Home
cover of episode Buried Evil: V2 Rocket (Part 3)

Buried Evil: V2 Rocket (Part 3)

2024/3/1
logo of podcast Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Chapters

The American soldiers discovered a horrific scene of emaciated survivors and smoldering corpses at a Nazi prison camp, alongside tunnels filled with tools and partially assembled rockets, revealing the heart of the V2 manufacturing program.

Shownotes Transcript

As US troops approached a Nazi prison camp, they could hear agonized wailing. The stench of rotting flesh filled their nostrils. Moments later they discovered a pile of smoldering corpses, alongside emaciated survivors.

Next to the concentration camp they found something else: tunnels filled with tools — and partially assembled rockets. The soldiers had hit upon the evil heart of the V2 manufacturing program: enslaved laborers, imprisoned underground.

And the rocket program's director? Wernher von Braun had already fled. He now had just one concern: persuading the Americans to let him switch sides…

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com).

Do you have a question for Tim? Send it to [email protected]) and we'll do our best to answer it in a Q&A episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.