2
“My parents and I emigrated from Germany in 1951,” Major Zimholt began. “I was six years old. My father had been an unwilling soldier in the German army. He hated Hitler and everything he stood for. But the men of our country had no choice.
“My father was a math tutor before the war. One of his professors knew mathematicians and scientists who emigrated to the U.S. before we did. One of them you might have heard of: Wernher von Braun.”
“I do know that name,” Alice said. “But I don’t know why.”
“Initially he worked for Hitler,” said Major Zimholt. “Von Braun was a genius, no question. He developed the Nazis’ most successful rocket. But then Hitler lost the war, and von Braun surrendered to the Americans. He turned his talents to our space program and became a director for NASA. He was
