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Happy Saturday.

Last Saturday, we re-released our episode on Operation Paperclip.

Today's classic is our follow-up to that episode,

which covered four people who were brought to the U.S. under this program.

This originally came out May 26, 2021.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm Holly Fry.

Last time, we talked about Operation Paperclip, also known as Project Paperclip,

which was the effort to bring German scientists, engineers, and other specialists to the United States after World War II.

And this built on an earlier program that was called Operation Overcast. engineers, and other specialists to the United States after World War II.

And this built on an earlier program that was called Operation Overcast,

and that had given the same types of specialists short-term contracts to either work in Germany or to work in the United States under military supervision.

But under Operation Paperclip, most of those specialists that were brought to the U.S. actually

got the opportunity to become U.S. citizens. About 1,600 total specialists entered the U.S.

through this program. And more than 90 percent of the ones who arrived between 1945 and

1952 went on to become U.S. citizens.

For the most part, they were recruiting relatively young folks.

They were mostly under the age of 40 when they left Germany.

And although most of them started out working for a branch of the military,

about 10% were initially hired at the Department of Commerce.

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