Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
Written and Narrated By: Annie Jacobsen
Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
I Am. GUTTED…
Operation Paperclip took me oooooodles of time to listen to. Now, granted, Life is on the extraordinarily BUSY TO THE MAX end of the spectrum, so getting in a shorter audiobook each week takes some doing whereas, in an Earlier Life, I coulda banged out a 19 1/2-hour audiobook like this… and then some… no prob. Nowadays, nope, ‘twasn’t in the cards.
But that wasn’t the only difficulty. You see, I ALSO had to intersperse different audiobooks throughout listening to this cuz this is harrowing, graphic. Just gut-wrenching.
I’d THOUGHT I’d known about “Operation Paperclip” and the bringing over of Nazi Scientists, but really? Gosh, all I DID know was about the V-2 rocket—that hellish weapon that destroyed, murdered, caused terror—scientists and their being wooed here. Coming from a small city with a vaaaaast and sprawling military base, THAT was open knowledge.
But?
I didn’t know about all the rest: The doctors who performed torture/human experiments on concentration camp victims. The chemists who discovered apocalyptic gases that caused horrific suffering before the exposed died soon (And how those substances were tested). The creators of biological weapons. The use of human slave labor, where the workers were starved, beaten, kept underground to work in secret. Until they died in agony. And were then nonchalantly replaced with more camp prisoners.
And the Nazi men behind all of these things.
Slug. To the. GUT…
Then author Annie Jacobsen goes further in her research (Which is EXTENSIVE and meticulous!), and digs up how these “men” were wooed, wined and dined, had their Nuremberg sentences dismissed. Were brought to America.
To do the very same work. For US. Research for weaponry to be used at the end of the war on Japan. Research for weaponry to be used on the Soviet Union as the Cold War began and Intel came in about that country’s advances, their own use of Nazi Minds. We were no better than the Nazis. And p’raps still aren’t. Does it matter WHO does it? Just because the victors are using such methods, it’s somehow Okay?
Slug. To the. GUT…
Jacobsen delivers the narration of her work herself and, thus, is able to add emphasis to topics or emotionally resonant passages where she’d intended. Her voice is a tad on the soothing side, but at NO point was I EVER lulled into a doze. The text was waaaay too compelling and graphic for that; the moral questions raised waaaaay too compelling and disturbing for that. And other than a couple of questionable pronunciations (Which I will bow to her for as she is the expert), a grand delivery all around.
Do the Ends, truly, Justify The Means?
Ponder for yourself.
Just prepare for your eyes to be opened, for your gut to be sucker-punched.
I’m exHAUSted…!!!
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