Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) designed the V-2 for Nazi Germany, was brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip, and went on to build the Saturn V that carried Apollo to the Moon. He was also an exceptionally skilled communicator about his own past — Disney television, magazine serials, memoirs — and this line is a small piece of that work: a way of saying the war years were a detour from the real project. The V-2 was assembled by prisoners at Mittelwerk, where more people died building the rockets than were killed by them.