Documents relating to 1941 Bohr-Heisenberg meeting

Document 9. Page 1 of 3.

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Notes dictated by Niels Bohr in the handwriting of Aage Bohr.

Undated.

Last sentence clearly intended to be inserted at end of first paragraph on second page ("(1)-(2)").

Three pages.

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Noter til Heisenberg.

Så snart jeg kom til England og lærte om de store amerikansk engelske forberedelser måtte jeg naturligvis

Da jeg kom til England i 1943 og blev sat ind i de store amerikansk–engelske forberedelser var naturligvis spørgsmålet om hvor langt man var nået i Tyskland et af største alvor, både for fysikerne og regeringsmyndighederne. Jeg fik lejlighed til at drøfte dette spørgsmål indgående både med den engelske efterretningstjeneste og med medlemmer af den engelske regering, og berettede naturligvis om alle vore erfaringer, og herunder specielt om det indtryk jeg fik såvel under dit og Weizsäckers besøg i København som under Jensens.

Efterhånden som krigen nærmede sig sin afslutning og Tysklands stilling blev stadig vanskeligere, mindskedes naturligvis frygten for at det skulle lykkedes der at fremstille atomvåben, og anvendelse i krig mod Tyskland kom jo heller ikke på tale.

Notes to Heisenberg.

As soon as I came to England and learned about the great American English preparations, I naturally had to

When I came to England in 1943 and was acquainted with the great American–English preparations, the question of how far Germany had come was naturally of the greatest importance both for physicists and for government authorities. I had the opportunity to discuss this question thoroughly both with the English intelligence service and with members of the English government, and I naturally reported all of our experiences including in particular the impression I got both during the visit to Copenhagen by you and Weizsäcker as well as during Jensen’s.

As the war approached its conclusion and Germany’s position became ever more difficult, the fear that it should succeed in producing atomic weapons naturally decreased, nor did their use in the war against Germany become an issue.