Bruce in West Oz
New member
Page 1, the Sydney Morning Herald today:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Monday, August 16, 1999
Revealed: Australia's welcome to Hitler scientists
By GERARD RYLE and GARY HUGHES
Nazi scientists, including SS members and Hitler storm-troopers, were secretly brought to Australia after World War II to work on government defence projects and other research.
A Herald investigation reveals that 31 Nazi Party members were flown out under the cover of a broader scheme approved by the then Labor prime minister Ben Chifley.
At least 127 scientists and technicians were brought in under the scheme at a time when Germans were barred from entering Australia. They were recruited by the Australian Government between 1946 and 1951 and some were given security clearances for weapons development and rocket research at Woomera in South Australia.
The discovery of proven Nazis among the imported scientists contradicts a 1986 report commissioned by the Hawke government on suspected Nazi war criminals in Australia which found that scientists recruited under the scheme were "rejected if they were considered unacceptable due to their association with the Nazi Party".
The findings of the 1986 report headed off any further investigation of the scientists' backgrounds by the Australian War Crimes Tribunal.
In addition to at least 31 Nazi Party members, a further 12 belonged to other Nazi groups, and others were key figures in the German military during the war. Six were in the SS or had been storm-troopers with the Sturm Abteilung (SA) brownshirts.
Dr Efraim Zuroff, director in Israel of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish organisation that hunts down Nazis, said that at least seven of the 127 scientists' names supplied by the Herald matched suspects still wanted by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. "We do not yet possess enough details to be able to verify whether they are the same persons admitted to Australia," he said.
At least 10 of the scientists brought to Australia had worked for I.G.Farben, the German chemical company that exploited concentration camp slave labour and invented the Zyklon-B poison gas used in the gas chambers.
Records detail how the Nazi backgrounds of some of scientists were kept secret because the Australian government feared it would have to abandon the scheme if the public found out.
The Germans were brought in despite bitter protests from Australia's own Federal security agency, which was refused permission to carry out independent security checks on the scientists.
Previously classified documents seen by the Herald in the National Archives show that one of the scientists recruited under the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens scheme was a German Army war gas researcher.
Others included the head of the top-secret Messerschmitt jet aircraft factory, one of the developers of the helicopter, and a nuclear physicist who did atomic research for the German Army and later worked for the Defence Research Laboratories in Melbourne. One former member of the Nazi Party is described in his file as having been a "high state functionary" in the Nazi occupation government in Poland during the war.
At least 12 scientists - six of them former Nazi Party members - were employed at the Government's defence or aeronautical laboratories.
One later headed the Weapons Research Establishment's propulsion division and was one of at least two German scientists who worked on guided missile rocket tests at Woomera during the 1950s.
Eight scientists worked for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later the CSIRO). A further 53 were hired by State and Federal government departments or authorities, including the Sydney Water Board and the Postmaster General (PMG).[/quote]
"I'm from your friendly government, and I know what's good for you".
Oh, dear .... excuse me while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.
ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
B
catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Monday, August 16, 1999
Revealed: Australia's welcome to Hitler scientists
By GERARD RYLE and GARY HUGHES
Nazi scientists, including SS members and Hitler storm-troopers, were secretly brought to Australia after World War II to work on government defence projects and other research.
A Herald investigation reveals that 31 Nazi Party members were flown out under the cover of a broader scheme approved by the then Labor prime minister Ben Chifley.
At least 127 scientists and technicians were brought in under the scheme at a time when Germans were barred from entering Australia. They were recruited by the Australian Government between 1946 and 1951 and some were given security clearances for weapons development and rocket research at Woomera in South Australia.
The discovery of proven Nazis among the imported scientists contradicts a 1986 report commissioned by the Hawke government on suspected Nazi war criminals in Australia which found that scientists recruited under the scheme were "rejected if they were considered unacceptable due to their association with the Nazi Party".
The findings of the 1986 report headed off any further investigation of the scientists' backgrounds by the Australian War Crimes Tribunal.
In addition to at least 31 Nazi Party members, a further 12 belonged to other Nazi groups, and others were key figures in the German military during the war. Six were in the SS or had been storm-troopers with the Sturm Abteilung (SA) brownshirts.
Dr Efraim Zuroff, director in Israel of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish organisation that hunts down Nazis, said that at least seven of the 127 scientists' names supplied by the Herald matched suspects still wanted by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. "We do not yet possess enough details to be able to verify whether they are the same persons admitted to Australia," he said.
At least 10 of the scientists brought to Australia had worked for I.G.Farben, the German chemical company that exploited concentration camp slave labour and invented the Zyklon-B poison gas used in the gas chambers.
Records detail how the Nazi backgrounds of some of scientists were kept secret because the Australian government feared it would have to abandon the scheme if the public found out.
The Germans were brought in despite bitter protests from Australia's own Federal security agency, which was refused permission to carry out independent security checks on the scientists.
Previously classified documents seen by the Herald in the National Archives show that one of the scientists recruited under the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens scheme was a German Army war gas researcher.
Others included the head of the top-secret Messerschmitt jet aircraft factory, one of the developers of the helicopter, and a nuclear physicist who did atomic research for the German Army and later worked for the Defence Research Laboratories in Melbourne. One former member of the Nazi Party is described in his file as having been a "high state functionary" in the Nazi occupation government in Poland during the war.
At least 12 scientists - six of them former Nazi Party members - were employed at the Government's defence or aeronautical laboratories.
One later headed the Weapons Research Establishment's propulsion division and was one of at least two German scientists who worked on guided missile rocket tests at Woomera during the 1950s.
Eight scientists worked for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later the CSIRO). A further 53 were hired by State and Federal government departments or authorities, including the Sydney Water Board and the Postmaster General (PMG).[/quote]
"I'm from your friendly government, and I know what's good for you".
Oh, dear .... excuse me while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.
ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
B
catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.