Life in the Secret Cities

Stanislaus Ulam: You know, after forty-five years in this country, my accent is still very hard. Martin Sherwin: That’s all right. I still have a Brooklyn accent. Ulam:  Oh, you do? Sherwin: I left Brooklyn twenty years ago. I think even though I do know a lot of the answers to some of the questions […]

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, […]

Martin Sherwin: Martin Sherwin, I am about to interview Dr. Hempelmann at Strong Memorial Hospital. You know, simply from all of the Los Alamos records, but who told me you were at Strong? That was, I think, Dorothy McKibbin. Louis Hempelmann:  Oh yeah. Sherwin: No, she confirmed it. She said you were coming out to […]

Martin Sherwin: I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 26, 1982. Were you married when you were in Los Alamos? Alice Kimball Smith: Yes. We had been married for twelve years. Sherwin: I see. So you and your husband, Cyril Smith, went to Los Alamos and you were promptly put to work as a schoolteacher. […]

Martin Sherwin: Did you know Robert [Oppenheimer] when he was going out with Jean Tatlock? Chevalier: Yes, but I don’t think I ever saw them together. Sherwin: When we first spoke over the phone, you called me from the airport about three or four years ago. I was living in Princeton, New Jersey. Chevalier: Oh, yes. Yes, that’s right. […]

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with John DeWire at Cornell University in his office at Newman Hall 228, Newman. Today is May 5, 1982.    You were with Robert Wilson’s group from Princeton that was recruited by [J. Robert] Oppenheimer in ’43, right? Late ’43, was it? John DeWire: Early ’43. Sherwin: Early ’43. DeWire: I […]

Donald Ross: My name is Donald Ross, and I am about to begin my eightieth year on this planet. I was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I left there with my parents at an early age. We moved to the southern tip of Texas, and had a little farm not too far from Edinburg, Texas, […]

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 […]

Harry Allen: Mr. Wilson and company set us up a purchase request for a barber chair, because they couldn’t get off work in time to get their hair done. Robert Van Gemert:  There was only one man cutting hair, I think, up there. Allen: The barber service was extremely limited, and we just happen to […]

 Martin Sherwin: This morning I am making arrangements to interview Norris Bradbury in Los Alamos, New Mexico. January 10, 1985. How would you characterize the major problems that [J. Robert] Oppenheimer had when he first got the job as the administrator for Los Alamos? Or at least, when you came on? Norris Bradbury: Let’s get this […]