1912–1977. A German scientist, one of the leading rocket constructors. From 1936, a member of the NSDAP and Director of the Army Rocket Centre at Peenemünde, where he worked on V-2 missiles. He joined the SS in 1940.
He was co-responsible for the deaths of 20 thousand prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where the production of V-2 missiles was moved. Survivors testified that von Braun had had prisoners flogged and had always watched executions.
After the war, he was recruited by an American intelligence agency under Operation Paperclip. He was working on an American rocket program. Later, he became Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. He developed the Saturn V rocket that enabled man to land on the Moon.
Former prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora camp recognised him as a persecutor in the early 1970's. Despite the accusations, he never came to trial. He died in 1977.
