If von Braun hadn't gone along with the Reich, he would probably not have survived the war at all. Certainly if he had made known any misgivings he had during the time of the death camp assembly lines, he would have been executed immediately.
He was a true believer and rocket enthusiast well before the dritte Reich, and from what I can discover, his interest in going to the moon was entirely sincere, having begun when he was a boy.
It was my understanding that he was an inspirational leader to the people at NASA; his personal charisma caused the people who worked for him to struggle and go beyond their limitations in order to get his nod of approval.
His willingness to put away his own vision for the mission profile — replacing it with the staged concept of John Houbolt once he understood the wisdom of that approach — has always struck me as a true demonstration of von Braun's caliber as a person.
Anyway, I'm not really arguing with you. His service to Hitler will always stain his memory, and I guess it's true to say he had blood on his hands.
Dr. Wernher von Braun, Marshall Space Flight Center's first director, points out details on a Saturn rocket to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Eisenhower was at Marshall to participate in the center's dedication ceremony, Sept. 8, 1960.
Two years earlier on July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act (Pub.L. 85-568), the United States federal statute that created NASA.