The Haigerloch Project

Ib Melchior The Haigerloch Project

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author acknowledges with appreciation the valuable assistance given him in researching this book by Mr. Siegfried G. Bart, wartime president of Bart Manufacturing Company, a prime contractor for the Manhattan Project; Colonel James C. Stowers, chief of the Manhattan Project, New York; Mr. William F. Heine, Atomic Energy Information Service; and Dr. Edwin L. Rodgers, Sherman Oaks Hospital, California.

The terms “atomic research,” “atomic bomb” and “atomic physics” have been used in The Haigerloch Project rather than the current “nuclear research” and “nuclear physics” because they were the terms in general use during the time the story takes place.

To the Ministry of War

Berlin

25.4.1939

We take the liberty of calling to your attention the newest development in atomic physics which in our opinion can produce an explosive that is many orders of magnitude more effective than any conventional ones…. That country which first makes use of it has an unsurpassable advantage over all others.

— PROFESSOR PAUL HARTECK

Hamburg

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Although The Haigerloch Project is fiction, the existence of the project and many of the elements and incidents of the story are based on actual events and upon the author's personal experiences.

I. M.

Vorgang: Schreiben vom 24.2.45, A. - Z, Bb.Nr 1523/45 g

Betrifft: Notprogramm: Energiegewinnungsvorhaben.

I.

Für die Endentwicklung des Vorhabens “Energiegewinnung aus Kernprozessen” ist voller Schutz erforderlich. Die leitenden Arbeitsstellen sind:

Arbeitsgruppen KWI (für Physik und Chemie) (Berlin, Heidelberg, Hechingen und Tailfingen).

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des Bevollmächtigen in Stadtilm, Haigerloch und München.

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Prof. Harteck (Inst. f. phys. Chemie, Hamburg, Celle und Anschütz & Co.)

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Prof. Kirchner — Prof. Riezler (Phys. Inst. Köln, Zwst. Garmish-Partenkirchen)

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Phys. Inst. Wien (Prof. Stetter)

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Strahlenschutz und Dosimetrie (PTR und KWI Berlin-Buch.

Vorhaben SH 200 (bes. I.G. und Bamag-Meguin)

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Spezialmetallfertigung (Auer, Degussa)

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Zyklotron (KWI Heidelberg, Siemens-Halske) (

Bemerkung

: Materialbedarf gedeckt, nur noch Fertigmontage)

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Elektronenschleuder (gemeinsam mit uK geführt.

Diese Vorhaben sollen den vollen Energie-, Material- und Personalschutz des Führernotprogramms entsprechend Führererlass von 31.1.45, 23 Uhr erhalten.

The Reich Marshal

of the Greater German Reich

President

of the Reich Research Council

The Authority

for Atomic Research