The Swiss Courier: A Novel (5 page)

Deutsche Physik.
How many times had Engel heard Dr. Heisenberg proudly insert that phrase into his speech? German physics—like German literature—was the envy of the world. It was German physicists, Heisenberg lectured, who filled blackboards with mathematical symbols that won Nobel prizes. Brilliant theorists like Max Planck, Philipp Lenard, and Johannes Stark had developed quantum theory and unlocked the fundamental discoveries of atomic processes. And Joseph hoped one day his contributions would equal theirs.

Professor Heisenberg’s lecture about slow neutrons droned on, interrupting Joseph’s thoughts. “I once heard a colleague say, ‘Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.’ Gentlemen, we shall put that idea to the test today.”

Joseph snapped to attention. He’d heard that quote before. Whose words were those? Then he remembered: Albert Einstein, the celebrated physicist.

Of course,
Joseph thought,
Heisenberg didn’t dare attach
a name to the quote. Einstein was Jewish.

Whispers in the hallway claimed Heisenberg maintained back-channel contacts with several Jewish physicists and mathematicians who’d fled across the Atlantic and resettled in America. These distinguished scientists had lost their teaching posts shortly after Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. With a stroke of a pen, all Jews were banned from government posts within days of Hitler’s installation. Since universities were state institutions, anyone Jewish was driven off like an uninvited guest.

Many of Germany’s best and brightest—scientists like Victor Weisskopf and Fritz Reiche—quietly fled with their families to academic institutions like Oxford University outside London or Princeton University in New Jersey, where they resumed their research on atomic particles. Of course, Joseph had also heard that those who—for one reason or another— had remained behind until Germany invaded Poland now found different work at “relocation” camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka. Camps that had whispered rumors all their own.

Joseph shook those stories from his head and turned his attention back to his professor.

“This morning, we are continuing our experiment with atomic piles,” Heisenberg noted in a professorial voice. “This aluminum cylinder, which we are calling C-12, contains powdered uranium metal set in heavy water from Norway, which is acting as a moderator.”

“The water appears to be quite hot,” a junior physicist piped up. Joseph couldn’t remember his colleague’s name, but he could see excitement in the man’s eyes. Joseph peered closer into the cylinder and discovered the man was right. Joseph’s heartbeat quickened at the thought that today
could
be the day his career had prepared him for.

“Yes, the temperature has been rising steadily over the last twenty-four hours, which is why I’ve called everyone here.” Heisenberg’s voice rose with enthusiasm. “I’ve asked Doktor Schumann to look into it. This morning, he tested the escaping gas from the cylinder and found it to be hydrogen. We concluded water must have leaked inside.”

“What do you propose to do?” another junior physicist inquired, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Heisenberg’s lips curled with the slightest hint of a smile, and he ran a hand through his sandy hair. “What else can we do? We will remove the cover of the C-12 cylinder and inspect the uranium oxide. Perhaps there has been some type of spontaneous fission. Doktor Schumann?”

Schumann put on heavy gloves, attached a chain-link pulley to the aluminum cylinder, and turned a crank. Centimeter by centimeter the cylinder rose. The room was silent. Every eye fixed. Every ear cocked. As Schumann swiveled the cylinder, a sudden hiss escaped.

Next to Joseph, Heisenberg removed an unlit pipe from his mouth, jaw dropping.

“Must be air rushing into a vacuum.” Gingerly, Schumann maneuvered the cylinder to the edge of the tank. Eager to see if their guess had been correct, he unscrewed the cylinder top. Licks of blue flame shot out, and gasps filled the room.

Even bigger gasps erupted as the flames were followed by uranium particles spewing from the cylinder, landing on Schumann’s white lab coat.

“Watch out!” someone called.

With a gasp, Schumann looked down. “No!” Releasing the chain, his hands fumbled with the buttons on his coat.

“Don’t let go!” Joseph reached for the chain, but it was too late. With a splash, the aluminum cylinder crashed into the tub of heavy water. Steam rose from the tank, and the water turned from clear to a yellowish hue. Joseph’s colleagues glanced at each other with wide-eyed looks of concern.

“Oxygen must have seeped into the sphere before Schumann uncapped it.” Heisenberg stepped up to the tank and peered into the water. “And—” The hissing of steam rising and the quivering of the aluminum cylinder interrupted his words.

Everything within Joseph told him to run, but his scientific curiosity got the better of him. For several moments, the gentle shaking persisted until it suddenly turned violent. The precious heavy water splashed over the edge and onto the floor as if an earthquake rumbled beneath the wooden tank.

“
Los jetzt!
” Schumann shouted. Joseph didn’t have to be told twice. He sprinted for the heavy metal door separating the basement laboratory from the hallway and stairs. The others tailed him.

Joseph yanked hard, pulling the door open, and waved the others past.

Heisenberg looked more perturbed than worried. Still, Joseph noticed he didn’t mince steps. The professor and Schumann rushed out, and Joseph ducked through the door, shutting it hard. While the others sprinted up the stairwell, Schumann reached for a set of keys inside his lab coat.

“You go ahead!” Schumann called in the mayhem, waving Joseph on.

Joseph raced for the stairway, but just before he took the first step, he glanced back and noticed Schumann scrambling to find the right key for the lock.

Joseph motioned to him. “Leave it. Leave it. We have to get out of here!”

After several precious seconds, Schumann stuffed the keys into his pocket and sprinted toward Joseph.

Schumann had nearly reached the stairs when a concussive blast flattened the metal door and knocked Joseph to his knees. Schumann sprawled to the floor. Noxious smoke filled the hallway. Joseph labored for air and rubbed his stinging eyes.

“Schumann, Engel,
raus
!” Professor Heisenberg called from the flight ahead.

“Coming!” Joseph jumped to his feet. Schumann regained his footing. They scurried up the stairs two by two until they caught up with Heisenberg at the top of the landing.

“What happened? What caused that, sir?” Joseph panted, hands on his knees. He glanced up at his professor.

“The only thing I’m sure of is, we’re closer to smashing an atom!” Heisenberg’s voice rose with excitement. “Can you believe it? We’re closer than ever!”

Joseph whistled through his teeth, stuffing his quivering hands into his pockets. Being the first to harness nuclear fission meant victory on the battlefield—and salvation from surrender.

The phone call from the Recorder’s Office in Spandau came after lunch.

“Excuse me for the delay, Major Kassler, but I found the adoption certificate for one Joseph Engel attached to the back of his birth certificate.” The clerk’s voice hesitated slightly.

“And—” Kassler’s fingers tightened around the receiver.

“The certificate notes that the boy was originally named Joseph Cohn—C-o-h-n.”

A Yiddish surname.
Kassler tapped his finger on the top of the file. “Can you tell me who the mother and father were?”

“Abraham and Hena Cohn,” the clerk said.

“If the boy was adopted, what happened to the parents?” The Gestapo major flipped through the file with his free hand.

“I anticipated your question, Herr Major. I searched Vital Records and found death certificates for Abraham Cohn and Hena Cohn. They died within a week of each other in April 1918. Cause of death: Spanish flu.”

Kassler was too young to personally recall the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 that killed many more soldiers than the gruesome trench warfare of the Lost War, but he’d learned about the epidemic in primary school. Some of his classmates had even lost a parent to the deadly viral infection.

“Fräulein Huber, I’m quite impressed with your efforts, and I will make note of that to your superiors. In the meantime, I need one more bit of information. Can you determine if the Cohn parents were members of a synagogue while they were still alive?”

“I don’t think that should be a problem, Herr Major. I will need a little time, however.”

“Very good. Please call when you have retrieved the information. And may I remind you that this request needs to stay confidential. It could be vital in the war effort.”

Kassler gently returned the handset and allowed a satisfied smile to blossom. If his hunch was correct, this Engel character was as Jewish as the Twelve Apostles.

Joseph Engel found a seat in the second row of the cavernous lecture hall as others streamed in, scurrying to their places. The small “blast” generated in the basement that morning had been the raging topic at the canteen. The lecture hall buzzed with junior physicists debating how it happened and what it meant to the future of the atomic research program.

Joseph glanced up as Professor Heisenberg strode to a desk situated in front of two blackboards—one of which contained equations from yesterday’s lecture. Wearing his customary beige tweed suit, white shirt, and thin blue tie, Heisenberg set his glasses on the table and ran his right hand through his sandy hair. He looked up from his notes; the cue to cease chatting produced an expectant hush.

“Gentlemen, we move forward,” proclaimed Professor Heisenberg. “Our long-range efforts to separate plutonium from the parent uranium took a step backward today, but until we can build a suitable reactor, that will always be the case.”

Heisenberg knitted his hands behind his back and strode across the room. “Nonetheless, our experiments in the last month have clearly established that a uranium machine is capable of multiplying neutrons, taking us closer to nuclear fission.”

Joseph opened a notebook and glanced at several quantum equations the team had been working on.

“This afternoon, I would like to discuss
Energiegewinnung
aus Uran
, a report prepared by Herr Engel regarding the energy production of uranium and the details of plutonium production necessary to produce ten to one hundred kilograms of fissionable material.”

Joseph glanced up, surprised to hear his name.

“After reading this remarkable report, I am convinced that we are within a year of producing a Wunderwaffe. If we can successfully separate isotopes of pure U-235, that is. Herr Engel, would you please come forward and share your remarkable revelations?”

All eyes turned in his direction, and Joseph Engel rose, humbled by the recognition. As he walked to the front, his shoulders straightened as excitement surged through his limbs over the possibility that his mathematical work could bring the team closer to harnessing atomic energy.

All eyes were on Joseph as he paused before the professor.

“Herr Engel, your equations on the start of a chain reaction intrigued me. Would you care to discuss how you arrived at your revelations with the class?” Doktor Heisenberg held out a long piece of chalk and pointed the young physicist to the empty chalkboard.

Joseph hesitated, but only for a moment. This was the first time he had been singled out, but he remembered what Professor Heisenberg had said to him the day before: Joseph’s string of theoretical equations—if borne out in the laboratory—could mean the start of a “chain reaction” leading to an energy release twenty million times stronger than a single stick of TNT. He still found the truth of that hard to believe.

He accepted the white chalk from his mentor and cleared his throat before addressing his colleagues.

“Thank you, Herr Doktor, for your gracious words as well as your confidence. Let’s start with the elementary theory that each fission of an isotope of uranium-235 will produce two secondary neutrons, leading to an enormous release of energy.”

Joseph turned his back to the class and looked down at his notebook, although he needn’t have bothered. He had memorized the equation string, which he began writing in careful script on the blackboard. “You will notice that I’ve included the use of cadmium as an absorber of neutrons,” Joseph said as he continued the string of numerals and variables. “I’m confident this will commence a runaway chain reaction—”

“You mean bomb,” interjected a colleague from the third row. Murmurs erupted around the room.

Heisenberg stepped forward. “Herr Klein, need I remind you that our scientific research is much wider in scope than military purposes. The ability to harness the power of the atom has untold civilian applications. For example, Herr Engel has already shared with me his thoughts on the possibility of a reactor large enough to supply the power needs for a city like Berlin.”

The room fell silent, and Joseph’s thoughts raced. While a fancy electricity-producing plant was certainly a feasible and worthwhile goal, everyone knew that the German High Command had given Professor Heisenberg a budget to develop what was known in Berlin as an “atomic bomb.” The Führer was said to be enthusiastic about a secret new explosive so powerful that it could throw a man off his horse at the distance of ten kilometers and would have such colossal force that all human life could be destroyed within a four-kilometer radius.

The professor’s voice interrupted Joseph’s thoughts. “Please continue, Herr Engel. Would you care to show us how you arrived at this equation?”