The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War [Hardcover]

Dennis Piszkiewicz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0275952177 | ISBN-13: 978-0275952174 | Edition: 1St Edition

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The German rocket pioneers, led by Wernher von Braun, were inspired originally by dreams of spaceflight in 1930s Weimar Republic. But the combination of economic depression and the enormous expense of their research led this group of dreamers to enter the employ of the army that funded their research, so long as the rocket team produced missiles for the Third Reich. In the throes of Germany's impending defeat, Hitler ordered their V-2 rocket into mass production at rates that required the use of slave labor from Nazi concentration camps. At war's end, von Braun and his team surrendered to the Americans; in the States, they continued building rockets that included the first ICBMs as well as the Saturn V, which took men to the moon. Piszkiewicz's retelling of their story portrays the Germans as willing participants in Nazi war crimes in an account that lacks the sympathetic slant of Frederick Ordway and Mitchell Sharpe's The Rocket Team (LJ 8/79) or the complexity of Michael Neufeld's The Rocket and the Reich (LJ 1/95). Given the ambiguities of the rocketeers' story, the recommended choice among the three accounts remains Neufeld's.?Thomas J. Frieling, Bainbridge Coll., Ga.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“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

“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, The Nazi Rocketeers tells the true story of how these men enthusiastically participated in the Nazi cause and crimes.”–Jewish World Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Trade; 1St Edition edition (September 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275952177
• ISBN-13: 978-0275952174
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,005,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My "Fair and Balanced" View of The Nazi Rocketeers, February 22, 2008

By 

Keith Mirenberg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nazi Rocketeers, The: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (Stackpole Military History Series) (Paperback)

I learned quite a bit about recorded history that I previously knew nothing about prior to reading this book. I think it is a necessary read for both critics and admirers of von Braun and gave the book 3 stars to help balance the statistics.

I count myself as a life long admirer of Werner von Braun and went into engineering because of his inspiring work as well as the many public appearances he made on TV in the 50's when discussing the space program before there was one.

The notes written by the author demonstrate his passion and feelings about the many poor souls who suffered injury or death from the V-2 assembly effort at the terrible work camps and the ultimate delivery of these weapons in England and particularly London. His feelings are clear and the perspective from which he drafted his thoughts on von Braun are very understandable.

From my read of this book the record does give one pause and cause to think about what was done in order to advance early rocket work by von Braun. I believe that the scientists and engineers who worked on the Manhattan Project were against the use of the atomic bomb, but fully supported and applied their talents to make the bomb to help end a war. I also believe that they had some faith in their basic form of government which according to what I have read, General Dornberger and von Braun did not.

For what my opinion is worth it does appear that von Braun certainly compromised his values to help make his rocket dream a reality. I think the book provides both sides of the story by accurately documenting history, at least as it was recorded. We will never know exactly what happened or what von Braun's thoughts were.

The record shows that von Braun was a brilliant engineer, manager, and spokesmen for all forms of rocket research in both Germany and the United States and was a loyal citizen of his adopted country until his death. While a member of the Nazi party he was jailed for his interest in developing space flight and then released through the efforts of General Dornberger. The record is mixed. The book was still a very valuable read and I would recommend it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wernher von Braun, March 29, 2008

By 

St Claire D. Sease (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nazi Rocketeers, The: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (Stackpole Military History Series) (Paperback)

I got this book since the Dora Concentration Camp was liberated by the 3d Armored Division during WWII and my father was in the 3d Armored Division at that time. Even though I learned a lot from the book that I did not know, to me the author was very biased against Wernher von Braun due to his participation in developing the V-1 and V-2 rockets that did so much damage to London.

The way I look at it, Wernher von Braun joined the SS just to keep his dream alive of building rockets to go into space. He was successful in that attempt when he joined NASA where the Saturn rocket was built that took man to the moon. There is nothing in the book that I could find that definitely states that von Braun even went to the concentration camps though he did go to the factory in the mountain where the rockets were built and could see first-hand the conditions under which the prisoners worked.

The one thing about this book is that the whole chronology of the Nazi rocket program is laid out from beginning to end so you are not looking backwards to find something that happened at one space in time. That makes it a lot easier to find out how the Nazi rocket program developed over time up to the end of WWII. What is not played out is the further development of the rocket program after the scientists came to the United States where they proceeded to be the forefathers of the United States journey into space.

What is not brought out in detail is the way the United States used the Nazi rocket scientists to further develop the rockets that put man on the moon, satellites in orbit that we now depend on for everything from television, communications, weather forecasting, etc. And, let us not forget the satellites that have gone to the various planets in our solar system and beyond to learn more about this rock in space we live on. I would like to see a book devoted to the Nazi rockets scientists who more then likely were the developers of this technology.

And,I wold like to see a more unbiased biography of Wernher von Braun come out that pertains to the contribution he made to the United States rocket program.

38 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very biased historical revision of Von Braun, December 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (Hardcover)

Piszkiewicz does a good job with getting the historical documentation down but fails miserably when he outs his obvious anti-Von braun spin to them. He constantly speculates without facts about Von Braun's thoughts, beliefs and motives, always casting them in a negative manner. He goes into detail about Himmler's attempts to eliminate Von Braun and the danger that posed and still castigates Von Braun for not acting to help the Dora workers. He dedicates the book to the V2 and Dora victims which seems to be why he wrote this revisionist tale. It is his way to find someone to blame and Von Braun seems to be as good as target as any for the author to attack. He admits the V2 was not an effective weapon yet he ignores the huge drain on resources that it had on the German war machine. This drain was praised by Winston Churchill for keeping more planes and guns off the field of battle, saving lives. He also twists quotes and facts out of context, a sin for a historian. This book is not about history so much as it is an attempt to discredit Von Braun. No documentation or factual evidence is ever presented to show Von Braun could have done anything to help the Dora workers. Von Braun was not a saint but neither was he a war criminal.