Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:


Reviewers of Tom Bower’s book The Paperclip Conspiracy: The Hunt for the Nazi Scientists have picked up on a key point he makes – notably that the Americans, Soviets and Brits were fiercely competing to secure Nazi scientists for themselves and were prepared to overlook the fact some, or possibly many, were known war criminals.

Various international media reports have also confirmed Britain and other countries outside the US were extremely active in pursuing Nazi scientists.

For example, The Guardian newspaper edition of August 17, 1999 reports that Britain secretly organized the recruitment and transfer to Australia of scores of leading Nazi scientists and weapons specialists after the close of WW2.

Quoting newly declassified Australian Government papers, The Guardian says the German scientists sent to Australia under a top secret project codenamed Operation Matchbox included SS and Nazi party members.

The article also states: “The leading Nazi-hunting watchdog, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in Jerusalem, yesterday demanded an investigation into the recruitments ordered by Britain and the US, and said Australia was a haven for ‘holocaust perpetrators and mass murderers’.”

The same newspaper, on August 29, 2007, reports that, contrary to general assumption, German scientists and technicians were forcibly evacuated from Germany to Britain for more than two years after cessation of hostilities. In other words, they didn’t volunteer. From what we can deduce, the same applies to those who ended up working in the US and the Soviet Union.

Operation Paperclip: The History of the Secret Program to Bring Nazi Scientists to America During and After World War II

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America