19 hours ago
A Nazi rebranded as a Space Race hero – but you probably knew that already
Nasa, Nazis and the Space Race (Channel 4) is a strong, if misleadingly titled, one-off documentary. It tells the story of Operation Paperclip, one of the most controversial operations of the 20th century in which 1,600 former Nazi scientists were pardoned at the end of the war and then taken to the USA. There they were recruited to develop rockets, both for weapons and later space flight. In the meantime their reputations and history were conveniently whitewashed in the service of a new moral imperative: defeating the Russians in the space race.
The film's title is misleading, however, because it quickly becomes apparent that this is really another chapter in the Wernher von Braun story. Von Braun was a member of the SS who worked under the Nazi regime and developed the V-2 rocket. How and why his past was forgotten and he was allowed to rebrand himself as an all-American hero – a space visionary rather than a war criminal – soon becomes the main point of interest in Nasa, Nazis and the Space Race.
You can see why all the iron filings cling to Von Braun: his story is revealing and disconcerting, and here it is very well told. In the age of Netflix documentary series that go on forever and use all the bells and whistles as padding, a straight-down-the-lens history using only expert testimony and archive footage is intellectual balm. Splicing in Super-8 films of can-do, Roger Ramjet America in the 60s makes for great television.
Von Braun himself, with his Aryan visage and bizarre helium voice, knew that he was telegenic before the term had even been invented. He cleverly utilised television, including through a Disney family programme called Man and the Moon; reputation veneering was one of his greatest achievements.
But in focusing on the WVB story the film also undermines its own footing. The early voiceover promises newly declassified documents and exclusive footage, but by part four it's not clear what here is new. Only those who know nothing of von Braun – how he used to be perceived; how history judges him now – will be surprised at the documentary's conclusion. (That von Braun was allowed to outrun his Nazi past because of his scientific achievements.)
And that takes some doing: von Braun crops up time and time again in popular culture, from Apple TV's space race drama For All Mankind to the Sixties satirist Tom Lehrer's song Wernher von Braun ('A man whose allegiance / Is ruled by expedience').
At the same time, here we have author Wayne Biddle on camera reminding us that his book Dark Side of the Moon, which came out in 2009, told us all of this 15 years ago. 'If he [von Braun] survives as a hero it's out of ignorance,' says a slightly tired-of-all-this Biddle. The question, then, is that if the von Braun story is old news, what in Nasa, Nazis and the Space Race is new? The answer is not much. Like re-reading a newspaper, it's an enjoyable, accomplished, but never revelatory way to pass the time.
