Several years ago, I wrote about the German V-2 missile strike on Brownlow Road, England, which occurred on December 14, 1944, in the context of a post about Jewish WW II soldier Sgt. Simon Fogelman, who was killed in action in Europe on that date. The post opens with a video of Professor and satiric songwriter Tom Lehrer … of MIT, UCLA, and especially Doctor Demento related fame … performing his scathing and hilarious song – simply titled “Wernher Von Braun” – which concerned the prominence and (then, at least!) near adulation of the former German rocket scientist in the American news media and popular culture.
As of late March, 2025, the video has had nearly 2,200,000 hits. It seems that the talented (now retired) mathematics professor was rather perceptive and quite ahead of his time.
Ohhhh yeees, the video…
In the above light, some, Amy Shira Teitel (of The Vintage Space) has recently created this extremely informative, probing, and truly insightful video (both historically and morally) about the life and legacy of the aforementioned rocket scientist: “Wernher von Braun’s HUGELY Controversial Legacy”. I cannot recommend this hour-long video strongly enough; it’s worth sixty minutes of your attention. Actually, for those with an interest in the early American (and secondarily, Soviet) space programs, I can unreservedly recommend all her videos!