Operation paperclip, Von Braun and the German influence into Huntsville is pretty interesting. Running a residential HVAC company in this corner of the state has gave me the chance to meet some of the people from that operation. They were old at the time we met and the couple I personally had met have passed away now. One gentelman I had met a few times passed away at 104. I wouldn’t know how many people are still alive from that ordeal, my guess would be not many. This past week I went to a house, to look at some potential work, that one of the Germans lived in when he came to the US. It was like walking back in time. Lots of German stuff, nothin was new. It was as if I walked back in time.



Probably works better than anything sold new now a days




A stack of old records in a small entertainment type of area



A little bit of reading material



Painted on the wall of that entertainment/bar area



An old pair of binos, setting on a table by a window overlooking lake Guntersville.

I bet there is some really interesting stuff hidden in the walls and under the floor boards in that place.

I have that book in hardback in my library. I need to read it again.

The thing that impressed me the most was what snively little shitbirds all of Hitler's henchmen were in the early stages and it still amazes me to this day how a bunch of immature socially challenged, geeks almost took over the world.

There's a lesson in there somewhere...

There may be an autographed copy of Mein Kampf in there somewhere.

That furniture was never updated because the owner could tell if somebody had been messing with it. There are some interesting things hidden in that place for sure.

Somebody is getting ready to do a massive remodel on the place. And when I say remodel, they are turning it from a 40k home to a somewhere well above a 1mill dollar home. Honestly the building itself isn’t worth salvaging, in normal cases It should be bulldozed and started from scratch, but they have storage pods onsite to store stuff. Maybe “to be reused” (Original tongue and groove siding and etc). My guess is that they are going to systematically gut it in hopes of finding whatever’s got to be hiding in the place and start the build back once that is in the clear.

What’s odd, and maybe its because they were “simple” people that didn’t “need” a lot, but every one of the German engineer and scientist's houses that I’ve worked at that came to the states during that operation lived in very small, old, outdated houses. I’d assume most of em died with plenty of $$$$ to spare. I guess that’s normal with the folks that were born and raised here from that time frame too, though.

Is it in any of the old Historic districts?

Those German Engineers were crafty dudes. They were also POW's until death, even Von Braun. That is what most people do not realize.

Nope, actually right here between Scottsboro and Guntersville. On the water.

I think I know where it is. There was a lake house owned by Lawyer in Huntsville down that way my farther did a big addition/ renovation job on many years ago. One of Von Braun's guys was a neighbor.

This house is now owned by a lawyer from Huntsville, too and it Looks like he’s actually owned it since the original owner passed. He paid the property taxes a few years before the passing. Kindly interesting how things like that work out. Maybe its normal in elderly law.

From the plans I saw, it’s gonna be a nice one, too. 3 Stories, walk out basements, multi-car big detached garage with full living area above it. The incorporation of the existing house will make adding AC to any of it a booger. Probably be a few dollars ahead to doze it, but I’m sure theres reasons they aren’t - whether it’s to preserve some historical aspect, or something to do with being New Construction VS being a “remodel”.

That lawyer is probably a federal agent/lawyer. If the guy was a German Rocket Scientist he was a POW until he died. If he was ever formally released from being a POW he would face Nuremberg Trials.

I will say that oven is worth a lot of money to mid-century collectors. Hope it gets saved and sold to a good home.

This makes sense I didn’t realize it but all them from paper clip were probably classified this way.

Were they made US citizens?

Not officially, but the public was told that they were so that they would be left alone to do their work.

My father worked on paperclip with them and they drank a lot together often at our house until my mother would get fed up with them.
But they always mentioned that they could not go anywhere else or do anything else and that they got a better deal than most other high ranking Nazi's.
They were POW's. If they ever left the job, or tried to sabotage the job, they would be dead men.
If Von Braun's POW status was ever formally revoked he would have literally been strung up in Berlin under Nuremburg trials.

Cool info. Did they have "handlers" ?

Fun bit of trivia, they were made US citizens after they "immigrated" through Juarez, Mexico.

Quite a few of them were in Fort Bliss and White Sands, NM at the time.

I'm sure they had special people. My father always said there were more spooks in Huntsville than there were Nazi's.

The Germans got a jump on rocketry from...............
Pamphlets at the Smithsonian. They studied Robert Goddard's work.

Here is the Pamphlet:
https://transcription.si.edu/project/8542