Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon [Hardcover]

Dennis Piszkiewicz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0275962172 | ISBN-13: 978-0275962173

Perhaps no one in history has played the role of scientist as celebrity with as much skill--and as much deception--as Wernher von Braun. America's leading rocket expert and most enthusiastic advocate of space travel, he had a closet full of secrets that would have shocked his colleagues and millions of admirers if they had been told during his lifetime. Wernher von Braun:The Man Who Sold the Moon is the first critical biography of the young German aristocrat who created Hitler's most advanced terror weapon, the V-2 rocket, and who came to the U.S. under the Army's Project Paperclip to develop missiles as a central weapon of the Cold War. The book reveals that factions of the U.S. Army, in their zeal to have von Braun's team of scientists working for American interests, covered up what they knew about his complicity in Nazi causes and abetted him in the perpetuation of the myth he carefully created about his past. Declassified Army documents and war crime transcripts, as well as the discovery of Europe of Dora concentration camp survivors' accounts, and von Braun's published writings and personal papers, have enabled biographer Dennis Piszkiewicz to document von Braun's career more fully than any previous historian. The man who tirelessly promoted space travel, worked with NASA to collaborate with Walt Disney creating television programs and the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland, and put the first astronauts on the moon, was actually a member of the Nazi party, held a rank in the SS equivalent to that of Major, and was an accomplice in the use of slave labor from the Dora concentration camp to produce his V-2 rocket. When the Third Reich collapsed, von Braun unashamedly switched his allegiance to the victor, and adroitly distanced himself from his Nazi partners. By going on to promote NASA and "sell" the American people on his dreams of space exploration, he became the man who sold the moon--a man who began his brilliant career by selling his soul to the Nazis.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (1912-77)?who helped develop the U.S. missile arsenal during the Cold War, built rockets for NASA, helped put astronauts on the moon and designed Disney's Tomorrowland?was a major in the Nazi SS and one of Hitler's elite. Designer of Germany's V-2 rocket, which killed thousands of British civilians during WWII, von Braun supervised the rocket's construction at the Nazis' Mittelwerk factory, which used slave labor from the nearby Dora concentration camp. This gripping, well-documented biography shatters von Braun's claim that he never witnessed maltreatment of prisoners?a claim buttressed by the U.S. Army in its attempts to cover up von Braun's Nazi record to facilitate his entry into the U.S. Space historian Piszkiewicz (The Nazi Rocketeers) synthesizes available bits of information that prove von Braun's complicity. SS Major von Braun made at least one "official visit of inspection" to Dora in 1944 and participated in a Nazi administrative meeting at Mittelwerk to discuss bringing in a thousand French civilians as slave laborers; over 700 of them later died there. Moreover, in a letter to Mittelwerk's production manager, von Braun tells how he himself went to the notorious Buchenwald camp to arrange for the transport of more prisoners to Mittelwerk. Von Braun, who became a U.S. citizen in 1955, was a national hero to many and prophet of the space age. Including a history of the U.S.-Soviet space race, this biography makes a convincing case that he was also a war criminal, his past sanitized for expediency. The book may provoke moral outrage and a reassessment of the history of America's space program, launched with the help of 118 German rocket scientists brought here from Hitler's Third Reich.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Piskiewicz does a very good job in exploring the American, Russian, and German political, personal, and social factors that hindered or promoted the development of rockets and eventual travel into space. Highly recommended. General readers; undergraduates; graduates.”–Choice

“The Man Who Sold the Moon is lucidly written, well presented, has a comprehensive reference list and bibliography, and is definitely worth reading.”–Isis

“[T]his biography makes a convincing case that [von Braun] was also a war criminal, his past sanitized for expediency. The book may provoke moral outrage and a reassessment of the history of America's space program, launched with the help of 118 German rocket scientists brought here from Hitler's Third Reich.”–Publishers Weekly

“Excellent pictures, end notes, lengthy bibliography, and index....a fine new piece about the space scientist's contribution.”–Society for German American Studies

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (November 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275962172
• ISBN-13: 978-0275962173
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Biased, August 5, 2001

By 

"timewalker" (Long Beach, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon (Hardcover)

BIASED - That is, unbalanced research by a man who could easily have gone to some firsthand sources but who evidently reached his conclusions before he even bagan his study, then stuck to those conclusions, with all the skill of a lawyer deciding which evidence to select and exclude, in order to show us only one half of a man's face. We are then left to judge, from that half-portrait, the full measure of the man. Granted: von Braun aimed for the stars and sometimes hit London, but he was by every account I know a timid and at times frightened man who was far, far from being a devoted believer in nazism. The historian Walter Lord (who worked for the OSS during World War II) found no similarities between the captured von Braun and Hitler's architect Speers, (the latter spoke loudly and with great charisma about being "the repentant nazi" but the remorse was, according to Lord, all pretense). Sir Arthur C. Clarke had known von Braun before the war and they remained very close friends after the war, right up to the time of the rocket pioneer's death. George Zebrowski and I asked Arthur, some two years ago, about von Braun's knowledge of slave labor at the rocket factory. Arthur said von Braun had told him: "I knew there were bad things happening... prison laborers... slave labor... hangings. I knew some things, and I knew that I could have made an effort to learn more. But I was not brave enough to learn more. If I would have learned more, I would then have felt morally obligated to speak out, again, and try to do something about it. And then I would have very quickly become just another corpse. So I looked away... I looked away." These words echo the lament of Charles Victor Groves in his letters to Walter Lord, describing another cold night in another time and place - but the questions remain the same: What would we have done, in their place? How much does darkness weigh?

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "Tabloid investigative report" - and pretty bad at that, February 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon (Hardcover)

Don't be fooled by the title and outline. While being sold as a biography, this book's place is in "tabloid investigative report"/"war crimes" category.

It is not a biography of Wernher von Braun "per se", neither is it the history of rocket development under his supervision. Rather it is a highly emotional attempt to prove that:

1) Wernher von Braun was a war criminal

2) he should have been put under trial, sentenced and serve the sentence

3) United States did wrong by bringing him in and using his skills and genius for US rocket program Period

The book presumably covers 30 years span from 1945 (von Braun arrival to US) to 1975 (his death). The developments of rocketry in this era are only a background for the author and never paid any serious attention. Mr. Pinzkiewicz 's real interest and effort are invested into collecting and presenting accusations against von Braun Nazi past in chronological order. The technical details of particular important developments of principal space programs are scarce, while "dirty clothes" and cover-up theories are inspected at length and with great interest.

The whole story of Moonship project from 1960 President Eisenhower directive to Apollo 11 landing in 1969 is covered in 9 pages(!). Wernher von Braun's one-time interchange with a French newspaper concerning his Nazi past takes 3 pages. Compare - 9 years of hard and complex work in 9 pages. Several days and several letters - 3 pages.

Even so - Mr. Pinzkiewicz seems never be able to get to any kind of consistent statement- either PRO or CONS. He never has the bravery to say "Wernher von Braun IS beyond reasonable doubt a war criminal based on this, this and that". Instead we have tabloid quality book - gossips, partial quotes, twisted interpretations - enough to plant a seed of doubt, but not substantial enough to be accused of a lie.

It is truly remarkable that in the whole book not a SINGLE document is ever quoted in full - a must for an investigative report, even trashy one.

Wernher von Braun was not an angel. His most productive years were during a cruel and controversial period of our history. If Mr. Pinzkiewicz tried to show this person as a ruthless, blood-thirsty, dishonest and manipulative individual with selfish agenda, then he fails miserably to convince me.

As I stated in the very beginning, perhaps not so bad in the category of "tabloid investigative report", but has little merit for anything else.

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A biased biography, shallow and poorly researched., January 4, 2001

By 

Giovanni Abrate (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon (Hardcover)

The book is an extremely biased account of Wernher Von Braun's life. It makes a strong effort to find "skeletons" in Von Braun's closet, but finally fails miserably in its intent. The fact that the German scientist was, during WW2, a member of the Nazi party and was commissioned by the SS shouldn't surprise anyone who knows how, in order to succeed in the military-industrial complex of Nazi Germany, these were absolutely unavoidable prerequisites. The book is a witch-hunt against the man who, more than anyone else, created modern rocketry and opened the way to space exploration. His record as an American citizen is exemplary and he was a pillar of the community where he lived. The world of science owes Wernher Von Braun a debt of gratitude. Mr Piskiewicz's bitter biography is best avoided. There are other, better biographies of Von Braun available, namely the one by Ernst Stuhlinger and Frederick Ordway, who knew and worked with the German rocketry pioneer.