Superpower. Enumclaw, WA: Pleasant World, 2004. Self-published.

Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich.

Ordway and Sharpe, The Rocket Team.

Sellier, André. A History of the Dora Camp. Translated by Stephen Wright and Susan Taponier. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003.

Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

85 Galione’s story is summarized from Nahas’s account. Nahas is Galione’s daughter and her book is based on her father’s recollections as told to her. The story is confirmed by Nelson Eaton, who liberated Dora with Galione.

85 Béon, Biderman, and Sellier are Dora survivors.

87 Michel describes the guards as Hungarian, 277.

87 “Skeletons wrapped in skin”: Nahas, 125.

87 Weighing less than: Sellier, 314.

87 “Out of a horror movie” and “you could see”: Ibid.

88 French Resistance fighter sang: Ibid.

88 They found about twelve hundred: Ibid., 137.

89 The two other camps were Ellrich and Harzungen.

89 The French and Belgians have established networks of Dora survivors.

91 “The majestic spectacle”: Speer, 368.

91 “Decide the war”: Ibid.

91 Worst of any SS camp: Michel, 64.

92 “At an infernal speed”: Ibid., 6. 92 “He died in agony”: Ibid., 105.

92 Sellier describes the lice epidemic and the SS concern about a typhus epidemic, 60.

92 “Over a thousand”: Michel, 68.

93 “I had to deal with”: Quoted by Sellier, 77–78. 93 “The conditions of these”: Speer, 370.

93 “They had to be forcibly”: Ibid., 371n.

93 For more details on the nationality breakdown at Dora, see Sellier, chap. 8, “Peoples of Dora.”

94 “Most distressing memories”: Words of survivor Jean-Pierre Couture, quoted by Sellier, 203.

93 Factory description by survivor Abraham Biderman: Biderman, 250ff.

94 They drowned in shit: Ibid., 223.

95 The SS hung fifty-eight: Ibid., 25.

95 The name of the island near Peenemünde was Greifswalder Oie.

95 “List of faulty rocket details”: Neufeld, 225.

95 “blizzard of changes”: Ibid.

95 Not five thousand at a crack: Speer, 369.

95 Estimates on how many died at Camp Dora and the other two camps vary. Béon placed the number at 20,000; Michel at 30,000. Sellier doesn’t venture an estimate.

96 The involvement of Dornberger, von Braun, and Rudolph comes from analyses by all the sources listed above. Some are based on survivor recollections, some on a short supply of documents.