Report rips U.S. for letting Nazis in after World War II
BY PETE YOST
WASHINGTON -- A report chronicling the history of the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting unit criticizes the government for knowingly allowing some Nazis to settle in the United States after World War II.
"America, which prided itself on being a safe haven for the persecuted, became in some small measure a safe haven for persecutors as well," the document says.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the report, which the National Security Archive, a private group, posted on its website. Earlier, the Justice Department had declared dozens of pages from the document off-limits to the public after the archive sued to get it.
The long-secret report provided new details of many of the major cases handled by the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations. The report reflects how American officials assigned to recruit foreign scientists circumvented President Harry S Truman's order not to bring in Nazi Party members.
Arthur Rudolph, one of hundreds of scientists brought to the U.S., told investigators in 1947 he had attended a hanging of inmates accused of sabotage at a German V-2 rocket plant he ran. U.S. immigration officials knew he had been a Nazi party member, but he was admitted to the U.S. anyway. Rudolph became father of the Saturn V rocket, enabling the U.S. to reach the moon.
"Some may view the government's collaboration with persecutors as a Faustian bargain," the report states. "Others will see it as a reasonable moral compromise borne of necessity."
In court filings, the Justice Department said that the report was never finalized, contains numerous factual errors and omissions and does not represent the official position of the Justice Department.
AP
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