Secret German Postwar Project
More than 1,500 German scientists, engineers and technicians (many of whom were formerly registered members of the Nazi Party, some were party leaders) were recruited and brought to the United States. After World War II
Secret German Postwar Project
More than 1,500 German scientists, engineers and technicians (many of whom were formerly registered members of the Nazi Party, some were party leaders) were recruited and brought to the United States. After World War II they were hired under Operation Paperclip by the U.S. government to gain scientific and military advantage during the Cold War and, later, Space Race. (Paperclips were attached to the scientists’ new work as U.S. Government Scientists, thus the name.)
To compare to the U.S. project, over 2,000 scientists were aggressively recruited by the Soviet Union (and recruited by gun point) during one night.
Other post-war Allied countries snapped up some German scientists as well, and there were many who came to various sites in the U.S. About 86 aeronautical engineers were transferred to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) where captured Luftwaffe aircraft and equipment were located. A few scientists were investigated many decades after they were included in Paperclip, and because of their Nazi activities, were deported to West Germany.
Why bring this up?
Wright Field was one of the sites to which the Paperclip Germans came, and some lived in this area until death. And the Enon Community Historical Society (ECHS) is fortunate to have had an Enon resident speak of his experience working on Paperclip---Clem Schmid worked on the American side of the German Paperclip on the base (Clem was not a German or Nazi).
Clem and his wife Mary Ann are volunteers with ECHS. Clem shared his Paperclip experience in a “Rocking Chair” program the society hosts occasionally with those who have interesting memories. He said he learned German, but the Germans already knew English, so coordination was easier.
One famous Paperclip Nazi was Werner Von Braun who was a nuclear physicist developing the V-2 rocket. Von Braun worked on the U.S. rocket program, although it was discovered he had a questionable background as a Nazi who knew of torturing and murder of prisoners in the V-2 German project.
In recent years a thorough 