From Neatorama:
While Heisenberg was taking victory laps on the lecture circuit, a new power was rising in Germany. Adolf Hitler was steering the world toward another war, and& - one by one - physicists with Jewish ancestry were leaving Germany and Italy behind. Ignoring pleas from his friends to leave, the patriotic Heisenberg clung to the idea that he could help his homeland. He also believed Hitler might not be as bad as he seemed.
It didn’t take long for that illusion to wear thin, though. Heisenberg was pegged a Jewish sympathizer for his adherence to the "Jewish physics" of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. In fact, threats to Heisenberg’s safety became so severe that Heisenberg’s mother stepped in on his behalf. In an attempt to pull some strings for her son, Mrs. Heisenberg contacted the mother of Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler and expressed her concern for her dear Werner. Clearly, neither woman fully understood exactly what Heinrich did for a living, and word of Mrs. Heisenberg’s attempt to protect her son quickly reached the Reich. The physicist was now officially suspected of harboring ties to Jewish dissidents, and he was hauled into Gestapo headquarters for questioning. Soon after, he was "recruited" to help the Nazis build a nuclear bomb.
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