Netflix has released a new Netflix movie that tells the extraordinary story about a US top-secret prisoner camp. Nazi scientists and officers were kept safe and interview by Jewish soldiers, who fled Europe during the Holocaust.
Known as PO Box 1142, the facility – which boasted swimming pools and tennis courts – was hidden away in Fairfax County in the state of Virginia.
Its primary purpose was to interview Prisoners of War regarding Germany’s advancements in weaponry and rocket technology. They were also made feel at home in the hope of sharing more details.
Now, after decades of being shrouded in secrecy, the facility – which was part of the infamous Operation Paperclip – has been brought to public attention in the part-animated Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis, which has been made by Israeli film makers Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy.
Reinhard Gehlen (the Wehrmacht’s spy chief on the east front) was one of the top German officers who were held at that time.
After Adolf Hitler’s defeat, he was freed in 1946 and headed the CIA-affiliated anticommunist Gehlen Organization in occupied Germany.
Also held at PO Box 1142 was aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun – who had led Germany’s devastating V2 rocket programme and is said to have known about the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, where more than one million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
Von Braun was later a US citizen. Kurt Debus (his colleague at Peenemunde) was an important figure in Nasa’s Apollo 11 mission, which saw Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and others land on the moon.
Heinz Schlicke was the inventor of infrared detection and was also a camp inmate.
Interviews were conducted with two of the Jewish men, who fled Germany to seek asylum in the USA. They then joined the US Army as soldiers and worked at PO Box 1142.
Peter Weiss, Arno Maier, and Peter Weiss were some of those assigned to being “nice” to German prisoners in hopes that they might reveal key secrets about Hitler’s weapons programs.
Mayer had to go with von Braun and others to a department shop so that they could purchase lingerie for their children and wives.
The incredible tale of the top secret US prisoner camp in which senior Nazis were held captive and interview by Jewish soldiers fleeing the Holocaust in Europe is the subject of a Netflix movie. Known as PO Box 1142, the facility – which boasted swimming pools and tennis courts – was hidden away at Fort Hunt in Fairfax County in the state of Virginia
Wernher von Braun, an aerospace engineer was kept at PO Box 1142. He can be seen left to right alongside German officers in the Second World War. His V2 rocket program was a disaster for Germany. He is believed to have been aware of Auschwitz’s Nazi death camp, which saw more than one million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Von Braun became an American citizen after becoming a citizen. He was also a key figure in the Nasa Apollo 11 mission that saw Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong land on the Moon in 1969. Right: von Braun during the 1960s
PO Box 1142 was created in 1942 and named for the postal address. It housed 87 buildings during its peak.
It was home to 3,451 prisoner, which was the total number of those who were held there from the beginning of World War II through the closing of it in July 1945.
The bulldozer destroyed it the next year. Very little information about the area was discovered until the early 2000s, when some remains were found. It is now classified.
Operation Paperclip saw the establishment of this camp. This was a program that involved more than 1,600 German scientists engineers and technicians being expelled from Nazi Germany in order to allow them to work for the US as part the Cold War with Soviet Union.
After interviewing veterans who had spent time at camp, the Netflix documentary was created.
Mayer and Wiess were among them, speaking especially to the documentary.
Loushy stated to The Guardian that the ‘unbelievable’ relationship between Jewish guards and Nazis would have captured them was a fact.
“Nobody knew of it. And the interviewers never shared it with anyone. They didn’t even tell their wives or children – they took this secret to their grave,’ he added.
Now, after decades of being shrouded in secrecy, the facility – which was part of the infamous Operation Paperclip – has been brought to public attention in Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis, which has been made by Israeli film makers Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy. Above: A clip from the animated film depicts von Braun (left), Arno Maier, a Jewish soldier who was assigned to be kind to German prisoners in order to persuade the latter to reveal information.
Mayer claimed that some German prisoners called him “Der kleine Judenbube”, which means “the little Jew boy”. “You don’t know what you’d do if you were to be the morale chief of such high-ranking animals. “It was so intense that I could not resist the hate in my heart. Because as far as I was concerned, they were sons of b*****s and I wanted them dead’
Soldiers who guarded the prisoner were given money so they could take them to restaurants, clubs and the movies.
Arno Mayer (photo left 2002) and Peter Weiss were two of the German prisoners who were given the task to be ‘nice’ in order that they could reveal crucial information about Hitler’s weapon programs.
One animated flashback scene shows Jewish soldiers flooding a van with vacuum cleaner dust to make the prisoners inside it believe that they were being gassed – the very fate met by millions of Jews in the Holocaust.
Operation Paperclip was a group of experts that brought rocket scientist von Braun to the USA.
That meant bad feelings over the past acts of those who benefited from their skills had to go.
Loushy stated, “We all understand that.” [von Braun]He knew of Auschwitz and how he was involved with the Nazi regime.
Mayer, speaking of von Braun’s documentary, said that: “In one the factories they developed some weapons. [V2 rockets]They used Jews detained by the Gestapo.
“He was aware of what was happening.” Werner von Braun was aware that Auschwitz existed.
Mayer was given the title of “Morale Officer” because of his efforts in welcoming the Germans to Germany. He also stated that it was not pleasant to be required to follow his orders.
‘I almost feel like throwing up for the very simple reasons I had to show kindness to these guys. The only thing I wanted to know was, “What did they do during war?”
According to him, he was called “Der kleine Judenbube” by German officers. This means that he is referred as “the little Jew boy”.
“You don’t know what you would have done if you were to be the morale officer for these highly intelligent animals.
“It was so intense that I could not resist the hate in my heart. Because as far as I was concerned, they were sons of b*****s and I wanted them dead.’
Soldiers who were guarding prisoners received money so they could take them to bars, restaurants, and even to the cinema.
Mayer took von Braun, along with other German officials, to the department store to deliver the gifts.
He stated that he had been granted a thousand dollars and was driven to Landsburgh Brothers. Landsburgh Brothers, the biggest department store in Washinton D.C. was owned by me and it was Jewish. It was a pleasant experience to drive these men to a Jewish department shop.
He said that after buying tea, coffee and chocolates to their children, the men pointed out the section of underwear.
Mayer noted that, “I was 17, or whatever age I am. I never purchased any Unterwasche.”
“And there were these four German men ordering panties from their wives. The woman finally accepted the offer. [shop attendant]He came out, and held up a tiny nylon pantie.
I can only recall Werner von Braun. He said “No!” Made of wool with long legs. [in German]
Meyer and the other men spoke in German and were therefore noticed by the military police. Meyer was also taken into custody and driven to PO Box 1142.
Weiss shared that his aunt, cousin, grandfather and uncle, along with other family members, died during the Holocaust, even though he didn’t know this while serving in camp.
Reinhard Gehlen, the Spy Chief and Wehrmacht chief of Intelligence on the Eastern Front in World War II (left), was also kept at PO Box 1142. After his release, he headed up the CIA affiliated anti-Communist Gehlen Organisation during occupied Germany’s Cold War. Heinz Schlicke, the inventor of infrared detection (right), was also one of the camp’s prisoners
Von Braun was the leader of the V2 rocket program at the Peenemunde Research Facility in northern-east Germany. Pictured above, he is fourth from the left with his research team members and German military officials
Nearly 9,000 civilians were killed in the explosion of the supersonic V2 long-range rocket. Above: An 1944 rocket launch
Below: A V2 strike on Woolwich in south-east London in November 1944 left behind a trail of destruction that saw thousands of civilians killed in the bombing raids.
“Almost all of us were Nazi refugees. We’d prefer that we treated them like war criminals. However, when you serve in the Army, orders are followed,” he stated.
“I suppressed my rage, because it would have made me ineffective if I had tried to kill them.”
Von Braun was captured by the US in Austria, having fled the Peenemunde facility north-east Germany. He had previously been the leader of V2 rocket programmes.
A supersonic, long-range missile capable of accelerating at high speeds was the cause for approximately 9,000 deaths among civilians and military personnel.
There were many British civilians who died in the bombing raids by Hitler.
Von Braun revealed crucial details regarding the V2 program while at PO Box 1142.
Following his surrender, he stated to the Austrian press: “We knew we had invented a new method of war, and that the question of which nation or victorious country we would be willing to trust this brainchild was more moral than any other.
After the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had been established in 1958, von Braun – who had long harboured ambitions to use rockets for space exploration – was employed to work on their rocket programme. Above: Von Braun in 1966, standing in front the Saturn V rocket. He served as the Marshall Space Flight Center’s director at the time.
Von Braun can be seen here with John F Kennedy, the US president at that time in 1962. In 1977, the scientist was made an American hero.
Neil Armstrong, a fellow astronaut, captured Buzz Aldrin on the moon surface. Without Braun’s technical know-how, the mission wouldn’t have been possible.
“We wanted to see that the world was spared another conflict like the one in Germany. We felt that the best way to do this would be to give such a weapon over to Christians and other human beings who can guide them not only according to materialism’,
Von Braun, along with other German scientists, trained his American counterparts in rocket technology and guided missiles after he had spent time at PO Box 1142.
Von Braun then led the U.S. Army’s team behind the Redstone rocket – the first large American ballistic missile.
After the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had been established in 1958, von Braun – who had long harboured ambitions to use rockets for space exploration – was employed to work on their rocket programme.
He became chief architect of Saturn V, a super heavy-lift rocket vehicle. This launched Apollo 11 into orbit.