La chasse aux savants allemands

(1944-1960)

Michel Bar-Zohar
Year1965
PublisherFayard
PlaceParis
LanguageFR
Pages285
Rating★★★☆☆ (3/5)
AudienceGeneral, Student
LevelIntermediate
Keywords
World War IIV-2 ProgrammeGerman scientists
ThemesSpace Race, Space Policy

A journalistic investigation based on first-hand interviews, La chasse aux savants allemands traces the frantic race between Americans and Soviets from 1944 to 1960 to seize the engineers and nuclear scientists of the Third Reich. Allied intelligence teams combed through ruined Germany to capture von Braun and his Peenemünde teams, recover V2 documents, and absorb the scientists who would (on the American side via Operation Paperclip) lay the groundwork for the Redstone-Explorer programme, and on the Soviet side, establish the ballistic programme that would lead to Sputnik. A final chapter covers the parallel recruitment of German technicians by Nasserist Egypt for its missile programme.

📖 Editorial Review

From the very first pages of his "Foreword to the Reader," Michel Bar-Zohar sets out a compelling thesis: the race for scientists that played out on the rubble of the Third Reich had never been told in its entirety: from both the American and Soviet sides at once. In 1965, at twenty-seven, this Paris-based historian …