Some of the allegedly Nazi scientists recruited by the United States after World War II to avoid their being recruited by the Soviet Union.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
In a controversial move, the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps on November 16, 1945, under the aegis of the top-secret “Operation Paperclip,” brings 88 captured German scientists to the U.S. Whitewashing their pasts — many of them were members, and even leaders, of the Nazi Party — the U.S. government wants to avoid their falling into the hands of the Soviets so they can help with the American rocket program. Among them is Wernher von Braun, the developer of the V-2 program, who is alleged to have hand-picked slave laborers from the Buchenwald concentration camp to construct the missiles. More prisoners died building the V-2s than the number of bombing victims that were killed by the weapons.
On November 17, Josef Kramer, former SS commandant of the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, along with 10 others on his staffs, are found guilty in their war-crimes trial that began on September 17 in Lüneberg, Germany. They are sentenced to death on the gallows.
In Iran, the Tudeh Party, a Communist-dominated organization, foments a rebellion in the province of Azerbaijan on November 18. When the Iranian government attempts to intervene against the rebels, Soviet military forces in the region support the uprising and Red Army troops refuse to evacuate Iranian territory. General of the Army George C. Marshall leaves his position as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
In Washington, D.C., Congress on November 19 issues a statement calling on President Truman to withdraw U.S. Marines from China. General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the 16th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He is succeeded as Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone in Germany by Gen. George S. Patton. In Tokyo, Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur orders the arrest of 11 Japanese wartime leaders.
The trial of 24 Nazis charged with war crimes (one in absentia: Martin Bormann) gets underway at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany, on November 20. Elsewhere, the Allied Control Council approves the transfer of 6.65 million Germans from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and the German regions east of the Oder-Niesse Line, which had been transferred to Poland at the Potsdam Conference pending a final peace settlement. Through the expulsion of the German minorities, these East European countries hope to avoid future German claims to their territories. The Battle of Surabaya, in East Java, ends in a British military victory, but the Indonesians win strategically and politically. The fierce fighting galvanizes nationalist support among the population, while the Dutch come to realize that the nationalists are not simply a “gang of hooligans,” but a real, political force, and the British realize that their role might better be a more-neutral one.
All the top Nazis on trial at Nuremberg for war crimes on November 21 claim innocence. At General Motors Corp., 320,000 members of the United Auto Workers Union walk off the job, striking for a 30% wage increase and a moratorium on product prices. (The strike will continue until March 1946.)
On November 22, Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., the Hollywood Canteen closes its doors for good. The Los Angeles club, which opened on October 3, 1942, offered free food, dancing and entertainment to U.S. and Allied servicemen and servicewomen.
The rationing of meat and butter comes to an end in the U.S. on November 23, 1945, leaving sugar as the only item still being limited. British police fire on anti-British rioters in Calcutta, India, killing 37.
On November 24, U.S. Secretary of War Robert Patterson orders all five cyclotrons in Japan to be destroyed. The machines — capable of contributing to nuclear weapons production, but also useful for biological and medical research — are seized, dismantled and the parts dumped into Tokyo Bay. In India, 26 people are injured in Bombay in continuing anti-British demonstrations. In China, Nationalist troops capture Huludao, a port city in the northeast.
The U.S. Congress for a second time, on November 25, calls upon President Truman to withdraw all U.S. Marines from China. In Tokyo, Gen. of the Army MacArthur orders the Japanese government to devise a plan to tax away all wartime profits of Japanese companies and individuals. In Palestine, Zionists blow up two British coast guard stations near Tel Aviv.
U.S. Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley resigns on November 26 after he is unable to broker a peace deal between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his Communist counterpart, Mao Tse-tung. In Palestine, British troops sweep into the central Sharon plain, searching for the perpetrators of the coast-guard-station bombings the night before. Meeting resistance, the British respond with force, killing nine Jews and wounding 74.
On November 27, President Truman names U.S. General of the Army George C. Marshall as his special envoy to China, replacing Ambassador Patrick Hurley. Marshall’s mission is to broker a coalition government of the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Tse-tung.
British fascist John Amery on November 28 stuns the court at his treason trial by pleading guilty, even though the only penalty allowable for a guilty verdict is death. A vehement anti-communist, Amery had proposed to the Wehrmacht the formation of a British volunteer unit and had broadcast Nazi propaganda over the radio from Germany. Captured by Italian partisans in Italy on April 25, 1945, (he had traveled there to assist Mussolini), he was turned over to the British. At trial, the judge, after confirming that Amery understands the consequence of his guilty plea, immediately sentences him to death. The proceedings last eight minutes. Amery is hanged on December 19, 1945.
The Socialist Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared on November 29, with Marshal Josip Broz Tito named as its president. A return to the pre-war monarchy is rejected by the Yugoslav Constituent Assembly, exiled King Peter II is deposed, and the formerly ruling Karađorđević family is banned from returning to the country.
