Tag: Aktion T4

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Camp King

Just to the north-west of Frankfurt, Germany is an area known as Oberursel, Taunus. (It is located in the Taunus Mountains and a short distance to the east is the small town of Falkenstein, Königstein im Taunus where I lived in the 1960s⏤just thought you’d like to know.) During World War II, this was the site of a transit camp for downed Allied airmen where they were interrogated before being sent to a permanent POW camp. Twenty-years before my family moved to the area, the Oberursel camp had become an American army interrogation center and intelligence post. Between 1945 and 1953, Camp King (named after Col. Charles B. King) served primarily as a location for interrogations of captured war belligerents and the post-war process known as “denazification.” Some of the camp’s “guests” were Karl Brandt (the physician responsible for Aktion T4, Hitler’s euthanasia program), Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, Gen. Alfred Jodl, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, and Mildred Sisk Gillars (a.k.a. “Axis Sally”)⏤click here to read Hitler’s Directives, here for Extermination Camp Doctors, and here for Hitler’s Enablers.

Downed Allied airmen at Dulag Luft in Oberursel (later, Camp King). Photo by anonymous (c. pre-1944).
Downed Allied airmen at Dulag Luft in Oberursel (later, Camp King). Photo by anonymous (c. pre-1944).
Downed Allied airmen leaving Dulag Luft (later, Camp King) for their permanent POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Downed Allied airmen leaving Dulag Luft (later, Camp King) for their permanent POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).

However, today’s discussion will pick up around July 1946 when a former German general, Reinhard Gehlen, arrived at the intelligence post. It is a story of how the United States spared certain war criminals because of their expertise in areas perceived to be a threat from the Soviet Union. These men (whom the Soviets and the Allies were competing to obtain their services) included scientists, engineers, doctors, and within the context of our story, the intelligence and counter-intelligence world (i.e., spies). Read More Camp King

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Heavy Water

Toward the end of World War II, Hitler and his generals were anxiously waiting for the “miracle weapons” to turn the tide of war in their favor. There were two new weapons that the Nazis had developed which ultimately proved ineffective: a jet fighter and the electro-U-boat. How close did they come to using them against the enemy? More than one thousand jet planes, the Messerschmitt Me 262, were produced and put into action by mid-1944. The Allied fighter planes were no match for the Me 262 in the air. However, very few of the jets ever left the ground. German oil refineries were destroyed thereby limiting the availability of jet fuel. Second, runways had to be extended to accommodate the jets. When they saw the altered runways, Allied bomber and attack plane pilots knew the jets were parked nearby and went out of their way to target them. So, most of the Me 262s were destroyed on the ground and the jets never had any significant impact on the course of the war. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891−1980) promised Hitler that 126 new electro-U-boats would be put out to sea to once again wreak havoc on British/American shipping lanes. Only two were ever launched and like the jet, never lived up to expectations.

Hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured and stored underground. The building was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.
Site of the former hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured underground. The building which stood in front of the plant facility, was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.

The third “miracle weapon” and the one that worried Roosevelt and Churchill the most was the development of the German atomic bomb. After Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie wrote that atomic fission was possible and could be used to develop a powerful weapon, Hitler decided to begin his atomic weapons program in 1939. It needed two very important components to be successful: uranium and heavy water. The problem for the Nazis turned out to be heavy water was very scarce and hard to produce. That problem was soon solved after Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. The Vemork Norsk Hydro plant near Rjukan, Norway was capable of producing heavy water. Read More Heavy Water