udkast

aldrig færdiggjort

NB besluttede ikke at skrive.

26.3.1962

Kære Heisenberg.

Kære Heisenberg.

Jeg har længe tænkt at skrive til dig om en sag, om hvilken jeg stadig bliver spurgt fra mange forskellige sider. Det drejer sig om dit og Weizsäckers 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, <og> herunder er også spørgsmål vedrørende dit besøg i 1941 blevet fremdraget, 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.

Selv om vi var klare over, at der bag besøget lå et ønske om at se, hvordan vi havde det i København <og prøve at hjælpe os> i <vor> farefulde stilling under den tyske besættelse, <for os,> der kun levede på forhåbningen om et nederlag for den tyske nazisme, <var det dog> en <meget> vanskelig situation at mødes og tale med nogen, der så stærkt som du og Weizsäcker udtrykte jeres sikre overbevisning om en tysk sejr og tillid til, hvad den ville bringe, <og derfor saa indstændigt fraraadede os at opretholde vor afvisende Holdning til Samarbejde med de tyske Myndigheder>. Naturligvis forstår vi <alle> godt, at det måske er svært for jer at holde rede på, hvordan I tænkte og udtalte jer på de forskellige tidspunkter under krigen, hvis forløb jo efterhånden ændredes således, at over-

Draft.

Never completed.

NB decided not to write.

26.3.1962

Dear Heisenberg.

I have long been meaning to write to you on a matter about which I am constantly being asked from 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 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.

Although we realized that behind the visit there was a wish to see how we were faring in Copenhagen <and to try to help us> in <our> dangerous situation during the German occupation, <for us,> who lived only on the hope of defeat for German Nazism, <it was nevertheless> a <very> difficult situation to meet and talk to someone who expressed as strongly as you and Weizsäcker your certain conviction of a German victory and confidence in what it would bring <and who therefore so earnestly advised us against maintaining our dismissive attitude towards cooperation with the German authorities>. Naturally, we <all> understand that it may be difficult for you to keep track of how you thought and expressed yourselves at the various stages of the war, the course of which changed as time passed so that the con-