Abstract
This correspondence is an invaluable resource for understanding Van der Waerden’s and Van der Corput’s views on scholars’ moral standards during the Nazi era and the occupation of Holland, and, more generally, the moral dilemmas posed by the war and its aftermath. If you wish to read one chapter, I recommend this one.
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Notes
- 1.
July 31, 1945 letter to Van der Corput; ETH, Hs 652: 12160.
- 2.
August 20, 1945 letter to Van der Waerden; ETH, Hs 652: 12161.
- 3.
August 28, 1945 letter to Van der Waerden; ETH, Hs 652: 12162.
- 4.
The Center still functions today, but under a new name CWI, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (Center for Mathematics and Computer Science).
- 5.
Universitätsarchiv Leipzig, PA 70, p. 42 (Van der Waerden’s report to the Rektor of Leipzig University about this trip).
- 6.
ETH, Hs 652: 12156.
- 7.
Typed hand-signed letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs 652: 12159.
- 8.
Indeed, even some Germans went into exile: “Between 1933 and 1941, an estimated 35,000 non-Jewish Germans, not all of them Socialists, went into exile” [Scho, p. xiii].
- 9.
[Jon].
- 10.
Vrij Nederland, an underground newspaper.
- 11.
Handwritten in Dutch letter; ETH, Hs 652: 12160.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Antonie (Anton) Pannekoek (1873–1960), Professor of Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam and a well-known Marxist theorist.
- 14.
Born Jacob Claij (1882–1955), a major supporter of Van der Waerden’s appointment, Professor of Physics at the University of Amsterdam, 1929–1953, who played a major role in the reconstruction of applied scientific research in the Netherlands after W.W.II.
- 15.
Roland W. Weitzenböck (1885–1950), Professor of Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam, whose pro-German views cost him his job after the war.
- 16.
Actually, ETH Archive, the holder of this letter, does not have a copy of “The Defense.” Fortunately for us, Hans Freudenthal preserved a copy in his papers. You have seen the complete text and the analysis of the “The Defense” in the previous Chapter 25.
- 17.
In connection to the passing of his mother.
- 18.
Het Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (National Socialist Movement, a Nazi party in the Netherlands).
- 19.
Van der Waerden to Hecke, April 6, 1943. Handwritten letter in German; Nachlass von Erich Hecke, Universität Hamburg.
- 20.
See footnote 296 for more information about Minnaert.
- 21.
Typed hand-signed letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs 652: 12161.
- 22.
Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of Luftwaffe (German Air Force), President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and Hitler’s designated successor.
- 23.
Indeed, Van der Corput will soon create a mathematical center and invite Van der Waerden to work there—see Chapter 28.
- 24.
Handwritten letter in Dutch ETH, Hs 652: 12153. The letter is undated; I am certain, however, that it was written between August 21 and August 27, 1945. It is numbered in the ETH archive out of the chronological order.
- 25.
The text in quotation marks is in German, see the discussion of this H. Hopf’s letter in an earlier chapter.
- 26.
This paragraph is thinly crossed out in this version, but was not crossed out in another, unfinished version in my possession.
- 27.
Cf. H. Hopf’s letter to Van der Waerden of August 3, 1945 earlier in the book, from which this idea must have come from and developed by Van der Waerden. Could these two brilliant minds, Hopf and Van der Waerden, not see that the “German culture” gave birth to the “Hitler regime”?
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
RANH, Papers of Hans Freudenthal, inv. nr. 89.
- 31.
Typed hand-signed letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs 652: 12162.
- 32.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12163.
- 33.
Prof. J. Oranje, Professor of Law, Free University (Vrije Universiteit, a Calvinist university). During the occupation Prof. Oranje was chair of Hooglerarencontact. According to Dr. Knegtmans, the Illegal during the German occupation Hooglerarencontact (Contact Group of Professors) tried to persuade professors and university boards to close their universities in 1944.
- 34.
Prof. Dr. J. G. G. Borst, Professor of Medicine, University of Amsterdam, one of the leaders of Hooglerarencontact.
- 35.
September 16, 1945 handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12164.
- 36.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; RANH, Papers of Hans Freudenthal, inv. nr. 89.
- 37.
Handwritten telegram in Dutch; ETH, Hs 652: 12158.
- 38.
Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert, a member of the “Van der Corput Committee.” Documents in the archive of Utrecht University show that Minnaert—in a sense—represented Van der Waerden to the Utrecht’s College van Herstel en Zuivering, which most likely had never met with Van der Waerden in person. This was a very beneficial representation for Van der Waerden, because as an outspoken critic of Nazism Minnaert spent nearly 2 years in a Nazi prison, from May 1942 until April 1944 [Min].
- 39.
Typed hand-signed letter in Dutch; Hs652 12166.
- 40.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12167.
- 41.
De Vrij Katholiek (The Free Catholic) monthly of the Free Catholic Church in the Netherlands, was published 1926–1992.
- 42.
Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (B.P.M.), today known as the Royal Dutch Shell, a major oil company.
- 43.
Typed hand-signed letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12168.
- 44.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12169.
- 45.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12170.
- 46.
Bartel’s first cousin Annemarie van der Waerden recalls the extended Van der Waerden family reaction to his decision to stay in Nazi Germany: “Definitely it was considered ‘not done’ that Bart stayed in Germany. Though he was excused probably by this committee—this must be the case considering the fact that he got a respectable job in Holland again—he stayed a disputed man. In the family some forgave him, some not. The ones that forgave him, that was also because he was such a sweet, innocent man” [WaD2].
- 47.
Hungarian born (fled in 1920) Geza Révèsz (1878–1955) was the first and founding professor in psychology at the University of Amsterdam; a close friend of L. E. J. Brouwer.
- 48.
Handwritten letter in Dutch; ETH, Hs652: 12171.
- 49.
Handwritten letter in German; New York University Archives, Courant Papers.
- 50.
Van der Waerden refers here to Arbeitseinsatz, the Nazi forced labor program.
- 51.
Handwritten letter in English; New York University Archives, Courant Papers.
- 52.
[Sie3], pp. 160–161.
- 53.
Van der Waerden, Letter to Wilhelm Süss, March 14, 1944; ETH, Hs 652: 12031.
References
Dold-Samplonius, Y., Bartel Leendert van der Waerden befragt von Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, NTM, International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medecine, 2 (1994), 129–147. English translation: Interview with Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Notices of the Amer. Math. Soc. 44 (3) (1997), 313–320.
Jong, L. de, The Netherlands and Nazi Germany, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990.
Knegtmans, P. J., e-mail to A. Soifer, June 10, 2004.
Minnaert, M. G. J., Light and Color in the Outdoors, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1993.
Schoenbaum, D., Hitler’s Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany 1933–1939, W.W. Norton, New York, 1980.
Siegmund-Schultze, R., Mathematicians Fleeing Nazi Germany: Individual Fates and Global Impact, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2009.
Waerden, B. L. van der, Science Awakening, P. Noordhoff, Groningen, 1954. Expanded edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 1961.
Waerden, Dorith van der, e-mail to A. Soifer, February 22, 2004.
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Soifer, A. (2015). Van der Waerden and Van der Corput: Dialog in Letters. In: The Scholar and the State: In Search of Van der Waerden. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0712-8_26
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