2015-2 Remembrances Special Edition 1
City of Schertz
Remembrances Publication Special Edition 2015-2
Presented by: Schertz Historical Preservation Committee
Schertz’s Famous Post WW II Resident “The Rest of the Story”
Dr. Hubertus Strughold As the now deceased writer and famous radio commentator Paul Harvey would say, “And
now the rest of the story”.
Two articles in the Northeast Herald (“Space flight Was Among Clamann’s Contribution”, February 26, 2009 and “Clamann Instrumental in Manned Space Flight”, March 5, 2009) reported on Hans-Georg Clamann, a German scientist and branch chief of
the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Berlin during WW II and post-war scientist assigned to the American space medicine program at Randolph Field. Clamann was one of many German scientists brought to America under “Operation Paperclip”, an operation designed to take advantage of the German scientific knowledge base developed during the war years. Randolph Field (now Joint Base San Antonio Air Base) was the seat of
aviation medicine at the time and the selected assignment location for Clamann as well as many of the other scientists that had worked on aerospace medicine for the German War effort. Clamann’s Director of Aerospace Medicine at Randolph was Dr. Hubertus Strughold, also a German captured scientist transferred to Randolph in 1947. Clamann established his residence in Converse while Dr. Strughold became a resident of Schertz.
Dr. Strughold may well be Schertz’s most famous and controversial resident. By the middle of the 1950s the Air Force was pursuing the possibility of manned space flight. There were many problems facing man’s move into space and Dr. Strughold and his team of scientists were studying the medical issues at Randolph Field’s Air Force
School of Aviation Medicine. In 1949, Dr. Strughold was named Director of Space Medicine. In November 1959, a new Aerospace Medical Center opened at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio and space medicine research centered at that facility where Dr. Strughold set up operations as Chief Scientist. He remained at Brooks until his retirement in 1968. During his tenure at Brooks, Dr. Strughold was recognized for
hundreds of scientific accomplishments and was eventually dubbed the “Father of Space Medicine.” His accomplishments led to the aerospace library at Brooks being named in his honor and his inclusion in a mural of medical heroes at Ohio State University. But as is often said: “Fame can be a fleeting thing.”
Controversy followed Dr. Strughold throughout his career as an American scientist. His position as head of the German Air Force’s Institute of Aviation Medicine during WW II caused questions regarding his role in experimental testing of prisoners of war from the Dachau Concentration Camp. One Jewish group, the World Jewish Congress, said that
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placing him alongside such giants as Marie Curie and Hippocrates as an “historical
obscenity.” Dr. Strughold denied allegations that he ever supported Adolf Hitler or that
he was affiliated with Hitler. One Schertz resident who was Dr. Strughold’s neighbor and who worked with him, Oskar Langner, supported Strughold’s claim that he had no Nazi connections. But leaders of the San Antonio Jewish Federation claimed that he was a Nazi war criminal. The Federation based its claim on the fact that a U.S. Army
Intelligence Agency’s 1945 Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects
listed Strughold as one of those being sought. The Army Intelligence Agency did capture Strughold but then decided to recruit him for the American space program rather than holding him for trial by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. The group, citing a document it obtained from the Nuremberg tribunal that said Strughold was one of 95 doctors at an
October 1942 conference sponsored by the German Air Force’s medical service to
discuss medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. One of the Nuremberg defendants allegedly told the tribunal that Strughold knew of the concentration camp experiments and could have stopped them at any time because he headed the institute that conducted them. The Jewish group stated that the Justice Department had initiated steps
to prosecute Strughold and deport him from America for engaging in persecution, but the
proceedings were dropped when he died in 1986. Based on the Jewish groups disclosures regarding Strughold, Ohio State University removed his likeness from the mural of medical heroes situated at the University Medical
School. The Brooks Air Force Aerospace Library retains his name.
In closing, as Paul Harvey would say: “And now you know the rest of the story.”