Operation Paperclip was a secret US Intelligence program in which more than 1,600 Nazi Germany scientists, technicians, and engineers were taken after WWII ended, between 1945 and 1959. Many were former members and leaders of the Nazi party.
The primary purpose for Operation Paperclip was for the U.S. military advantage in the Space Race and the Soviet-American Cold War. The public face of this operation was that only “good” Germans were being brought back to the United States. The reality was that some of these individuals were tied to war crimes including horrible concentration camp experiments. Many of these people worked for the U.S. government. For example, Wernher Von Braun German aerospace engineer had detailed knowledge on what was going on in the concentration camps. Von Braun hand picked slave labor from concentration camps to build V-2 rockets. These missiles were launched at England in the final months of WWII. Von Braun worked for NASA and led the development of the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the moon. In 1954 Otto Von Bolschwing, an associate of Adolf Eichmann who had helped develop the initial plans “to purge Germany of the Jews” and who later worked for the C.I.A. in the United States.
These are only to name a few.
The Nazi’s that we fought so hard to defeat were brought to the United States and put in our top military installations with Top Secret clearances. The government tried hard to whitewash the skeleton filled closets of these men and women. Many were given major awards and scientific achievements for their contributions.