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ACT II
SCENE 5: INTERROGATION OF HEISENBERG
STAGE SETTING: High noon in the allied Hechingen office.
GOUDSMIT Waoo!
PASH Well hello! Looks like you're coming straight from Paris!
GOUDSMIT Yes, as a matter of fact I am. Tell you what.. the city is still there - completely unharmed. And what's more... we've gathered people of the 'Uran-Verein' at the 'dump station' outside Paris, in Versailles - so they do have something nice to look at.
PASH Right. Well, all of them except one...
GOUDSMIT Yes, that's right. Heisenberg! He's missing.
PASH We have him.
GOUDSMIT Is that so...? Excellent! Bring him in!
• Pash leaves.
HEISENBERG (warmly) Samuel, you here...? What a surprise!
GOUDSMIT (rather cold) Yes, it's been a while since...
• They shake hands.
HEISENBERG ...it was at Ann Arbor; right?!
GOUDSMIT Yeah! ... we tried to convince you to stay... `right´?
HEISENBERG ...that's true... but, yes...
GOUDSMIT We really did try... Weisskopf, Bethe, Fermi... to be honest, no one understood why you chose to return to Germany.
HEISENBERG No, perhaps not... but, America is not Germany... and to simply leave what threatened to become a catastrophe...
GOUDSMIT ...you mean, leave would be too rash, like in panic?
HEISENBERG Well, not exactly... anyway, an entire ocean came between us and you people. Despite all this, I did have some contact with Bohr in Copenhagen...
GOUDSMIT Bohr came to us. /
HEISENBERG / I tried to discuss with Bohr the new questions that had become relevant through the war... /
GOUDSMIT / many others came... Fermi as I said, and Bethe... Frisch, Rotblat, Szilard.. and Einstein.
HEISENBERG Yes, we came to work each of us in their own way...
GOUDSMIT Well, now that Germany is at the end of the road... almost... (cordially) Werner, how about it... couldn't you consider coming to America now?
HEISENBERG No, I did not want to abandon my country before the war, and I am even less prone now. It is here that I am needed.
GOUDSMIT Isn't that a bit overbearing? Sorry if I'm being blunt, but everything is in ruins, despite you.
HEISENBERG I tried to explain things in Ann Arbor... that I'm more comfortable speaking and thinking in my own language... it's a working condition... a condition for me as a physicist.
GOUDSMIT That could be difficult... what agendas in fact?
HEISENBERG We have been constructing a Uranium machine.... for energy production through fission.
GOUDSMIT Which means... with Uranium-235?
HEISENBERG Yes, well... in a heavy water medium.
GOUDSMIT Heavy water...
HEISENBERG We have achieved some promising results regarding neutron excess. And... we have oft wondered if you have been into similar endeavors. Are you familiar with fission and energy matters?
GOUDSMIT (hesitant) ... certain aspects of it... are new to me.
HEISENBERG I see... so, there has not been a program for a military application in America?
GOUDSMIT (fake smile) There has been more pressing matters... the war has necessitated certain priorities.
HEISENBERG Oh yes... well, if my American colleagues want to learn about Uranium and energy production, they're welcome to visit my laboratory and I'll be happy to show them what we've achieved. [ A.113 ]
GOUDSMIT (without enthusiasm) Eh... thanks. I have to tell you though, that the American authorities have decided to intern anyone who had an important position in the Third Reich. Your role, and others, will be examined...
HEISENBERG I heard that when Colonel Pash brought me here.
GOUDSMIT It's a security measure of course...
HEISENBERG I understand. The only thing that really worries me is my family.
GOUDSMIT I'll see what I can do.
HEISENBERG Thank you... can you deliver a letter to my wife?
• Goudsmit nods.
STAGE SETTING: continues in the same ALSOS office room in Hechingen. Goudsmit sitting at a table.
PASH How did he take it?
GOUDSMIT ...Heisenberg?
PASH Yes, he was worried about his wife and five children. And a few others. I provided them with a week's food ration.
GOUDSMIT Good, then I won't have to think about that.
PASH What happens now? Everyone on your list has been captured and interrogated; the facility in Haigerloch has been dismantled. And we have located their Uranium; Way-checker, ehh W-e-i-z-säck-er, helped us... he eventually revealed where he had buried it.
GOUDSMIT There's raw uranium to be collected in Stassfurt -- preferably before the Russians find it. But that's likely all that remains.
PASH Are you sure? No surprises left?
GOUDSMIT No! We've gone through records of the Uranium project, requisitions and the likes; they're good at documentation. It soon became apparent that there's no threat to us.
PASH The impression was that they had made more progress...
GOUDSMIT Yes, it's a bit of a mystery... ! Really, so how does one explain this `failure´?
PASH Heisenberger was the one ultimately responsible, right?
GOUDSMIT Yes, in practice. He offered to show us what they had achieved...
PASH You did not say anything about our program?
GOUDSMIT Of course not. The situation is a bit comical... he struts around like an emperor before us, but is in fact naked.
It's quite pathetic.
PASH He seemed so likable. For a German.
GOUDSMIT Yes, one could say that.
PASH How could he work for them? Is he a Nazi?
GOUDSMIT No... He was accused of being un-German and a white Jew when he defended Einstein's theory of relativity.
• A soldier enters. Hands Goudsmit a letter.
SOLDIER For you, sir.
GOUDSMIT Thank you. (reads) for 'Frau Elisabeth Heisenberg'
PASH You had better check what it is.
GOUDSMIT It's our duty.
• Goudsmit opens the letter cautiously with a knife
GOUDSMIT (reads aloud) '...it is as if the last six years never existed. My conversation with Goudsmit was so cordial and beneficial that I have not felt this well in years, both physically and mentally. I am full of hope and eagerness to work. Now we will be able to develop physics once again in a trusting collaboration, just like before. Our research during the war has not been in vain after all...'
• Goudsmit looks at the letter. He hands it to Pash abruptly.
GOUDSMIT Take care of this!
PASH Okey, I'll send it off.
GOUDSMIT To our archives, of course.
PASH D'you mean...? (looks at Goudsmit, hesitantly) ...well, right.
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