A new animated documentary short film on the Netflix streaming service tells the remarkable tale of a group of German Jews who fled Nazi Germany and signed up to serve in the US military. Instead of exacting their revenge, though, they were sent to a secret military base near Washington where they were told to keep Nazi prisoners of war happy.
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Arno Mayer thought he was on the side that was going to "beat the s**t out the Germans," he explains in the newly released Netflix documentary Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis.
Peter Weiss also expected to do battle but instead was sent to something called PO Box1142. The soldiers realized they would not be sent to Europe, but a military installation near Washington that looked like a club and had tennis courts and a swimming pool. As Weiss described it, "It didn't seem real."
In the 36-minute documentary short, directed by Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy, footage of the men being interviewed is juxtaposed with animated re-enactments. The soldiers learned they would have to obtain information on German rocket systems as part of a top-secret mission.
Rudolph Bins noted the Germans looked like they had just left the battlefield, with no other clothes. He said the Germans has come from every unit, including some SS officers.
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"It was not the most comfortable feeling," says Henry Kolm. "Some of them were real Nazis, and they might have killed you on the spot if they could. You know, I'm Jewish, and they knew it, too."
The prisoners included Germany's top scientists. With Germany's V-2 rockets claiming over 50,000 lives in London and elsewhere at the time, there was concern the rockets would soon be able to reach New York or Washington, something that would have changed the course of World War II.
Eventually, they learned enough information to discover a site where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was building the V-2 rockets in a secret underground factory based on interrogations, and the US Army bombed it.
Helping America in the Cold War Against Russia
Since the US government wanted scientists on the German side to aid with America's rocket program, they decided to stay on the good side of some 300 scientists, chief among them lead scientist Wernher von Braun, one of the developers of the V-2 rocket.
Nazi rocket scientists that were crucial to the German war effort were now crucial to the American war effort, explains Weiss. They received newspapers, magazines, whiskey, and were interrogated as they played volleyball, tennis, or horseshoes. Those who cooperated were even allowed to go to the movie theater.
The US also wanted to use the scientists to obtain intelligence on Russia during the Cold War.
According to the film, America was able to become the first country to land a man on the moon in part due to the work of naturalized German scientists whose families were also brought stateside. In total, around 1,600 German scientists arrived in the United States and were either hired by NASA or the CIA. PO BOX 1142 was later destroyed, documents were classified, and the Jewish soldiers were sworn to secrecy.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
