27.12.61
Dear Heisenberg,
Thank you for your kind letter. It was a pleasure for me to
attempt to evoke some memories from the old days in my small contribution to
the Festschrift on your 60th birthday. At my age it is only natural that I dwell
more and more on thoughts of the great adventure which we all experienced, and,
as I told you in Brussels, I have in a Rutherford Lecture, of which I hope soon
to be able to send you a reprint, described some of my memories both of
Rutherford himself and of the developments that the discovery of the atomic
nucleus led to.
At the moment I am also occupied by an account requested from many
quarters of the role of nuclear physics in the dark times that we all had to
live through during the last war, and thereby, as with any other historical
investigation, I have felt how difficult it is to form an accurate impression
of events in which many have taken part. I hope that we shall have the
opportunity to talk in more detail about such questions and to clear up various
misunderstandings, especially in connection with the visit by you and
Weizsäcker to Copenhagen in 1942(?), the background and purpose of which I am
still being asked about from many quarters.
We were all very interested to hear about the confirmation that
the latest experiments have given of your conclusions about the problems of
symmetry for some elementary particles, and we look forward to hearing more
about this when you come to Copenhagen in the spring.
Margrethe
joins me in sending the warmest wishes for a happy new year to you and all the
family.
Your devoted