To continue my series of reviews for The World Year of Physics, here's one that addresses the challenging issue of conscience.
In Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact, as in his bestselling Hitler's Pope before it, John Cornwell plumbs the history of Nazism for lessons that apply to critical concerns of the present. Once again, his insights are as unsettling are they are revelatory.
Mr. Cornwell presents compelling, detailed life stories of several German scientists, juxtaposing their accomplishments against the political and social turmoil of two world wars, anti-Semitism, Adolf Hitler, and the National Socialist Party.
Among them is the renowned chemist Fritz Haber, who converted from Judaism to Lutheranism "to evade associations that could blight the prospects of a scientist's, or any high official's, career in Germany at that time." Enthusiastically patriotic, though too old for active duty and ineligible for a reserve commission because of his Jewish ancestry, Haber nevertheless became a leader in the German development and use of poison gas during World War I. He later rose to leadership in both research and industry — but to Hitler, he was an expendable Jew.
The story of Werner Heisenberg is powerfully ambiguous. Although never a member of the Nazi Party, Heisenberg led the German effort to develop the atomic bomb. He and other leading German atomic scientists, while detained together in England after the war, carefully constructed a shared myth. They transformed their technological failure into deliberate action, claiming the mantle of moral superiority for choosing not to unleash the evil weapon.
Wernher von Braun's claim to be apolitical fares no better under Mr. Cornwell's sharp research lens and pen. Yet he, like most scientists in the book, is not evil. Rather, each one is remarkably human. Even in the insidious step-by-step march from eugenics to The Final Solution, the choices made by individual scientists are unsurprising. Those are the small details from which the devil's pact of the subtitle arises. Those actions of indifference and self-interest transformed independent individuals into enablers of evil.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Interesting post. Technology is a tool, it is how it is used in the hands of man that wields it that is for good or evil ends. I mean, in the beginnning of the atomic age, the idea of using nukes for large scale demolition on the scale of the Panama Canal was considered, of course, the reality soon showed how inpracticable it would be. Not only that, but technology develope d by the miiltary has been used to take lives at tiems, but it has also led to many peaceful applications that are genuine improvements over the old.
2 - Fred Bortz
I'm glad the review made you think. There's a larger issue here, and I'll pose a question to others, the same question scientists faced with the Third Reich in charge:
When do you decide to withhold your talents because you are opposed to the ways that your employer will use them? What if you were risking your ability to earn a living or even your life to do so?
Some people kiss-up. Some flee if they can. Others drag their feet. The brave ones quit. The daring ones rise in opposition.
Me? I'm subversive. I write books that make kids look at the world in new ways. Some of my books are strictly informational, but my favorites are the ones that inspire youngsters to be skeptics who think for themselves. I hope they will be brave or even daring when they face difficult questions.
3 - Cheesy
I like Pie. =)
4 - Cheesy
I want to become Hitlers Prostitute.. =)