How the USA helped some Nazis get away with genocide
Operation Paperclip and its modern day implications
After Allied Forces Won WWII, What happened to all the Nazis?
Given that WWII ending and Hitler dying didn't end antisemitism, fascism, or even nazism*- it feels important to understand what happened to all the other Nazis after WWII.
Well, some were captured and held accountable in the Nuremberg trials, some killed themselves, some were killed, some were sent to prisoner-of-war camps, some took the ratlines to South America, and many were scooped up by the USA, Soviet Union, France and Britain for a weird twist on witness protection.
Because in this weird witness protection twist, the 'witness' was actually the perpetrator of or complicit in heinous crimes against humanity, and the 'protection' was to give them new identities to ensure their skills could be utilized in senior levels of allied governments.
*After all, antisemitism is a form of white supremacy that predates Hitler and persists to this day, fascism is on the rise with far-right movements across the globe and neo-nazis remain a covert but loud part of our society.
The undermining of 'never again' from the jump
When WWII ended in 1945, many high-ranking and highly skilled Nazis, SS officers, and others considered intellectually vital to the Third Reich were left in Germany. Some of these people were working on weapons like a bubonic plague weapon and other disease agents.
Remember, this was the beginning of what we would soon refer to as the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the USA (and its western allies, who would soon form NATO). The West didn't want these incredibly dangerous weapons and the minds behind them falling into Soviet hands, and the Soviets were determined to be able to match America's global dominance.
So what did they do? They covertly snatched up Nazi scientists to bring to their own countries, giving them new identities and putting them to work in their governments.
You know, the same Nazi scientists responsible for the torture and deaths of millions of people, including 6 million Jewish people.
Operation Paperclip
As many as 2,000 Nazi scientists and/or scientists who worked within the Third Reich (along with their families) were brought over from Europe and worked for the U.S. military and other government departments in what became known as Operation Paperclip.
These scientists were involved in developing America's massive arsenal of rockets, as well as nuclear, atomic, and biological weapons with the capacity to cause serious destruction to millions of people. Because of their intellectual skill, their past crimes that included actual genocide were quietly hidden.
Many of these men had also been deeply involved in Hitler's government, having worked directly with their Führer or leading members of the Nazi party, as well as people who were intellectually vital to the Third Reich. But none of that mattered to the USA as long as the Soviets didn't get their scientific secrets.
Third Reich refers to the time period where Hitler was leader of Germany - 1933 to 1945.
The Nazis that got America to the moon
One of the most well-known recruits was Wernher von Braun, a rocket scientist who eventually became director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and was instrumental in the Apollo program, which landed Americans on the moon. He also worked with Walt Disney on several of his films.
Today, von Braun is remembered as one of the first rocket developers and a pioneer of space programs. Lots of his history has been whitewashed and is intentionally revisionist - with many historians debating about (read: minimizing) how strong his Nazi sympathies were, calling his involvement 'ambivalent' and 'complex.'
But debating how 'strong' someone's nazi sympathies are is a waste of time—we're paraphrasing Desmond Tutu here, but there is no middle, neutral, indifference or sympathy for acts of oppression and human rights violations. We must condemn antisemitism, homophobia, ableism, and all other forms of discrimination, or we are complicit to them.
Why does this matter today?
Justice can take many forms, including non-carceral systems and restorative justice. In some cases, this also involves working with offenders to help dismantle broader systems of violence and oppression.
But that isn't what was happening here. These Nazis, SS officers, and others instrumental to the Third Reich were not leveraged to ensure fascism, antisemitism, and hate didn't rise in America and the West.
What the US did was covertly bring perpetrators of violent crimes and set them up with the 'American dream.' They wanted to beat the Soviets and knew that being a nazi would not go down well with the public, so they protected the comfort of these perpetrators of crimes against humanity and set them up with a 401K.
If the USA was determined to capture the intellectual insights of these people, we're sure there are ways to do this that didn't include the erasure of their involvement in Hitler's Third Reich and awarding them with a white picket fence.
"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"
World War Two did not start when Hitler rounded up Jewish people and other marginalized communities. In fact, Hitler went unchecked at the start of his regime despite numerous human rights violations, none of which started WWII.
WWII started because Hitler attacked Poland, causing Poland's allies France and the U.K. to respond. In fact, both France and U.K. had communicated to Hitler that they would stay out of his way so long as they and their allies were left out of Hitler's plans.
America stayed "neutral" (consider the Desmond Tutu quote here) for a long time, only getting involved in the War when Hitler's allies, the Japanese, bombed Pearl Harbour.
This is important to differentiate around here because history classes teach us about WWII and center the moral superiority of the West as heroes for condemning Hitler's crimes against humanity. And while it is indisputable that Hitler needed to be stopped, these allied countries didn't get involved because of a moral sense of right and wrong.
Paperclip's Present Day Impact
Operation Paperclip helps further demonstrate that stopping hate, ending antisemitism, and providing justice for these crimes against humanity weren't the number one priority at the end of WWII (or arguably even during WWII). Despite publicly declaring never again, the actions governments like the USA (and Britain, France and the Soviet Union) did with recruiting members of the Third Reich show where priorities were.
So it almost makes sense why our governments today are doing very little to prevent the far-right ideology that is running rampant in our society.
About a year ago, we had a white supremacy-led convoy occupy our nation's capital in Ottawa and have seen little to no action from our country's leaders to address far-right rhetoric, white supremacy, disinformation, hate and division that is covertly and overtly being spread across our country.
Because, in case you missed it, Nazism has not gone away. Groups worldwide use Nazi slogans, messages, and symbols as central parts of their ideologies and worldviews.
Rising Hate and Division
Our world is full of antisemitism, in addition to other forms of white supremacy, settler-colonial violence, colonial violence, hetero-patriarchal violence, and capitalism. And our options here are to either let our leaders decide what the legacy of our generations is or demand the world we know we deserve.
A world where people show up for each other even if they aren't personally experiencing an injustice. A world in pursuit of collective liberation.
We, the people, play a crucial role
This Holocaust Day of Remembrance, in addition to remembering the millions of lives lost during the Third Reich and WWII, we also need to remember the role we play in ensuring hate and division do not win.
We, as individuals, as communities, and as a country, have a crucial role in ensuring that nazis and white supremacists do not win.
We, as individuals, as communities, and as countries, play a crucial role in dismantling systems of oppression.
We know how prevalent hate and division are in our country and world. We know that the far-right is masterfully recruiting people to their side.
And we know our current systems are not set up to stop the far right and white supremacy because they were built by and uphold white supremacy.
But that doesn't mean nothing can be done; rather, it means that whatever we do, we must do together.
In pursuit of our collective liberation.
