Foreign Scientist Case Files, 1945-58

These records, produced by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, consist of the investigative background reports and personnel dossiers on foreign scientists, technicians, and engineers, who were encouraged to immigrate to the United States under Project Paperclip (1945-1958) and similar programs. The investigations were undertaken to screen out security threats, war criminals, and persons with antisocial behavior. The majority of the subjects were German, but other nationalities are also represented. The files contain a variety of personal information ranging from vital statistics to monetary worth. Some include photographs and fingerprint charts, biographical outlines, and scholarly publications. The files are not uniform in size or contents and vary from 200 to 250 pages.

The series includes files on Georg Rickhey (file RICKHEY, Georg), a former official at the Nordhausen underground V-2 rocket factory who arrived in the United States in 1946, but left in 1947, when he was tried (and acquitted) for war crimes by a U.S. military tribunal; Walter Schreiber (file SCHREIBER, Walter P.), who was instrumental in medical experiments on concentration camp inmates and fled the United States to Argentina in 1952 after the appearance of a newspaper column about his activities; and Arthur Rudolph (file RUDOLPH, Arthur L.), a V-2 project engineer who left the United States in 1984 following the Department of Justice's discovery of his role in the persecution of prisoners at the Nordhausen factory.

Notably Werhner von Braun does not have a file in this series.