Abstract
After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, not only the careers, but also the lives of thousands of German academics, especially those with Jewish roots, became in serious peril. In a few years, the outbreak of World War II and the German occupation of most European countries evoked an unprecedented persecution and exodus of millions of people, including scientists and scholars of all nations. The British scientists were among the first in Europe who understood that not only science, but also the whole human civilization found itself on the edge of abyss and that fast action was inevitable.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1936 the AAC was transformed into the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL); it was renamed in 1999 Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) which exists until today. Its current name since 2014 is Council for At-Risk Academics. For its history, as well as the experiences of post-war academic refugees see [12] where earlier literature is given, as well.
- 2.
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge (1879–1963), British economist and social reformer.
- 3.
John Scott Haldane (1860–1936) Scottish physiologist, researched the physiology of breathing. During World War I he invented the gas-mask.
- 4.
Sir William Henry Bragg (1862–1942), British physicist, inventor of X-ray crystallography. In 1915 he shared the Nobel Prize with his son William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971).
- 5.
E. Friedmann (1877–1956), formerly professor of biochemistry University of Strassburg; H. Weil-Malherbe, neurochemist, friend of Krebs, adopted the name of his wife (Rosanne Malherbe), Krebs and Stephenson acted as witnesses to their wedding; M.R. Lemberg (1896–1975), biochemist, came from the University of Heidelberg, left for Australia, researched animal pigments; H. Lehmann (1910–1985) clinical biochemist and human geneticist, came from Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of Physiology in Heidelberg; S.J. Bach (1898–1973) did cancer research and investigated the metabolism of amino acids. Hopkins’ institute probably embraced even more refugees than are mentioned in this chapter as suggest some names and dates in the list of Hopkins’ collaborators and colleagues [4].
- 6.
Jan Herbert Waelsch (born 1909), was a biochemist, who worked with Stephenson in the years 1939–1941, but we have not much information about his background and further destiny. Arnošt Kleinzeller (1914–1997) got his Ph.D. with H. Krebs in Sheffield and in 1941 came to Hopkins’ department, where he cooperated first with the Needhams and since 1942 with Stephenson. From 1943 till the end of the war he acted as advisor of the Czechoslovak exile government. In the after-war Czechoslovakia he became known especially for his research on cellular membrane transport. He emigrated again in 1967 and spent the rest of his life at the University of Pennsylvania [5]. Kateřina (Katja) Sgalitzerová—Ošancová (1920–2003) who also is on the list of Hopkins’ associates, worked until 1943 at the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory with another Czechoslovak refugee biochemist Egon Hynek Kodíček (1908–1982) and John Yudkin. Since 1943 she also served the exile Czechoslovak government. After returning to Czechoslovakia, she became a highly regarded nutrition expert for the rest of her life. For more details on the Czechoslovak refugee biochemists see [6].
- 7.
Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883–1970), belonged among the leading biochemists in Germany and worldwide. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1931.
- 8.
Woods and Kleinzeller, formerly Krebs’ student, belonged after the war to the leading exponents of the manometric method. Kleinzeller published in 1965 the comprehensive widely used manual of manometric methods with the introduction of Hans Krebs [10].
- 9.
Allusion to the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939.
- 10.
For details of the related experiments, see [9, pp. 313–328].
- 11.
The emergency meetings were held on Sept. 28 and Sept. 30, 1938 [14].
- 12.
Albert Charles Chibnall (1894–1988), British biochemist who specialized in plant biochemistry. He researched especially plant proteins. He was appointed in 1943 Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry in succession to F. G. Hopkins, but resigned in 1949.
- 13.
For the MRC’s activities during WW2, see [17], pp. 292–332.
- 14.
For detailed account of the history of penicillin see [18].
- 15.
The facts on the work of Stephenson’s laboratory during World War Two are taken mostly from [19].
- 16.
Helen M.R. Epps (Mrs. Tomlinson) worked with Stephenson 1941–1945.
- 17.
Robertson who wrote about this meeting referred probably to Sir Thomas Dalling (1892–1982), British veterinarian, Chief Veterinary Officer for the United Kingdom in the years 1948–1952.
- 18.
To this issue relates extensive correspondence kept in MRC 2036/2/II, for instance [22].
- 19.
Members of the team from Stephenson’s laboratory were W.E. Van Heyningen, R.N. Beale, E.E. Sampson, D. Herbert and P.H. Herbert.
- 20.
In Stephenson’s letter to Mellanby dated October 20, 1941 [29], we may find an intriguing remark witnessing the wide scope of Stephenson’s contacts: “You may be interested to hear that the mysterious group of workers Dr. Fox and Professor Heilbron referred to as “Grosvenor” is Professor Weizmann’s” (Chaim Weizmann, 1874–1952, biochemist and Zionistic politician who lived in England and in 1948 became the first Israeli President).
- 21.
Robert Hill (1899–1991), plant physiologist and biochemist from the MRC Unit of Plant Biochemistry in Cambridge.
- 22.
Michael Yudkin (born 1938) is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry, University of Oxford.
- 23.
Parents of Milly.
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Štrbáňová, S. (2016). The Rise of Nazism in Germany and the Second World War. In: Holding Hands with Bacteria. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49736-4_5
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