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The Secret History of Israel's War Against Hitler's Scientists

(Newsweek) Ronen Bergman - On July 21, 1962, Egyptian newspapers reported the successful test launch of four surface-to-surface missiles. President Gamal Abdel Nasser proudly declared that the military was now capable of hitting any point "south of Beirut" - meaning Israel. A few weeks later, Israelis learned that a team of German scientists had played an integral role in developing these missiles. The German scientists developing the Egyptian missiles were some of the Nazi regime's most senior engineers, who had worked during the war at the Third Reich's research base at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast. The Egyptian project had been initiated by two internationally known scientists, Eugen Sanger and Wolfgang Pilz. Sanger headed the prestigious Research Institute of Jet Propulsion Physics in Stuttgart, where Pilz headed a department. They had approached the Egyptian regime in 1959 and offered to develop long-range surface-to-surface rockets. In 1961, they relocated to Egypt and recruited 35 highly experienced German scientists and technicians to join them. In 1962, Israel learned that Egypt was planning to manufacture 900 missiles and arm them with radioactive and chemical warheads. But the guidance systems for the missiles still needed to be developed by the German scientists. Without them, the project would collapse.
2018-05-25 00:00:00
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