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david irving Secretly Overheard:
HEISENBERG: There are many subjects. I don’t know which we can
discuss because, of course, there are some limits.
He asked the Englishman what would happen to science in Europe,
given that the tendency was for greater government control in everything.
“It is partly socialism, I should say. Socialism always means
that you can get things more effectively done by the government
taking over the organisation. As a matter of fact, we see in Russia
– and, partly, we have also seen in Germany perhaps – how effectively
such a thing can work.”
Blackett pondered whether nuclear physics could ever become
a “clean, open subject” again. “Many of us, who knew about it [the
atomic bomb] being done, just really prayed that it would not come
off because it is a great complicating factor.”
Heisenberg wondered where he and his colleagues could work
in Germany. “Our [Kaiser Wilhelm] Institute is really in Berlin.
Now Berlin is almost Russian. . . We have transferred our institute
from Berlin to Hechingen, as there was so much bombing in Berlin.
Now Hechingen is in the hands of the French,” he added, with a
wry laugh. “We moved as far west as possible because we preferred
to be occupied by you [British] or the Americans instead of by the
Russians, but then we had the bad luck that the French came. . .
You have managed it very badly, because they [the Allies] have just
imprisoned a part of us and the other half just stays in Hechingen
and can tell the French everything they want. Laue, for instance: he
had never heard anything about uranium during the whole war, he
never knew anything about the Maschine we were building. And
Mr. Bopp, for instance – he is a theoretical physicist working in my
laboratory – was acquainted with every small detail in the whole
business and he stayed in Hechingen.”
Heisenberg again asked Blackett to help his family. “From a reasonable
point of view,” he argued, “there is of course not the slightest
reason to keep us here while Mr. Bopp is in Hechingen.” Blackett
rather hinted that they were all at the mercy of the Americans: “It
is not a British responsibility. They [the Americans] have said what
they want and we have done it.”
this is a copyright manuscript © david irving 2007