Following the end of the Second World War, many brilliant, if malicious, minds of the Nazi regime were secretly divided between the “opposing forces” that were the United States and The West, and the Soviet Regime. These minds continued their work for their respective sponsors behind closed doors and, certainly in the case of those working in America, would contribute heavily to the modern world in which we live today.

It is an interesting thought, that following the apparent defeat of Nazism, which as we have written about before was financed by the same people who also financed the resistance to it, the minds behind what made the Nazis such a formidable force in the first place essentially carried on their work, in some cases secretly, in the “free world” of the West, for the people who were their (supposed) enemies.

The two examples we are going to look at are not only a good example of the blurring of “good” and “bad” and the reality of agendas, but also shows, in this instance, how the US authorities used the work of high-ranking Nazi minds, both for purposes at home, and for influence much further afield.

Operation Paperclip

After fall of Berlin, Allied and Soviet forces would each lay claim to the territories recaptured, which would ultimately result in a splitting of them between the two super-powers. As well as the territories themselves (which eventually saw the Berlin Wall divide Germany and much of Europe), was the battle for the minds of the leading Nazi scientists. Each side was aware should the other gain access to their work, it would put itself one step ahead of their ideological rival.

Out of this, at least on the American side, came Operation Paperclip. Exactly how many Nazi scientists, doctors, and engineers made the journey to the United States is unclear. The American authorities would assure the public that the former Nazis who were settling in the “land of the free” had been Nazis in name only with no connections to any atrocities. Perhaps the most famous of these transplanted German minds was Wernher von Braun, who essentially catapulted the Americans to the Moon and ahead in the “space race” of the Cold War.

Some, though, weren’t so sure. And as we will examine in a moment, there appears there was a distinctly “dark side” to this deal. Whether that was something considered a necessary evil, or a purposeful intent to continue the work of the Nazi regime is open to debate for some. As we will look at in a moment, not all of these “liberated” Nazis came to America, but instead did their work “in the field”.

First though, check out the video below. It looks at Operation Paperclip in a little more detail.

The Paladin Group

Perhaps one of the murkiest areas of United States’ history in terms of connections to well-known Nazis would be the Paladin Group and the darkly intriguing figure that was Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny was a high-ranking Nazi SS officer and carried out numerous military operations and missions for the Nazi regime. Following his arrest after the war, he would escape an internment camp at Darmstadt in 1948. He would make his way to a secluded farm in Bavaria and over the next eighteen months would establish contact with other “missing” Nazis.

Skorzeny, incidentally, would maintain that his escape was the plan of the US authorities (likely the forerunner to the CIA) and that it was they who had supplied the US military police uniforms with which he and three other former SS officers used to leave the camp undetected. He would eventually find sanctuary in Spain, and after serving as an advisor to the Perons (who also assisted numerous Nazis escape Germany to Argentina), went on to conduct intelligence operations for the Israeli secret service branch, Mossad. Just let that last point sink in a moment.

In 1970, he would form the Paladin Group which would project itself as the “military arm” in the fight against communism. In Skorzeny’s words, the group was an “…international directorship of strategic assault personnel that would straddle the watershed between the paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniform and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents!”

In short, the group was doing covertly what the Nazis had done overtly, for the right price of course. The group would train numerous “guerrilla fighters”, often with indirect backing from the CIA or other “Western” services. A number of “false flags” are also credited to the group.

Check out the two videos below.

The Horrors of Plum Island

Another link to the horrific work undertaken in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe is a little closer to American shores. Plum Island, in Long Island, Connecticut is home to a top-secret US biochemical and airborne disease research facility. Some researchers, however, describe the island as more akin to “the island of Dr. Moreau come to life!”

There have been numerous rumors of mutations and even disease outbreaks, some apparently intentionally spread, linked to the facility. These rumors are perhaps fanned a little more when Erich Traub was revealed as director of the island at its conception. Traub was another high-ranking Nazi who worked on chemical and bio-weapons for Hitler’s war machine. Traub also worked directly for Heinrich Himmler.

He was certainly on the US authorities’ “wish list”, leading to them recovering him from the Soviet zone of Germany in 1949. Perhaps that is an indication of the type of work Traub took part in under the Nazis. And the sort of research the US authorities wished to look into a little more. Archived files from the 1950s show that Traub’s initial work at the facility was looking at turning ticks into “vectors” that would then carry pathogens to Soviet livestock as well as affecting their grain harvests. It was, however, an outbreak much closer to home that first brought national attention to Traub and Plum Island.

Outbreak At Old Lyme, Connecticut

In early-1971 in the Connecticut town of Old Lyme, a sudden outbreak of a mysterious condition featuring psychosis, lassitude, and organ degeneration hit. This outbreak, quickly labeled Lyme Disease, had only one carrier, the ticks of deer (remember the initial work of Traub).

Around a decade later, came the isolation of the bacteria responsible for this new disease. It was carried by deer ticks and named “Borellia Burgdorferi”. Upon further examination the bacterium was one of such complexity, scientists found it hard to believe it suddenly appeared naturally. Further investigation would reveal laboratory samples of the same bacteria from the late-1940s. This would correspond to the time Traub was directing the facility.

With the eyes of the nation, and indeed the world on the US government, the trails and accusations would continue. Outbreaks of West Nile Disease and Dutch duck disease were both traced back to Plum Island by attorney, Michael Carroll. Even the Cuban government weighed in. They would place the blame of diseased livestock and sugarcane damage in the 1970s at the feet of Plum Island. And in turn, the US authorities.

In 1992, under continued pressure, the US government would admit the facility did indeed work with biochemical disease and weapons. Traub, with the US government’s consent and backing, was continuing the work he began under the Nazi regime. And not just in theory it would seem. These weaponized diseases found there way to the American public. While the strange and questionable events would continue at the facility, the US government’s sudden openness didn’t.

The Montauk Monster

In July 2008 on a Montauk beach in Long Island, New York, came the discovery of a most bizarre carcass. One that appeared to be a grotesque mutation. The fact the location of the discovery was only ten miles away from Plum Island was not lost on some.

Credit for the discovery goes to 26-year-old, Jenna Hewitt. Along with three friends, she came across the creature on Ditch Plains beach on 12th July. They witnessed a small group peering over something in the sand. She quickly reached for her phone. The photograph she captured would feature in publications, news pieces, and documentaries around the world. Hewitt would even state to local media at the time, “We joked that maybe it was something from Plum Island!”

The “animal” itself had the torso of a medium-sized dog with an elongated head. Some of its mouth, which appeared to show a beak-like finish, had decomposed exposing relatively large teeth. There was also the presence of “fingers” which were too thin in relation to the rest of its body.

Perhaps what is more bizarre is no-one quite knows what happened to the creature. Some people say a “non-descript” man came and removed it from the beach. Hewitt would state “a guy took it and put it in the woods!” Some people would even accuse Hewitt herself of hiding the body for possible monetary gain.

Plenty of people, including scientists and biologists, have offered their opinion on what the creature might be. No official explanation, however, has come from the US government, local authority or the Plum Island facility. In 2009, a second, almost identical body washed up on a Montauk beach. Once again, there was no official explanation, and the facility at Plum Island is as secretive as ever.