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Evil Doctors and Scientists From World War II

Khalid Elhassan January 15, 2021 33 min

Second Battle of Champagne - Second Battle of Ypres — French soldiers wearing gas masks in WWI trenches, waiting for an order to launch an attack. Flickr

12. Did Wernher von Braun’s Good Outweigh His Evil?

Wernher von Braun enjoying a Coca Cola. Historical Media

Wernher von Braun was put in charge of the Saturn V rockets that sent the Apollo Program’s spacecraft to the Moon. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1975. Von Braun thus presents a conundrum and a moral dilemma. He is a pioneer who undoubtedly contributed much to the advancement of mankind in the space sciences. If our species ever become a multi-planetary one – something many scientists see as the only safeguard against our extinction in the next millennium – it will be thanks in large part to von Braun.

The Andromeda Galaxy – if we ever travel to the stars, it will be thanks in no small part to Wernher von Braun. Imgur

It is no exaggeration to say that von Braun was history’s most important and influential rocket engineer and space advocate. So there is no question that the man did a lot of good in his life. However, does that absolve him of his personal responsibility for having gone along with the Nazis? Does it wash away the stain of having been a loyal Nazi and member of the SS? Does it cleanse him of the evil of having been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of slave workers who perished while building his precious rockets? Was Wernher von Braun a Nazi villain, space hero, or both?

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.