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 tales@pushkin.fm and we'll do our best to answer it in a Q&A episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money
Blood and Gold (with Dan Snow)
The Rise and Fall of a Megalomaniac
Inside the Bizarre World of Dictators
Pushkin Hosts Celebrate World Happiness Day
Do Nothing, Then Do Less
Into the Black Lair: V2 Rocket (Part 2)
Supersonic Nazi Vengeance: V2 Rocket (Part 1)
Tenerife: The Most Deadly Air Disaster
Martin Luther King, the Jewelry Genius, and the Art of Public Speaking (Classic)
DANGER: Rocks Ahead! (Classic)
When Stalin Killed the Weekend (with The Happiness Lab)
How the Radium Girls Fought Back
Glowing Peril: The Magical Glitter That Poisoned a City
George Washington's Beard of Beetles (with The Dollop)
Laser Versus Parchment: Doomsday for the Disc
Cautionary Tales Presents The Dream
Killers of the Flower Moon: Osage Chief Jim Gray In Conversation
Oil and Blood: The Osage Murders
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Revisionist History
99% Invisible
Today, Explained
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Freakonomics Radio