Wayne Biddle, "Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race" (repost)

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Wayne Biddle, "Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race" (repost)

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This illuminating story of the dawn of the space age reaches back to the reactionary modernism of the Third Reich, using the life of “rocket scientist” Wernher von Braun as its narrative path through the crumbling of Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazi regime. Von Braun, a blinkered opportunist who could apply only tunnel vision to his meteoric career, stands as an archetype of myriad twentieth century technologists who thrived under regimes of military secrecy and unlimited money. His seamless transformation from developer of the deadly V-2 ballistic missile for Hitler to an American celebrity as the supposed genius behind the golden years of the U.S. space program in the 1950s and 1960s raises haunting questions about the culture of the Cold War, the shared values of technology in totalitarian and democratic societies, and the imperatives of material progress.


Biddle, a former New York Times reporter with a Pulitzer Prize to his credit, intertwines the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany with scientist Wernher von Braun and his role in the creation of Germany's deadly V-1 and V-2 rockets, and his postwar apotheosis as a leader of the United States space program. Biddle's primary purpose is to debunk the view—created at least in part, Biddle believes, by von Braun himself—that he was merely a pawn in the Nazi regime whose work on the V-2 weaponry was secondary in his own mind to his goal of building rockets to send humankind into space. While much of von Braun's role in the Nazi Party is shrouded in darkness, the facts and circumstantial inferences that Biddle finds convincingly contradict von Braun's self-exoneration regarding his wartime work. Biddle offers damning evidence—including testimony by slave laborers that puts von Braun inside the V-2 factory and well aware of, and participating in, the brutal treatment of the workers. Biddle also criticizes the U.S. space program for its embrace of von Braun despite his documented membership in Hitler's SS corps. 12 illus. (Sept.)

Review
"fascinating to read Wayne Biddle's deconstruction of [von Braun's] aura of acceptability. . . . any rose-tinted spectacles worn these past six decades will likely slip." –New Scientist

"In a highly charged revisionist book, Biddle fiercely questions the virtuous myth that was built up to protect von Braun, but also the morality behind his rehabilitation." –The Times (London)

"a passionate book that raises important moral questions" –New York Times Book Review (an Editor's Choice selection)

"adds compelling detail to [von Braun's] dark past" –Providence Sunday Journal (Reviewers' Best Reads of 2009)

"all the dirty linen comes out in this fascinating, highly readable book" –Baltimore Jewish Times

“[Biddle] assembles facts, omissions, or inconsistencies in von Braun’s postwar accounts of the V-2 that cast doubt on von Braun’s minimization of his knowledge about the concentration camp where the missile was constructed….A stern, prosecutorial portrait of the famous German American rocketeer.” (Gilbert Taylor - Booklist )