01x02 - Wernher von Braun

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: They seem like
ordinary men -

articulate, educated, civilised.

But they will turn into
depraved, twisted monsters.

They will commit acts
of unimaginable cruelty

for which they will feel
no shame or remorse.

Here is True Evil.

Saturn V.

The most powerful rocket ever built.

Designed by the great German
rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.

Wernher von Braun was
the father of space travel.

BUZZ ALDRIN: Four forward.
Drifting to the right a little.

CHARLIE DUKE: 30 seconds.

In 1969, von Braun is celebrated
by millions around the world

as his Saturn V takes Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin to the moon.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: One giant leap
for mankind.

He is probably the most renowned
rocket scientist of his day.

But news reports rarely mention that
Wernher von Braun is a former n*zi.

During the w*r, he builds rockets
that rain on London for the Nazis.

And von Braun
was no n*zi foot soldier.

He was a senior officer in the SS,
close to Heinrich Himmler.

He was part of a regime that used
sl*ves and k*lled sl*ves willingly.

Yet America opens its doors
to this n*zi monster.

This w*r criminal was turned into
an American celebrity

and was able to take part

in the great American
'man on the moon' project.

Von Braun is the n*zi
who becomes an American hero.

Von Braun does have
blood on his hands.

Where does the desire
for ethical action come from?

What makes us want to be ethical?

A visionary of space travel...

...or cynical opportunist
and murderous n*zi?

Wernher von Braun was both.

He's a brilliant scientist
and, yet, he uses his talents

for one of the most vile regimes

that man has ever inflicted
upon himself.

Blessed with so much talent,
so much success

but guilty of shocking acts,

for which he is never
held to account.

By the time of his death,

he'd never really confronted
his own crimes in his own mind,

let alone taken any responsibility
for them.

Wernher Magnus
Maximilian Freiherr von Braun

is born into an aristocratic
German family in 1912.

The von Braun family were
hereditary landowners in Prussia.

The males of the family
were actually barons.

They were at the highest level
of culture and power.

Someone of von Braun's
noble background

might have been expected
to enter the army, politics

or the senior civil service.

But the young von Braun is a dreamer.

It is less than a decade

since the Wright Brothers'
first powered flight,

but already humans
are wondering how far they can go.

It was in 1902 that Georges Melies
made the first science-fiction movie,

Journey to the Moon.

By the time von Braun is growing up,

the dream of leaving the planet

and travelling through space
to another world

is inspiring ever more
comic-book writers and filmmakers.

GREEN: At 13, von Braun is given
a telescope by his parents.

He's young, he's impressionable,

and becomes obsessed with a book
by Hermann Oberth

called The Rocket
in Interplanetary Space.

In 1920s Berlin, there's a real fad
for rocketry and space travel.

Everyone's got these images
of these space rockets

zooming into space, in their mind.

The idea of exploring space

has fed into the young von Braun's
interest in space.

He just wants to find out
more about it.

Like many small children,
von Braun is obsessed with space

and space travel
and space exploration,

but for him, it goes further.

He wants to know, how can he turn
this fantasy into reality?

Von Braun is 16

when Max Valier demonstrates his
revolutionary rocket car in Berlin.

The great expl*si*n shocks the crowd

and pushes the rocket car

to the then incredible speed
of 143 miles per hour.

In 1930, at the age of 18,

von Braun enrols at
the Berlin Institute of Technology

to study aeronautical engineering.

WALTERS: The whole idea of rocketry
in the 1920s and '30s

is extraordinary
when you start thinking

that man only flew
just a few years before.

It represents a fantastical leap

and so you have an idea
of quite what a far-seeing brain

that someone like von Braun had

that he was able to think, "Yes,
rocketry - easy. We can do that."

In his spare time,

von Braun joins the Amateur
German Society for Space Travel.

It was really a slightly sort of
grand and pretentious name

for a bunch of
science-fiction writers

who were exploding stuff
in an old ammunition dump.

The rocket enthusiasts give
their abandoned quarry a grand name -

the Raketenflugplatz or Rocket Port -

and it is here that the young
von Braun gets his first chance

to blow stuff up.

It was new technology,
very primitive.

The failures were many.

That's what they were up against.
They were starting from zero.

The big challenge for von Braun
and his fellow rocketeers

is to get their rockets
off the ground

without blowing the rockets,
or themselves, to bits.

The resulting bang
is sometimes enough

to send a rocket high into the skies
over the quarry.

But where it will come down
is anyone's guess

and sends von Braun and
the rocketeers running for cover.

Progress is slow. The rocketeers
are an eccentric bunch.

Eccentric and poor.

The members were mostly unemployed.

A few of them had
some technical knowledge.

Von Braun was immediately
noticeable as an aristocrat.

He was a very handsome young man

and they used him as a spokesperson

and as someone who might be able
to open doors for funding.

On a spring day in 1932,

the rocket society prepares to
launch their latest rocket design,

the Mirak II.

Among those who come to witness
the spectacle

is a senior German army officer,

Captain Walter Dornberger.

The first officers from the
German army after World w*r One

who had any even vague interest
in rocketry

were a*tillery officers.

They kept an eye on itinerant
rocket clubs around Berlin

to develop what they perceived
as being long-range a*tillery.

The army want rockets because g*n
technology is reaching its limits.

During the First World w*r,

Germany builds a supergun,
specifically to attack Paris.

The so-called Paris g*n
weighs close to 700 tonnes,

is mounted on a train
and fires a shell 80 miles.

But if rockets can be made to work,

they will be able to carry far more
deadly payloads so much further.

Rockets are of obvious interest
to the military

because they can deliver payloads
very, very quickly

and they can't be intercepted
by any known technology

and, so, therefore, any military
in any part of the world

are going to be
incredibly interested.

The rocket society's Mirak II
shoots 70 metres into the air,

and lands nearby.

Captain Dornberger
is unimpressed by the rocket.

But one of rocketeers stands out.

Dornberger approaches

the articulate, confident
20-year-old Wernher von Braun

and offers him a job
in military weapons research.

Von Braun accepts.

SELWOOD: Von Braun was aware
that building rockets

is a very expensive occupation.

And he was also aware
that there was

no immediate
commercial application for it.

Von Braun now has the funds
to build bigger rockets.

But he soon finds himself surrounded,
not by eccentric rocket enthusiasts,

but n*zi Brownshirts.

Von Braun knows that he's not there
to make nice toys for people.

He's there to make things
that ultimately will k*ll people.

But he's young, the military
offers him an organisation,

offers him finances,
offers him an environment,

in which he can pursue his science.

SELWOOD: He'd abandoned
the Society for Space Travel

to work for the Nazis.

He'd swapped spaceships for weapons.

For von Braun,
it is a happy coincidence

that his dream of conquering space

fits nicely with Hitler's ambition
to conquer Europe.

Shortly after rocketeer Wernher
von Braun joins the German army,

Adolf Hitler becomes
Chancellor of the German Reich.

MAN: Here is an opportunity.

Hitler comes to power

and immediately begins the process
of rearming Germany.

By the mid '30s,

arms spending in Germany
is four times higher than the UK

and rising fast.

Money is going into armaments
and armaments research.

Now there is
an institutional structure,

there is financial support,

and von Braun becomes

one of the most important military
scientists that the regime produces.

At the age of 22,
Wernher von Braun starts work

at the Kummersdorf test range
outside Berlin.

There he begins to develop
a series of rockets

that will change history.

Von Braun stands out immediately.
He's a very impressive figure.

He's a big man, literally,
and in many ways,

but also he's got
a really good mind.

He is truly a visionary of rocketry

and it's for this reason

that he's appointed
technical director of his team

very, very, quickly.

Von Braun's rockets are getting
bigger and going further.

It soon becomes obvious
that testing them so close to Berlin

is not such a good idea.

So, at von Braun's suggestion,

the Nazis establish a new rocket
research and test site

on the Baltic coast,
in the village of Peenemunde.

SELWOOD: Von Braun
knew the site well.

He'd holidayed there as a child.

And, in fact, his mother recommended
it to him and said it would be

"Just the place
for you and your friends."

The rocket site is to be huge,
covering 25 square kilometres.

Von Braun himself oversees

the transformation
of this sleepy fishing village

into a giant futuristic
industrial complex,

so big it even has its own airport,

and living quarters for hundreds
of mathematicians, chemists,

physicists and engineers.

BIDDLE: Peenemunde never had
a civilian function.

It was a German army
weapons development station.

By the late 1930s,

it was a full-fledged
multi-million mark operation.

It was really a showcase
for n*zi technology.

The design of von Braun's rockets
is inspired by science fiction.

He and his fellow rocketeers

are enthralled by the 1929
Fritz Lang movie Woman in the Moon.

Von Braun will model his rockets
on the ones in the movie.

They will carry the movie logo.

Even the now-famous launch countdown
from 10 to one

is taken from the movie.

Von Braun's rockets
cost a fortune to build.

But one after another, they fail.

They veer off course uncontrollably.

Others barely get off the ground.

Some simply explode
on the launch pad.

The damage done to the base of
Peenemunde and the surrounding area

is costly, in money
and sometimes lives.

But when one rocket is destroyed,
von Braun just lines up another.

Von Braun has manpower from the army

and money from the n*zi state,

including vast sums expropriated
from Germany's Jewish population.

REMY: The regime offered
Wernher von Braun an opportunity

to pursue a scientific passion
without restraints,

without having to consider the human
cost of what it was they were doing.

It's in November 1937,
while working at Peenemunde,

that von Braun becomes
a full member of the n*zi Party.

Later, von Braun says that
he had no choice.

If he hadn't joined the n*zi Party,

it would have been
the end of his career.

But von Braun does have a choice.

And to keep his funding flowing,
he becomes a n*zi.

His affiliation with the
German army, practically speaking,

would be inseparable
from supporting the n*zi party.

Whether he was an official member
or not is, in my mind, irrelevant.

In 1939, with w*r fast approaching,

pressure is building on von Braun
to deliver a super weapon.

Adolf Hitler now makes his one and
only visit to inspect the rockets.

Hitler had to be convinced
that it was worthwhile.

He thought it was too futuristic.

GREEN: Adolf Hitler
was slow to grasp

the potential of new technologies.

He tends to be quite
mistrustful of them as well.

Von Braun tries his best
to put on a show for the Fuhrer.

But his rockets don't work.

He's just completely unimpressed
by it and cancels funding.

Hitler needs tanks and planes
and U-boats.

Von Braun's malfunctioning rockets
look like an expensive distraction.

But without n*zi money,
von Braun's rocket dreams are dead.

Von Braun desperately needs
someone to champion his cause.

That someone will be

the mass-murdering head of the SS,
Heinrich Himmler.

Rockets are of immense
interest to Himmler

because, of course,
if they are successful,

if this incredibly
potent form of weaponry

can actually help win the w*r,

then, of course,
that's going to make Himmler,

as the sponsor of the rocket
program, incredibly more powerful.

But in return for his support,

Himmler expects von Braun
to join the SS.

Himmler's SS has already
taken the lead in slaughtering Jews.

Soon after the w*r begins,

it murders 65,000 innocent civilians
in Poland,

and is systematically sh**ting
Jewish men, women and children.

The SS is the n*zi's main instrument
of repression, terror and genocide.

Von Braun goes into this
with his eyes open.

By joining the SS,

he knows that
he is putting this weaponry

in the hands of one of the most
dangerous regimes on the planet.

In 1940, von Braun joins the SS
at the rank of second lieutenant.

The SS is pure evil

but joining them will mean
more money to build rockets.

REMY: He claims that
he was forced to do so

in the sense that
if he had not done it,

it would have been
the end of his career.

I think that's utter nonsense.

The regime absolutely needed
someone like Wernher von Braun.

He was indispensable.

As a senior SS officer with the
personal backing of Heinrich Himmler,

von Braun now does what he likes

and gets whatever he needs
to continue his work.

Von Braun's first challenge is
to build an engine powerful enough

to send a heavy rocket 200 miles.

The goal was to develop
a long-range rocket

capable of carrying around
a tonne of high expl*sives.

To do it, he turns to
American know-how.

Von Braun copies the idea

of an American rocket pioneer called
Robert Goddard,

to make liquid fuel.

Von Braun builds a rocket
with twin pressurised fuel tanks,

with nozzles to combine and then
ignite the liquid oxygen and alcohol.

The result is huge and sustained
controlled expl*si*n.

2,500 degrees Celsius,

160,000 pounds of thrust.

This engine will become a blueprint
for a new age of rocketry -

a design that will still be in use
decades later.

Equipped with the new engines,

von Braun's rockets
are getting into the air.

But how is he to direct them?

Before computer guidance systems
to guide rockets,

they could literally be shot up
and land pretty much anywhere.

SELWOOD: If von Braun
can't direct the rockets,

then they're of more danger
to him and his team

than they are to the enemy.

Once again, von Braun uses an idea
first developed by Robert Goddard.

It was the American who came up
with the idea of fitting a rocket

with a spinning gyroscope
mounted on gimbals.

The gyroscope detects the slightest
changes in the rocket's direction,

and then sends signals

to electrically controlled steering
vanes or rudders in the exhaust,

to correct the trajectory
and keep the rocket on course.

Model after model is built
and tested and modified.

Goddard had the idea

but von Braun has something
the American didn't - money.

An almost limitless supply.

On the 3rd of October, 1942,

von Braun, Dornberger and the team

line up to launch von Braun's
latest A4 rocket.

A flash of light...

(ROCKET ROARS)

...an ear-splitting eruption,

and the A4 rises up
from the launch pad.

It does not explode.
It does not veer off course.

The rocket rises into the sky,

and it rises and rises

and keeps on rising.

Wernher von Braun's A4 is not
heading for the Baltic Sea.

It's heading for space.

It soars 30, 40, 50 miles
above the earth.

The Space Age has begun.

Dornberger makes a bold announcement.

"We have invaded space
with our rocket."

"This third day of October, 1942,"

"is the first of a new era
of transportation -"

"that of space travel."

SELWOOD: The reaction to the
first flight of von Braun's rocket

is extraordinary.

But no-one's fooled.

This isn't a space ship.
This is a weapon.

When Wernher von Braun succeeds
in sending a rocket into space,

news of the achievement
reaches Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler and his SS entourage
rush to Peenemunde.

They gaze in awe at von Braun's
sci-fi space travelling A4s.

Might these be
the miraculous wonder-weapons

needed to win them the w*r?

Himmler sends an excited report
to Hitler.

And it arrives just as
the n*zi high command

is in desperate need of good news.

Germany's gigantic offensive
against Russia,

which began more than a year before,

has turned into
the most monumental disaster.

NEWSREEL: Now the white flag
of capitulation

has taken the place
of the crooked cross.

Hitler is desperate.

Maybe von Braun's rockets
aren't so pointless after all.

He decides he wants 12,000 of them.

Von Braun's space-rocket
wonder-weapon is now renamed the V-2.

The V is for 'vengeance'.

In London, meanwhile,

British intelligence
are receiving reports

of increased activity
at the Peenemunde site.

WALTERS: It's pretty hard
to hide rockets.

People nearby
are going to notice them.

So, you have various pieces
of intelligence

coming back to the Allies,
especially into London,

is taking place here,

and it needs be dealt with, and it
needs to be dealt with urgently.

On August 17th, 1943, the Royal
Air Force launches Operation Hydra.

Press home your attack.

If you individually succeed,

you will have delivered
the most devastating blow

against the very vitals
of the enemy.

Just after midnight,
von Braun is woken

by the sound of air-raid sirens.

Barely visible through
the dark clouds above Peenemunde

are scores of British bombers.

Their targets - the rockets,
the labs and the scientists.

(EXPLOSIONS ECHO)

An earth-shattering 1,800 tonnes of
bombs are dropped on the facility.

But the raid is a failure.

SELWOOD: Fortunately
for the Germans,

the weather sees to it that
the attack is largely ineffective.

Von Braun and most of his team
survive.

Construction of the rockets
is delayed by just seven weeks.

But Peenemunde is no longer safe.

Production of von Braun's
wonder-weapon must be moved.

The Harz Mountains will be
the location for a new V-2 factory.

And to make sure the Allies
can't destroy it,

production will take place
underground.

The new V-2 underground factory
is called Mittelwerk

and von Braun oversees
its construction.

A vast complex of tunnels are dug,

big enough to house
a giant construction facility,

producing thousands of rockets.

The underground facility is
extraordinary, in scale and ambition.

But the method of its construction
is a story of shocking inhumanity.

In the shadow of the mountains,

the Mittelbau-Dora
concentration camp is established

to feed von Braun's factory

with an endless supply
of disposable sl*ve labour.

REMY: The SS officer in charge
ordered his subordinates

to pay no attention
to the human cost,

the human conditions,

For those who didn't make it,

the SS had other inmates
to bring to the camp.

Mittelbau-Dora was
an absolutely vile hellhole.

Countless tens of thousands
of these sl*ves

are literally worked to death.

Deprived of food, sleep
and sanitation,

they are expected to live
just a few weeks.

When they die,
their emaciated corpses

are simply piled up
at the edges of the tunnels.

Wernher Von Braun
and other rocket scientists

are fully aware of
the use of sl*ve labour

and they know the conditions

under which concentration camp
inmates are forced to work.

Anyone walking into the caves,

as von Braun would have done,

surely knew
what the conditions were.

This is a place von Braun went to.

He saw the conditions there.

He was part of a regime

that used sl*ves
and k*lled sl*ves willingly.

I think that Wernher von Braun
simply did not care.

He was focused on his own work.

That part wasn't his business
or his concern.

Von Braun's work
is funded by mass murderers

and to realise his dream,

countless innocent humans are being
sacrificed in the most barbaric way.

There can be no if and no buts
for von Braun.

It makes him criminal.

(a*tillery FIRE)

But by early 1944, it looks like
the Nazis are losing the w*r.

NEWSREEL: When the Red Army
broke through in the south,

it moved at such a pace

that progress must be reported
hourly to be up to date.

The Russians reach Poland.

The Americans and British
are coming north through Italy.

NEWSREEL: Germans got out of Rome...

...as the Fifth Army entered
the Eternal City in triumph.

In the nick of time, it seems,
in September 1944,

the first batch of wonder-weapons
is ready.

The first V-2 is launched from
a secret base in the Netherlands.

Its target is London.

GREEN: It lands on Staveley Road
in west London,

and it kills, tragically,
three people.

It k*lled a 63-year-old
called Ada Harrison,

it k*lled a young mechanic
called Bernard Browning

and it also k*lled a three-year-old
child called Rosemary Clarke.

V-2 rockets land and explode
before you hear them arrive.

This is how fast they travel.

And, as a result, you can be
walking along the street

and, suddenly, you and half
the street will be vaporised.

That is terrifying, and that is why they
were called by the n*zi's terror weapons.

BIDDLE: The bombardment of London
by the V-2

was a spectacular act of terror -

a new kind of warfare.

Von Braun has made history.

But not in the way
he had once hoped.

He has created a new,
terrifying instrument of death,

and its in the service
of a truly evil men.

But Hitler's wonder-weapon is not
as wonderful as he needs it to be.

The V-2s are built by
concentration camp prisoners

who are malnourished,
dropping with exhaustion,

and doing everything they can
and dare to sabotage the rockets.

SELWOOD: sl*ve labour
simply isn't appropriate

for the highly technical process
of building rockets.

The condition of the workers
is critically important

and sl*ve labour simply wasn't
up to the job.

The sabotaged and poorly built V-2s

malfunction, one after another.

Few V-2s reach their target,

and even those that do inflict far
less damage than the Nazis had hoped.

In all, 6,000 V-2s will be built.

But they will k*ll
just 5,000 people.

Conventional weapons are far,
far cheaper, and far more effective.

The V-2's feeble accuracy

meant that it was one of
the few weapons in history

that, because it was manufactured
by sl*ve labour,

it actually k*lled
many more people in its construction

than it did in its deployment.

Von Braun's futuristic
rocket program

has cost the Third Reich billions -

billions that might have
been spent on

badly needed tanks and planes
and g*ns.

And as the Allies march
towards Berlin,

it is clear that
these sci-fi wonder-weapons

will do nothing to stop them.

By spring 1945, the Red Army
is just 150 miles from Peenemunde.

SELWOOD: As the Russians
are approaching Peenemunde,

von Braun is called up -

he's asked to take a r*fle
and he's asked to fight.

But, as usual,
thinking only of himself,

he takes another decision -
he flees.

Von Braun is unmarried,
with no children.

It is easy for him to slip away.

Von Braun and other rocket
scientists go by car,

through the rubble of
devastated German towns...

...past the broken and abandoned
vehicles of the Wermacht.

They head to the mountains.

Driving through the night,
von Braun's car crashes,

leaving him with a broken arm.

But eventually, he arrives at
a fashionably Alpine resort,

close to the Austrian border.

He stays in a high-class hotel,
relaxing with the other guests,

waiting out the final days
of the w*r in luxury.

The rocket men don't bother
to look for the Americans.

They know the Americans
are looking for THEM.

BIDDLE: They were perfectly aware

that they were in possession of
a radically new technology

that had a sterling future.

They certainly knew that they had
a gigantic bartering chip,

and used it to save their necks.

Von Braun and his fellow scientists

know how their crimes will look
to the outside world.

But they're clever men.
They have a plan.

BIDDLE: They gathered together

all of the documentation
of the rocket program,

hid it in a cave,

so that they would have,
essentially, a treasure chest

to offer to the Americans
upon their surrender.

They have hidden several tonnes
of research documents.

If the Allies want them,

they will have to come to a deal
with the rocket men.

On the 11th of April, 1945,

American troops liberate
the Mittelbau-Dora camp

and discover the full extent
of the n*zi atrocities.

SELWOOD: The sight that greets them
is one of apocalyptic horror.

There are dead bodies everywhere

and very few people are still alive.

The shocking piles of corpses,

the thousands of starving,
broken, diseased sl*ve labourers

at death's door...

...and, nearby,
von Braun's futuristic rockets -

railway freight cars
loaded with V-2s,

hundreds of others
in various stages of construction.

By the end of the w*r,
the Americans started to realise

that the Germans had
fantastic technology,

way ahead of most American designs.

US Intelligence and a special unit
of US troops known as T-Force,

begins a manhunt for n*zi scientists.

And top of the list
is Dr Wernher von Braun.

The appeal of von Braun
for the Americans is obvious.

He is probably the most renowned
rocket scientist of his day.

Its simply a no-brainer
for the Americans.

They have to get hold of him.

What's more, they have to find him
before the communists do.

The Soviets are further advanced
into Germany

than the Americans
and the British are.

And, so, there's the necessity
and speed to try to gather

as many German scientists, and
engineers and designers as they can

before they get captured
by the Soviets.

The American T-Force troops
don't have to look hard.

Von Braun is taken into custody,

but when he appears
before news cameras

with his arm in plaster
from his car accident,

he shows none of the shame
you might expect from a w*r criminal.

And his captors seem positively happy
to have found von Braun and his team.

Von Braun is well-relaxed
and well-fed,

free of any remorse or guilt.

At that stage, they're very happy

and quite boastful
and proud of the achievement

and they're looking forward to
sharing it with the Americans.

BIDDLE: When they surrendered,

all of them spent a great of time
bragging about

what this technology
could eventually provide

in terms of space travel,
long-distance rockets and so forth.

Senior intelligence officials
are sent to negotiate

with von Braun and his team.

A deal is struck.

Von Braun and the others will
hand over the V-2 research files,

and they will continue
their work in America.

In return, the terrible atrocities
of Mittelwerk will be overlooked.

You're not going to ask too many
questions about their morality,

about their ethical backgrounds.

It's the minds they want
and not the man.

There's no record of any questioning
about what he did at Mittelwerk.

He was either not asked
those questions

or the record has been
expunged in some way.

On the 20th of September, 1945,

the n*zi's head rocket scientist,
Wernher von Braun,

is taken, together with his team,
to the United States.

To begin with, they are to be
confined to a military base

in the middle of
the New Mexico desert.

Here, they will set to work on
the Hermes Project,

refurbishing V-2s.

(NEWSREEL FANFARE PLAYS)

NEWSREEL: At White Sands
Proving Grounds, New Mexico,

a captured German V-2 rocket

was recently fitted up as a camera
carrier for a scientific experiment.

With engineers from General Electric,

they begin to develop
a new generation of m*ssile

for the US military.

PAVELEC: Wernher von Braun
is incredibly important.

He is absolutely instrumental.

He is the key figure
in the American rocket program.

But the presence of von Braun and
his n*zi colleagues causes disquiet.

Many thought that this was
tainted technology -

these men were committed Nazis,
we shouldn't be participating.

Eleanor Roosevelt and
the great physicist Albert Einstein

condemn America's use of Nazis.

The Federation of
American Scientists

took a very strong stance
against that work.

But other scientists and engineers
in America

found the opportunism
impossible to resist.

The American military
believe they have no choice.

The Americans
know that the communists

have their own n*zi rocket scientists
and their own rocket program.

America regards communism
as a threat

to the very survival
of freedom and democracy.

The future of the world is at stake.

A new Cold w*r is starting.

Von Braun is moved to
Huntsville, Alabama,

to start work on
the Redstone rockets -

the first ever ballistic missiles
to carry a nuclear warhead.

He becomes director
of m*ssile development.

Hitler's main rocket scientist

is now America's
main rocket scientist.

Three, two, one...

Blast!

But this makes von Braun
more visible.

In America, the government
must account for itself.

Von Braun is forced to make
public appearances,

and there's no hiding
his German accent.

This is a model of the US Army's
Redstone guided m*ssile,

the largest
American ballistic m*ssile

to have reached
the test-firing stage.

To the average person,

Wernher von Braun and all of
his friends are n*zi officers.

Von Braun starts to
work on his image.

This is post-w*r America -

God-fearing,
with strong family values.

Von Braun marries his cousin,
Maria von Quistorp.

In the following years,
they have three children

and move into a suburban house.

Von Braun tries to soften his accent

and starts attending
the local church.

He begins to drop
Christian references

into his public announcements.

One must believe
in the last judgement,

when every one of us
has to account for what he did

with Gods great gift of life
on the earth.

SELWOOD: In the 1950s, he becomes
a born-again Christian.

Was that genuine
or was that just von Braun

again adapting to his environment

to suit himself,
to further his own aims?

In 1955, von Braun becomes
an American citizen.

This is the rebirth of von Braun.

He's Dr Space, now an American hero.

America is von Braun's salvation.

Whereas the Nazis had wanted
to conquer,

Americans want to explore.

They're motivated
not by genocidal hate,

but rather the genuine
pioneering curiosity

of a people used to exploring
new frontiers.

Von Braun is totally at home
in America.

The period is animated by
a fascination with space travel

and space adventure.

Here, finally, he can rekindle
the hopes of his childhood.

But in democratic America, von Braun
knows that he can't develop rockets

with the same disregard for cost
and safety as he did the V-2s.

Von Braun is quite hung up on
safety issues around the rockets

and his constantly fiddling
to make the devices safer

held back the development
of the American program,

allowing the Russians to get ahead.

In 1957, the Soviets announce

that they have launched into orbit
around the earth

the first-ever satellite, Sputnik.

Americans had grown up to believe

that they were advanced...
more advanced than the Soviets,

and that we were ahead of
the Soviets in everything.

The Soviets launching the first
artificial satellite into orbit

crushes those ideas
in the United States.

And on a really clear night -
because it was chrome -

Americans could physically see it
go across the sky.

And Americans thought

if the Soviets could put Sputnik
into orbit,

they could put their nuclear bombs
into orbit as well.

GREEN: The launch of Sputnik
terrified the public.

There's a sense the US has to act,

has to put its faith in
von Braun and his colleagues,

lest the Russian conquest of space
becomes too advanced.

Four months after the Sputnik launch,
von Braun launches the Juno I,

carrying America's
first-ever satellite into orbit.

NEWSREEL: Wernher von Braun,
one of the big brains

behind these American space probes,

is present for the launching.

The Americans had a rocket program,

and it was an incredibly advanced
rocket program.

But at every step of the way,

it's behind what the Soviets
are capable of doing.

The Soviets seem to be leading
the space race

throughout the entire Cold w*r.

On the 12th of April, 1961,

there is another blow
to Western morale.

(MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN ON RADIO)

The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

becomes the first human
to travel into space.

It is a huge propaganda victory
for communism.

The space race
is not just about defence.

There are two competing visions
of how the world should be -

authoritarian state socialism
versus individual freedom.

America feels it must demonstrate

the superiority of liberty
over tyranny.

The Nazis put the first rocket
into space.

The communists
sent the first human there.

On behalf of the free world,

President Kennedy
now makes a promise.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

I believe that this nation should
commit itself to achieving the goal,

before this decade is out,

of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth.

Wernher von Braun now finds himself

in the company of
the American President,

who gives him
the freedom and resources

to fulfil his childhood dream.

It's not just about rockets now.

It's about reaching another world.

For me, it's the astonishing irony

that this w*r criminal
turned into an American celebrity

and was able to take part

in the great American
'man on the moon' project.

On July 16th, 1969,
at 9:32 local time,

Wernher von Braun
launches Saturn V,

the most powerful rocket ever built.

It will take Neil Armstrong,
Buzz Aldrin

and Michael Collins to the moon.

This is the crowning achievement
of von Braun's career.

It is also, and will remain forever,

one of the greatest milestones
in human history.

BUZZ ALDRIN: Four forward.
Drifting to the right a little.

CHARLIE DUKE: 30 seconds.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: Forward drift?

PAVELEC: When, in July,
Neil Armstrong

steps on the moon
for the first time...

NEIL ARMSTRONG: Tranquillity Base
here. The Eagle has landed.

...at that point, the United States
has won the space race.

NEIL ARMSTRONG:
It's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

Since the dawn of flight,
humans dreamed of leaving earth

and travelling to another world.

Wernher von Braun makes it happen,

but at a terrible cost.

Von Braun is awarded
the National Medal of Science

and has named after him a research
centre at the University of Alabama

and even a crater on the moon.

He dies, at the age of 65,
from pancreatic cancer.

He dies a hero,
celebrated as a space pioneer,

who pursued his boyhood dream and
helped put man on the on the moon.

That he was a senior SS officer
is rarely mentioned,

nor the shocking atrocities
that took place

during his time at Mittelwerk.

BIDDLE: As a principal leader
of the rocket program,

I believe he is morally
responsible for the horrors there.

Von Braun does have
blood on his hands.

The Christianity von Braun embraced

is a religion of forgiveness
and redemption,

no matter how terrible the sin.

But Wernher von Braun never publicly
confessed to any sin or crime.

Von Braun never really
acknowledged his complicity

in the use of sl*ve labour
at places like Mittelbau-Dora.

BIDDLE: He never expressed
any regrets

or certainly any moral qualms

about any aspect
of the rocket program.

Von Braun was forgiven his crimes
because it suited us.

He did not seek understanding
or forgiveness

from those who survived
the bloody regime

of which he was part,
and for which worked so willingly.

He never said sorry.

There's few men in history that
can be said to have been forgiven

so much as Wernher von Braun,

and even fewer
who have been forgiven

without having shown the slightest
flicker of remorse or repentance.

The conquest of space will remain

one of the greatest achievements
of humankind,

over which the role of the Nazis
will forever cast a shadow.