I do know that lots of people who were not Jewish left Germany before Hitler's political machinery was completely installed because they could read the writing on the wall. Three possibilities exist for von Braun: 1) he couldn't afford to leave, either because of financial reasons or because of a hostage situation (of which there were many); 2) his wall-reading skills were not that good and by the time he realized what was going on it was too late; 3) he wanted to work for the German cause. I can't believe that he was too stupid to understand the purpose to which the German army would put ballistic missiles, which he began to develop for the army in 1932, but I could be wrong.

I also know that, until relatively recently, George Armstrong Custer was considered a hero because killing Indians was a civilizing thing to do. Perceptions change, especially as old historical documents become more available.

Tom Lehrer was writing satirical songs as a hobby in the early 1960s. The view of von Braun that Lehrer voiced has been around at least that long, while von Braun was still alive and very much in the public eye. One doesn't have to admire von Braun, the man, or his apparent ability to put unfortunate things like slave labor and civilian bombings out of his mind, to appreciate his brilliance as an engineer.