Local historian Brett Riggs will talk about Operation Paperclip May 10 at 6 PM at the Museum of Coastal Carolina. Operation Paperclip was the code name under which U.S. intelligence and military services extricated scientists from Germany during and after World War II.
As WWII wound down, American and British teams scoured occupied Germany for as much military, scientific, and technological development research as they could uncover. Covert groups began confiscating war-related documents and materials and interrogating scientists. A list of scientists and engineers that worked for the Third Reich was discovered. Roughly 1,600 German scientists and their families were brought to the U.S. to work on America’s behalf during the Cold War. The goal: To harness German intellectual resources to help develop superior American technology and weaponry against the Soviet Union.
Brett Riggs is a native of Southeastern North Carolina and lives in Shallotte. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science.
The Museum of Coastal Carolina is located at 21 East Second Street, Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Admission to Riggs’ lecture is free for museum members. Non-member admission is $9 for adults, $8 for seniors (62+), $7 for children (3-12), and free for age 2 and under.