Arthur Rudolph, shown in this Feb. 1989 file photo, the former German rocket scientist who helped put Americans on the moon but left the United States after being accused of Nazi war crimes.
Rudolph, one of the Germany's most prominent rocket scientists, was brought to the U.S. after World War II because of his technical skill.
NASA awarded him a Distinguished Service Medal for achievements that included his central role in the Apollo project that put a man on the moon.
Decades later he was accused of "working thousands of slave laborers to death" in the Nazi factory that built the V-2 rocket.
Rudolph signed a settlement agreement with the U.S. in 1983.
He traveled on his U.S. passport to West Germany in 1984. Then he went to the U.S. General Consulate in Hamburg and renounced his citizenship. The West German government protested, but Rudolph remained there.
He was eventually granted German citizenship and collected U.S. Social Security benefits until his death in 1996 at age 89.
