Journalist unearths grandfather's Nazi past, shares all in powerful podcast

LOS ANGELES - Tracing your roots can lead to a treasure trove of information. For one journalist it also meant a dark discovery. Along with celebrating her grandfather's NASA credentials, Suzanne Rico unearthed his shocking Nazi past.

The backstory:

Sifting through a table covered with books and family albums, articles and old VHS tapes, Rico said "when I was a little kid my mom never told us any about this."

Vintage family videos from Germany showed the grandfather she'd never met. An obituary article read "Robert Lusser: aviator, aircraft designer and father."

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What's missing in that obit? "He was one of Hitler's top scientists," she says. Rico reacts "I get sick to my stomach."

Robert Lusser

Rico's grandfather, Robert Lusser, was the father of the Nazi V-1 flying bomb.

"He created the world’s first cruise missile," said Rico.

The V-1 was a weapon used against the allies in World War II. V-1 rockets killed thousands of people in Great Britain. Rico said it was "Germany's last weapon in the Second World War."

What we know:

Rico now has a podcast telling this jarring family story. It's called The Man Who Calculated Death. 

The inspiration came as a dying wish from her mother more than a decade ago to complete an unfinished memoir. Her mother survived a bombing that killed Rico's grandmother, Lusser's wife.

While still grieving the passing of her mother, Rico's journalism skill set kicked in. From 2002 to 2010, Rico was a morning news anchor at KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles. After her era on air there, she spent 10 years digging into the family chapters untold. She called it "the hardest thing I've ever done." With the knowledge that says she also had to process generational guilt.

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Her grandfather was not among those charged with war crimes. Lusser, in fact, would end up in America.

"Finally in 1948, the Americans found him and brought him over," Rico said. 

Lusser was recruited for "Operation Paperclip," a secret U.S. intelligence program that brought Nazi scientists to America. The U.S.' adversary was the Soviet Union, and the race to space was on.

Lusser died in 1969.  Rico still has questions, particularly, "Was he a Nazi in his heart, or was he just a brilliant airplane designer born in the wrong time and place?"

Big picture view:

Rico also had to face another reality of that time: the Holocaust and the genocide of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany and collaborators.

Suzanne Rico and family

Rico's husband is Jewish and they have two children. 

Rick said that during her research, "all I could think about was my husband and family and my children."

Rico has also befriended a Holocaust survivor. She says she apologized for her grandfather's role in the Nazi war machine.

The podcast The Man Who Calculated Death is available wherever you find your podcasts. It has just received a national Gracie award.