USA, Former Nazi Removed From Space Hall of Fame

Associated Press reports:

Former Nazi Removed From Space Hall of Fame

May 18th

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – A former Nazi scientist who was linked to experiments on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany has been ousted from the International Space Hall of Fame.

Hubertus Strughold, who had been honored in 1978 for work in developing the spacesuit and space capsule and for his contributions to space medicine, was removed last week by unanimous vote of the New Mexico Museum of Space History’s commission.

The German-born scientist was brought to this country by the U.S. military after World War II to work on aerospace projects. He died in 1987.

The removal process began last fall after a museum visitor noticed Strughold’s name in its hall of fame and notified the New Mexico Anti-Defamation League, said Susan Seligman, the league’s regional director.

The league uncovered records of Strughold’s past and presented them to the commission.

Strughold was linked to experiments on concentration camp prisoners in the 1940s as the Nazi director of medical research for aviation, Seligman said, though she said she did not know of him personally conducting experiments.

Strughold’s name was removed from Brooks Air Force Base’s aero-medical library in 1995 and his picture was removed from the mural “The World History of Medicine” at Ohio State University in 1993, the Anti-Defamation League said.

Newly unearthed documents challenge whether Wernher von Braun, Nazi physicist and crucial figure in the US space programme, was really the inventor of Hitler’s infamous V-2 rocket: here.