Daniel Schenker

I received a free copy of this e-book from the publisher (via LibraryThing) in exchange for an honest review.

I had no idea what to expect when I started to read this book. The blurb talks about a young man growing up in early twentieth-century Germany who is introduced to the mysteries of the Jewish Kabbalah by his eccentric grandmother and dreams of traveling to a Heavenly Academy of ancient sages in a distant galaxy, who ultimately decides he will reach for the stars through the emerging technology of rocket propulsion.

This could have gone in any number of directions, from alternative history to science fiction or fantasy. It turned out to be none of those things.

Arthur Waldmann has one (non-believing, long-dead) Jewish grandfather who became a Catholic in the early 19th century. The "Marrano" comes from Waldmann's grandmother who is incredibly distantly related to converted Spanish Jews.

For perhaps over half of the book I was waiting for the moment when the story would deviate into alternate history (Germany winning the war, Germans on the moon, that sort of thing), but nothing of the sort happened.

The book starts in Weimar Germany, where the first experiments with rockets are done by enthusiastic amateurs. Apart from the fictional Waldmann we meet historical people and places, the early rocketry clubs, that gradually become more professional and get co-opted by the (nazi) military.

Waldmann is a close associate of Werhner von Braun, following him while he graduates the first bottle rockets to the last V2 models at the end of the Second World War.

It's a fascinating book, written by a man at the end of his life, who doesn't really seem to realise what the Second World War is all about until well into that war. A man too who tell himself for an incredibly long time that the slaves in the Mittelwerk vuilding the rockets are actually just "workers".

It is confronting to see how bad this kind of tunnel vision can get. The first V-2 rockets (then A-4) tended to fly wrong more than right, and to explode more in the air than anywhere else. Waldmann and von Braun wanted to observe this, and took up position in a synagogue from where they waited one by one for about four rockets that were aimed straight at the synagogue. The reasoning was: if we stand where they are supposed to land, that is probably where they will not land but it *is* a good place to watch. They miss the first rocket completely, they see the second rocket coming down and exploding somewhere in the distance but they don't know where, they see the third and fourth exploding in the air.

This is how that particular chapter ends:

"When we arrived back [...], we learned the resolution of the day's one outstanding mystery. It turned out the missile that seemed to have vanished had gone rogue and scored a direct hit on an SS R&R facility, killing several officers who were there in the courtyard for mid-day calisthenics and axe practice. So the Technical Director's joke about destroying Gestapo headquarters was not so far off the mark, though since it was merely an SS recreational facility, its destruction had no immediate effect on our testing program. The next day the Technical Director and I were out there again observing rockets, but when news of the accident reached Speer later in the week, he ordered our immediate withdrawal from the site and, as we learned subsequently, gave General D. a thorough dressing down for putting two of his top people in harm's way. We were replaced by several highly competent but non-essential personnel who over the next two months were able to collect for us a wealth of useful data, while suffering only a handful of fatalities."

That casual dismissal of the loss of life, tss.

Recommended, fascinating book.… (mehr)

I received a free copy of this e-book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Jewish mysticism combined with the rise of rocketry in Weimar Germany and beyond? That's not a combo I would normally combine, but it makes for interesting reading. Our main character, Arthur is a Marrano, a term describing a Spanish Jewish person who is forced to convert to Catholicism, yet secretly retains Jewish practices. He doesn't consider himself Jewish, yet his Grandmother rediscovers her heritage and embraces it in her twilight years. She initiates young Arthur in Kabbalah, who relates to the teachings for the rest of his life.

I really enjoyed Arthur's story as a young man, who is part of the birth of German rocketry, eventually becoming one of "The Rocket Team," the group of Peenemunders that created the V-2. You'll meet all the historical figures you'd expect, but most of them are not referred to by name. Who we may know as Dornberger and Von Braun are simply called the General D and the Technical Director. I thought I knew who the Aviatrix was, but either I don't, or the author took a lot of liberties with her life. You'll also meet characters like Korvo, the agnostic Jewish student who introduces Arthur to spaceflight; and who also reappears in Arthur's life in unexpected ways. You get a lot of insight here into the attitudes of these men who worked for their collective dream of spaceflight, but at the same time delivering a deadly weapon to Nazi Germany.

Arthur also becomes the first human to launch into space, aboard a V-2 secretly carrying a passenger compartment. I'm not sure I believe that the Rocket Team could have secretly retrofitted a V-2 for manned spaceflight, and launched a man without killing him, but it made for interesting reading. It seems like the kind of thing Von Braun would have tried if he thought he could have gotten away with it.

The end was very fitting. I really appreciated how the historic Redstone Test Stand was used as the setting for the mock trial at the end. It's a site with wonderful history and I'm glad it was featured here.

I was surprised that the Techincal Director's will designated money to create a museum as a replica of the Mittlewerk, but I applaud that detail. Many people do not know the significance of the Mittlewerk in World War II, and how it relates to the US Apollo Program. (Look up Arthur Rudolph for background.)

All in all, I enjoyed this for its perspective on the early history of rocketry, even though the Jewish mysticism aspect was new to me.… (mehr)