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The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc. "Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project" |
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Manhattan Project History
The Early Years (1900 - 1939)
"The Scientific EXODUS"
| "Anti-semitism is strong here and political reaction is violent" - Albert Einstein; in a letter written from Berlin in December of 1919. |
| "Turn around, you will never see it again!" - Albert Einstein speaking to his wife, as they stepped off the porch of their house in Caputh, Germany on their way to the United States to give a series of lectures; December 1932; At the time, his wife though his pessimism foolish. |
| "I'll be the brains!" - Adolph Hitler in a contemptuous response to a question from a German journalist who had the nerve to ask him "Where he would find the brains to run the country if he took it over"; 1931. |
| "It is impossible to describe the utter despair of all classes of Jews in Germany. The thoroughness with which they are being hounded out and stopped short in their careers is appalling. Unless help comes from the outside, there is no outlook for thousands, except starvation or suicide. It is a gigantic "cold pogram" and it is not only against Jews. Social Democrats and Liberals are now or coming under the ban, especially if they protest in the least against the Nazi movement. Dr. Leo Szilard...proved to be the best prognosticator...he was able to foresee events better than anybody else I know. Weeks before the storm broke he began to formulate plans to provide some means of helping the scientists and scholars of Germany." - Benjamin Liebowitz; Physicist and American Entrepreneur; 1931. |
| "The British will organize it; the French will pray over it; and, the United States will write the check" - Some wit from a group grappling with the problem of how best to assist the scientists fleeing from Nazi Germany. |
In April of 1933, Hitler's first anti-Jewish law was promulgated, stripping all "non-Aryan" academics of their teaching posts. The new law abruptly stripped a quarter of the physicists in Germany, including eleven who had earned or would earn Nobel Prizes, of their positions and their livelihood. Emigration was the only solution. Some with extreme foresight, saw what the political landscape was to become and made early plans accordingly. Einstein was one of the first to go. Also, Theodore von Karman, a pioneer in aeronautical physics was recruited by the California Institute of Technology in 1930. Caltech, as well as Columbia, courted Einstein, but he eventually opted for the new Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Also in 1930, Princeton University acquired John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner as a package deal. Hans Bethe, the then young theoretical physicist, was at Tubingen (Germany) and first heard of his dismissal from one of his students. At the time, Hans Geiger was professor of experimental physics at Tubingen and had, early on, been friendly to the young Bethe. Learning of his dismissal, Bethe wrote to Geiger for advice. Geiger wrote back a very cold letter saying that with the changed situation it would be necessary to dispense with Bethe's services - period. There was no kind word, no regrets - nothing. Bethe then appealed to Munich. "Sommerfield immediately replied that Bethe was welcome at Munich. A short time later, Bethe was invited to Manchester (England), then to Copenhagen to work with Bohr. In the summer of 1934 Cornell University in Ithaca, New York offered him an assistant professorship. He accepted and left for the "New World", arriving in February 1935. Edward Teller took his Ph.D. under Werner Heisenberg at Leipzig in 1930, stayed for another year and then went to Gottingen to work at the Institute for Physical Chemistry. "It was a foregone conclusion that I would have to leave," Teller remembers. "After all, not only was I a Jew, I was not even a German citizen." The problem for Teller at the time was where to go. Back at Gottingen, after a confrontation with his parents who encouraged him to return to Hungary, Edward Teller applied for a Rockefeller Fellowship to Copenhagen to work with the renowned Niels Bohr. In Hamburg, Otto Frisch, Lise Meitner's nephew, decided that Hitler was going to be around for awhile after all and he would be forced to leave. The University of Hamburg was very reluctant to put the racial laws into effect, and Frisch wasn't required to leave until several months after the other universities had been forced to toe the line. After being turned down for a Rockefeller Foundation appointment to work with Enrico Fermi in Rome (simply because due to the racial laws he had no job to return to), Frisch happened to meet up with Bohr who was then traveling through Germany seeking those who needed help. After a short stint working with Stuart Blackett in London, Frisch made his way to Copenhagen to work with the great Niels Bohr. At Gottingen the Nobel laureate James Franck, had a long talk with Bohr. Though Franck was Jewish, he was exempt from the racial law because he had fought at the front in World War I. His conversation with Bohr caused him to closely examine his position in Nazi Germany. Accordingly, he resigned his position in protest on April 17, 1939. Always a visionary, Leo Szilard, sacrificing many years of his career and having no permanent post for himself, worked tirelessly to find suitable positions for many of the fleeing scientists. Often working by himself, at the detriment of his own safety and career, Szilard was responsible for numerous colleagues being offered positions. He organized several groups and worked with the Academic Assistance Council, a London-based group headed by Ernest Rutherford that acted as a clearinghouse for information. At about this same time, groups were forming in America to assist with the "rescue" of noted scientists. At Columbia University, a Faculty Fellowship Fund was established and the U. S. Gov't became involved through its formation of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars. In Copenhagen, Niels Bohr conducted his usual "summer conference", but this time it was used as a sort of "labor exchange", according to Otto Frisch who attended. This was followed in September by the largest public event concerning the rescue, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event was chaired by Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein was the featured speaker. All in all, the British alone nearly equaled the rest of the world in temporary appointments, and American contributions, largely from foundations like the Rockefeller, matched the rest dollar for dollar. Then as the English academic system became short of the much needed funds, emigration increased to the United States. Under official Emergency Committee auspices thirty scientists and scholars arrived in the U. S. in 1933, thirty-two in 1934, only fifteen in 1935; but forty-three came in 1938, ninety-seven in 1939, fifty-nine in 1940, and fifty in 1941. Of these, approximately 100 were physicists. Note 1 Note 1: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"; Richard Rhodes; Simon & Schuster; 1986
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