This Week in People’s History, Oct 1–7, 2025
‘Operation Paperclip’, the U.S. Space Program’s Creepy Pedigree
OCTOBER 1 IS THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY of the War Department’s announcement it planned to bring “a number” of German scientists, who were at the time prisoners of war, to the U.S. for a “temporary stay,” beginning in 1945, during which they would work on research and development projects for the Army and Navy.
Before the Pentagon’s Operation Paperclip ended, at least 1600 German scientists would be brought to the U.S. and to the United Kingdom under the program. They would include German rocket scientists Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph and medical doctor Hubertus Strughold.
Von Braun had been in charge of developing the rocket-driven Nazi terror weapons V-1 and V-2 (the “V” stood for the German word for “vengeance”). Von Braun had also been a major in the Schutzstaffel, or SS, and had been a Nazi party member for at least nine years. He eventually became the director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, part of the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Von Braun died in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1977.
Another Operation Paperclip recruit was Nazi rocket scientist Arthur Rudolph, who had been in charge of V-2 production and who was also a Nazi party member. In the U.S., Rudolph worked first for the Army, where managed production of the medium-range, nuclear warhead armed Pershing missile. In 1961 he transferred to NASA where he managed production of the Saturn 5 rocket, the launch vehicle for U.S. missions to the Moon.
In 1979 a Justice Department lawyer discovered by chance that Rudolph had probably been responsible for the use of slave laborers in the production of V-2s. When confronted with the evidence he could be prosecuted as a war criminal, Rudolph and the Justice Department made a deal; Rudolph would leave the U.S. and renounce his U.S. citizenship, the U.S. would not prosecute him, but the U.S. would pay Rudolph the federal retirement and Social Security benefits he had accrued while working for the War Department and for NASA.
Yet another Operation Paperclip recruit was Dr. Hubertus Strughold, who had been both Director of Germany’s Research Institute for Aviation Medicine and a major in the Nazi air force. After the war he was suspected of having committed war crimes, but was never indicted. Once in the U.S., he continued his aviation medicine research, and in 1962 was appointed Chief Scientist at NASA's Aerospace Medical Division. He died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1986. https://portside.org/2014-10-30/cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis
Plugging a Hole in Earth’s Atmosphere
OCTOBER 3 IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1985 publication, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, of the one of the first images of the newly-discovered hole in the Earth’s protective layer of ozone that was being created by the interaction of freon and other chlorofluorocarbon gases with the ozone. The hole was slightly larger than the continent of Antarctica.
The ozone layer in the stratosphere prevents the most powerful ultraviolet radiation from reaching the ground. If the ozone hole, which only appeared during winter in the southern hemisphere, were to grow larger and become permanent, sun’s radiation would begin to kill many plants and cause a much greater incidence of skin cancer in humans and other animals.
When the hole in the ozone layer was discovered, the DuPont corporation was the world’s largest manufacturer of chlorofluorocarbons. The company’s board chairman said the ozone depletion theory was "a science fiction tale ... a load of rubbish ... utter nonsense," but the scientific evidence of the growing hazard was compelling.
In 1987 the governments of the U.S. and 16 other nations that produced large quantities of chlorofluorocarbons signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, with the result that the hole in the ozone layer began a long, slow return to normal. It is expected to return to its former size by 2075. To see the image of the giant hole in the ozone layer released by NASA in 1985, visit https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2580/
A Coal Miner’s Daughter and Proud of It
OCTOBER 5 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1970 release of Loretta Lynn’s ballad, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” an impassioned expression of pride at having been raised by working-class parents. It quickly rose to number one on the Hot Country Singles chart and was soon considered to be one of country music’s most significant recordings. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/zoKThsOCjuU?si=Jwr0d-CcaRcxQPXb
A Hard Look at a Failed Strike
OCTOBER 6 IS THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1990 release of Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary “American Dream” about the tragically unsuccessful strike by United Food and Commercial Workers union local P-9 against the Hormel Company.
Roger Ebert was inspired to write this of Kopple’s film: “This is the kind of movie you watch with horrified fascination, as families lose their incomes and homes, management plays macho hardball, and rights and wrongs grow hopelessly tangled… The people in this film are so real they make most movie characters look like inhabitants of the funny page.” https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/hormelminnesota.html
Show Your Opposition to Censorship on Banned Books Week!
OCTOBER 7, 2025, IS THE THIRD DAY OF BANNED BOOKS WEEK, an annual event that has probably never been more important than it is this year.
There are public events related to censorship all over the U.S. every day of Banned Books Week including these on October 7: Lunchtime Book Discussion: Parable of the Sower at the Public Library of Mount Vernon & Knox County in Mount Vernon, Ohio; We Read Banned Books! at Hive Center for The Book Arts in Evanston, Illinois; Movie Matinee: Banned Together at Putnam County Public Library in Granville, Illinois; Fighting Book Bans and Censorship: An Activation of Hope at Chestnut Hill Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Banned Together: Screening & Discussion at Oden Hall in Gambier, Ohio; The Censor’s Cut: Weavings for Intellectual Freedom at Fanwood Memorial Library in Fanwood, New Jersey; and Fall Educator’s Night: Banned Books Edition! At Greenlight Bookstore on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, New York. Plus there are many virtual events happening on October 7.
For details about any of the Banned Books Week events October 5-11, visit https://bannedbooksweek.org/events/
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