
It might not have been your intention, but it just really rubs me the wrong way to hear anybody try and paint this monster in any kind of positive light.
Von Braun was a Nazi and likely committed war crimes, most likely the usage of forced labour. But ultimately he himself did not seem to hold the Nazi ideology that close to heart. He was especially alienated after his arrest by the Gestapo.
The man lacked principles, and seemed fine with using slave labour as long as he could play rocketman. A shitstain, sure. Nonetheless, he doesn’t appear to have held any (strong) racial prejudices, afaik not even antisemitism or something.
What I was pointing out is that the shitstains in Alabama were even more racist than the former Nazi immigrants were. So even if Hans turned out to be a racist shitstain, that might not necessarily be because his dad was; it might also be caused by the racists that were around during his upbringing.
I’m not sure what that citation you mentioned contains, but the context it’s used in makes it a little ambiguous:
Appealing to the authorities to reclaim property that people believed was unlawfully taken by local officials in the weeks right after the war was also dangerous. After all, investigations would ensue, which could backfire on those who had sought justice from the state. When F. Borisevich from Slutsk (eastern Belorussia) wrote a letter to Ponomarenko, complaining that NKVD officers had taken several of her possessions, among them money and clothes, the Slutsk authorities began to look into the issue. They found out that Borisevich’s husband had been arrested in 1937 and sentenced to forced labor. During the war, Borisevich had shared a house with two local policemen—one of them her grandson, who stole from “partisan and Jewish families.” Slutsk authorities concluded that she had acquired most of her possessions unlawfully during the war, and they decided to pass the case on to a higher court
So either dad did steal from partisans or Jews, or he was merely tried for doing so after seeking justice from authorities. The timeline is weird though, when would this case have taken place? In 1945 he had already left for Germany, so how was he tried by the Soviets? Or was he tried in his absence? Or is that citation referring to a different person?
Spakovsky ended up in Huntsville, likely to join the rest of the Germans who went there. He was a sociologist, not a rocket scientist, so maybe not a priority for operation Paperclip or something.
Your citation there shows von Braun being a total shitstain, but not necessarily a racist shitstain. He lacked morals and principles, and used slave labour; but it doesn’t seem like he cared much about who the slaves were. So he doesn’t seem to have ended up having any qualms about hiring black people. I suppose it makes him slightly more progressive, but not necessarily any less of a bad person.
Regarding Shpakovskii, it’s unclear what he was accused or convicted of, and it’s unclear if whatever the allegations were were also true. But given the example provided, it seems the worst thing he could be getting accused of there is stealing from partisans/Jewish people, which is bad but not a war crime (assuming his case is indeed ‘similar’ to the example provided in that text).
I’m not sure we can figure out what this guy did exactly with just online sources, I can’t exactly find much more on the man. Given the evidence, he could in theory have been a Chetnik, which would fit his motivations and background. Being a full-blown Nazi seems less likely. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved in any war crimes, but there’s currently nothing that suggests that he was.