| Description | Detailed correspondence, particularly during 1939-1945.
The correspondence dates from 1933 to 1954, but mostly dates from 1935 onwards, when Born was established at Edinburgh University. The file consists of detailed correspondence, a great deal of it covers the years of the Second World War, with letters from both Simon and Born expressing their views on the conduct of the war and the plight of internees in the UK. To quote Nancy Arms's from her book 'A Prophet in Two Countries - A Life of FE Simon', Simon's correspondence with Max Born "gives during the war years an illuminating picture of their current problems - initial exclusion from the war effort, the internees, anxieties about the progress and management of the war, and personal problems about friends and relationships" (p96).
For example, letters from Born expressing his willingness to aid the Allies war work (eg letter dated 2 June 1940 in which Born describes ideas to destroy bridges over the Rhine using magnetic mines or with a dirigible bomb delivered from a great height with the help of electric waves; letter from Born dated 31 July 1944 on methods for Fighter Planes to deflect "doodlebugs"); a letter from Simon to Born on Allied research stating that the "uranium bomb seems to have become a practical propositon" (4 June 1940) and a letter from Simon describing London during the Blitz (21 October 1940).
The file also contains discussion on German scientists who - unlike Simon and Born - remained in Germany after the Nazi Party's rise to power. On this theme, a letter from Born to Simon (dated February 1945) describes Born's unwillingness to agree to Paul Dirac's request to second a nomination of Werner Heisenberg for Foreign Membership of the Royal Society and there are further letters from 1951 on attitudes to the Second World War in post-war Germany.
Also included is a letter from Simon to Niels Bohr (dated 8 August 1945) in which Simon declares his belief that the Second World War stopped the Nazis developing an atomic bomb. |