V2 maker in the news

[John Verity]

U.S. tracked Nazi suspect on vacation 


12/18/1999

By BRETT DAVIS

Huntsville Times Washington Correspondent 

WASHINGTON ‹ Former NASA rocket scientist Arthur Rudolph quickly went 
from suspected Nazi sympathizer to prized military possession, according 
to decades-old military records made public this week By the National 
Archives.
The 165 pages of records were made public by an act of Congress which 
mandates the release of Cold War-era government information about Nazi 
war criminals. They are housed at the Archives II building in College 
Park, Md.
The files shed little new light on the career of Rudolph, a star member 
of Wernher von Braun's legendary German rocket team, which the Army 
brought to America after World War II to keep it out of Soviet hands.
That team laid the groundwork for the American space program, and Rudolph 
eventually earned NASA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal.
In Huntsville, Rudolph first headed Army rocket programs and then became 
director of the program building the Saturn V, the Apollo-era rocket that 
put men on the moon.
In the early 1980s, after Rudolph retired, the Justice Department's 
relatively new Nazi-hunting department accused him of war crimes for his 
actions in World War II, when he was production manager for a less 
peaceful program - the construction of the V-2 rockets that the Nazis 
rained down on London.
The Justice Department contended Rudolph knowingly helped oversee a 
program that worked thousands of prisoners to their deaths in a hellish 
series of tunnels carved into Germany's Harz mountains.
Rudolph maintained that he was a powerless pawn of the Nazi machine.
However, he returned to Germany and renounced his U.S. citizenship in 
exchange for avoiding prosecution.
Rudolph died in Germany in 1996 at age 89, after years of unsuccessful 
attempts to escape the stain of being an accused war criminal.
His most vigorous attempt came in 1990, when he attempted to enter Canada 
to meet with supporters and former rocket team members trying to clear 
his name. Officials there wouldn't let him in because Canada bars war 
criminals.
Rudolph sought to recover his good name in a court battle with Canadian 
Nazi hunters that made national headlines, but an appeals court there 
eventually ruled there were reasonable grounds to believe he was an 
accomplice in war crimes.
The files released this week indicate someone in the Army thought so, 
too, way back in June 1945.
One record describes Rudolph as ''100 percent Nazi, dangerous type, 
security threat . . . suggest internment.''
This note was previously turned up by author Linda Hunt, who mentioned it 
in her 1991 book ''Secret Agenda,'' which says the Army whitewashed the 
dossiers of some Nazi scientists after the war in order to use their 
expertise.
The note does not indicate who saw ardent Nazism in Rudolph, and the Army 
did not follow up on the suggestion that he be locked up.
The files also contain a short report - which is undated and unsigned - 
that notes Rudolph headed production at the V-2 plant for the company 
called Mittelwerk A.G.
''This firm employed foreign labour and that labour has been very badly 
mishandled according to Dir. (director) Rudolph's own words,'' that 
report says.
The files also contain a 1953 review of Rudolph's background as part of a 
security check.
As part of the review, Army officials interviewed at least two former 
coworkers of Rudolph's from his 1930s days working for an industrial gas 
company.
The men said they didn't think Rudolph had any political leanings at all.
The review did mention the 1945 Nazi accusation but, in the end, the Army 
concluded it hadn't found anything derogatory about him.
Many of the files now available at the archives are more mundane, but 
they illustrate how valuable Rudolph was to the military just a few years 
after that 1953 security review.
There are many reports revolving around a vacation trip Rudolph made to 
Europe in the summer of 1958 with his wife and daughter.
At this time, he was the technical director for the Army's Redstone 
rocket, which was essentially an American version of the German V-2.
Rudolph agreed to light surveillance for security purposes throughout his 
trip, and he had to check in with military officials every day by 
telephone, in addition to submitting to daily debriefings.
Few details were too small to be included in official reports.
''After eating their supper meal at a restaurant . . . SUBJECT and the 
others returned to the apartment . . . where they arrived at 
approximately 2130 hours, 31 July 1958,'' one report says.
Security tightened when Rudolph and his family went to West Berlin to see 
his mother-in-law.
''Rudolph was told that permission had been granted for him to go to 
Berlin, Germany, provided that his travel to and from Berlin was by air, 
preferably non-stop, and that he agree to a close protective surveillance 
while in Berlin,'' a report says.
The Berlin stop provided one of the few moments of drama on the trip.
While on an outing with two other carloads of family and friends, a car 
registered to the Czech Mission in Berlin began following the lead car, 
containing Rudolph.
''The vehicle contained only one passenger and made no attempt at being 
discreet,'' a surveillance report says. Nothing came of the incident.
Rudolph's supporters say the country that once valued him so highly later 
cast him aside after he retired and the Justice Department accused him of 
war crimes.
''I think my record of service to my adopted country shows that I deserve 
better than this,'' Rudolph wrote in a 1990 statement before his court 
fight in Canada.
© 1999 The Huntsville Times. Used with permission.



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