Sisters in Science
How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary true story of four women pioneers in physics during World War II and their daring escape out of Nazi Germany
In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hildegard Stücklen were eminent in their fields, but they had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments.
Their harrowing journey out of Germany became a life-and-death situation that required Herculean efforts of friends and other prominent scientists. Lise fled to Sweden, where she made a groundbreaking discovery in nuclear physics, and the others fled to the United States, where they brought advanced physics to American universities. No matter their destination, each woman revolutionized the field of physics when all odds were stacked against them, galvanizing young women to do the same.
Well researched and written with cinematic prose, Sisters in Science brings these trailblazing women to life and shows us how sisterhood and scientific curiosity can transcend borders and persist—flourish, even—in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This riveting group biography from journalist Campbell (Women in White Coats) recounts how Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen, who were among the first female physicists in Germany, survived WWII. After a 1933 Nazi law effectively banned women from university positions and pushed the four physicists out of their academic appointments, Sponer and Stücklen coordinated with sympathetic acquaintances abroad to secure teaching positions in the U.S. Kohn and Meitner, who were Jewish, faced greater obstacles, and Campbell offers nail-biting accounts of their escapes. Meitner was prevented from leaving Germany after her passport was personally revoked by Heinrich Himmler, and she relied on a cadre of fellow physicists and international refugee organizations to sneak her into Sweden. Kohn came even closer to mortal danger. In 1940, she was slipping into poverty due to years of unemployment when the Gestapo threatened to deport her to a concentration camp if she didn't leave Germany within a month's time. She fled after frenzied petitioning by friends in the U.S. secured her university teaching assignments there. Campbell's skillful storytelling transforms her subjects' escapes into pulse-pounding races against the clock while also shining a light on the overlooked heroism of the networks of professors who helped German academics flee to safety. This deserves a wide audience. Photos.
