On December 6, 2024, Belarusian pro-government hosts Ksenia Lebedeva and Grigory Azarenok discussed the interest of the CIA and NATO in German scientists during the СTV broadcast, program “Azarenok. Napryamuyu”. Here’s what viewers were told:
“It’s a shame that all those SS men, all those executioners, weren’t shot at Nuremberg. It’s a shame they were able to escape to Canada and Argentina, and that they later had the opportunity to work for the CIA and NATO. They took their knowledge, passed it on, and conducted experiments on people. Who did they pass it on to? The CIA and NATO. Now, these tactics, including psychological manipulation, are being used against us,” Lebedeva said.
Azarenok followed: “Werner von Braun, the rockets he developed for Hitler, he then successfully created for the USA.”
Lebedeva continued: “Of course, there are so many technologies. All the information was passed on to the CIA and NATO. Those individuals who escaped from the post-Soviet space were important to them.”
Wernher Von Braun did work for the Third Reich, developing the V-2 rocket, which was a predecessor to both American and Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. After Germany's defeat in the war, he surrendered and continued his work for the Americans, including in the space industry. Thanks to him, the Apollo program successfully sent a man to the moon.
Wernher von Braun wasn't the sole Nazi scientist to continue his work in the West. Under the secretive “Operation Paperclip,” the United States relocated more than 1,500 German scientists to America, integrating them into various research initiatives.
Not only was the West interested in harnessing the scientific talent of the Third Reich, but so was the USSR. The Soviet Union had its own project, called OSOAVIAKHIM, to bring valuable specialists from Germany after the war.
Operation Osoaviakhim took about 8,000 specialists from East Germany to the USSR in October 1946. For the Soviet atomic project, the Soviet leadership invited more than 300 Germans to the country, including their families.
Among them were physicists, rocket engineers, and chemists who contributed to the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. Many of these scientists, including Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz and chemist Peter Thiessen, received prestigious awards and honors from the Soviet government.
Documents filled out by these specialists during their relocation are preserved in the official electronic library dedicated to the history of Russia's atomic industry, established by the Rosatom corporation.
Among them, there was Gustav Hertz, a physicist and Nobel laureate, awarded the Stalin Prize by the USSR. German chemist Peter Tissen also received multiple accolades from the Soviet Union, including the highest state award in science and technology at that time. Manfred von Ardenne, a physicist and inventor, played a crucial role in the USSR's development of its first atomic bomb and was a two-time recipient of the Stalin Prize.
Moreover, the Soviet Union sought valuable personnel among German prisoners of war in camps and utilized their expertise regardless of their backgrounds.
A preserved report from 1946 to Stalin outlines the number of highly qualified specialists identified among those held in the camps run by the USSR's Ministry of the Interior. The assessment revealed approximately 1,600 individuals, including chemical engineers, gas turbine specialists, low-temperature technology experts, and those skilled in aircraft engines.