Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall
Upon hearing about the Hiroshima bomb, the German nuclear physicists were astounded, and voluble about figuring out how the weapon worked. Their reactions were secretly taped, and after 50 years, their conversations about nuclear physics and Nazi politics were released. This, their first book-form appearance, broadly consists of Bernstein's summary of prewar physics and the German nuclear research program (including a turning-point, 1942 Heisenberg lecture to Nazi officials), and at the core are 25 transcripts drafted by the monitors. The most dramatic are those of August 6 and 7, 1945, into which Bernstein (a qualified scientist) inserts his commentary on the accuracy of the Germans' remarks, as well as his indignation at the rationalization by some of them that they purposely failed in order to prevent a Hitler victory. Bernstein's obiter dicta make clear his disbelief in ethical compunctions, but readers can at last reach their own conclusion. Heavily technical in patches, yet this one-of-a-kind document earns large libraries' consideration with its human-interest aspects.Gilbert Taylor--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.