After Adolf Hitler installed Joseph Goebbels as the Reich’s minister of propaganda, the new regime flooded German cinemas with films that either soothed the masses with light‑hearted musical numbers or pushed the twisted Nazi worldview. In this forgotten movie spotlight we dive into the lives of ten starlets who navigated fame, politics, and tragedy under the watchful eye of the UFA.

Forgotten Movie Starlets of Nazi Germany

10 Lida Baarova

Lida Baarova was an established actress from Prague, and she signed a contract with the UFA for her first German film, Barcarole, in 1935. She turned down Hollywood offers to stay in Germany. Lida was engaged to Gustav Frohlich, a famous actor who divorced his Jewish wife to continue his acting career. The couple fully embraced the Nazis to benefit their own careers.

Goebbels became absolutely obsessed with Lida. Their two‑year affair catapulted her into the most coveted roles, and she amassed wealth and fame.

The liaison caused turmoil for Gustav and for Magda Goebbels, Joseph’s wife. Hitler eventually intervened, ordering Lida’s immediate deportation back to Prague to halt the domestic dispute.

In 2016 a German movie titled Devil’s Mistress dramatized the Baarova‑Goebbels romance, and a documentary called Zkaza krasou also explored their story.

9 Brigitte Horney

Brigitte Horney turned down the lucrative UFA contracts, preferring the freedom to work with any actors or directors she chose—especially her friend and former co‑star Joachim Gottschalk.

Gottschalk’s wife and children were Jewish, leading to his blacklisting. In 1941 Gestapo agents arrived at his home, prompting the family to commit a joint suicide to avoid capture.

The tragedy shook Horney, and fearing for her own safety she agreed to appear in the propaganda film Am Ende der Welt (The End of the World) in 1944. Goebbels was dissatisfied, so the movie was not released until after the war.

Overwhelmed, Horney fled to Switzerland, leaving her husband behind. After the war she became a U.S. citizen and married Hanns Swarzenski, a Jewish art historian.

8 Lilian Harvey

Lilian Harvey was English‑born but grew up in Germany from the age of eight. Discovered as a dancer, she rose to stardom in silent movies and later filmed in French, English, and German.

She moved to the United States in 1933, tried Hollywood for two years, then returned to Berlin in 1935 where the Third Reich guaranteed her success. By starring in dozens of films she earned a luxurious car, a home, and the reputation of Hitler’s favorite musical heroine, often cast as the cute, virtuous girl‑next‑door.

By 1942 she emigrated back to the United States, volunteered in Los Angeles, and traveled the world, escaping Germany just before the war’s final devastation.

7 Sybille Schmitz

In 1932 Sybille Schmitz signed a five‑year contract with UFA, but Goebbels disliked her quiet demeanor and non‑Aryan features. Consequently, she was cast in science‑fiction pictures or as femme fatales and spies.

She finally landed the lead in the 1943 production Titanic. After a costly and chaotic shoot, Goebbels banned the film from German theaters.

Trapped in a contract she never asked for, Schmitz faced criticism from exiled filmmakers for remaining in Germany. After the war she took her own life.

6 Marika Rokk

Marika Rokk was born in Cairo to Hungarian parents, trained worldwide as a dancer and actress, and headlined three popular German musical comedies during Goebbels’ push for UFA stars to rival American productions.

Specializing in gymnastics and circus work, she tap‑danced and performed acrobatics on screen. Feeling sufficiently popular, she threatened to return to Hungary unless UFA raised her salary dramatically.

She married director Georg Jacoby, securing coveted roles and a paycheck of 30,000 Reichsmarks per film—a sum that would make her a millionaire today.

5 Renate Muller

Renate Muller was one of Germany’s most popular actresses in the 1920s and ’30s. When the Nazis seized power, Goebbels tried to pair her with Hitler, but she refused both the liaison and any propaganda work.

Goebbels had the Gestapo tail her, discovering she loved a Jewish man who fled to England for safety. When she attempted to visit him, the Gestapo barred her from leaving Germany.

Under intense pressure she finally agreed to star in the anti‑Semitic film Togger, playing a journalist. Soon afterward she checked herself into a hospital and died under mysterious circumstances—falling or jumping from a third‑floor window. Her life inspired the 1960 film Sweetheart of the Gods.

4 Zarah Leander

Zarah Leander was celebrated for her deep, resonant voice and masculine bearing. Though she built a career in Sweden, Goebbels offered her a UFA contract after Hollywood showed interest.

The contract made her rich and famous, but Goebbels ensured she could not leave Germany. He paid her in German marks instead of Swedish kronor and even offered a mansion if she renounced Swedish citizenship—an offer she declined.

In 1943 an Allied air raid destroyed her German home, providing the chance to escape back to Sweden. Her autobiography notes friendships with gay men and mentions that impersonators performed her songs in drag shows. A 1986 documentary, My Life for Zarah Leander, explores her life in detail.

3 Kristina Soderbaum

Kristina Soderbaum married director Veit Harlan, Goebbels’ favorite filmmaker, which propelled her to become Germany’s sweetheart, embodying the modest, self‑sacrificing ideal.

In 1940 she starred in the virulently anti‑Semitic film Jud Süß, playing a sweet girl whose fiancé is tortured after a Jewish man rapes her, leading her to drown herself. The movie was timed to precede the Nazis’ announcement of mass deportations, and many hold Soderbaum partially responsible for the Holocaust’s death toll.

2 Kathe Von Nagy

Kathe von Nagy was one of the few actresses with non‑Germanic features who thrived in Nazi cinema. Raised in a wealthy Hungarian family, she mastered French and German, published writing in Budapest, and turned to silent films in the 1920s.

Her first husband, Constantin J. David, was Jewish but lived in Italy, sparing him from German persecution. Kathe continued acting throughout the war, traveling to France and Italy, largely avoiding the intense Nazi scrutiny that fell on many of her peers.

1 Heidemarie Hatheyer

Heidemarie Hatheyer is best known for Ich klage an (I Accuse), a film where she plays a woman diagnosed with multiple sclerosis who, together with her fictional husband, decides to end her life by poison.

The courtroom drama debates whether the husband’s act constitutes murder, effectively endorsing the Nazi euthanasia program (the T4 Program) that led to mass killings of disabled individuals.

After the war the film was banned, but Hatheyer’s haunting performance remains a stark reminder of how cinema was used to justify atrocities. The film is now available online with English subtitles.

In Nazi Germany, Hollywood movies were banned and more than 1,200 new films flooded the market. The bulk of these productions served as tools of nazi propaganda, shaping public opinion and reinforcing the regime’s ideology. While many of the titles read like over‑the‑top melodrama, a handful were crafted with such skill that they still raise eyebrows today.

Even now, 40 of these films remain prohibited from television broadcast or DVD release by the German government, underscoring the lasting impact these cinematic pieces can have.

Nazi Propaganda in Film: Why It Matters

10 Triumph Of The Will

This documentary captures the 1934 Nazi Congress in Nuremberg, chronicling Hitler’s speeches and the massive rallies that followed. The film showcases towering crowds, meticulously choreographed parades, fireworks, and an aura of power and abundance.

Throughout the footage, the narrative promises a hopeful future: a revitalized economy, the dissolution of class divisions, and a society that cares for every obedient, brave German. The message is clear—under Hitler’s rule, a “perfect” German society can be built if the people stand united.

Scholars have pointed out that many of the scenes were staged rather than captured live, much like modern reality‑TV productions that rehearse and reshoot moments for dramatic effect.

9 Jud Suss

Loosely based on a 1700s tale, the film follows Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg, who appoints Jewish banker Joseph Oppenheimer as his financial adviser. Oppenheimer’s tax hikes enrich both men, and the duke rewards him by allowing Jews to settle in the town, prompting a large migration.

The plot thickens as Oppenheimer conspires with a rabbi, repeatedly declaring their intent to dominate Germany in the name of Israel. A young married couple suffers horrific fates: the husband is tortured, the wife is raped, and later the husband fishes her lifeless body from a river. The Jewish community is expelled, and Oppenheimer meets execution.

Historical records merely note Oppenheimer’s “abusing good fortune” and offering “bad counsel”—essentially fraud and embezzlement. The film inflates one greedy individual into a symbol of Jewish menace, concluding with a chilling warning: never trust the Jews, or your town could suffer the same fate.

8 I Accuse

Released in 1941, Ich Klage An (English title: I Accuse) was a key piece in persuading thousands of Germans to back the Nazi T4 program, which sanctioned the mass killing of people with terminal illnesses and disabilities.

The story follows a radiant young woman, the picture‑perfect German housewife, who is married to an ambitious doctor. When she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she endures excruciating pain and begs her husband for a lethal injection to avoid becoming a burden.

He complies, and the film shifts into a debate over whether assisted suicide should be legal. Behind the scenes, the Nazis used this moral quandary to distract the public from the systematic murder of disabled individuals without consent, attempting to convince citizens that such lives could not be “overcome” or lived happily.

7 Homecoming

In 1939, Hitler publicly framed the invasion of Poland as a rescue mission for the “abused German people.” This film was crafted to illustrate a fabricated story that justified the aggression.

The narrative portrays German immigrants in Poland as a persecuted minority: their homes and schools are seized by Polish police, they face crushing taxes, are denied hospital care, and many are beaten or stoned to death.

Later, the film shows Germans rounded up, crammed into cages under inhumane conditions, singing and yearning for home. German soldiers eventually swoop in, liberate the prisoners, and escort them back to their homeland.

All events are pure fiction, yet the film was presented as historical fact. It remains banned from German TV because it could foster a negative view of Poles and falsely legitimize the invasion.

6 Hitler Youth Quex

The plot follows sweet‑tempered Heini, nicknamed “Quex,” who suffers abuse at the hands of his Communist father. He finds solace among Nazi boys his age, who treat him like family.

Heini overhears his parents’ Communist comrades planning to blow up a Nazi building with dynamite. He alerts the Nazis, saving their lives. In retaliation, his mother, crushed by her son’s betrayal, fills the house with gas while Heini sleeps, intending to kill both him and the Nazis.

The mother dies, but Heini survives—only to be later tracked down and stabbed to death by a mob of Communists. His final words are the lyrics of a Nazi anthem, cementing the film’s message that Nazism offered the answer to Germany’s Communist troubles.

5 The Great Love

Produced in 1942, the romance centers on German lieutenant Paul and celebrated singer Hanna. When Paul is called back to the front, Hanna performs a heart‑wrenching ballad about love separated by war, a song that quickly became an international hit.

Although it appears as a simple love story, the film was deemed Nazi propaganda because it urged German women to accept personal sacrifices for the benefit of the Third Reich.

It became the highest‑grossing film in Nazi Germany’s history. After the war, it was removed from the banned‑movie list during denazification and finally released to the public in 1963, stripped of overt Nazi symbols.

4 The Rothschilds

Released in 1940, this dramatization tells how the Rothschild family allegedly amassed wealth in the 1800s by stealing money and manipulating the stock market. At one point a Rothschild declares, “We can make a lot of money but only if there is a lot of blood.”

The film portrays the family as ruthless profiteers who thrive on others’ misfortune, loosely claiming to be “based on a true story.”

It concludes with the Rothschilds dispatching family members across major European cities, using the Star of David to represent points on a map—a classic anti‑Jewish trope suggesting a covert Jewish plan to dominate Europe.

3 Uncle Kruger

Set in South Africa’s Orange Free State, the story pits the Boers—people of German and Dutch descent—against England. While the men fight, women are herded into concentration camps, and the British enlist native Africans to battle the Boers.

A dramatic clip shows a German woman trying to speak out, only to be shot by English soldiers. The troops then turn on the civilian crowd, randomly shooting women; a second woman carrying a baby collapses with no one to protect her child.

Although Britain’s colonial history involved slavery and exploitation, the film exaggerates British cruelty to an extreme, presenting fictional events as historical fact. It was shown to German audiences to prep them for an upcoming war with England and earned the first “Film of the Nation” award.

2 The Eternal Jew

One of the most overtly anti‑Semitic documentaries ever produced, this film was deemed “too pushy” even by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who feared audiences would reject its extreme claims.It likens Jews to swarms of rats poised to overrun cities, branding them the “demon behind the corruption of mankind.”

Footage from Polish ghettos—where Jews were forced into squalid conditions—is presented as evidence that Jews chose to live in filth and hoard money. The goal is to portray Jewish people as dirty, lazy, untrustworthy, and plotting world domination.

The documentary still circulates among neo‑Nazi groups and even includes an English voice‑over on YouTube, demonstrating its lingering hateful influence.

1 Stukas

The protagonist is a soldier suffering from “shell shock,” what we’d call post‑traumatic stress disorder today. After returning home, he watches an opera and, remembering his deep love for Germany, finds solace.In the film’s climax, the soldier laughs about the “fun” of bombing enemies and eagerly rejoins the fight. The final scene shows German pilots soaring off to bomb England, singing together.

The purpose is clear: convince the public that individual emotions matter less than the nation, and that blind obedience—even to the point of enjoying destruction—is the patriotic ideal.

Even before the United States threw its hat into World War Two, the German intelligence agency Abwehr was already slipping operatives into American cities and coaxing German‑American citizens onto the Nazi side. These daring undertakings produced a mix of modest successes and spectacular blunders. Below, we dive into ten German spies and the plots they tried to pull off on U.S. soil during the 1930s and 1940s.

Why Nazi Spies Targeted America

The allure of the United States lay in its industrial might, its expansive coastlines, and the relative openness of its society. For the Nazi intelligence machine, planting agents on American soil promised access to critical military technology, valuable intelligence on ship movements, and the chance to sow chaos that could divert the nation’s attention from the European theater.

10 The Long Island Landing

In June 1942, the German submarine U‑202 slipped a quartet of would‑be saboteurs onto the sands off Long Island, New York. Led by the charismatic yet nervous George John Dasch, the team was part of “Operation Pastorius,” Hitler’s ill‑fated two‑year sabotage plan that called for blowing up bridges, railways, and factories along the East Coast.

The U‑boat ran aground on a sandbar, forcing the men into a shaky inflatable raft. After a frantic scramble to bury crates of explosives, blasting caps, and timers, they were nearly caught by Coast Guard patrolman John Cullen, who stumbled onto the scene. Dasch tried to intimidate Cullen and even offered a bribe, but Cullen reported the incident.

FBI agents soon uncovered the hidden crates and traced the saboteurs to New York City. While three of the men hid in a hotel, Dasch fled to Washington, D.C., surrendered, and betrayed his comrades. He avoided execution, receiving a 30‑year prison sentence instead, gaining clemency in 1948, and eventually being deported to West Germany.

9 The Maine Mission

In November 1944, two German agents—Erich Gimpel, an experienced Abwehr courier, and William Colepaugh, a German‑American Nazi sympathizer—were dropped off by U‑1230 near Bar Harbor, Maine. Their objective was to gather intelligence on U.S. military assets and, if possible, delay the development of the atomic bomb.

Clad in ill‑suited winter wear, they trekked inland with crates full of fake IDs, guns, cameras, cash, and diamonds, catching a train to Boston and then New York City. Instead of covert espionage, Colepaugh squandered $1,500 of their funds on booze, parties, and women, eventually abandoning Gimpel and absconding with $40,000 and a dubious companion.

After a drunken binge, Colepaugh turned himself in to the FBI on December 29, spilling the beans on their mission and revealing Gimpel’s whereabouts. Both men were tried in a secret military tribunal, sentenced to death, but the war’s end commuted their sentences to life. Gimpel was released in 1955, while Colepaugh earned parole in 1960 and faded into a quiet Pennsylvania life.

8 The Trenton Sleeper

Maximilian Gerhard Waldemar Othmer arrived in the United States in 1919, became a naturalized citizen by 1935, and settled into a modest life as a vacuum‑cleaner salesman. Unbeknownst to his neighbors, Othmer was a sleeper agent for the Abwehr, quietly embedding himself in the pro‑Nazi German‑American Bund.

His espionage career took him to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he spied on ship movements, and later to a military base at Camp Pendleton in Norfolk, Virginia. By 1942, the Army transferred him to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he continued feeding German handlers with coded reports on Allied convoys.

An FBI probe into his overt Nazi sympathies uncovered a suspicious request for Pyramidon—a painkiller used by Abwehr agents to create invisible ink. When questioned by the Knoxville FBI, Othmer confessed to spying, handed over a microfilm of his cipher, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

7 Guenther Rumrich’s Passport Ploy

Born in Chicago to an Austro‑Hungarian father, Guenther Gustav Rumrich returned to America in 1929 and served in the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps in Panama before deserting in 1936. By 1938, British MI‑5 had intercepted letters between a Scottish mail‑dropper, Jessie Jordan, and a mysterious “Mr. Crown,” later revealed to be Rumrich’s code name.

When MI‑5 passed the intel to the FBI, agents set a trap. Rumrich, however, turned the tables by calling the New York Passport Office and impersonating the U.S. Undersecretary of State, demanding 35 blank passports be mailed to his address. The suspicious clerk alerted authorities, leading to Rumrich’s arrest—the first major pre‑war espionage case in America.

He cooperated, testifying against fellow agents and receiving a lenient two‑year sentence. Though his information helped expose a broader spy ring, many higher‑ranking Nazis slipped through the net.

6 The Dress Shop Spy

Lilly Stein, born in Vienna in 1914, was a former ice‑skater and tennis player who turned to espionage after an affair with U.S. State Department official Ogden H. Hammond, Jr. Recruited by the Abwehr, she set up a dress shop in New York City in 1939, using it as a front to forward letters and microfilm between Germany and fellow agents.

Her socialite lifestyle meant she rarely carried incriminating items, but she did transport microfilm hidden in clothing. Financial woes and a strained relationship with her handlers led to her removal from active service.

In June 1941, she was arrested as part of the infamous Duquesne spy ring. Claiming she was forced into espionage to avoid persecution, Stein received a ten‑year prison sentence.

5 The Norden Bombsight Blueprints

Hermann W. Lang, a German‑born draftsman who immigrated to New York in 1927, worked for the Carl L. Norden Corp., the maker of the top‑secret Norden bombsight. Recruited by the Abwehr during a 1938 visit home, Lang smuggled a set of the bombsight’s blueprints out of the factory, later delivering them to Germany hidden inside an umbrella on a cruise liner.

He continued feeding his handlers with additional details until his arrest as part of the Duquesne spy ring. Lang pleaded guilty and earned a 20‑year sentence. Government officials later claimed the full plans remained secure, though the Luftwaffe’s post‑1938 bombsight bore a striking resemblance to the stolen design.

4 The Ponte Vedra Foursome

Operation Pastorius’s second group, dubbed the “Ponte Vedra foursome,” landed in Florida in June 1942. Led by John Edward Kerling, a German who had spent years in America, the quartet intended to sabotage railways, plant suitcase bombs in Jewish‑owned shops, and cripple New York City’s water system.

After burying their equipment on a beach, they traveled by bus to Jacksonville, then onward to Cincinnati, awaiting a rendezvous with Dasch’s Long Island team. Unaware that Dasch had already betrayed his comrades, the Florida team was arrested when Kerling’s scheduled meeting was reported to the FBI.

All four men faced a military tribunal and were executed by electric chair in August 1942, alongside two of Dasch’s group.

3 Dr. Ignatz Griebl, Spymaster

After serving in the German army during World War I, Dr. Ignatz Griebl immigrated to the United States in 1925, settling in Manhattan’s Yorkville district. A respected obstetrician and U.S. Army Reserve officer, Griebl secretly became the Abwehr’s chief coordinator for a sprawling spy network that spanned Boston, Norfolk, and Baltimore.

He recruited engineers with German‑American ties, extracting secret military and defense plans, and even held a ceremonial Luftwaffe captain’s commission. When his associate Guenther Rumrich was arrested in 1938, Rumrich’s confession exposed Griebl’s operation. Griebl was summoned for questioning, offered to name all his contacts, and was released on the promise he would appear before a grand jury.

He vanished instead, boarding a ship back to Hamburg, later resuming his medical practice in Vienna and never again spying for Germany. Griebl remains the only known individual to have held simultaneous commissions in both the U.S. and German militaries.

2 The Shipyard Metallurgist

Gustav Guellich, a German‑born metallurgist, arrived in America in 1932 and was recruited by Dr. Griebl in 1935 while working at the Federal Shipbuilding Co. in Kearny, New Jersey. His position granted him access to classified Navy projects, including gun designs, destroyer blueprints, and specialized ship cables.

Guellich funneled this intelligence to Griebl, who passed it to Germany. His espionage extended to the burgeoning rocket research of Robert H. Goddard; Guellich observed a test launch of the Nell missile in Roswell, New Mexico, and relayed the findings to Berlin, aiding German rocket development.

Following Griebl’s arrest, Guellich was betrayed, apprehended, and, like many in the Duquesne ring, received a relatively light sentence.

1 William Sebold and the Duquesne Spy Ring

Frederick “Fritz” Duquesne, a South African who despised Britain after the Boer Wars, became a German spy during World War I and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. In New York, he built an extensive espionage network that harvested information from Nazi agents and moles across the country.

Unbeknownst to Duquesne, the German Gestapo and Abwehr tried to recruit William Sebold, a German‑born naturalized American, in 1939. Sebold pretended to cooperate but instead approached the U.S. Consulate in Cologne and offered his services as a double‑agent.

Back in the United States, Sebold helped the FBI establish a surveillance operation against Duquesne’s ring, even transmitting disinformation to the Germans via coded shortwave radio. In December 1941, just days after Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested 33 members of the Duquesne spy ring, the largest foreign‑intelligence roundup in American history.

While most conspirators were convicted, Sebold’s fate remains a mystery; some speculate he received a new identity for protection. The 1945 film “The House on 92nd Street” dramatized his role.

During World War II, the Nazis tinkered with a slew of wacky experimental weapons, ranging from rocket‑armed submarines to gigantic mirrors that could scorch the Earth. Many of these designs never saw combat, but they still showcase the bizarre ingenuity of the era.

Wacky Experimental Weaponry of the Third Reich

10 Heinkel He 162

Designed and launched in a frantic three‑month sprint in 1944, the He 162 won the Volksjäger (“People’s Fighter”) competition, which was meant to churn out a cheap, easily built jet for a beleaguered Luftwaffe. The concept was to let novice pilots—perhaps even members of the Hitler Youth—fly the aircraft, but the reality was far more chaotic. Its wooden wings and metal fuselage made it surprisingly fragile; the first prototype even snapped a wing on its maiden flight. Still, production rolled on, and roughly 116 units were completed, though only a handful ever took off successfully.

9 Panzer VIII Maus

The Panzer VIII Maus was a veritable behemoth of armored steel, holding the title of the largest fully enclosed fighting vehicle ever built. Designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, it stretched 50 percent longer than the next biggest German tank and weighed more than three times as much. Its sheer mass meant that most bridges would crumble under it, so engineers even toyed with the idea of a submerged crossing—capable of diving to over 13 metres. In practice, the monster was too unwieldy to field, and it never saw combat; incomplete hulls were captured by Allied forces after the war.

8 Junkers Ju 322 Mammut

When wood became the material of choice for a new cargo aircraft, Junkers answered with the Ju 322 “Mammut.” This colossal glider looked like a single, gigantic wing and boasted a staggering 60‑metre (200‑ft) wingspan. Its maiden flight in April 1941 was a disaster: the aircraft was wildly unstable, and it took nearly two weeks of towing to bring it back to the airfield. Even worse, its cargo hold proved laughably weak—a Panzer III tank simply fell through the floor during a test. The program was axed a month later, and the prototypes were shredded for fuel.

7 Rocket U‑Boat

One of the most outlandish schemes was the Rocket U‑boat—a submarine fitted with rocket launchers. The first testbed, U‑511, received a pair of rockets, but the unguided missiles proved a nightmare to steer and made underwater navigation a nightmare. By 1943, designers tried to hitch three V‑2 rockets to a Type XXI submarine, planning to tow them to a launch point and fire them remotely. Neither the launch tubes nor the specialized U‑boat were finished before the war ended, leaving the concept forever underwater.

6 Fieseler Fi 103R

SS officer Otto Skorzeny was fascinated by the high failure rate of the V‑1 “buzz bomb” and commissioned a piloted version, the Fi 103R “Reichenberg.” The idea was that a pilot could steer the rocket toward a target and bail out at the last second. In practice, the parachute canopy struggled to open against the rocket’s ferocious slipstream, and several test pilots lost their lives. About 70 units were built and roughly 100 volunteers signed up as “Self‑Sacrifice Men,” but the aircraft never saw combat, as Nazi leadership deemed it inconsistent with their martial ethos.

5 Fliegerfaust

Developed in the twilight of the war, the Fliegerfaust (literally “pilot’s fist”) was a handheld, ground‑to‑air rocket launcher. With a modest range of just 460 metres (1,500 ft), it was only effective against aircraft that dared to swoop low. The Germans ordered over 10 000 units, but production never caught up to demand; only about 80 were recovered in Berlin’s rubble in April 1945. Pictures of the abandoned launchers still pepper the city’s post‑war landscape.

4 Zeppelin Rammer

In November 1944, engineers sketched the Zeppelin Rammer—a fighter meant to be towed aloft by another aircraft, released near Allied bomber formations, then ignited by a rocket engine. The pilot would unleash a volley of rockets on the first pass and, on the second, slam the reinforced wings straight into an enemy bomber. After the fuel burned out, the plane would glide to a friendly field for refueling and another sortie. The factory housing the prototypes was obliterated by Allied bombing, and the rammer never left the drawing board.

3 Taifun

The Taifun (“Typhoon”) was a surface‑to‑air rocket conceived by Klaus Heinrich Scheufelen in 1944 as a cheap answer to Allied bomber raids. Soldiers would fire groups of unguided rockets equipped with contact fuses that also featured a timer in case they missed their mark. Though the German high command ordered two million of them, only about 600 were ever produced, and the rockets never reached the battlefield.

2 Krummlauf

The Krummlauf was a clever rifle attachment that let soldiers fire around corners. Available in 30°, 45°, and 90° configurations, the device featured a mirrored sight for infantry and a simple barrel plug for tanks. In 1944, the Nazis ordered 10 000 units, but the tank version didn’t finish production until 1945, and only a handful were ever made. The infantry version was intended to let troops engage enemies without exposing themselves, while the tank variant was meant to deter close‑quarters attacks on armored hulls.

1 The Sun Gun

Back in 1923, rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth imagined a “Sun Gun” that would sit in geosynchronous orbit with a mirror over 1.5 kilometres (one mile) wide. The plan was to concentrate sunlight onto Earth’s surface to boil oceans and incinerate cities. The Nazis took the idea seriously, estimating a fifteen‑year development timeline and a price tag of three million marks. In reality, the concept was fundamentally flawed—light cannot be focused without an already‑focused source—so the Sun Gun remained a dazzling fantasy.

When you think of big business, you might picture sleek boardrooms and relentless profit‑chasing. Yet a darker chapter of corporate history shows how some of the world’s most recognizable firms turned a blind eye—or even opened doors—to the Nazi regime, cashing in on a horror that still haunts humanity. Many of these giants have since paid multi‑million settlements, but the shadows of their wartime dealings linger.

Big Business and the Nazi Era

10 Kodak

Say “Cheese!”—or perhaps “Money, money, money?” Kodak’s legacy with the most terrifying regime of the 20th century is darker than a photographic negative.

Wilhelm Keppler, a top economic adviser to Hitler, whispered where Nazi gold should flow and even urged Kodak to dismiss its Jewish staff to “benefit” the firm. Keppler acted as a double‑agent, feeding intel to Kodak and a handful of smaller U.S. companies.

When the war erupted, Kodak’s German subsidiary forced concentration‑camp prisoners into slave labor and branched out into manufacturing triggers, detonators and other military components.

9 Chase Bank

Chase’s Paris branch struck deals with the Nazis, fully aware of the American headquarters, both before and after Pearl Harbor. The bank’s collaboration didn’t stop there.

Over the years, Chase was accused of freezing countless European Jewish accounts, effectively snuffing out many refugees’ chances of escape. A BBC investigation uncovered that up to 100 Jewish accounts were frozen by Chase during the war.

8 Nestlé

When you think of Nestlé, you probably picture chocolate bars, not concentration camps. Yet in 2000 the Swiss giant paid $14.6 million to a Holocaust survivors’ fund.

The settlement stemmed from its wartime subsidiary, Maggi, which exploited slave labor from camps near the German‑Swiss border. Even more unsettling, chocolate bars were used to lure young Jews into captivity before they were shipped to death camps.

7 BMW

During World War II, BMW’s workforce was largely composed of slave labor supplied by the Nazis—estimates run as high as 50,000 workers.

The company was owned by Günther Quandt, whose close ties with Hitler turned BMW’s factories into producers of aircraft and motorcycle parts for the war effort. Inmates were forced to work on Luftwaffe engines, notably the BMW 132.

The Quandts also profited from the expropriation of Jewish businesses. An internal report commissioned by BMW revealed wartime profits, and Gabriele Quandt later confirmed that many laborers perished while working for the firm.

6 Bayer

Reach for a Bayer aspirin? The “wonder drug” hides a grim past.

Bayer was once part of IG Farben, a German chemical conglomerate that manufactured Zyklon B—the gas used in Nazi death chambers. While the company’s wartime slave‑labor practices were already abhorrent, the fact that IG Farben produced the lethal gas adds a chilling layer.

In the 1890s, aspirin was invented by Felix Hoffman and his superior Arthur Eichengrun. When the Nazis rose to power, Bayer erased Eichengrun’s contribution because he was Jewish, effectively wiping his name from the company’s history.

5 Allianz

Allianz may be a household name in insurance, but its Nazi ties run deep.

Founded in 1890, the German insurer was perfectly positioned to profit from Hitler’s rise. CEO Kurt Schmitt also served as the Nazi economics minister, ensuring that major insurance contracts—​including coverage for Auschwitz’s facilities and staff—​went straight to Allianz.

Beyond that, Allianz sold life‑insurance policies to German citizens, many of whom were Jewish. The company collected premiums, but after the Holocaust, it retained the payouts and often denied surviving heirs’ claims, arguing that no death certificates existed—a convenient excuse given the Nazis never issued them.

4 Standard Oil

Before America entered World War II, Standard Oil cultivated a relationship with IG Farben and, anticipating U.S. involvement, signed an agreement to keep the partnership alive.

The oil giant supplied the Nazis with fuel for their U‑boats and occasionally handed them first pick of oil fields.

Nelson A. Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, grew angry at the profiteering. While serving as Coordinator of Inter‑American Affairs, he authored a scathing pamphlet titled “Sequel to the Apocalypse: How Your Dimes Pay for Hitler’s War,” which was discreetly sent to American embassies worldwide, exposing the oil‑Nazi link and prompting a breakup before the U.S. declared war.

3 Coca‑Cola

Coca‑Cola may be famous for fizz, but its German arm was cozying up to the Nazis in the 1940s, building bottling plants in occupied territories and even advertising in Nazi‑controlled press.

When the parent company halted syrup shipments to Germany in 1941, Max Keith, head of Coca‑Cola GmbH, improvised a new beverage from locally available ingredients. The result? Fanta—an entirely Nazi‑marketed drink.

2 Ford

Hitler idolized Henry Ford, mentioning him in Mein Kampf and hanging a portrait of the American industrialist above his desk. In 1938, the Nazi regime awarded Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, its highest honor for foreigners.

In return, Ford’s German factories employed slave labor and supplied parts for the German war machine. Some American managers in Germany even agreed to produce military equipment for the Nazis, while similar requests from the Roosevelt administration were rebuffed at home. Moreover, German Ford sent the U.S. parent up to $60,000 annually between 1940 and 1943.

1 IBM

Computers may seem a modern convenience, but IBM’s punch‑card machines were crucial to the Nazis’ bureaucratic efficiency.

IBM built custom punch‑card computers that let the regime track train schedules and tally the number of Jews being shipped to death camps, enabling meticulous record‑keeping for Auschwitz, Treblinka and others.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, IBM ramped up production, fully aware that the conflict would generate millions of victims. The company is also believed to have siphoned profits from its Polish operations.

IBM has long distanced itself, claiming its German branch was seized by the Nazis. Nevertheless, connections to its Geneva office during the war and generous Holocaust‑fund donations have kept the controversy alive.

This article on 10 forgotten nazi war criminals dives deep into the lives of those whose monstrous deeds have largely slipped from popular memory. Most people who know the history of World War II and the Holocaust are familiar with major Nazi war criminals—Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich, Goering, and Eichmann. Those Nazis are not on this list. This list is for those who committed major war crimes but are often overlooked or forgotten.

Why These 10 Forgotten Nazi War Criminals Matter

10 Friedrich Flick

Friedrich Flick was a major industrialist in Germany. By the 1930s, he became the director of United Steelworks—the largest steel firm in Germany at the time. A major supporter of the Nazi Party, he donated seven million marks to the party, as well as providing 10,000 marks a year for the SS. During World War II, Flick profited enormously through the use of slave labor provided by the SS. The slaves numbered at 48,000, and 80 percent are estimated to have died due to brutal treatment.

Flick was tried by an American court in Nuremberg and sentenced to only seven years imprisonment. He was released in January 1951 by High Commissioner John J. McCloy, who was interested in revitalizing German steel production. Flick was subsequently estimated to be the wealthiest man in Germany and the fifth wealthiest man in the world. He died in 1972, never having paid a cent to the families of the slaves who died so he could be filthy rich.

9 Alfried Krupp

Alfried Krupp was the son of steel industrialist Gustav Krupp. Alfried ran the Krupp factories during World II, supplying tanks, arms, and munitions to the German military. In 1943, he was appointed head of the department of Mining and Armaments. Krupp was a heartless slave driver, initiating the request to the SS for slave labor. He actively cooperated with the SS to procure labor from Auschwitz. Approximately 100,000 slave laborers from concentration camps worked in his factories, with around 70 percent of them dying as a result of horrible conditions and the brutal treatment from SS guards.

In 1948, Krupp was tried by an American court. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and deprived of his wealth. However, in 1951 High Commissioner John J. McCloy not only pardoned him but returned his assets. In 1953, Alfried again became head of the firm and restored the Krupp company to its former prestige. He died in 1967, the last of the Krupp family to run the firm.

8 Bruno Tesch

A chemist by profession, Tesch was the co‑inventor of the Zyklon B pesticide. By 1942, he was the sole owner and director of the firm Tesch & Stabenow—a major supplier of Zyklon B to Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, and Neuengamme camps. Most of the gas went to Auschwitz, where it was used to kill primarily Jewish inmates. Tesch not only knew what the Zyklon B was being used for, but he had also recommended its use on humans as a substitute for shooting, and he trained SS soldiers in its use against humans. Tesch thus served as a critical accomplice in genocide.

After the war, Tesch was tried in a British court, along with his aide Karl Weinbacher and the firm’s chemist, Joachim Drosihn. The court found that Drosihn had no role in Zyklon B distribution and thus no knowledge of its use on humans, but Tesch and Weinbacher were found guilty, sentenced to death, and hanged in 1946.

7 Franz Boehme

Wehrmacht General Franz Boehme served as Hitler’s commanding general in Serbia, as well as the military commander of German forces in Norway. He stood out for his brutality. In Serbia, there was constant partisan resistance to the Nazi occupation. While serving there, Boehme not only vigorously conducted reprisals against civilians, but he upped the ante to a ratio of 100 civilians executed for every German soldier killed. For every German soldier wounded, 50 civilians were to be executed. All Jews and communists were ordered imprisoned. Thus, the “Final Solution” was implemented in Serbia through reprisal killings.

After being captured in Norway, Boehme was to be tried at the Hostages Trial. However, in 1947, when it became clear that he was going to be extradited to Yugoslavia where he would have undoubtedly been executed, Boehme leaped over a third‑floor railing of his prison. He died two hours later from the resulting skull fracture.

6 Ludwig Fischer

Serving as Governor of the Warsaw district of Nazi‑occupied Poland, Ludwig Fischer was a vicious administrator. He initiated terror campaigns against Poles and Jews and ordered the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were rounded up and imprisoned. The conditions in the ghetto were horrible. It was overcrowded, and disease and starvation ran rampant. With a ration of only 184 calories for Jews, 50 percent of the ghetto’s population was starving to death, with 30 percent in a consistent state of starvation. It was Fischer’s policy that “The Jews will die from hunger and destitution and a cemetery will remain of the Jewish question.” During 1942 and 1943, he called for the liquidation of the ghetto, which eventually happened in 1944 after the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. The surviving Jews of the ghetto were then sent to extermination camps.

After World II, Fischer was captured and extradited to Poland, where he was sentenced to death and hanged in 1947.

5 Horst Schumann

SS Major Dr. Horst Schumann, like many of the killers of Auschwitz and other death camps, got his start in the “Aktion T4” euthanasia program. After he arrived to Auschwitz, he employed X‑ray sterilizations on men and women, which caused severe burns on the torso, groin, and buttocks. Most of the subjects either died from radiation or were subsequently gassed because the radiation burns prevented them from working. He also injected typhus‑infected blood into people and then tried to cure them.

After the war, Schumann fled to Egypt and then Sudan. However, after an Auschwitz survivor recognized him, Schumann fled to Ghana, where he was given protection by President Kwame Nkrumah. After Nkrumah was ousted in 1966, Schumann was extradited to West Germany, but legal wrangling, combined with Schumann’s heart condition and general poor health, resulted in his release in 1972. The case was not pursued further, and he died in 1983, never having stood trial for his crimes.

4 Carl Clauberg

Dr. Carl Clauberg was one of the most vile Nazi doctors. Before the war, he was a respected professor of gynecology, researching female fertility hormones at the University of Königsberg. Eventually, Clauberg asked SS General Heinrich Himmler if he could be allowed to sterilize women in concentration camps. Himmler agreed and assigned the doctor to Auschwitz. There, Clauberg worked alongside the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele and was arguably just as murderous. Dr. Clauberg injected formaldehyde into thousands of women’s uteri without anesthetics. This produced inflammation that shut the Fallopian tubes. Many women died from this medical experimentation, while others were killed for autopsies. Clauberg also conducted artificial insemination experiments on 300 women. He reportedly taunted the women, saying that he had inseminated them with animal sperm and that monsters were growing in their wombs.

Unlike Dr. Mengele, Clauberg went to trial in 1948 and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a Soviet court. Although he was released in 1955, he was soon arrested by the West German authorities after bragging about his “scientific achievements” at Auschwitz in a televised press conference. Clauberg died in jail in 1957, before a new trial could begin.

3 Christian Wirth

SS Major Christian Wirth stood out for his endless capacity for evil and cruelty. At first, Wirth was placed in charge of the T4 operation, which gassed the mentally and physically disabled. Wirth was then appointed the Commandant of Belzec and, later, the Inspector of the Aktion Reinhard extermination camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. At these camps, he forced Jews into gas chambers using a whip. He was called “Christian the Terrible” by SS guards, and everyone was subject to the wrath of Wirth and his whip. His subordinate and fellow mass murderer Franz Stangl said of him: “Wirth was a gross and florid man and my heart sank when I met him. He stayed at Hartheim for several days that time, and came back often. Whenever he was there, he addressed us daily at lunch, with an awful crude language.”

Belzec survivor Rudolf Reder described Wirth as a “tall, broad‑shouldered man in his middle 40’s with a vulgar face. He was a born criminal, ‘The extreme beast.’” Wirth’s cruelty was especially demonstrated when he buried children and infants alive in a large pit. His immense evil set the tone for the operation of the camps. The SS leadership, possibly eager to get rid of Wirth and his fellow executioners, reassigned them to extremely dangerous anti‑partisan combat in Yugoslavia. Wirth was killed by partisans in a roadside attack in 1944.

2 Arthur Greiser

As District Leader of Western Poland, Arthur Greiser stands out as one of the most brutal Nazi leaders. He fought for influence in his region and chose to formulate policies on Jews and Poles himself. He sought to make Western Poland a home for Germans and made room by kicking Jews and Poles out of their homes and resettling hundreds of thousands of Germans. He was the first to initiate mass gassings of Jews in occupied Europe and generally treated Poles with extreme inhumanity. Greiser’s attitude was described by his housemaid as such: “And the Poles, he treated them with great contempt. For him the Poles were slaves, good for nothing but work.”

The Chelmno death camp fell under Greiser’s jurisdiction. In a letter to Heinrich Himmler, Greiser cruelly advocated for tubercular Poles to be sent to the camp for “special treatment.” His treatment of the Poles was unlike that of the District Leader of Danzig‑West Prussia, Albert Forster, who adopted an assimilation policy in which non‑Jewish Poles were considered Germans. This did not bode well for Greiser’s “following orders” defense when he was tried by a Polish court after the war. In 1946, Greiser was sentenced to death and publicly hanged.

1 Erich Koch

Erich Koch was the District Leader of Prussia. He was responsible for the deaths of 400,000 Poles as Commissioner of the Bialystok region from 1941 to 1945. When the German army entered the Ukraine, he was appointed the area’s Reich Commissioner, serving from 1941 to 1943. Although the Ukrainians were initially glad to be free of Stalin, Koch soon made them pine for the Soviet days. His first act as administrator was to close the schools, stating “Ukrainian children need no schools. What they have to learn will be taught them by their German masters.”

His attitude toward the Ukrainians was one of a master to a slave. He once said, “If I find a Ukrainian who is worthy of sitting at the same table with me, I must have him shot.” Four million Ukrainians and Jews perished under Koch’s tyrannical regime. Two million were sent to Germany for slave labor. He also had one of Kiev’s most famous churches blown up just to demoralize the population, an action which horrified Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who correctly believed such actions increased armed resistance.

After World II, Koch managed to live in hiding in Hamburg, until he was apprehended in 1949. He was extradited to Poland and, after many delays, he was convicted in 1959 of the extermination of 400,000 Poles and sentenced to death. Due to his extremely poor health, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment later that year. Koch, however, managed to recover and lived to be 90, dying in prison in 1986. Had Koch been apprehended in 1945, he would have probably been tried at Nuremberg with Goering and the other major Nazis.

The 10 courageous Nazi hunters listed below devoted their lives to hunting down those who orchestrated one of history’s darkest chapters, ensuring that justice was not lost to the passage of time.

Why the 10 Courageous Nazi Hunters Matter

From the ruins of World War II to the quiet corridors of modern courts, these men and women chased shadows, exposed secrets, and forced perpetrators to answer for the six million Jews murdered. Their relentless pursuit reminds us that evil does not fade simply because decades have passed; it demands vigilance, bravery, and sometimes a touch of madness.

10 Hanns Alexander

Born amid the turmoil of the First World War, Hanns Alexander grew up in a German household where his father, a well‑known physician, regularly entertained the intellectual elite—Albert Einstein among the guests. When Adolf Hitler rose to power, the Alexander family, being Jewish, escaped to Britain. There, Hanns enlisted in the Pioneer Corps of the British Army. After the war ended, he became one of the first volunteers tasked with investigating war crimes, a mission he pursued with a ferocious personal vendetta. His temper could be explosive; legend has it he once roamed Europe with the corpse of a dead Nazi strapped to the roof of his car.

The most infamous target he ever pursued was Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz. Alexander tricked Hoss’s wife into revealing her husband’s whereabouts by threatening that her son would be sent to Siberia. Armed with that intelligence, Alexander and a squad of soldiers moved in on Hoss. Accounts of the capture differ: some say the Jewish soldiers beat Hoss mercilessly; others claim they forced him to trek naked across a snow‑covered road. Regardless of the exact method, Hoss was apprehended, taken into custody, and subsequently hanged a short time later.

9 Wayne Stringer

In 1992, the Simon Wiesenthal Center turned to former New Zealand police officer Wayne Stringer, tasking him with tracking down 47 alleged war criminals who might have found refuge in his country. Over the next year, Stringer criss‑crossed the globe—journeying from New Zealand to Australia, Canada, and the Baltic states—leveraging previously classified KGB files to compile a list of suspects who could still be alive. He even conducted personal interviews with many of the individuals on his roster.

The most notorious figure he pursued was Jonas Pukas, a Lithuanian who had settled in Australia during the 1950s. Pukas was suspected of serving in the 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion, a unit implicated in the mass murder of Jews throughout Eastern Europe. When Stringer confronted Pukas, the latter chillingly recalled that the Jews who were rounded up “screamed like geese” as they were shot, and he seemed to relish the memory. He denied direct participation, insisting he merely heard the executions.

Despite Stringer’s exhaustive investigation, no charges were ever filed against Pukas or any of the other suspects. Pukas passed away a few years after their interview, leaving the case unresolved.

8 Efraim Zuroff

Often dubbed “the last Nazi hunter,” Efraim Zuroff has spent more than three decades chasing former Nazis as the Israeli director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He also curates the Center’s annual “Most Wanted Nazi War Criminals” list, which serves as a global alert system for investigators.

Unlike the rugged bounty hunters of the 1940s who trekked through jungles and deserts, Zuroff’s work resembles that of a meticulous desk sergeant. He spends his days sifting through archives, interviewing witnesses, and coordinating with foreign prosecutors. Yet his role brings a unique set of challenges: many of the Nazis he pursues are now frail octogenarians or nonagenarians, men whose physical frailty often elicits public pity rather than condemnation.

Critics have dismissed his efforts as a “circus act,” especially when a 97‑year‑old former SS officer was finally arrested under Zuroff’s pressure. Zuroff rebuts such criticism, asserting that the passage of time should never shield perpetrators from accountability. He continues his mission, fully aware that the end of his career looms ever closer.

7 Elliot Welles

Born in Vienna in late 1927, Elliot Welles and his mother were torn from their home when the Nazis launched their campaign of terror. The pair were separated; his mother was forced onto a bus that the Nazis later drove into a forest and opened fire upon. Two days later, the Nazis returned the stripped garments of the victims; Welles recognized his mother’s dress among the piles.

Welles himself was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, where he endured the brutal conditions until the war’s final months. As the Allies advanced, he was compelled to join a forced march toward Magdeburg, Germany, and it was there that he managed a daring escape.

When the U.S. Office of Special Investigations (OSI) was established in 1979, Welles seized the opportunity to use its expansive archives to locate the SS officer responsible for ordering his mother’s execution. He succeeded, securing a conviction, though the court handed the perpetrator a mere two‑ to three‑year prison sentence.

Fuelled by this experience, Welles dedicated over two decades to heading the B’nai B’rith Anti‑Defamation League’s task force on Nazi war criminals. Under his leadership, the team captured numerous long‑missing offenders, including Boleslavs Maikovskis and Josef Schwammberger.

6 Rafi Eitan

Born in 1926, Rafi Eitan eagerly joined Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, and soon found himself at the helm of several high‑profile missions aimed at snatching suspected Nazis. The crowning achievement of his career occurred on May 11, 1960, when Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and smuggled him back to Israel for trial—a bold operation that sparked an international diplomatic uproar, as Argentina demanded Eichmann’s return.

Less widely known is the fact that the same team came tantalizingly close to capturing Josef Mengele, the infamous “Angel of Death.” When Argentine intelligence supplied a tip about Mengele’s whereabouts, Eitan personally vetoed the pursuit, arguing that Eichmann represented a higher‑value target and that diverting resources could jeopardize both missions. Consequently, Mengele evaded capture and lived out his remaining years as a free man.

5 Tuviah Friedman

Tuviah Friedman endured the horrors of a Nazi labor camp, where nearly his entire family perished except for his sister Bella. He managed a daring escape in 1944, emerging into a world still reeling from the war’s devastation.

In the immediate post‑war period, Friedman was enlisted to aid Soviet and Polish authorities in gathering evidence of the Holocaust. Known among his peers as “the Merciless One,” he pursued, captured, and even executed several Nazis, at times whipping them before delivering them to death.

Employing a daring disguise, Friedman would pose as a captured SS officer, infiltrating prisoner‑of‑war camps to identify suspected members of the SS. Eventually, he joined forces with Simon Wiesenthal, entrusting the judicial system with the final punishment of captured war criminals, content to see them locked away for life.

Friedman’s ultimate obsession was Adolf Eichmann, the chief architect of the Final Solution. Although Mossad and Rafi Eitan ultimately seized Eichmann, Friedman’s relentless lobbying of the Israeli government helped galvanize the political will that made the capture possible.

4 Serge And Beate Klarsfeld

Serge Klarsfeld, a French Jew whose father perished in Auschwitz, and his German‑Protestant wife Beate formed an indomitable duo in the 1960s, dedicating their lives to tracking down former Nazis. Their inaugural target was Kurt‑Georg Kiesinger, a former Nazi propagandist who later served as German Chancellor during the 1960s. In a bold act of protest, Beate slapped Kiesinger in the face, an offense that landed her in prison for four months.

Unwilling to settle for public humiliation, the Klarsfelds turned their attention to Kurt Lischka, a former Gestapo chief. During Lischka’s capture, Serge placed a gun to his head, but ultimately relented, securing his arrest and a ten‑year prison sentence. Their most celebrated triumph came with the capture of Klaus Barbie, another ex‑Gestapo chief. Although an earlier kidnapping attempt failed, Barbie was later extradited to France, tried, and died after serving eight years behind bars.

Today, the Klarsfelds have retired from active Nazi hunting, focusing instead on commemorating Holocaust victims and campaigning against contemporary genocides and persecution.

3 Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal, born in 1908 in Austria, survived five different concentration camps during the Holocaust. After the war, he assisted American intelligence by providing crucial information on Nazi war criminals and helped facilitate the emigration of Jews to Palestine. With the establishment of Israel, Wiesenthal joined the precursor to Mossad, where he helped capture notorious Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann. He later worked directly for Israel’s intelligence agencies, tracking down not only war criminals but also former missile scientists.

Over the course of his career, Wiesenthal identified thousands of ex‑Nazis, bringing hundreds to trial—including Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka and Sobibor death camps. He was a steadfast opponent of vigilante justice, insisting that every suspect receive a fair trial as a moral imperative.

Wiesenthal rejected the notion of collective German guilt, emphasizing that responsibility rested with individuals. When a mortally wounded SS officer begged for forgiveness so he could die in peace, Wiesenthal refused, underscoring his unwavering commitment to accountability.

2 Eli Rosenbaum

Eli Rosenbaum entered the world in 1955 to Jewish parents who rarely discussed the Holocaust. His first indirect exposure to Nazi atrocities came as a child when he switched on a television reenactment of the Auschwitz trial, hearing a survivor recount horrific medical experiments. That moment ignited a lifelong dedication to justice.

In 1979, Rosenbaum began as an intern at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI). By 1995, he rose to become its chief. Initially, OSI focused solely on Axis war criminals, but under Rosenbaum’s leadership, the office expanded in 2004 to investigate modern crimes against humanity as well.

Rosenbaum’s tenure was not without controversy. He uncovered that Kurt Waldheim, the fourth Secretary‑General of the United Nations, had served as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht. Waldheim later ascended to the presidency of Austria, highlighting how some nations still elected individuals with Nazi pasts.

1 Israel Carmi

Israel Carmi founded the Jewish vengeance group known as Nokmim—Hebrew for “The Avengers”—after losing much of his family in the Holocaust. In the immediate post‑war years, governments showed little interest in prosecuting Nazis, leaving the task to private citizens like Carmi.

Working alongside the British military, Nokmim roamed Europe, hunting down verified Nazis. When they located a suspect, they would masquerade as police officers seeking an interview. In the subsequent phase, dubbed “Operation Judgment,” they would reveal their true identities and intentions to the captured Nazis.

According to Carmi, some Nazis confessed outright, while others remained silent. The group typically executed their targets in secluded locations, favoring strangulation as the method of death. Beyond their lethal pursuits, Nokmim also facilitated the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews to Israel, playing a dual role in post‑war Jewish resurgence.

Crystal methamphetamine has ripped through communities worldwide, and its reach now stretches into places you’d never expect—think Iran and Iraq. When we talk about the “10 moments history” of Nazi speed freaks, we’re diving into a twisted tale where chemistry met conquest, and the Nazis turned a simple pill into a weapon of terror.

10 moments history: The High‑Speed Nazi Saga

10 German History

The amphetamine story is a very German one. Just as Bayer famously pushed heroin into over‑the‑counter shelves, German chemists first synthesized amphetamine in the late 1800s, an era that celebrated chemistry as a path to a better life.

It wasn’t until after World War I that amphetamine hit the market as a consumer product. By the 1920s and ’30s, it was sold over the counter as an inhaler and in other forms, quickly becoming a favorite among artists and intellectuals seeking a creative boost.

Benzedrine, the most popular brand, burst onto the scene in the early 1930s, helping fuel a period of astonishing productivity across Europe.

9 Early Daze

Nazi drug policy borrowed heavily from the Weimar Republic, the German state that existed between the two world wars. The Nazis toppled the Weimar Republic—symbolized by the burning of the Reichstag—and seized power under Hitler.

The Weimar era was a surprisingly liberal, progressive, and thriving period for a nation reeling from defeat and the punitive Treaty of Versailles. The “Roaring Twenties” brought jazz, heroin, and swing dancing to German streets, mirroring America’s cultural explosion.

Germany’s social scene was a whirlwind of smoking, drinking, and partying, and with that came a permissive attitude toward drug use.

8 Cocaine, Opium, And Morphine

When the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s, their stance on drugs shifted dramatically. Initially, they tolerated a wide range of substances, but soon began to denounce cocaine, opium, and morphine as “Jewish” drugs, casting them as symbols of inferiority.

This antisemitic framing painted Jewish people as drug‑dependent, turning public opinion against those substances and reinforcing the regime’s hateful ideology.

7 Pervitin

The real breakthrough for the Nazis came with Pervitin—a methamphetamine pill that looked like candy. The regime fell head over heels for the drug, and the romance between the Nazis and Pervitin became legendary.

Hitler himself was rumored to consume a dizzying array of substances: opiates, testosterone, regular amphetamines, methamphetamine, and—believe it or not—bull semen, which he reportedly touted as a primitive Viagra.

The active ingredient on the Pervitin label was pure methamphetamine, turning each tablet into a compact dose of raw, unfiltered speed.

6 Double Standards

The Nazis displayed a glaring double standard. While they castigated drug dependence as a “Jewish” vice, Hitler himself was a compulsive drug user, and his troops were expressly ordered to take methamphetamine.

Civilians were forbidden from most narcotics, yet soldiers were handed pills to keep them hyper‑alert, sleepless, and relentless in battle. The regime justified this as a means‑to‑an‑end, using prescription drugs to fuel the ferocity of their attacks.

In short, the very people the Nazis demonized for drug use were the same people receiving the most potent stimulants on the front lines.

5 The Invasion Of Poland

Blitzkrieg’s lightning‑fast assaults were no accident. In September 1939, the invasion of Poland unfolded in a matter of days, with German troops moving nonstop, seemingly without need for sleep.

The secret behind this ferocity? Pervitin tablets. Soldiers on the Polish front wrote home constantly, often pleading for more pills to keep their momentum going.

In Poland, the Nazi war machine turned into a massive, drug‑fueled party—soldiers high on meth, firing indiscriminately, and marching forward without pause.

4 The Invasion Of France

Poland served as a rehearsal for the next massive strike: France. After World I left Germany shattered, the Nazis were eager for vengeance, armed with cutting‑edge weapons and a steady supply of meth.

Before the French campaign, the Wehrmacht ordered a staggering 35 million Pervitin tablets, turning their troops into seemingly unstoppable killing machines.

The French were blindsided as the German “stormtroopers” surged forward, eventually forcing Allied forces into the chaotic evacuation at Dunkirk.

3 African Theater

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the famed “Desert Fox,” swore by meth, calling it “my daily bread.” His tank crews chewed on the drug to stay combat‑ready for up to 24 hours straight, outpacing the British forces.

When Rommel later turned his sights to France, he again demanded meth tablets for his regiments, prompting the Allies to issue their own amphetamines just to keep pace with the German onslaught.

The desert battles became a high‑octane showdown, with both sides fueled by stimulants as they exchanged fire across the North African sands.

2 Downsides

For a time, the Nazi formula seemed unstoppable: meth, alcohol, opiates, and other stimulants turned soldiers into hyper‑focused, sleepless machines capable of extraordinary feats.

Methamphetamine delivers intense euphoria, heightened awareness, and a dramatic reduction in the need for food and sleep—perfect for a rapid‑strike war strategy.

However, the drug’s dark side soon emerged. Chronic use wrecked the central nervous system, leading to severe psychosis, paranoia, and a disconnection from reality.

Eventually, exhausted soldiers faced harrowing withdrawal amid artillery fire, eroding morale and weakening the very engine that had driven the Nazi war machine.

1 High Hitler

Adolf Hitler spent much of the war in a drug‑induced haze. One infamous encounter with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini illustrates this: as Mussolini begged Hitler to let Italy bow out after the Allied landings in Sicily, Hitler, high on a cocktail of substances, ranted for hours, leaving Mussolini unable to interject.

The mix included Pervitin—nicknamed “Panzerschokolade” or “tank chocolate”—and later, cocaine used for everything from sinus relief to eye drops. By war’s end, Hitler was reportedly taking up to eighty different drugs daily.

Allied intelligence even speculated that Hitler’s personal physician might have been sabotaging the Führer by flooding his regimen, hoping to render him ineffective.

Ultimately, the drug‑laden dictator met his downfall as the Soviet Red Army overran the Eastern Front, sealing the grim finale of a regime fueled by meth.

When we think of the Nazis, we picture Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and Speer, the political architects of the Third Reich who drove Germany’s devastation across Europe and into the Soviet Union. Yet the machinery that powered that carnage was forged by a cadre of engineers and scientists. In this roundup of the 10 engineers scientists who built the Nazi war machine, we’ll explore the minds behind the metal and the code.

10 engineers scientists: The Architects of Destruction

10 Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche’s surname rings a bell for anyone who loves high‑performance automobiles – he founded the company that later produced the iconic Porsche sports cars – but he also threw his considerable talents behind the Nazi war effort.

He sketched the Volkswagen Beetle, Hitler’s so‑called “people’s car,” and almost secured the contract for the fearsome Tiger tank. The Nazis deemed his tank’s drive system overly intricate, repurposing his work for the massive tank‑destroyer nicknamed the Elephant.

Porsche was fundamentally an inventor obsessed with vehicle engineering. After designing equipment for the Austrians in World War I, he and his son launched their own engineering firm in 1931.

His reputation was such that Stalin personally tried to lure him in 1932 to head the Soviet automobile industry, a proposal Porsche declined because he didn’t speak Russian.

When Hitler announced the quest for a “people’s car” in 1934, Porsche’s Beetle design won the competition. After a 1935 meeting, Hitler lavished praise on him and even offered to name the production plant after Porsche – an offer the engineer politely refused.

Later he devised the Kubelwagen, a military Jeep‑like vehicle derived from the Beetle, which the German army embraced; roughly 55,000 units rolled off the line during the conflict.

Following the war, Porsche spent 22 months incarcerated in France for his Nazi affiliations. By 1950, he and his son had unveiled the first Porsche sports car, marking a new chapter in automotive history.

9 Kurt Tank

Kurt Tank, a distinguished aircraft designer and test pilot, first saw combat as a soldier in World I before studying electrical engineering and earning his pilot’s wings.

After stints with several aircraft firms, he landed at Focke‑Wulf in 1931, where he transformed the company into a premier aircraft manufacturer.

Tank’s portfolio includes the Fw 190 fighter, which out‑performed the famed British Spitfire and earned a reputation as the best German propeller‑driven fighter of the war, and the Fw 200 transport, a long‑range aircraft that terrorized Allied shipping.

Although only a few hundred Fw 200s were built, each could cover more than 3,200 km (2,000 mi). Their raids sank up to 90,000 metric tons of shipping per month, prompting Winston Churchill to dub the type the “scourge of the Atlantic.”

After the conflict, Tank emigrated to Argentina, dabbling briefly in jet design before moving to India, where he contributed to the Indian Air Force’s jet fighter programs. Two decades later, he returned to Germany as a consultant for a major aircraft conglomerate.

8 Ernst Heinkel

Ernst Heinkel’s inaugural aircraft crashed and burned, but that setback didn’t dampen his resolve. He had already designed planes during World I and later founded Heinkel Flugzeugwerke.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Heinkel’s firm enjoyed a prosperous run, producing record‑breaking racers and, notably, the He 187 – the world’s first jet aircraft, which first took to the skies in 1939, a week before the outbreak of war.

His most recognizable creation, the He 111 twin‑engine bomber, became a staple of the Blitzkrieg. Although its vulnerabilities surfaced later, the aircraft saw extensive early‑war service.

By the early 1940s, Heinkel grew increasingly vocal against the Nazi regime, a stance that led to the state confiscating his factories in 1942. Nonetheless, he remained a Nazi Party member and employed forced labor in his plants.

After the war, Allied authorities detained him and put him on trial. He was ultimately acquitted, largely because of his documented resistance to Hitler. In 1950, Heinkel pivoted to civilian production, manufacturing scooters, bicycles, and small automobiles.

7 Willy Messerschmitt

During World I, Willy Messerschmitt trained at a German flying school and even set a world record for the longest glider flight.

In the 1920s he launched his own firm producing low‑cost aircraft, but a series of crashes forced him into bankruptcy by 1931.

The Nazi rise to power in 1933 rescued Messerschmitt from financial ruin. Although a senior Nazi official’s son perished in one of his planes, Messerschmitt cultivated other influential party contacts.

When the regime announced a massive re‑armament program, Messerschmitt, together with Robert Lusser, unveiled the Bf 109 prototype. The Luftwaffe’s chief of air‑force development personally test‑flew the aircraft and declared it fit for front‑line service.

The Bf 109 became an icon, fighting on every theater for Germany and famously dueling with the British Spitfire during the Battle of Britain. Messerschmitt later added the Bf 110 night‑fighter and, most impressively, the Me 262 – the world’s first operational jet fighter.

Post‑war, the United States held Messerschmitt for two years. Upon release, he pivoted to prefabricated housing and sewing machines because Allied occupation forces barred aircraft production. By 1952, however, he was back in the aerospace sector, producing missiles and combat aircraft for West Germany.

6 Robert Lusser

Robert Lusser wore many hats: celebrated aircraft engineer, award‑winning pilot, and later, a designer of one of the era’s most infamous weapons.

After periods at several manufacturers, Lusser joined Messerschmitt, where he helped shape the Bf 109 and played a major role in the Bf 110’s development. A brief return to Heinkel in 1938 ended abruptly after a dispute over a jet fighter design.

Subsequently, Lusser moved to Fieseler, where he conceived the V‑1 flying bomb – the first of the Nazi “revenge weapons.” Thousands of these pulse‑jet cruise missiles were launched against Britain, delivering a terrifying new form of warfare.

Following the war, Lusser entered the United States under Operation Paperclip, although he did not arrive until 1948, later joining Werner von Braun’s team in the American space program. He famously mis‑predicted that a lunar mission was impossible, believing spacecraft reliability was insufficient.

In 1959, Lusser returned to Germany, re‑joining Messerschmitt’s organization and continuing his work in aeronautical engineering.

5 Hans von Ohain

When Ernst Heinkel sought academic expertise for a groundbreaking jet‑powered aircraft, university supervisor recommendations pointed to a bright young mind: Hans von Ohain.

In 1936, Ohain officially joined Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, dedicating himself to the development of the world’s inaugural jet engine.

By 1939, the He 178 – the first jet‑propelled airplane – completed a near‑perfect test flight, a milestone that proved the viability of jet propulsion. Ohain’s engine work also paved the way for the Me 262, the first jet fighter to see combat, even though he was not directly involved in its airframe design.

After World II, Ohain emigrated to the United States, eventually becoming chief scientist at a U.S. Air Force research laboratory in 1963. His prolific publishing record earned him induction into both the International Aerospace Hall of Fame and the Sciences Hall of Fame.

4 Walter Thiel

In 1936, Walter Thiel became the third scientist recruited by Walter Dornberger, the head of Germany’s rocket research division. With a background in chemical engineering, Thiel quickly rose to become second‑in‑command of the program.

Thiel’s contributions were crucial to the V‑2 rocket’s ascent. He focused on engine design, engineering a lighter, more compact powerplant, and he selected the fuel mixture that made the V‑2 feasible for mass production.

By 1943, Thiel grew convinced that inherent design flaws made large‑scale V‑2 production impossible, prompting his resignation. Tragically, only days later, a British bombing raid on Peenemünde claimed the lives of Thiel and his family.

3 Herbert A. Wagner

During the 1920s, aerospace engineer Herbert A. Wagner probed the dynamics of various aircraft components, including the floats of seaplanes. By the 1930s, his work extended to high‑altitude military aircraft and nascent jet engine concepts.

In the 1940s, Wagner contributed to guided‑missile technology, most notably the Hs 293 – a rocket‑powered glide bomb that earned the distinction of being the first guided bomb ever deployed in combat.

The Hs 293 proved devastating, sinking approximately 400,000 tons of Allied shipping. However, the proliferation of multiple Hs 293 variants hampered further refinement of the weapon.

After the war, Wagner was among the first German scientists transferred to the United States, where he helped develop a radar‑guided aircraft system used by the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He also refined American guided‑bomb designs and later contributed guidance systems for U.S. Army anti‑tank missiles.

2 Konrad Zuse

In 1935, Konrad Zuse worked as an engineer for the Henschel aircraft factory, but his true passion occupied weekend evenings in his parents’ living room, where he assembled the Z1 – the world’s first programmable computer.

Zuse’s motivation was practical: he wanted a machine capable of crunching engineering equations for his own designs. Completed in 1938, the Z1 was a groundbreaking achievement, though its simplicity limited complex calculations.

When World II erupted, Zuse narrowly avoided conscription by pitching his computer to the German army as a potential aid. Employed by the Third Reich’s Aerodynamics Research Institute, he continued developing computers, culminating in the Z4.

Zuse proposed advancing to vacuum‑tube‑based computers, but the German military abruptly canceled the project, convinced that victory was imminent and a computer unnecessary.

German aircraft manufacturers coveted Zuse’s machines for aerodynamic calculations. Their importance was such that Werner von Braun personally intervened to relocate Zuse and his computers to a safer site.

After the war, Zuse smuggled the Z4 into Switzerland, founding a computer manufacturing enterprise in 1950. Two decades later, Siemens acquired his company, and Zuse retired from active engineering.

1 Fritz Todt

Following service in the German army during World I, Fritz Todt pursued engineering studies and eventually secured a position at a modest construction firm. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922, a full decade before the party seized power, and later became a member of the SS.

In 1930, Todt authored a paper on employment that caught Adolf Hitler’s attention. When the Nazis assumed control, Todt was appointed head of the new Autobahn project, later overseeing the entire German economy as Reich Minister of Munitions and leader of the Head Office of Technology.

He also founded Organization Todt, a quasi‑governmental engineering body responsible for constructing the Atlantic Wall and massive U‑boat shelters along the French coastline. The organization is infamous for its reliance on millions of forced laborers.

Although Todt enjoyed Hitler’s favor, he frequently clashed with other high‑ranking Nazis such as Hermann Göring and Martin Bormann. In 1942, he perished in an aircraft explosion; suspicions of sabotage or assassination lingered, but no definitive proof emerged.

Sam writes, writes, and writes some more!

Here are 10 historical facts that shed light on how the Nazi movement managed to plant roots on American soil. From organized Bund gatherings to the lingering echo of neo‑Nazi groups, each fact reveals a startling chapter of U.S. history that many tend to overlook.

10 Historical Facts Overview

10 The Bund

A great portion of Nazi ideology revolved around the purity of the German “race,” and Hitler shrewdly realized early on that this could be exploited in the German migrant populations of his potential foes. A mere four months after his rise to power in 1933, an American organization known as “Friends of the New Germany” was assembled from several smaller organizations around the US. Originally made up of both German nationals and US citizens of German descent, it was restructured in 1936 into the German American Bund (“Bund” meaning “Alliance”), which admitted only German-Americans.

Since a quarter of the US population at the time had some German ancestry, membership was higher than one might imagine. The Bund’s leader, Fritz Kuhn, was even dubbed the American Fuhrer. While taking care to ensure its perception as an American organization remained solid (expressions of American patriotism were plentiful in Bund gatherings, which often took place on American holidays or on presidents’ birthdays) the fact remains that American citizens gave the Nazi salute, shouted “Heil Hitler,” and otherwise behaved much as an attendee at any German Nazi Party gathering would have. Fritz Kuhn was exposed by undercover journalists in 1937 and jailed for embezzlement two years later.

9 Nazi Summer Camps

After its 1936 restructuring, the Bund began making a concerted effort to advance Nazi ideology in the hopes that the US could be made sympathetic to, or even a stronghold for, Hitler and his armies. Among its most alarming projects: summer camps for American youths. While not supported by or directly related to the infamous Hitler Youth program, the similarities were nevertheless glaring. Parents and children alike saluted the Fuhrer and wore the same armbands their German counterparts did. By the time they were shut down shortly after the start of the war, 16 of these camps existed across the country, from New York to Los Angeles.

Anti-Semitic sentiment was at an all‑time high in the US at this time, and programs like these were intended to indoctrinate America to racist, fascistic ideologies. Children from eight to 18 were taught to speak German and participated in military‑style drills. Nazi ideology and German heritage were essentially presented as part of the same package, and many German‑Americans were receptive to the message.

8 The New York Nazi Community

The most prominent of these camps was Camp Siegfried in upstate New York, outside the small town of Yaphank. The town’s small houses were originally built as bungalows for the summer campers. Anyone seeking to purchase land in the town had to be primarily of “German extraction.” Many of its main streets were named after Hitler, Goebbels, and other prominent Nazi Party leaders.

Even after the beginning of the war, pro‑Nazi sentiment would, shall we say, not get one kicked out of the town of Yaphank. Nazi‑themed parades were held on its streets, Nazi and SS flags were flown side by side with American flags, and residents carved a giant hedge into the shape of a swastika.

Though the land was eventually seized by the FBI after the war, the town still stands, retaining the original tract homes built for pro‑Nazi summer campers. Unfortunately, though many of its residents are unaware, its racist bylaws are still in effect. Even today, virtually all of its residents are white and of German ancestry.

7 The Madison Square Garden Rallies

Friends of the New Germany, and later the Bund, were headquartered in New York, making the state a primary hub of American pro‑Nazi activity. As early as 1934, the predecessor organization was holding rallies at Madison Square Garden. Participants gave the Nazi salute, chanted slogans, and bore banners with sentiments such as “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans.”

The most infamous of these gatherings took place on February 20, 1939, when the Bund was at the height of its power. A Bund gathering wrapped in the title of a “Pro‑America” rally at the Garden was attended by over 20,000 people that day. Four times that number protested outside the venue, attempting to storm it and shut it down. They were unsuccessful, but this was among the last such events. The Bund was dissolved after the US declared war on Germany in late 1941.

6 The Bush Connection

Conspiracy theories have long examined a possible collusion between the US government and the Nazi regime. Circumstantial evidence abounds, from the similarities between the CIA’s reviled MKUltra program and similar programs developed by the Nazis, to the role of some of Hitler’s top rocket scientists in the development of NASA.

Among the many outlandish claims, a truth was revealed near the turn of this century that is somehow even more outlandish: Prescott Bush—a US senator and father of future president George H.W. Bush—had mutually beneficial business relationships with German companies that were directly involved with Hitler’s rise to power.

While the secretive nature of these dealings helped them avoid scrutiny for decades, the eventual reveal prompted speculation as to whether Bush should have been tried for war crimes. The assets of his company were seized in 1942 under the Trading With The Enemy Act. Not only may this relationship have played a substantial role in helping fund the Nazi war effort, it may have also laid the foundation for the Bush family fortune.

5 Nazi Radio

As previously suggested, fascism was not as dirty of a word in the 1930s as it is today. Still, the vast majority of Americans were wary of fascist regimes and their tactics; after German paramilitary forces and citizens took to the streets on November 9, 1938—the infamous Kristallnacht—an American poll revealed that 94 percent of Americans disapproved, despite the pervading anti‑Semitic sentiment of the time.

Yet throughout it all, one loud voice could be relied upon to defend and explain Hitler’s actions: Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest and radio personality with an audience of millions. Coughlin had built his audience attacking “bankers” during the Great Depression, and he extended this criticism specifically to Jews in a broadcast that took place a mere 11 days after Kristallnacht. He railed against German Jews for appropriating Christian property and attempting to spread Communism.

Although his show was canceled shortly thereafter, the damage was done. Coughlin became the hero of Berlin . . . and America. The station owner reported that that, in response to the cancellation, “several thousand people encircled the block where our studios are located, denounced . . . WMCA as un‑American, and shouted its slogan of ‘Don’t buy from Jews,’ ‘Down with Jews,’ etc.”

4 American Roots Of Eugenics

Eugenics was a crucial component in Nazi ideology. The concept is largely thought to have originated with the Nazis or at least in Europe, but in reality, eugenics originated in America with some of the most prominent scientific and business leaders of the era.

Financed by such venerable entities as the Carnegie Institute and Rockefeller Foundation, many of America’s most respected scientists were busy working up theories of “race science” at the behest of their corporate financiers. Data was tweaked and faked to serve the premise that non‑white races are genetically inferior and must be bred out of existence.

This “science” became prominent in the early part of the 1900s and became a vital part of Hitler’s ideology. The United States at this time actually had laws pertaining to eugenics on the books. Hitler was familiar with these, enabling him to frame his anti‑Semitism in (completely invalid) medical and scientific terms. He once confided to a subordinate, “I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock.”

3 Failure Of The American Press

After Hitler’s initial rise to power in 1933, much of the American press seemed to be confused—and even at odds with each other—over what the ramifications were and how it should be reported. The Nazis had risen from small fringe party to majority political party in just a couple years. Many newspapers seemed to think that he would calm down with his expansionist rhetoric once in office. Some reporters even thought he’d bring peace and prosperity to Germany after all. Others reported that Hitler’s rhetoric was a threat to democracy.

The Christian Science Monitor, in a 1933 piece, praised the “quietness, order, and civility” observed by a visiting reporter; there seemed to be “not the slightest sign of anything unusual afoot.” Later in the decade, the New York Times reported “a new moderation” in the German political atmosphere since Hitler’s rise, with the New York Herald declaring stories of atrocities against Jews to be “exaggerated and often unfounded.”

While much of this can be explained by the Nazi regime’s deft handling of foreign press, much of it can also be explained by a deep misunderstanding on the part of Americans as to the nature of Hitler’s problem with Jews. Many US newspaper editors framed the conflict as a clash of ideologies rather than a murderous campaign against a people.

2 Celebrity Supporters

Aviator Charles Lindbergh was an American hero of the 1930s. He performed the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 and had endured the very public ordeal of the kidnapping and murder of his infant son in 1935. He was unfortunately also a proponent of eugenics, having become close with French scientist Alexis Carrel, who was a firm believer. In a 1935 interview, Lindbergh asserted, “There is no escaping the fact that men were definitely not created equal,” and discussed Dr. Carrel’s eugenics‑based ideas on race. A 1939 radio address was the final blow to his weakened public image. In it, he opined that “our civilization depends on a Western wall of race and arms which can hold back … the infiltration of inferior blood.”

Auto manufacturer Henry Ford was also an unrepentant anti‑Semite and Nazi sympathizer, allowing recruiters for the Bund to work in his factories and employing Gestapo‑like thugs to crack down on those employees who might have tried to unionize. Konrad Heiden, a biographer for Hitler, stated that Ford supplied Hitler with direct financial support totaling at least $340,000. Ford even paid for the reprinting and distribution of the racist hoax pamphlet “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” to libraries in the United States.

1 Continued Influence

In politics and culture, “Nazis” and “Hitler” have become catch‑all comparisons for those who would brutalize or subjugate others. Nevertheless, the legacy of America’s brief flirtation with this poisonous ideology is all around us.

White supremacist movements and neo‑Nazi groups have long flourished in the US, but Hitler’s failed attempt at world domination gave many of them a new focus and a defined ideology. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, neo‑Nazi organizations still exist in every single state as of 2016.

The CIA isn’t spotless, either. Documents uncovered in 2014 indicated that as many as 1,000 former Nazis were employed by the agency as spies during the Cold War, with some still living in the United States under government protection as late as the 1990s.