Diana Preston - Before the Fallout

“a sapphire blue light”; “you street”: Quoted in M. Kurlansky, The Basque History of the World, p. 202.

“Strict… appearing”: All quotes in this paragraph are from Sir M. Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, vol. 2, p. 163.

“The American Government… humanity”: U.S. government statement in the New York Times, 23 September 1937.

“still relying. today”: Jungk, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, p. 65.

“This damned woman… wrong”: Quoted in Pflaum, Grand Obsession, p. 335.

“dear friend”: Chadwick’s oral evidence, AIP.

“the Jewess endangers the institute”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 184.

“Hahn doesn’t anymore”; “very miserable”; “he has… thrown me out”: Lise Meitner’s diary March i938,CCC/LM.

“I too lurch”; “I lost my nerve”: Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 185.

“you… your stay”: Quoted in ibid., p. 187.

“the well-known scientist… Lise Meitner”: Hahn, My Life, p. 148.

“It is… science”; “This statement… Interior”: Letter from W Frick to C. Bosch of 16 June 1938, quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, pp. 19 c—96.

“We agreed brought back”: Hahn, My Life, p. 149.

“left Germany… purse”: Letter from L. Meitner to G. von Ubisch of 1 July 1947, CCC/LM.

“a beautiful diamond ring”; “I… emergency”: Hahn, My Life, p. 149.

“uprooted… at all”: Quoted in Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their Science, p. 183—84.

“You have hafnium”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 205.

“the shot… missed you”: Letter from M. von Laue to L. Meitner, November 1958, quoted in R. L. Sime, ibid., p. 205.

“One dare not… forward”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 209.

“Despite her eminence… embarrassment”: All quotes in this paragraph come from Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their Science, p. 184.

“She urgently requested undertaken”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 229.

“a mechanical doll”: Letter from L. Meitner to O. Hahn of 5 December 1038, CCC/LM.

“forces me easy”: Ibid.

“perhaps explanation”: Hahn, My Life, p. 151.

“physically absurd”; “you… out of this”: Letter from O. Hahn to L. Meitner of 21 December 1938, CCC/LM.

“We poor chemists physics people”: O. Hahn interview, AIP.

“very odd impossible”: Quoted in Hahn, My Life, p. 151.

“short, dark, and bossy”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. ix.

“knew… unexpected results”: Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their Science, p. 186.

“sort of… around”: O. Frisch, oral history AIP.

“in the course great force”: Quoted in Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their Science, p. 186.

“The charge neutron)”; “After separation it all fitted!”: Frisch, What Little I Remember, p… 6.

“caught an elephant by the tail”: Frisch, oral history, AIP.

“perhaps… break up”: Quoted in Sime, Lise Meitner, p. 456.

“I am… result”; “wonderfulfindings”: Letter from L. Meitner to O. Hahn of 3 January 1939, CCC/LM.

“the secret…years”: Teller, Memoirs, p. 141.

“None of us it”: Hahn, My Life, p. 164.

“smote hand”: Frisch, What Little I Remember, p. 116.

“We were all fools”: Quoted in Snow, Variety of Men, p. 89.

“Fission”: Frisch, What Little I Remember, p. 117.

“was knocked camp”: Frisch, oral history, AIP.

“Otto… preceding note”: Quoted in F. Krafft, Im Schatten der Sensation—Leben und Wirken von Fritz Strassmann, p. 319 (author’s translation).

“I have at it”; “got hold of the solution”; “It turned out simple”: L. Rosenfeld interview, AIP.

“the state description”: Quoted in Moore, Niels Bohr, p. 236.

“that’s impossible”; “could make bombs”: Quoted in Nye, Before Big Science, p. 218.

“peace in our time”: Quoted in Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, vol. 2, p. 203.

“sparkling originality”: B. Goldschmidt, Atomic Rivals, p. 46.

“That’s impossible cannot be done”; “Well,yes I did it”: S. R. Weart and G. W. Szilard, eds., Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts, pp. 9–10.

“miserably”; “potatoes water”; “discussed that”; “Wigner reaction”: E. Wigner’s oral history, AIP.

“sort of… reaction”: Weart and Szilard, Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts, p. 17.

“All we needed beryllium”; “everything.flashes”; “very little doubt… grief”: Ibid., p. 55.

“That night… chillingly real”: Quotes in this paragraph are from Teller, Memoirs, p. 142.

“One may imagine… nature”; “I am… new discoveries”: Quoted in E. Curie, Madame Curie, pp. 238-39.

“By this… Dante”: All quotes in this paragraph are from L. Fermi, Atoms in the Family, pp. 139, 143, and 151-2.

“Fermi precautions”: Quoted in Lanouette, Genius in the Shadows, p. 181.

“had high regard… other”; “extremely different… everything else”; “could scarcely experiment”; “Szilard’s way assistant”: Segre, Enrico Fermi, pp. 107—8.

“I went to see… excited about it”: Weart and Szilard, Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts, p. 54.

“a gruff… elephant”: Author’s interview with Goldschmidt, 3 April 2002.

“Obviously governments”: Quoted in Goldschmidt, Atomic Rivals, p. 47.

“sufficient discretion ideas”: M. Goldsmith, Frederic Joliot-Curie, p. 73.

“We were realized”: Quoted in Nye, Before Big Science, p. 219.

“slave”; “the Szilard proposal. France”: Author’s interview with Goldschmidt, 3 April 2002.

“Hitler… the neutron”: Jungk, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, pp. 50—51.

“unsurpassable advantage”: M. Walker, German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939-45, p. 18.

“started the Germans off”: Author’s interview with Goldschmidt, 3 April 2002.

“Why not… butter”: Quoted in Pflaum, Grand Obsession, p. 341.

“A little… disappear”: Interview with G. Uhlenbeck (then sharing an office with Fermi), Kevles, The Physicists, p. 324.

“Fermi disregarded”: The quotations in this paragraph are from G. B. Pegram’s letter to Admiral S. C. Hooper of 16 March 1939, given in Segre, Enrico Fermi, p. 111.

“There’s a wop outside”: Quoted in J. Bernstein, ed., Hitler’s Uranium Club — The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall, p. 4. The Farm Hall transcripts are also reproduced in Operation Epsilon, The Farm Hall Transcripts with an introduction by Sir C. Frank. Their reference at the PRO is WO208/C019 and at NARA is record group 77, MED, entry 22, box 163. The latter is more legible and fuller and is the basis of the transcript reproduced in both books.