The absence of "the Holocaust" from GR; Neufeld's The Rocket and the Reich

[jbor]

    3. the Holocaust, the genocidal murder of the Jews by the Nazis in World
       War II. [Macquarie]

Neufeld's book, first published in 1995, has been referred to here often. In
it, as in *GR*, there is considerable focus on the technological
developments, and mechanical specifications, which made the German A4/V2
rockets possible. It does document the exploitation of concentration camp
labour in the production of the rocket at both Peenemunde and Nordhausen,
though this is not the only, major or central thrust of Neufeld's research
(just as it is not the only, major or "central" subject of Pynchon's novel).
There is a review of Neufeld's book here:

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~german/books/reviews/hunley1.html

which makes the following, imo valid, criticisms:

     Neufeld concludes by noting the twin legacies of Peenemünde: On the one
    hand he notes that "the German Army rocket program was greatly
    influenced by -- and integrated into -- the structures and practices of
    the Nazi regime." On the other, he states that the "A-4/V-2 was and is
    the grandfather of all modern guided missiles and space boosters," and
    that it led both to positive achievements in space and the threat of
    nuclear destruction. Obviously, there can and will be a variety of
    responses to this book by knowledgeable readers. Some are already
    outraged, but most cannot fail to be impressed by Neufeld's research and
    his technical mastery of enormously disparate and scattered sources.
    While many readers will disagree with some of his conclusions, my own
    research suggests only two criticisms. Although Neufeld is not wrong to
    stress the in-house nature of the A-4 development effort, and though he
    indicates many cases of contributions from outside universities and
    firms, the latter were more integral to development than Neufeld
    suggests. Second, while the technology developed at Peenemünde
    contributed significantly to later rockets and missiles, it is an
    exaggeration to call the A-4 the grandfather of all of them. For
    example, largely independent developments at the Jet Propulsion
    Laboratory in California during World War II and afterwards contributed
    significantly to later liquid- and especially solid-propellant rockets
    and missiles. These include the Aerobee, Scout, Pershing, Polaris, and
    Minuteman plus the solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle. Such
    criticisms aside, The Rocket and the Reich is an impressive achievement
    and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of rocketry
    and of the development of technology in Nazi Germany.

As Neufeld admits, and as Hunley reminds, important contributions had
already been made by space travel pioneers such as Hermann Oberth (von
Braun's mentor and technical advisor to Lang for 'Die Frau Im Mond') in
Germany, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in Russia, and Robert Goddard in the US in
the 1920s, long before the Nazi rocket program. See for eg.

http://www.kiosek.com/oberth/

Some of the other books cited in the extensive bibliography to this article
look worthwhile. They might even help disabuse millison of his rabid
monomania. The paragraph from the 'Luddite' essay cited (again) is making
connections which are rather broader than those millison attributes to
Neufeld (i.e. it is the "Industrial Revolution" rather than the German war
effort which is identified as the root; the Manhattan Project, death camps
and German rocketry as symptoms rather than causes.)

millison's vindictive ad hominem attacks always make me go back to my posts
to check what I actually wrote. And, of course, what I have written is
invariably rather different to what he has accused me of writing. I
emphasised that the prisoners at Dora are labour camp inmates in response to
millison's earlier (and constant) surmise that they are Holocaust victims.
They are obviously "slaves" -- they are prisoners, after all -- no question
about that. Pynchon, through Pokler, glancingly refers to them as "foreign
prisoners" and leaves it at that. Pynchon also specifically notes the
difference between Dora, which was a labour camp, and Auschwitz and
Buchenwald, which were Jewish death camps, on p. 666. Certainly, the
prisoners at Dora were treated badly, and their piled bodies outside the
crematorium in GR is a chilling image. But this is explicitly *not* "the
Holocaust", which denotes "the genocidal murder of the Jews by the Nazis in
WW II".
>


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>From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>

> "The problem of finding workers for the missile assembly plants had
> long plauged Dornberger, Schubert, and the production planners. ...
snip