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Arthur Rudolph

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Arthur Rudolph
Rudolph showing a model of the Saturn V
Born	Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph November 9, 1906 Stepfershausen, Meiningen, Germany
Died	January 1, 1996 (aged 89) Hamburg, Germany
Occupation	Rocket engineer
Known for	V-2, Saturn V
Spouse(s)	Martha Therese Kohls
Children	Marianne Erika Rudolph
Parents	Gustav and Ida Rudolph
Awards	Honorary Doctor of Science Exceptional Civilian Service Award (US Army) NASA Exceptional Service Medal NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who helped develop and produce the V-2 rocket. After World War II he was brought to the United States and worked for the U.S. Army and NASA where he managed the development of several important systems including the Pershing missile and the Saturn V Moon rocket. In 1984 he was investigated for possible war crimes and was forced to renounce his United States citizenship.

Contents  [hide] 1 Early life 2 Berlin 3 V-2 4 U.S. Army 5 NASA 6 OSI investigation and controversy 7 References in popular culture 8 Notes 9 References

[edit]Early life

Rudolph was born in Stepfershausen, Meiningen, Germany in 1906. His family were farmers, with a long tradition in the area. His father Gustav died in 1915 while serving during World War I and Arthur and his younger brother Walter were raised by their mother, Ida. When Ida noted that young Arthur had a mechanical gift, she decided that he should attend technical training, while Walter inherited the family farm.

From 1921 on, Rudolph attended the technical school^{[Note 1]} in Schmalkalden for three years. In 1924 he found employment at a factory for silver goods in Bremen. In August 1927 he accepted a job at Stock & Co. in Berlin. After a few months, he became a toolmaker at Fritz Werner in Berlin. In 1928 he attended the Technical College of Berlin (now the Technical University of Berlin), graduating in 1930 with the equivalent of a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

[edit]Berlin

On May 1, 1930, Rudolph began working for the Heylandt Works^{[Note 2]} in Berlin where he met rocketry pioneer Max Valier. Valier had use of the factory grounds for his experiments in rocketry and Rudolph became interested, working with Valier in his spare time along with Walter Riedel. Rudolph already had some interest in rocketry, having read Wege zur Raumschiffahrt (Ways to Spaceflight) by Hermann Oberth and having seen the film Woman in the Moon.

On May 27, an experimental engine exploded and killed Valier. Dr. Paulus Heylandt forbade further rocket research, but Rudolph continued secretly with Riedel and Alfons Pietsch. Rudolph then developed an improved and safer version of Valier's engine while Pietsch designed a rocket car. Dr. Heylandt conceded to back the project, and the "Heylandt Rocket Car" was born and was exhibited at Tempelhof Aerodrome. While it was a technical success, the fuel costs were greater than the admissions received and performances were discontinued. Rudolph joined the Nazi Party in 1931, then later the SA Reserve for a short period.

Rudolph first met Wernher von Braun when he visited a meeting of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR, the "Spaceflight Society"). In May 1932 Rudolph was laid off and looking for work when he encountered Pietsch. After forming a partnership Rudolph began design on a new engine, while Pietsch looked for a backer. Pietsch met with Walter Dornberger, who had been tasked by the German Ordnance Department to develop a rocket weapons system and had become interested in the VfR.

After demonstrating the new engine to Dornberger, Rudolph moved to the proving grounds at Kummersdorf along with Riedel, and began working under von Braun. Rudolph's engine was used in the Aggregate series of rockets. In December 1934, the von Braun team successfully launched two A-2 rockets from the island of Borkum. Arthur Rudolph married Martha Therese Kohls (b. July 5, 1905) on October 3, 1935 in Berlin. Static testing on the A-3 engines began in Kummersdorf in late 1936 and were observed by General Werner von Fritsch, the commander-in chief of theGerman Army High Command.

[edit]V-2

The Kummersdorf facilities were inadequate for continued operations, so the von Braun team was moved to Peenemünde in May 1937 where Rudolph was tasked with the building of the A-3 test stand. The Rudolphs lived in nearby Zinnowitz, where their daughter, Marianne Erika, was born on November 26, 1937. The A-3 series was plagued with guidance problems and never proved successful. In early 1938, Dornberger put Rudolph in charge of the design for the new production plant to be built at Peenemünde for the A-4 series, which was later named the V-2(Vergeltungswaffe 2 or Reprisal Weapon 2). In August 1943— as Rudolph was ready to begin production of the V-2— the British bombed Peenemünde. Martha and Marianne Rudolph were evacuated and went to live with Ida Rudolph in Stepfershausen.

The V-2 production facility was moved to the Mittelwerk facility near Nordhausen. Mittelwerk was originally a gypsum mine that was being used as a storage facility and was being excavated for production facilities. The labor force consisted of prisoners who were eventually housed at theMittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Rudolph was in charge of moving the equipment from Peenemünde to Mittelwerk, working under Albin Sawatzki. After the plant was in place, Rudolph was placed in charge of the V-2 production. Sawatzki decreed that fifty V-2 rockets were to be produced in December. Given the labor and parts issues, Rudolph was barely able to produce four rockets that were later returned from Peenemünde as defective. In 1944, Himmler convinced Hitler to put the V-2 project directly under SS control, and in August replaced Dornberger with SS General Hans Kammler as its director. In January 1945 the SS ordered all of the civilians and prisoners, including Rudolph and his team, to attend a public hanging of several prisoners accused of sabotage. By March 1945, production had stopped due to a lack of parts and Rudolph and his staff were moved to Oberammergau where they met von Braun and others from Peenemünde. They finally surrendered to the U.S. Army and were transported to Garmisch.

[edit]U.S. Army

German Rocket Team at Fort Bliss, Texas, August 1946; Rudolph is in the front row, fourth from the left

From July to October 1945, Rudolph was transferred to the British to participate in Operation Backfire. He was then transferred back to the Americans. The U.S. Army picked up Martha and Marianne Rudolph from Stepfershausen before it was occupied by the Red Army and the Rudolphs were reunited at Camp Overcast near Landshut. In November 1945, Operation Overcast brought Rudolph, von Braun and the rest of the V-2 team temporarily to the US for six months. After President Truman approved Operation Paperclip in August 1946 most of the group stayed permanently.

After a brief interrogation at Fort Strong, the team was sent to White Sands Proving Grounds to work on further V-2 engineering in January 1946. In January 1947 Rudolph was moved to the Ordnance Research and Development Division at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, where his family finally joined him in April. Since he had been brought into the US without a visa, he and others were sent to Juárez, Mexico where he obtained a visa and officially immigrated to the U.S. on April 14, 1949. During his time at Fort Bliss, he acted as a liaison to the Solar Aircraft Company,^{[Note 3]} and spent much of 1947 and 1949 in San Diego, California.

During a 1949 inquiry by the FBI, Rudolph made the following statement on his participation in the Nazi party:

Until 1930 I sympathized with the social democratic party, voted for it and was a member of a socialdemocratic union (Bund Techn. Agst. u. Beamt.) After 1930 the economical situation became so serious that it appeared to me to be headed for catastrophe. (I really became unemployed in 1932.) The great amount of unemployment caused expansion of nationalsoc. and communistic parties. Frightened that the latter one would become the government I Joined the NSDAP (a legally reg. entity) to help, I believed in the preservation of the western culture.^[1]

On June 25, 1950 Rudolph was transferred to Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, and his group was re-designated as the Ordnance Guided Missile Center. He was naturalized as an American citizen on November 11, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1950 Rudolph was appointed as the technical director for the Redstone missile project. Rudolph was assigned as the project manager for the Pershing missileproject in 1956. He specifically selected The Martin Company as the prime contractor for the program. He also chose the Eclipse-Pioneerdivision of Bendix to develop the guidance system after he personally inspected the plant in Teterboro, New Jersey.

Rudolph received an honorary doctorate of science degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida on February 23, 1959. He received the Exceptional Civilian Service Award,^[2] the highest Army award for civilians, for his work on Pershing.

[edit]NASA

The first Saturn V, AS-501, before the launch of Apollo 4

Although von Braun and his team had been transferred to NASA in 1960, Rudolph stayed with ABMA to continue critical work on Pershing. In 1961 he finally moved to NASA, once again working for von Braun. He became the assistant director of systems engineering, serving as liaison between vehicle development atMarshall Space Flight Center and the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. He later became the project director of the Saturn V rocket program in August 1963. He developed the requirements for the rocket system and the mission plan for the Apollo program. The first Saturn V launch lifted off from Kennedy Space Centerand performed flawlessly on November 9, 1967, Rudolph's birthday.^[3] He was then assigned as the special assistant to the director of MSFC in May 1968 and then retired from NASA on January 1, 1969.^[4] During his tenure he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. On July 16, 1969, the Saturn V launched Apollo 11, putting man on the Moon.

[edit]OSI investigation and controversy

The Rudolphs retired to San Jose, California to be near their daughter. Soon after moving, he had a heart attack and a triple bypass. In September 1982, he received a letter requesting an interview by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI).^[5] Rudolph believed this was one of the series of interrogations he had gone through since his arrival in the U.S. The first of three interviews, it centered on his attitudes on racial superiority, his early participation in the Nazi Party and a possible role in the treatment of prisoners at Mittelwerk. On November 28, 1983, Rudolph, purportedly under duress and fearful for the welfare of his wife and daughter, signed an agreement with the OSI stating that he would leave the United States and renounce his United States citizenship. Under the agreement, Rudolph would not be prosecuted, the citizenship of his wife and daughter was not in danger of revocation and Rudolph's retirement and Social Security benefits were left intact. In March 1984 Arthur and Martha Rudolph departed for Germany where Rudolph renounced his citizenship as agreed. Germany protested to the United States Department of State, as Rudolph now had no citizenship in any country. In July, Germany requested documentation from the OSI to determine if Rudolph should be prosecuted or granted citizenship. TheWorld Jewish Congress placed articles in newspapers in January 1985 on behalf of the Department of Justice, searching for survivors of the Mittelwerk.^[6]

After receiving documentation in April 1985, the case was investigated by Harald Duhn, the Attorney General of Hamburg. In March 1987, the investigation concluded after questioning a number of witnesses and determining no basis for prosecution. Rudolph was then granted German citizenship.^[7]

Meanwhile, a great deal of controversy occurred back in the U.S. Rudolph had not told his friends of the investigation, but the OSI made a news release after his departure. Several groups and individuals were calling for an investigation into the OSI's activities regarding Rudolph. These included retired Major General John Medaris (former commander of ABMA), officials of the city of Huntsville, the American Legion and former associates at NASA. Thomas Franklin interviewed Rudolph and wrote a series of articles in the Huntsville News that questioned the OSI investigation– these were later used as the basis for An American in Exile: The Story of Arthur Rudolph.^{[8][Note 4]}

In 1985, Representative Bill Green of New York introduced a bill to strip Rudolph of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) and re-introduced it in 1987.^[9][10] Rudolph applied for a visa in 1989 to attend a 20th anniversary celebration of the first Moon landing, but was denied by the State Department. In May 1990, the United States House of Representatives ordered hearings to determine whether the OSI was negligent in not pursuing the prosecution, or if it had violated the rights of Arthur Rudolph.^[11][12][13] In July the Rudolphs entered Canada for a reunion with their daughter. Since the OSI had placed Rudolph on a watch list, he was detained and left Canada of his own accord.^[14] Neo-NaziErnst Zündel and Paul Fromm attempted to support Rudolph with demonstrations. After Rudolph left, an immigration hearing was held in his absence; he was represented by Barbara Kulaszka, but Canadian authorities ruled that he could not return to Canada.^[15] Rudolph sued to regain his U.S. citizenship, but the case was dismissed in 1993.^[16]

Arthur Rudolph died in Hamburg on January 1, 1996 from heart failure. In November, Martha Rudolph wrote to Henry Hyde, then chairman of theHouse Judiciary Committee. She stated that her husband had signed the agreement after coercion and duress by the OSI and that she was dismayed by the House resolutions to strip her husband of the DSM. Rudolph continued to be defended by Pat Buchanan, Lyndon LaRoucheand Friedwardt Winterberg.^[17][18]

[edit]References in popular culture

The character of Hans Udet in the novel Voyage by Stephen Baxter is based on Rudolph.^[19] Udet is described as a senior member of von Braun's V-2 team at the Mittelwerk and as the director of the Saturn V project. Near the end of the novel Udet faces charges on war crimes, renounces his citizenship and returns to Germany.

The character of Franz Bettmann in the film The Good German, described as the chief production engineer of the V2, is in part based on Rudolph.

Rudolph was portrayed by Christopher Shaw in the stage play Apollo, written by Nancy Keystone. Apollo premiered at Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon on January 13, 2009.

Rudolph's name is linked to several conspiracy theories, particularly UFOs and Area 51.^[20]

[edit]Notes

1. ^ Staatliche Fachschule für Kleineisen und Stahlwarenindustrie (State Technical School for Ironmongery and Steel Goods Industry)
2. ^ The actual name was Aktiengesellschaft für Industrie Gas Verwertung (Corporation for Industry Gas Utilization), but was commonly referred to as the Heylandt Works. Heylandt manufactured equipment used in oxygen production and was later acquired by The Linde Group
3. ^ Solar Aircraft is now Solar Turbines, a division of Caterpillar.
4. ^ Thomas Franklin was the nom de plume of Hugh McInnish, a reporter for the Huntsville News.

[edit]References

1. ^ "Arthur Rudolph". Freedom of Information Privacy Act. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
2. ^ "Exceptional Civilian Service Award". The Institute of Heraldry. Retrieved September 21, 2006.
3. ^ "Man in the News: Saturn 5 Coordinator". The New York Times. November 11, 1967. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
4. ^ "Saturn Chief Leaving Post". The New York Times. May 15, 1968. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
5. ^ Newburger, Emily (2002). "Never Forget". Harvard Law Bulletin. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
6. ^ "Witnesses Sought Among Survivors Of Nazi Rocket Factory". Las Vegas Israelite. January 11, 1985.
7. ^ Burns, John F. (August 6, 1990). "War-Crime Charges Haunt Scientist". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
8. ^ Franklin, Thomas (1987). An American in Exile: The Story of Arthur Rudolph. Hunstsville, AL: Christopher Kaylor. ISBN 0-916039-04-8.
9. ^ Green, S. William (1990). "A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the NASA Distinguished Service Medal should be taken away from Arthur Rudolph". House Resolution 68. Library of Congress. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
10. ^ Green, S. William (1990). "A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the NASA Distinguished Service Medal should be taken away from Arthur Rudolph". House Resolution 164. Library of Congress. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
11. ^ Traficant, James A. (1990). "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the House Judiciary Committee should hold hearings for the purpose of evaluating all evidence relative to the Arthur Rudolph". House Resolution 404. Library of Congress. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
12. ^ Traficant, James A. (1990). "Resolution to Open a Congressional Investigation Into the Arthur Rudolph Case". Library of Congress. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
13. ^ "Congressman Defending Scientist Who Is Suspected in War Crimes". The New York Times. May 5, 1990. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
14. ^ "Arthur Rudolph on trial". Fleeing Justice: War Criminals in Canada. CBC. July 6, 1990. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
15. ^ MacLeod, Robert (January 12, 1991). "Former Nazi scientist is barred from Canada". The Globe and Mail (Toronto).
16. ^ Johnston, David (February 20, 1993). "Scientist Accused as Ex-Nazi Is Denied Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
17. ^ Buchanan, Patrick J. (November 5, 1999). "Pat Buchanan's Response To Norman Podhoretz's Op-Ed". Patrick J. Buchanan – Official Web site. Archived fromthe original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007.
18. ^ King, Dennis (1989). Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-23880-0.
19. ^ Baxter, Stephen (1996). Voyage. London: Voyager Books. ISBN 0-00-224616-3.
20. ^ UFOs and Area 51, Vol. 3: David Adair at Area 51. [DVD]. UFO TV. 2005.

Klaus Barbie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Klaus Barbie
Born	October 25, 1913 Bad Godesberg, Germany
Died	September 25, 1991 (aged 77) Lyon (jail), France
Nationality	German
Other names	Butcher of Lyon
Occupation	Hauptsturmführer
Known for	Working as a Nazi Leader in France, torturing resistance members. And for being a drug lord and arms dealer in Bolivia.
Political party	National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)
Religion	Roman Catholic

Klaus Barbie (October 25, 1913 – September 25, 1991) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (rank approximately equivalent to army captain), Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.

Contents  [hide] 1 Early life 2 War crimes 3 Trial 4 In popular culture 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit]Early life

Klaus Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, today part of Bonn, Germany. Barbie was born to aRoman Catholic family.^{[citation needed]} His parents were both teachers.^{[citation needed]} Until 1923 he went to the school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier. In 1925, his whole family moved to Trier. In 1933, Barbie's father and brother both died. The death of his abusive, alcoholic father derailed plans for young Barbie to study theology or otherwise become an academic, as his peers had expected. While unemployed, Barbie was drafted into the Nazi labor service - Reichsarbeitsdienst.

In September 1935, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the special security branch service of the SS that acted as the intelligence-gathering arm of the Nazi Party. Soon he was sent to serve in Amsterdam in the German occupied Netherlands. In 1942, he was sent to Dijon and in November of the same year he was sent to Lyon, where he became the head of the local Gestapo.

[edit]War crimes

He first set up camp at Hôtel Terminus in Lyon. It was his time as head of the Gestapo of Lyon that earned him the name Butcher of Lyon. Evidence suggests that he personally tortured prisoners and is responsible for the deaths of up to 4,000 people.^[1] The most infamous case is the arrest and torture of Jean Moulin, one of the highest-ranking members of the French Resistance. In April 1944, Barbie ordered thedeportation to Auschwitz of a group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu. After his surgery in Lyon, Klaus Barbie rejoined the SIPO-SD of Lyon in Bruyeres-in-Vosges France where he was also responsible for a massacre in Rehaupal in September 1944.

In 1947, Barbie became an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).^[2] In 1951, he fled to Juan Peron'sArgentina with the help of a ratline organized by U.S. intelligence services^[3] and the Ustashi Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović. Asked by Barbie why he was going out of his way to help him escape, Draganovic responded, "We have to maintain a sort of moral reserve on which we can draw in the future."^[4] He then emigrated to Bolivia, where he lived under the alias Klaus Altmann. Testimony of Italian insurgentStefano Delle Chiaie before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in the "Cocaine Coup" of Luis García Meza Tejada, when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980.^[5]

Barbie was also reported to have worked as an officer for Bolivian intelligence and helped plan concentration camps, and formulate torture and repression techniquies for anti-government rebels while Bolivia was under a violent dictatorship.^{[citation needed]}

While in Bolivia, Barbie managed a company that diverted Belgian and Swiss arms to Israel while Israel was still under a post-Six-Day Warinternational arms embargo. A report in the Israeli press alleges that Barbie also had frequent dealings with Israel concerning supplies of Israeli arms to Latin American countries and "various underground organizations."^[6]

[edit]Trial

Barbie was identified in Bolivia as early as 1971 by the Klarsfelds (Nazi hunters), but it was only on January 19, 1983, that the newly elected government of Hernán Siles Zuazo arrested and extradited him to France.

In 1984, Barbie was put on trial for crimes committed while he was in charge of the Gestapo in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. The trial started on May 11, 1987, in Lyon — a jury trial before the Rhône Cour d'assises. In a rare move, the court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. Also, a special court room with seating for an audience of about 700 was constructed.^[7] The head prosecutor was Pierre Truche. At the trial Barbie received support not only from Nazi apologists like François Genoud, but also from leftist lawyer Jacques Vergès.

Quite likely under Vergès' direction, Barbie caused sensations on the first days of the trial: he gave his name as Klaus Altmann (the name he had used while in Bolivia) and, claiming that his extradition was technically illegal, made the request to be excused from the trial and return to his cell at St Joseph prison. This was granted though he was brought back on the 26th of May to face some of his accusers, during which he stated that he had "nothing to say".

Vergès had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the French colonial empire. His strategy at the trial was to use it to expose war crimes committed by France since 1945. Indeed, many of the charges against Barbie were dropped, thanks to legislation that had protected people accused of crimes under the Vichy regime and in French Algeria. Vergès further argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the ordinary actions of colonialists worldwide, and that his trial was selective prosecution. During his trial, Barbie famously stated that: "When I stand before the throne of God I shall be judged innocent".

On July 4, 1987, Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, and died in jail in Lyon of leukemia four years later, at the age of 77.

[edit]In popular culture

Barbie is memorably referenced in the film Rat Race, when the Jewish Pear family stops at the "Barbie Museum", thinking it to be a museum of Barbie dolls. They arrive, shocked at its true subject and threatening staff of neo-nazis, who attempt to portray Klaus Barbie as a "loving husband, devoted father, wine connoisseur, and three-time ballroom dancing champion." Following their awkward departure, the Pear family finds their van destroyed and subsequently steals one of the museum's relics, Adolf Hitler's staff car.

Barbie is also referenced in the song Sheriff Fatman by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine from their 1989 album 101 Damnations.