Kære Heisenberg.

Jeg har længe tænkt at skrive til dig om en sag, om hvilken jeg stadig bliver spurgt fra så mange forskellige sider. Det drejer sig om dit og Weizsäcker’s besøg i København i efteråret 1941. Som du ved af vore samtaler i de første år efter krigen, fik vi jo her en helt anden opfattelse af hvad der hændte under dette besøg, end den som du i Jungk’s bog har givet udtryk for. Når jeg skriver til dig er det især fordi hele spørgsmålet om atomenergiprojekterne under krigen er gjort til genstand for grundige studier i England baseret på adgang til regeringsarkiver, derunder også efterretningsvæsenets opbevarede materiale. I denne forbindelse har jeg haft indgående samtaler om min tilknytning til hele projektet; herunder er også spørgsmål vedrørende dit besøg i 1941 blevet fremdraget, og jeg har derfor syntes at det var rigtigst, at prøve at give dig et så nøjagtigt indtryk som muligt af hvordan vi her opfattede besøget.

Dear Heisenberg.

I have long been meaning to write to you on a matter about which I am constantly being asked from so many different quarters. It concerns the visit by you and Weizsäcker to Copenhagen in the autumn of 1941. As you know from our conversations in the first years after the war, we here got quite a different impression of what happened during this visit than the one you have expressed in Jungk’s book. The particular reason that I write to you is that the whole question of the atomic energy projects during the war has been made the subject of thorough studies in England based on access to government archives, including material held by the intelligence service. In this connection, I have had detailed conversations about my affiliation with the whole project, during which questions about your visit in 1941 were also brought up. I have therefore thought it most proper to try to give you as accurate an impression as possible of how we perceived the visit here.