In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Allied Powers sent research teams into the ruins of the Third Reich to cherry-pick the best German engineers and scientists. The goal was to integrate them into their own R&D programmes and exploit Nazi technology to beat the Soviets in the arms race. Operation Paperclip saw thousands of scientists relocated to the United States, even though many of them had been complicit in Nazi war crimes. So which technologies did they salvage from the wreckage of the Nazi regime? And what scientific breakthroughs did they contribute to after the war? Annie Jacobsen, an investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, joins Dan to answer these questions and more.
Produced by Mariana des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Dougal Patmore.
If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!
Download the History Hit app from the Google Play store.
Download the History Hit app from the Apple Store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Las Vegas & Atomic Tourism
Julius Caesar's Sex Life
D-Day: The Deception that Made it Possible
D-Day: The Land Invasion
D-Day: The Air Invasion
D-Day: The Sea Invasion
Mutiny on the Rising Sun: Smuggling in Colonial America
Coming Soon! D-day to Berlin
Jane Seymour: Henry VIII’s Third Queen
The Opium Wars
The British Empire, China and Opium
Civil War in Feudal Japan: The Sengoku Period
The Royal Navy's Darkest Night & The Origins of Longitude
Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt: The Impossible Alliance that Won WWII
Twelve Caesars with Mary Beard
Marshal Pétain: Hero or Traitor?
Merlin, The Occult and British Politics
The Dynasty That Made Medieval France
Why Are We Drawn to Dictators?
The Atomic Bomb & Civil War Cigars: Greatest 'What Ifs' from History
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
History Extra podcast
Battleground
Gone Medieval
Key Battles of American History
WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk