Operation Paperclip

According to a recent study by Google, Operation Paperclip is the third most commonly searched for topic by conspiracy therorists. It is also the fifth most common historical event search outside of a war. It is one of the most investigated topics from WWII, but most people have no clue what Operation Paperclip was.

Operation Paperclip was the US Government's code name for a program that was started after World War II. The goal of this program was to bring German scientists to the United States and the United Kingdom to find out what they were working on. This was not an attempt to prosecute these criminals, but to protect them. This was also an attempt to make sure that the knowledge of these scientists did not fall into the hands of the Soviet Union.

The Operation Paperclip program originally started as Operation Overcast in the US and Operation Surgeon in the UK. Operation Paperclip was officially started in September of 1946 when President Harry Truman agreed to share these scientists with the UK to assist with the growing issues between the United States and the Soviet Union. Truman was quoted in released documentation that he did not want any member of the Nazi Party or SS brought to the United States. This order was ignored.

Most of the scientists that were, "saved from disaster," during Operation Paperclip worked in the fields of aerodynamics, rocketry, technology, medicine, and chemistry (specializing in chemical weapons and chemical reactions). Because of their work with the Nazi Party, they would have been unable to apply for Visas to the United States.

When the Military originally contacted the US State Department about the scientists and Operation Paperclip, most of their Visas were denied because of their ties to the Nazi regime. When the CIA Director, Allen Dulles found out about the State Department's denial of Operation Paperclip he was furious that the State Department would not allow these scientists into the US. He had their dossiers modified to make sure that they did not appear to be criminals, and had them resubmitted. All of the scientists were then approved.

There were almost 500 scientists that were merged into programs at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico; military holdings in Huntsville, Alabama; and Fort Bliss in Texas. Their work on guided missile programs and ballistic missile technology led to the foundation of NASA and the controversial ICBM project. Over the next few years, another two hundred and fifty scientists would be brought to this country from Germany.

If one were to look over the list of Germans scientist who were brought here during Operation Paperclip, many of the names would stand out:

Arthur Rudolph

Arthur Rudolf became a Nazi in 1931. He became the Operations Director at the Mittelwork factory at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camps. In 1945, the US Government and Military labeled him as a Nazi who was a security threat to the world, dangerous, and sadistic.

When his resubmitted file was sent to the State Department it stated that he was not a member of the Nazi Party and was labeled as dangerous because of false information that was given by a spy who had later recanted his story.

In 1948, a Jewish-Austrian nurse who had been imprisoned at the Dora-Nordhausen camp told her supervisor that Rudolph had personally killed her father, and could not believe that he was in the US or that she was sent to work with him. The nurse was deported back to Austria two months later.

Rudolph ended up becoming a US citizen a few years after his assimilation into Operation Paperclip. He designed the Saturn 5 rocket that was used for the Apollo moon landing. In 1984, his original record was found and investigated. When he received word of this, he fled to West Germany.

Wernher Von Braun

Von Braun was the Technology Director at the Peenenunde Rocket Research Center. He oversaw the development of the V-2 rocket. These rockets were later used to against England. When his resubmitted dossier was sent to the State Department, it stated that he would play an important role in Operation Paperclip. It went on to say that he was not happy to have been a Nazi.

Von Braun worked on the ICBM project in the US, and then became the Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He also did work with the Disney, "World of Tomorrow." In 1970 he became NASA's Associate Administrator.

Kurt Blome

Kurt Blome was a high-ranking Nazi scientist who oversaw medical experiments on prisoners at multiple concentration camps. Among his experiments, it was known that he had prisoners infected with various plagues and diseases to devise vaccines. If a prisoner was not responding well to the treatments, he would have them executed or euthanized.

When he was originally captured, the Allied Forces reported his crimes, and his personal confession. During his trial at Nuremberg, many of the files that were to be used against him were lost. Among these files were documents with his signature that ordered the experiments on thousands of prisoners. Since these files were lost, he was acquitted of the charges. The notation on his file stated that the court had to accept his statement that he was ordered to conduct these experiments against his will.

Two months after his acquittal, he became a protected member of Operation Paperclip. In 1951, he was officially hired by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps to conduct experiments on chemical warfare. His public record does not show any mention that he was ever on trial at Nuremberg.

Major General Walter Schreiber

Schreiber was an intricate part of many of the experiments that were conducted at concentration camps during the war. He was arrested in 1945 by the Soviet Union and then released in 1948 in a trade with the United States for control of certain neighborhoods in Germany. During his trial at Nuremberg, he was accused of being not only an assistant on many of the torturous experiments, but also part of a Brain Trust that concocted many of the experiments.

Upon his release from the Soviet Union, he was brought into Operation Paperclip. His file also did not show that he was ever put on trial. Since he was in captivity in the Soviet Union at the time of the trial, his prosecution did not stand because he was unable to defend himself. He was assigned to the Air Force School of Medicine at Randolph Field in Texas.

In 1952, his cover was exposed to the US general population. Schreiber was then flown off to Buenos Aires at government expense so that he could be with his daughter. His future attempts for a Visa were denied.

Herman Becker-Freysing

This doctor was convicted to twenty years in prison at the Nuremberg Trials. He was convicted during the exploration into medical indecency that was conducted at concentration camps. He conducted experiments on Dachau inmates. In what he considered his favorite experiment, he would starve inmates, and then force them to drink sea water.

Before his trial, he was given a stipend by the US Government to list and explain the experiments that he partook in. That document was released under the Freedom of Information Act.

He disappeared some time before his transfer to prison. His name appears on unclassified documents as being one of the members of Operation Paperclip. No other information is known.

Siegfried Ruff

Ruff was also one of the defendants at the medical trials during Nuremberg, and was also paid by the US Government for listings of his experiments. During his trial, he was charged with the deaths of over 80 Dachau inmates. He would put them in a low-pressure chamber that was designed to simulate altitudes of over 60,000 feet.

He acquitted because of a close decision by the voting judges at the trial. He is listed on the documentation for Operation Paperclip, but no other military or government documentation exists.

General Reinhard Gehlen

When the Nazi regime fell in Europe, Gehlen and many of his cohorts fled to the mountains of Bavaria. Gehlen had been a spy commander for the Nazis, and oversaw all of the intelligence that was complied about the Soviet Union. He oversaw the torture and execution of over four million Soviet prisoners. He devised multiple techniques for torturing prisoners to get the information that he wanted. Some of his torture techniques made their way to other concentration camps for experimentation in human pain limits.

In 1951, he was captured by the US Military and confessed to his continuing work to spy on the Soviet Union. He had always believed that the Nazi Party would rise again and his information was crucial to their revenge. He had knowledge of Operation Paperclip, and stated that he would give all of the files that he had collected before and since the War in trade for a permanent position inside Operation Paperclip.

Emil Augsburg and Dr. Franz Six

Gehlen recruited both of these scientists after his capture. Augsburg and Six had been part of the German mobile execution squad. Their job had been to travel around Germany and executed Soviets, Jews, and other minorities whenever they came across them. They are listed on the documentation for Operation Paperclip as being assistants to Gehlen.

Willi Krichbaum

Krichbaum was a senior Gestapo leader for southeastern Europe. When the Allied Forces captured him, he confessed to personally killing and raping, "More then I could remember." He was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg Trials. Ghelen was able to negotiate his release, and was listed as a bodyguard for many of the scientists of Operation Paperclip.

Heinrich Rupp

Rupp was one of the lead negotiators for the Nazi Party. After he was brought on board for Operation Paperclip, he was sent to Washington DC to assist in negotiations with other countries. His name has been linked to both the Savings and Loans scandal, and the Iran Contra Affair.

It is hard to fathom that the US Government would house such individuals. According to the Freedom of Information Act and the National Archives, the remaining classified documents pertaining to Operation Paperclip will not be released until 2015. By this time, all of the members of Operation Paperclip will be dead.