WWII secretary to Wernher von Braun dies in Alabama
May 13, 2021 GMT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) The World War II secretary to German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun has died in Alabama, where she spent much of her postwar life.
Dorette “Dorothea” Hertha Kersten Schlidt died Monday in Huntsville, according to a funeral home obituary. She was 100.
Born in Stargard in what is now northwestern Poland, Schlidt worked as von Braun’s secretary in the 1940s at the German rocket factory at Peenemuende, where thousands of concentration camp prisoners died in the Nazi war effort.
Heidi Weber Collier, a friend who visited with Schlidt recently, told al.com that Schlidt had been working in a law office when von Braun hired her as an aide at the complex. She helped von Braun retrieve notes and documents about the project after an Allied bombing raid, Collier said.
Dorothea Schlidt, last of von Braun’s German rocket team, dies in Huntsville at 100
Updated 11:32 AM;
Today 10:26 AM
Dorothea Schlidt, the last surviving member of Wernher von Braun s German rocket team, has died in Huntsville, Ala., at age 100.
Facebook Share
The last surviving member of Wernher von Braun’s German rocket team has died in Huntsville ending a living history that spanned from creation of the first rocket for war to the NASA Saturn V that put America first on the Moon.
Dorette “Dorothea” Schlidt, who was 100 years old when she died Monday, worked as von Braun’s secretary at the Peenemuende site where the V-2 rockets were designed and later assembled with forced labor from nearby concentration camps and launched at Antwerp and England.
By LEE ROOP | al.com | Published: May 12, 2021 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Tribune News Service) The last surviving member of Wernher von Braun’s German rocket team has died in Huntsville, ending a living history that spanned from creation of the first rocket for war to the NASA Saturn V that put America first on the Moon. Dorette “Dorothea” Schlidt, who was 100 years old when she died Monday, worked as von Braun’s secretary at the Pennemunde site where the V-2 rockets were designed and later assembled with forced labor from nearby concentration camps and launched at Antwerp and England. There, she helped von Braun rescue key notes and papers about the rocket work after a 1943 bombing by British war planes.