Books

As an architect and creator of buildings, I know behind every physical creation is a story of many human dimensions. Including the act of creativity, the ardent pursuit of solutions, the long hours of perfecting and making it work, the client, the budgets and the schedules. So, when I looked at Germany’s advanced planes developed toward the end of WWII, and knowing their dwindling military position and industrial resources, I knew there must’ve been quite a story of human drama, sacrifice and commitment that took them far beyond the comfort and safety of normal life.

I have read many WWII history books but most have either been military focused, as seen from military and political leaders; and the others have been from the civilian’s experience of being swept up by the war. I had never read a book written by the engineers who designed and produced the military might of Germany. And I started to wonder, at what point did all these scientifically-gifted engineers realize where Nazi Germany was going and what role their technical creations would mean for Hitler’s goals? Further, I started to wonder, what sacrifices, moral oversights and challenges to authority did they, if any, undertake?

To me, when I look at the Luftwaffe aircraft, I think, who were those design engineers, who were the draftsmen of the blueprints, who were the test pilots for the companies? How many hours did they spend on that plane, its variants and working with the field units to make it operational? Did they suffer great peril from the Allied bombing campaign or were they called into military service toward the end, regardless of how ‘essential’ they were to the aircraft industry and then thrown against the Allies much like cannon fodder?

From my research, I also realized that at the end of the war, all the Allied countries found the engineers valuable strategic assets and absconded them off to their respective home countries. The United States being one of the larger importers of Nazi engineering talent with around 1500 engineers brought over under Operation Paperclip.

But as I researched German aircraft design and production during WWII, I realized there was also an ugly side to it. The use of slave and concentration camp labor was intensive and extensive throughout the aircraft industry. Just to produce the Me 262 fighter jet, 54,000 slave laborers were engaged in the assembly. Many of these laborers were subject to poor living conditions, underfed, beaten by the SS guards and were exposed to Allied bombings. I thought it important that people should not just look at the German planes as wonder machines of speed, form and weaponry. Every jet also represented thousands of unnamed workers who were forced to work on these jets under deprived conditions.

I wanted to explore the decade-old question of how much responsibility and guilt do the German people, as a whole, bear for WWII atrocities. Could they have stood up to Nazism, should they have realized where it was heading, why were they so hypnotized by Hitler? What happened to Germany’s collective consciousness at the common persons’ level?

Finally, I wanted to reflect on how engineers of military weaponry, including our contemporary era, can be swept into an evil cause with or without their full consent and experience a loss of their moral compass.