• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Heisenberg had long wanted to be Sommerfeld's successor at Munich. In 1935 Stark called Heisenberg the 'spirit of Einstein's spirit' and launched a concerted campaign against him and theoretical physics. It culminated on 15 July 1937 with the publication of an article in the SS journal, Das Schwarze Korps, in which Heisenberg was branded a 'white Jew'. He spent the next year trying to remove the slur that, if it stuck, would place him in real danger of being isolated and dismissed. He turned to Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, who happened to be a family acquaintance. Himmler exonerated Heisenberg, but blocked his appointment as Sommerfeld's successor. There was also a proviso that in future he should 'clearly separate for your audiences, in the acknowledgement of scientific research results, the personal and political characteristics of the researcher'.36 Heisenberg duly obliged in separating the scientist from the science. There would be no more mention by him of Einstein's name in public.

The Göttingen physicists James Franck and Max Born were exempt as war veterans from the 'Aryan clause'. But neither man chose to exercise his right, believing that to do so was tantamount to collusion with the Nazis. Franck was condemned by no fewer than 42 of his colleagues when he submitted his letter of resignation, for fuelling anti-German propaganda by stating that 'we Germans of Jewish descent are being treated as aliens and enemies of the Fatherland'.37 Born, who had no intention of resigning, discovered his name on a list of suspended civil servants published in the local newspaper. 'All I had built up in Göttingen, during twelve years hard work, was shattered', he wrote later.38 'It seemed to me like the end of the world.' He shuddered at the thought of 'standing in front of students who, for whatever reason, have thrown me out, or living among colleagues who were able to live with this so easily'.39

Suspended but not yet sacked, Born had never felt particularly Jewish, he confessed to Einstein. But now he was 'extremely conscious of it, not only because we are considered to be so, but because oppression and injustice provoke me to anger and resistance'.40 Born hoped to settle in England, 'for the English seem to be accepting the refugees most nobly and generously'.41 His wish was granted when he was offered a three-year lectureship at Cambridge University. Believing that he might be depriving a deserving English physicist, Born accepted only after being reassured that the post had been created especially for him. He was one of the lucky few whose contributions to physics were internationally recognised, unlike the 'young ones' for whom Einstein said his 'heart aches'.42 But even scientists of Born's calibre had to endure periods of deep uncertainty about their future. After his time in Cambridge was up, Born spent six months in Bangalore, India and was seriously considering a post in Moscow, when in 1936 he was offered the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

Heisenberg had tried to convince Born that he was safe, since 'only the very least are affected by the law – you and Franck certainly not'. He hoped, like others, that things would eventually settle down and 'the political revolution could take place without any damage to Göttingen physics'.43 But the damage was already done. It had taken the Nazis a matter of weeks to transform Göttingen, the cradle of quantum mechanics, from a great university to a second-rate institution. The Nazi minister of education asked David Hilbert, the most fêted mathematician in Göttingen, whether it was true 'that your Institute suffered so much from the departure of the Jews and their friends?' 'Suffered? No, it didn't suffer, Herr Minister', replied Hilbert. 'It just doesn't exist any more.'44

As news spread of what was happening in Germany, scientists and their professional bodies quickly swung into action to help colleagues fleeing Nazi oppression with money and jobs. Aid organisations