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Standing together in troubled times. Unpublished letters by Pauli, Einstein, Franck and others. (English) Zbl 1379.81012

Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific (ISBN 978-981-3201-00-2/hbk; 978-981-3201-01-9/pbk; 978-981-3201-03-3/ebook). xxii, 337 p. (2017).
This highly interesting book tells about the life, the destinies, the characters, the friendships, and the communications among well known and famous physicists and mathematicians in Europe when the National Socialism came up and into force in Germany and thereafter. Charlotte Houtermans is a central person in this book because of her many-sided contacts. Herself a mathematical physicist who suffered heavily from this troubling time she is an ideal contemporary witness. The book is organized in four parts and contains many contemporary photographs and facsimiles.
The first part begins with a biography of Wolfgang Pauli (Chapter 1). Aside of his scientific success his personal feelings are described. The difficulty to get naturalized in Switzerland after Austria was annexed to Germany, his getaway to Princeton and his return to Zurich are reported. His life, contacts, and his activities thereafter are extensively represented. An “ascent” to Charlotte Houterman’s life, and destiny follows (Chapter 2). Born in 1899 she studied first pedagogy and, after some time of high school teaching, in 1922 she began her study of physics at Göttingen, where she made many contacts to present and later famous people, among them Robert Oppenheimer and her later husband Fritz Houtermans. In the academic year 1927/28, Charlotte worked as an instructor at the Vassar College (NY) for to earn some money. After receiving his PhD under James Franck Fritz got an assistant position at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin and Charlotte lived with him. One reads about happy years 1929–1933. They married 1930 on a conference trip in Georgia. Being back in Berlin their impression about changes in the behavior of people under National Socialist pressure is described. This pressure became harder and harder. Although Fritz was only 25% Jew there was no danger from this side, but he was active in the Communist Party. In summer 1933, they decided to leave Germany with their baby Giovanna. The adventurous escape to England and the journey from there to Kharkov is described in detail. Their stay there began hopefully, he worked as leader of a research laboratory and she as an editor of a physics journal, they got another baby, Jan. But this lucky time did not last long. Fritz and other colleges from Western countries became arrested by the NKVD and Charlotte had to flee with her children. She went to Riga, then to Copenhagen, then to London, and finally to New York where she earned money to live with her children from teaching jobs. In 1940, the German NKVD prisoners were deported to the Gestapo. Max von Laue was able to inform Charlotte and, moreover, to get her husband Fritz in 1841 free and imparted a job for him at Manfred von Ardenne’s private research laboratory. There Fritz published together with Ilse Bartz three papers in a German journal which was available in the USA. Charlotte was happy to see that his scientific activities have been returned. But then, her sister informed her, using the Swiss Red Cross, that Fritz decided to divorce from her and to marry Ilse. They got three children but later difficulties arose because of Fritz’s affinity to other women. This contrasts the life of Charlotte and her children who got in 1953 a lauding mention by an article in a local newspaper because of their fortitude and success living in the States with two children. In 1951, Charlotte visited Europe to see her mother and family, and she encountered also Fritz 14 years after his disastrous arrest in Russia and Germany. He asked her to remain in Europe and to live again with him, but so quickly she was not able to agree. But she spent time with Fritz during her next visits in Europe and they married anew in 1853, the witnesses were their children and, among others, Wolfgang Pauli, who had witnessed their first wedding in Georgia too. But this common life lasted only 6 month. Charlotte went back to New York in 1954, Fritz died in 1966 in Bern. This chapter ends with a poem written in 1987 by the granddaughter Annika Fjelstad of Charlotte and Fritz.
The second part (Chapter 3) contains up to now unpublished letters dated in between 1937, when Fritz got arrested in Moscow and Charlotte flew to Copenhagen, and 1942, when she was already in the USA. There is a letter of James Franck to W. Pauli, a letter of W. Pauli to Victor Weisskopf, and 27 letters of W. Pauli to Charlotte Houtermans.
The second part (Chapter 3) contains up to now unpublished letters dated in between 1937, when Fritz got arrested in Moscow and Charlotte flew to Copenhagen, and 1942, when she was already in the USA. There is a letter of James Franck to W. Pauli, a letter of W. Pauli to Victor Weisskopf, and 27 letters of W. Pauli to Charlotte Houtermans.
The third part begins with Chapter 4, a minute by Charlotte Houtermans entitled “About Gardens and Friendships” and is devoted to her children in which she retrospectively remembers her life, thoughts, impressions, and feelings since 1932. Although the reader knows what happened from Chapter 2 the lecture of the minute is exciting since new aspects are communicated. This holds especially true for the final situation in Kharkov, the effort to get an exit visa in Moscow, Fritz’s detention at the custom office there, and Charlotte’s way to Copenhagen with her children. Chapter 5 is a collection of roughly 100 other letters from different persons mainly to Charlotte dated in between 1937 and 1955.
The fifth part consists in a collection of facsimiles of Pauli’s letters.
This book exemplifies how totalitarian regimes are able to destroy cooperations among scientists and how important it is for them to stand together.

MSC:

81-03 History of quantum theory
01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
01A80 Sociology (and profession) of mathematics
81Vxx Applications of quantum theory to specific physical systems
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