German Atomic Bomb Program

Robert S. Norris: By the late 30s, physicists, in Europe primarily, but some in America too, were making great discoveries about the atom. The key date here was January 1939, when European scientists had discovered fission. News of that was brought to the United States by Niels Bohr. Actually, it was brought to Washington, DC, […]

Cindy Kelly: Hi. I’m Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation. It is November 15, 2017, and I have with me Professor James Hershberg. My first question for him is to tell us your full name and to spell it. James Hershberg: Okay. James, G for Gordon, Hershberg, H-E-R-S-H-B-E-R-G. So no C, no I, and no U. Kelly: Perfect. You […]

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., and it’s Monday, April 27, 2017. My first question today is to tell us your name and spell it. Frank Settle: Okay. It’s Frank Settle, S-E-T-T-L-E. Kelly: We’re here today to talk—at least start off talking, about this wonderful book that Frank has written, called General George C. Marshall […]

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. It is Monday, February 6, 2017. We’re in Santa Fe. I’m interviewing the historian John Earl Haynes. My first question is for you to say your full name and spell it. John Earl Haynes: John Earl Haynes. Haynes is spelled H-A-Y-N-E-S. Kelly: What was going on in the ‘30s and ‘40s […]

Owen Gingerich: This is an interview between Owen Gingerich and Robert Wilson. You use your middle initial. It’s Robert R.? Robert Wilson: Yes, usually. Gingerich: Robert R. Wilson, who is a builder of high energy accelerators and who was one of the physicists at Los Alamos. We are speaking today in Philadelphia, where we both happen […]

Martin Sherwin: This is Martin Sherwin. Today is March 29, 1983. I am going to interview Professor Robert F. Bacher – B-a-c-h-e-r – in his office on the Caltech campus in Pasadena. Robert Bacher: Look, before we start on this, I want to talk a little bit more about things in general. If you are […]

Nate Weisenberg: My name is Nate Weisenberg. I am doing this interview for the Atomic Heritage Foundation with Kathleen Maxwell here in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It is Monday, April 25, 2016. How did you get involved with the Manhattan Project? Kathleen Maxwell: I had just finished my Master’s degree at Smith [College], and I was contemplating […]

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with Professor Joseph Rotblat, R-O-T-B-L-A-T, at his office in London. Well it really was quite a production. Seven hours! Joseph Rotblat: Yes, oh yes, quite a production. Sherwin: I thought Sam Waterston played a marvelous part. Rotblat: Who? Sherwin: The person who played [J. Robert] Oppenheimer. Rotblat: Oh, yes, […]

[Many thanks to Claude Lyneis for donating this footage to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Narrator: About seventy-five miles northwest of Walla Walla, Washington, in an isolated expanse of open desert, civilization entered into a new age, an age from which it would never emerge the same. Here, in the home of the Wanapum Indians, the […]

Gerhart Friedlander: My name is Gerhart Friedlander. Interviewer: What was your role in the Manhattan Project? Friedlander: I got into the Manhattan Project very early; in fact, before there was an official Manhattan Project. I was a graduate student at Berkeley at the University of California. My thesis advisor was Glenn Seaborg, who later on […]