German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie

Making Sense of the Nazi Past During the Civil Rights Era

Laney Monique

This thought-provoking study by historian Monique Laney focuses on the U.S. government-assisted integration of German rocket specialists and their families into a small southern community at the end of World War II. In 1950, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket experts relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a town that would celebrate the team, despite their essential role in the Nazi war effort a decade earlier, for their contributions to the U.S. Army missile program and later to NASA's space program. Based on oral histories, provided by members of the African American and Jewish communities, the rocketeers' families, and co-workers, friends, and neighbors, Laney's book demonstrates how the histories of German Nazism and Jim Crow in the American South intertwine in narratives about the past. This is a critical reassessment of a singular time that links the Cold War, the "Space Race", and the Civil Rights era while addressing important issues of transnational science and technology, and asking Americans to consider their country's own history of racism when reflecting on the Nazi past.

About the Author

Monique Laney is assistant professor of history at Auburn University. She lives in Auburn, AL.

Reviews

"What makes this book so important is the access to oral history and personal materials from the Huntsville German community. A tremendously solid piece of scholarship" – James R. Hansen, University of Auburn

"This deeply troubling book explains how Huntsville's German scientists, Jews, whites, and blacks wrestled with historical memory, denying, rationalizing, or confirming past atrocities for self-preservation, civic boosterism, or ethnic identity" – Wayne Flynt, author of "Alabama in the Twentieth Century"

"That the engineers who helped lift the United States into outer space were complicit in the cruelty of the 'Third Reich' is the paradox at the heart of Monique Laney's fascinating book. Her moral concern drives a superb work of ethnography as well as history" – Stephen J. Whitfield, Brandeis University

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