Operation Paperclip: A Moral Dilemma
🎵Hava nagila hava nagila Hava nagila ve-nis'mecha 🎵
The lively notes of the clarinet, the enticing sound of the bow grazing the strings of the violin, the energy-filling taps of the tambourine, the melodious ensemble of them all, working together to fill a room with life.
The year is 1945. There is cause for celebration, Hava Nagila dances around the ears and hearts of the now free. We survived. But have we?
75 years later. 75 years since the day the “angels in green” came and freed the Jewish people. It has also been 75 years since Operation Paperclip began.
Many have never heard of Operation Paperclip or its twisted history. The reasons for it, the justifications, and the consequences have far eluded mainstream consciousness. The first time I heard of it was in the Amazon series Hunters.
Hearing Hava Nagila fills my soul with joy. “Let us rejoice and be happy”. It brings me an indescribable feeling of pride and connection to my culture. Growing up, my ears always perked up when I heard the word “Jewish” at school. Finally, I’d be learning about my people. Then the word “Holocaust” followed; it was never far behind. “I’ll take it,” I remember thinking. At least I would be learning some aspects about my people and their lives before the Holocaust. Much of my education in history revolved around World War 2 and its aftermath. I thought I knew most of the major events. I was wrong.
Throughout my life, I have grappled with the question of what it means to be American and further, what it means to be Jewish. I had trouble understanding why Jewish people were targets throughout history. In my understanding, Jewish people were some of the most generous, kind, and compassionate people I had ever met. I grew up celebrating the major holidays, and I remember hearing the stories my grandmother would tell us on Passover and Hanukkah. When I was younger, I didn’t always understand the importance of these stories. I was more concerned with filling my plate with latkes and blintzes and figuring out my strategy to find the afikomen. (Spoiler alert, I never was the first to find it). Now, I am proud to be Jewish and I listen to those stories more intently so that I can retell them in the future. As much as I’d like to say I’ve always been connected with my culture, the truth is, I haven't.
Operation Paperclip was suspiciously left out of the curriculum. It was an initiative to bring Nazi scientists to the United States to further progress the quest for space exploration and the development of missiles and rockets. Most of these scientists were Nazi party members, but not all of them aligned ideologically. In a totalitarian society like Nazi Germany, people felt they needed to join the party to better their social standing but did not necessarily agree with the ideology. Opportunities and resources were only accessible by members of the affluent party, in this context, the Nazis. Nonetheless, their actions and support promoted the Nazi regime. The scientists brought to the United States were supposed to be non-threatening members. The Jewish people were extremely dehumanized long before the Holocaust began. Members of the Nazi party who did not align ideologically didn’t want to risk their social standing to stand up for people who were so poorly regarded in society. They wanted to maintain and build their reputation and Nazi membership granted them oppotunity they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It can be morally ambiguous to implicate guilt on people who were simply party members for the actions of the greater Nazi regime. They represented the party with their work and progress but did not necessarily have a direct hand in the violence against the Jewish people. Their minds could be used for good, for scientific progress, yet a moral question remains. How do we judge someone’s morality? What level of immorality is deemed permissible?
The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency was created with the sole intent to recruit and hire Nazi scientists for Operation Paperclip. It was not hard work. The Americans were looking for Nazis and the Nazis were looking for a new home, why not spend it in the land of the free, home of racism and apple pie? Home, sweet home.
Some scientists made quite a name for themselves in the US. One Nazi scientist has a government building named after him and two others have prestigious national science prizes given in their names. The sad part is, I’m not even surprised. The US has a long history of blatant racism and prioritizing capitalism over morality. Annie Jacobsen, in her book Operation Paperclip, explains the scientists were originally brought over to aid the home of the brave and then return back to Germany after they finished work on the weapons intended to help the US defeat The Soviet Union in the Cold War. However, the scientists were asked to stay to aid in further projects and were granted American citizenship. Scientists such as Werner von Braun had a key role in the development of NASA and creating the V-2 weapons, which had been the Nazis last attempt at winning the war. He later became the director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. There, he was chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle which was used to send astronauts into space. His work was so revolutionary, he was nearly awarded the Presidential medal of freedom. Although the proposal was nixed due to his Nazi past, President Ford still wanted to honor him and awarded him the National Medal of Science. Quite ironic, no? A man who developed weapons to further the Nazi regime almost being awarded the American medal of freedom. How could such a quintessential American organization be run and progressed by Nazis? Von Braun’s motives for joining the Nazi party was often questioned. Historians believe that he joined because he needed to ameliorate his standing in his field. Although he was not ideologically motivated, he was complicit and enabled violence through his work. He knew about the use of slave labor and walked over the dead on the way to his office. Another man, not quite as “innocent,” is Arthur Rudolph. Originally, he was not eligible to apply to be a part of Operation Paperclip as he was a threat to national securrity due to his proximity to Nazi camps. However, the US wiped his file clean. He was too valuable. His knowledge and expertise about the V-2 rockets and missiles made him a resource too good to pass on. During the Third Reich, Rudolph ran a slave labor camp in horrifying conditions to build V2 rockets. Saboteurs were hanged under Rudolph’s orders. He was an alleged war criminal. Once his tainted past came to light, the US allowed Rudolph to renounce his gifted American citizenship and in return, he would not be prosecuted for his crimes during the war.
You may be asking yourself, why would the US recruit Nazi scientists? In the show Hunters, they explain the reasoning with a metaphor. The war is over, you see a Nazi rifle on the ground, do you kick it under the sand because you hated its owner, or do you use it against your enemy? The ultimate goal was to utilize the German knowledge to develop the US’ program while simultaneously keeping the intellectual weapons out of the hands of the Soviets. Despite the fact that the US and the Soviet Union worked together to take down the Nazi regime, both sides knew another war between them was imminent. The Cold War was upon them.
I've always struggled with my identity. I was Jewish, but was I Jewish enough? I wasn’t bat mitzvahed. I don’t go to temple. I don’t speak Yiddish or Hebrew. The first time I saw my culture or something close to it on TV, I jumped for joy and watched with excitement. Unorthodox was the first show I watched that reminded me of my culture, my customs, my traditions, and the language of my ancestors. Although Hasidic Judaism is much stricter and has different rules, I saw them celebrate Passover, dance to Hava Nagila, and I heard the prayers I sang at family events. Learning about my culture from TV was strange. I remember calling my dad and asking him if what they were doing was accurate or if they took artistic liberties. I learned about new customs and practices I had never heard of, and from a TV show. I felt like an imposter.
It is difficult to connect to my culture. People told me not to waste my time learning Yiddish or Hebrew, they’re dying languages anyway. It’s difficult to explain my identity and heritage to people because Judaism is the only ethnic background that is also a religion. I am secularly Jewish, meaning I am culturally Jewish and I do not practice the religion. My great grandparents fled from Poland to Canada before the first World War out of fear of persecution. They began a new life and changed their names. Yitzak to Jack. Nissenbaum to Newton.
Operation Paperclip was a slap in the face. The country I had grown up in had allowed Nazis to cross its borders when war-ridden Jewish refugees were denied. The US government prides itself on its victory in WW2 while simultaneously rewarding the perpetrators with the American Dream.
I have been toying with the idea of what makes someone Jewish. What makes me Jewish. I believe it's the generosity in one’s soul, the tenacity in one’s spirit, and the drive to improve one’s self. I’ve slowly realized that I’m more Jewish than I imagined. In my soul and in my everyday life. I ate Matzah ball soup when I was sick. I realized my vocabulary is littered with Yiddish words that my roommate doesn’t understand. I am Jewish. I have been Jewish. I will continue to be Jewish.
Is it wise to restrain or silence someone whose potential could further science and human progress? It depends what we chose to prioritize. Our priorities could be scientific advancement, higher morality, greater global happiness, a more even distribution of wealth, or success for an individual or for the world. It’s all subjective. My heart tells me if they were complicit in a holocaust, they should not be given further opportunity in another country. This question is complex. Science is important, the race for space travel was important politically, but to what end? Are we willing to compromise our morals to flaunt our achievements in front of our competition? Should all who were connected to the Nazi regime die? How should they be punished? Who gets to decide? These questions have been rattling in my brain for weeks now. As much as I want to side with morality and say that no Nazis should have been brought to the US, the political side of my brain thinks that the US had a solid political argument. Leaving a weapon on the battlefield for the opponent to utilize seems unwise. When imposing one’s morality onto another, where does that leave us? How moral is the man who kills the villain?
