Tom Lehrer (1928-2025)

This wonderful performance in Copenhagen on 11 September 1967 illustrates the full range of Tom Lehrer’s political satire. It was filmed for Danish TV and released as ‘Tom Lehrer Live in Copenhagen 1967’. He sings nineteen of his songs, including ‘Wernher von Braun’, whose role in America’s space race with the Soviets conveniently overlooked his past as a Nazi and SS officer.

The British Interplanetary Society still records that it awarded von Braun an Honorary Fellowship in 1949 without any reference to his culpability in the use of slave labour during the time he spent developing Germany’s rockets during the Second World War. The BIS has decided to retain the award and explain its decision on its website, but as of 2026 that has yet to happen.

The film below by the Imperial  War Museums is based on Depravity’s Rainbow by Lewis Bush. It explains how von Braun avoided Nuremburg and responsibility for the deaths of thousands of slave workers and was feted in the USA until his death in 1977.