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Hitler's Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled By the Nazi Regime
Offers in-depth profiles of the talented Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's rise to power and assesses the seminal role these scientists played in turning the tide of World War II to the Allies favor and in transforming the evolution of twentieth-century science and technology. 17,500 first printing.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 20, 2017
Really interesting read. Recommended.
February 11, 2020
Hitler’s Gift. What a provocative title! It conjures up different mental images, mostly bad, but the subtitle explains it. The Jewish scientists expelled from Germany by Hitler’s policies before World War II were a gift to the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Seven of these scientists were Nobel laureates, and twenty more would be awarded the Nobel Prize for their contributions to science, but not in Germany. As noted in the book, thirty-three of the one hundred Nobel Prizes awarded between the foundation of the Nobel Prize in 1901 until Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 went to Germans. One quarter of these thirty-three awards went to Jews, with Jews making up merely one percent of Germany’s population. Obviously, in their contributions to science and other intellectual fields, Jews were punching well above their weight. Hitler’s gift of expelled scientists proved to be Germany’s loss, for between 1933 and 1960, German scientists were awarded only eight Nobel Prizes. Not only had Hitler’s policies removed these talented scientists from Germany’s universities and research institutes, it also ensured that Germany’s future scientists were being taught by second-rate instructors.
As for the exiled scientists, they were aided by various policies in their host nations. First of all, universities in the U.S. and Britain wanted to raise their stature and saw an opportunity to obtain highly qualified scientists. Also, Jewish organizations in these host nations set aside funds to pay the expenses of exiles, not necessarily exclusive to scientists, until they could find jobs. Furthermore, professors at various universities started donating a percentage of their salaries to provide funding for the exiles. Finally, other organizations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation that normally provided research grants to universities, creatively stretched their rules to fund university positions for exiled scientists. As a result, when war broke out, the universities had a bumper crop of top tier scientists itching to help develop war-winning technologies such as radar and the atomic bomb. After all, if Germany were to win, these exile scientists would be among the first victims.
Early on in the war, these exiles had to endure a major disruption. At the outbreak of war, many who were in Britain had not lived there long enough to be naturalized. As a result, they were classified as enemy aliens. Early on, they were considered low risk and allowed to continue their work. However, after the sudden fall of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and France in 1940, there was a very real fear of a fifth column that might help the Germans to conquer Britain. With this in mind, many of these exiles were interned for months if not years. Some were sent away to internment camps in Canada and Australia. In fact, one of the ships bound for Canada was sunk by a u-boat, and more than half of the internees aboard perished. A few days later, the survivors of that sinking were forced to board a ship bound for Australia. If not for effective evasive action, that ship would have been torpedoed, too. In hindsight, the internment of these exiles was an overreaction, albeit and understandable one in light of the circumstances. To the credit of the British people and government, those who had worked with the exiles advocated for their release, and Parliament took the time to debate and address the wrong during some of the darkest and most desperate times of the war. To the credit of the interned exiles, they exhibited exemplary behavior, turning their internment camps into centers of scholarship and culture.
In summary, the Jewish exiles who fled Germany before the outbreak proved to be outstanding citizens with few exceptions. Furthermore, they took advantage of the opportunities offered them by their host countries and went on to contribute mightily to the success of those same host countries.
As for the exiled scientists, they were aided by various policies in their host nations. First of all, universities in the U.S. and Britain wanted to raise their stature and saw an opportunity to obtain highly qualified scientists. Also, Jewish organizations in these host nations set aside funds to pay the expenses of exiles, not necessarily exclusive to scientists, until they could find jobs. Furthermore, professors at various universities started donating a percentage of their salaries to provide funding for the exiles. Finally, other organizations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation that normally provided research grants to universities, creatively stretched their rules to fund university positions for exiled scientists. As a result, when war broke out, the universities had a bumper crop of top tier scientists itching to help develop war-winning technologies such as radar and the atomic bomb. After all, if Germany were to win, these exile scientists would be among the first victims.
Early on in the war, these exiles had to endure a major disruption. At the outbreak of war, many who were in Britain had not lived there long enough to be naturalized. As a result, they were classified as enemy aliens. Early on, they were considered low risk and allowed to continue their work. However, after the sudden fall of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and France in 1940, there was a very real fear of a fifth column that might help the Germans to conquer Britain. With this in mind, many of these exiles were interned for months if not years. Some were sent away to internment camps in Canada and Australia. In fact, one of the ships bound for Canada was sunk by a u-boat, and more than half of the internees aboard perished. A few days later, the survivors of that sinking were forced to board a ship bound for Australia. If not for effective evasive action, that ship would have been torpedoed, too. In hindsight, the internment of these exiles was an overreaction, albeit and understandable one in light of the circumstances. To the credit of the British people and government, those who had worked with the exiles advocated for their release, and Parliament took the time to debate and address the wrong during some of the darkest and most desperate times of the war. To the credit of the interned exiles, they exhibited exemplary behavior, turning their internment camps into centers of scholarship and culture.
In summary, the Jewish exiles who fled Germany before the outbreak proved to be outstanding citizens with few exceptions. Furthermore, they took advantage of the opportunities offered them by their host countries and went on to contribute mightily to the success of those same host countries.
August 16, 2022
This was an interesting book, but I struggled to give is a good review for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is very badly OCRed - the book was scanned and then digitised without any proofing. Any book that is published so casually loses a point - sorry. It would be the work of a day to fix up the typos and confusions - and no... a spellcheck does not count.
The second issue is that it's not a story... or rather there were a couple of stories. Instead the book complied a series of micro-bios of the scientists in question. It's not that these are not interesting - but they're not what is in the title of the book. "The True Story"... no. "Mini-biographies of selected scientists expelled by the Nazi Regime" - that's more descriptive. So... loss of another star for misleading the reader.
There is the kernel of a good book here but the work was not done. Rather the research is presented and published.
Where is the story of Tess Simpson? That would be a great unifier. What about interweaving the scientists tales into a narrative, or even a regular timeline? This came together for the mini-overview of the Manhattan Project - but that should have been what the entire book was like, not potted biographies.
So again - there is valuable and interesting reading here. I didn't regret reading it... and I learned a lot. But it was neither as good a book as it could be, nor what was advertised, and it was full of weird typos that a quick spell-check had not picked up.
The subjects and stories are worthy of a much better treatment - this is a good starting point... but this is not The True Story I was looking for. Shame.
The second issue is that it's not a story... or rather there were a couple of stories. Instead the book complied a series of micro-bios of the scientists in question. It's not that these are not interesting - but they're not what is in the title of the book. "The True Story"... no. "Mini-biographies of selected scientists expelled by the Nazi Regime" - that's more descriptive. So... loss of another star for misleading the reader.
There is the kernel of a good book here but the work was not done. Rather the research is presented and published.
Where is the story of Tess Simpson? That would be a great unifier. What about interweaving the scientists tales into a narrative, or even a regular timeline? This came together for the mini-overview of the Manhattan Project - but that should have been what the entire book was like, not potted biographies.
So again - there is valuable and interesting reading here. I didn't regret reading it... and I learned a lot. But it was neither as good a book as it could be, nor what was advertised, and it was full of weird typos that a quick spell-check had not picked up.
The subjects and stories are worthy of a much better treatment - this is a good starting point... but this is not The True Story I was looking for. Shame.
May 19, 2014
Quick read about the exodus of scientists and academics from Nazi Germany. A bit repetitive, but a good overview of major players, the choices they faced, and how their colleagues in other countries organized to assist them.
June 12, 2024
THE SCIENTISTS HITLER DROVE AWAY HELPED THE ALLIES WIN
Scan any list of the physicists, chemists, and other top scientists who created the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project. What you’ll find there, one after another, are the names of Europeans who’d fled the Nazis in the 1930s. They dominate the list, and their contributions were the key to the weapon’s development. But the work at Los Alamos only hints at the broader contributions refugees made to British and American science. Because “some 2600 scientists and other scholars left Germany within the first year [alone], the vast majority of them Jewish. Twenty-five per cent of all physicists were lost from German universities in an insane squandering of talent.” And, overwhelmingly, they emigrated to universities in the UK and US, where an inordinate number of them later won Nobel Prizes. In Hitler’s Gift, Jean Medawar and David Pyke tell the amazing stories of the scientists who fled the Nazis.
GERMANY WAS ÜBER ALLES IN SCIENCE. UNTIL HITLER.
Among the men (and a few women) who fled to the West were some of the superstars of world science. Albert Einstein. Leo Szilard. Edward Teller. Hans Bethe. Isidor Isaac Rabi. John von Neumann. Stanisław Ulam. Refugees from Germany, Hungary, and Poland (but mostly Germany), they represented the cream of European (but mostly German) science.
As the authors note, “In the first 32 years of the Nobel Prizes (1901-32) Germany won one third of all the prizes in science, 33 out of 100, Britain 18 and the USA 6.” They also point out that, “of the German laureates, about a quarter of the scientists were of Jewish descent, although the Jewish population made up no more than 1 per cent of the German people at the time.” Germany was the acknowledged world leader in the hard sciences, especially physics, chemistry, and mathematics. But within weeks of Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, the science departments of German universities began emptying out, as Jewish (and a few gentile) faculty members fled the country.
REFUGEE SCIENTISTS WERE KEY TO THE MANHATTAN PROJECT FROM THE OUTSET
Medawar and Pykę emphasize that refugee German scientists were instrumental in leading Oxford, Cambridge, and leading American universities into the top ranks of research institutions worldwide. But history dwells on their particular contribution to the development of the atomic bomb. It’s well known, of course, that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard’s letter to Franklin Roosevelt led to the creation of the Manhattan Project. The two men—principally Szilard, as he drafted the letter—had concluded that constructing a nuclear weapon was possible. They were convinced Germany would do so. And Roosevelt eventually bought the argument.
Billions of dollars in spending and four years of frantic activity ensued, and the results are well known. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki paid the biggest price. And yet, as the authors note (and so many others have asserted), there was no reasonable likelihood that the Nazis could have come even close to building a bomb.
WHY THE NAZIS COULD NEVER HAVE BUILT A BOMB
The United States government spent some $2 billion on the project—about $36 billion in today’s dollars. They imported 3,000 tons of uranium from the Congo in 1944. More than 500,000 people worked on the project, including hordes of people on the production lines at Hanford, Washington, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to produce the U235 and plutonium used in the three bombs detonated in 1945 (first the Trinity test, then the two cities). And there is no way that hard-pressed Nazi Germany could possibly have mobilized such resources. Not the people, not the money, and not the uranium. Also, there is considerable speculation that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg, who headed the bomb project for the Nazis, was uncomfortable about building a weapon. In any case, the work he had underway by the end of the war was barely more advanced than what German scientists had accomplished in the 1930s.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jean Medawar (1913-2005) was a British author and former chairman of the Family Planning Association. She was married to Sir Peter Brian Medawar, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was born in London and earned a BSc in zoology from Oxford, continuing research in the field after graduating. In 1954, she met Margaret Pyke, then Chair of the Family Planning Association, and became involved in its work for years afterward. Her coauthor on Hitler’s Gift, David Pyke, was Margaret Pyke’s son. (I’m unable to find anything about him online.) Medawar was the author of five other works of nonfiction.
Scan any list of the physicists, chemists, and other top scientists who created the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project. What you’ll find there, one after another, are the names of Europeans who’d fled the Nazis in the 1930s. They dominate the list, and their contributions were the key to the weapon’s development. But the work at Los Alamos only hints at the broader contributions refugees made to British and American science. Because “some 2600 scientists and other scholars left Germany within the first year [alone], the vast majority of them Jewish. Twenty-five per cent of all physicists were lost from German universities in an insane squandering of talent.” And, overwhelmingly, they emigrated to universities in the UK and US, where an inordinate number of them later won Nobel Prizes. In Hitler’s Gift, Jean Medawar and David Pyke tell the amazing stories of the scientists who fled the Nazis.
GERMANY WAS ÜBER ALLES IN SCIENCE. UNTIL HITLER.
Among the men (and a few women) who fled to the West were some of the superstars of world science. Albert Einstein. Leo Szilard. Edward Teller. Hans Bethe. Isidor Isaac Rabi. John von Neumann. Stanisław Ulam. Refugees from Germany, Hungary, and Poland (but mostly Germany), they represented the cream of European (but mostly German) science.
As the authors note, “In the first 32 years of the Nobel Prizes (1901-32) Germany won one third of all the prizes in science, 33 out of 100, Britain 18 and the USA 6.” They also point out that, “of the German laureates, about a quarter of the scientists were of Jewish descent, although the Jewish population made up no more than 1 per cent of the German people at the time.” Germany was the acknowledged world leader in the hard sciences, especially physics, chemistry, and mathematics. But within weeks of Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, the science departments of German universities began emptying out, as Jewish (and a few gentile) faculty members fled the country.
REFUGEE SCIENTISTS WERE KEY TO THE MANHATTAN PROJECT FROM THE OUTSET
Medawar and Pykę emphasize that refugee German scientists were instrumental in leading Oxford, Cambridge, and leading American universities into the top ranks of research institutions worldwide. But history dwells on their particular contribution to the development of the atomic bomb. It’s well known, of course, that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard’s letter to Franklin Roosevelt led to the creation of the Manhattan Project. The two men—principally Szilard, as he drafted the letter—had concluded that constructing a nuclear weapon was possible. They were convinced Germany would do so. And Roosevelt eventually bought the argument.
Billions of dollars in spending and four years of frantic activity ensued, and the results are well known. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki paid the biggest price. And yet, as the authors note (and so many others have asserted), there was no reasonable likelihood that the Nazis could have come even close to building a bomb.
WHY THE NAZIS COULD NEVER HAVE BUILT A BOMB
The United States government spent some $2 billion on the project—about $36 billion in today’s dollars. They imported 3,000 tons of uranium from the Congo in 1944. More than 500,000 people worked on the project, including hordes of people on the production lines at Hanford, Washington, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to produce the U235 and plutonium used in the three bombs detonated in 1945 (first the Trinity test, then the two cities). And there is no way that hard-pressed Nazi Germany could possibly have mobilized such resources. Not the people, not the money, and not the uranium. Also, there is considerable speculation that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg, who headed the bomb project for the Nazis, was uncomfortable about building a weapon. In any case, the work he had underway by the end of the war was barely more advanced than what German scientists had accomplished in the 1930s.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jean Medawar (1913-2005) was a British author and former chairman of the Family Planning Association. She was married to Sir Peter Brian Medawar, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was born in London and earned a BSc in zoology from Oxford, continuing research in the field after graduating. In 1954, she met Margaret Pyke, then Chair of the Family Planning Association, and became involved in its work for years afterward. Her coauthor on Hitler’s Gift, David Pyke, was Margaret Pyke’s son. (I’m unable to find anything about him online.) Medawar was the author of five other works of nonfiction.
April 11, 2025
My sister had this book in her room, and the title caught my attention. I liked how it was laid out, with sections for individuals rather than talking about one science subject at a time. It brings up interesting questions and topics for discussion. While about science, the science was not the prevailing theme here, but rather that was the way that scientists (with the support of the British government) banded together to provide refugees with opportunities and homes after fleeing. It was always in the back of my mind, though, that the numbers (100s) of German and German-adjacent scientists helped by Great Britain, and eventually America, are but a light twinkle compared to the blazing brightness of the numbers (1,000,000s) of German and German-adjacent human lives in need of help that remained without it.
I understand the focus of this book was about the scientists and how their contributions led the Allies to victory in wartime and to prosperity post-war. I think it was interesting to learn about more than nuclear and radiation-focused research; I hadn't realized that there were so many biological research breakthroughs in this same time period.
This book seems to have some editing errors that I find to be distracting - commas missing, for instance. These cause me to have to reread sentences or paragraphs several time to fully understand them.
Overall I felt this book was readable for someone who is not intimately familiar with relativity, molecular biology, or quantum mechanics, and I enjoyed having a story put to some of the names of the scientific greats - for instance, Krebs, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Bohr.
I understand the focus of this book was about the scientists and how their contributions led the Allies to victory in wartime and to prosperity post-war. I think it was interesting to learn about more than nuclear and radiation-focused research; I hadn't realized that there were so many biological research breakthroughs in this same time period.
This book seems to have some editing errors that I find to be distracting - commas missing, for instance. These cause me to have to reread sentences or paragraphs several time to fully understand them.
Overall I felt this book was readable for someone who is not intimately familiar with relativity, molecular biology, or quantum mechanics, and I enjoyed having a story put to some of the names of the scientific greats - for instance, Krebs, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Bohr.
August 20, 2022
This is a tremendously important books, as a historic document. But it also presents a compelling and well-described argument that Germany's antisemitism and anti-science ideologies destroyed both its war effort and its future as a scientific leader. And Britain's efforts to save scientists from Germany led to huge success in those areas for both the U.K. and USA.
I agree with other reviewers' comments that many of the scientists' stories described by this book are very similar. This does lead to some slowing of the pace of the story in the middle of the book. However, it speeds up again when talking about the development of the atomic bomb, internment, and other important historical components.
On a personal note, this book made me grateful to be a scientist and physician. My ancestors were almost completely destroyed by the Holocaust (my grandparents fled Poland to Russia just in time). I found it interesting that my profession may have been enough to save my family, had I lived in that time. However, it's also important to remember that we can't rely on race, creed, colour, religion or profession to save us from madmen and fascism ("First they came for..."). We must fight it in all its forms.
I agree with other reviewers' comments that many of the scientists' stories described by this book are very similar. This does lead to some slowing of the pace of the story in the middle of the book. However, it speeds up again when talking about the development of the atomic bomb, internment, and other important historical components.
On a personal note, this book made me grateful to be a scientist and physician. My ancestors were almost completely destroyed by the Holocaust (my grandparents fled Poland to Russia just in time). I found it interesting that my profession may have been enough to save my family, had I lived in that time. However, it's also important to remember that we can't rely on race, creed, colour, religion or profession to save us from madmen and fascism ("First they came for..."). We must fight it in all its forms.
April 24, 2020
This is an outstanding interesting and revealing book. While I had heard that Einstein had fled the Nazi I had no idea that over 2700 German academics, many of them Jewish, had fled Nazi persecution to Great Britain shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933. About 1700 also were accepted by the United States. Germany had been the centre of Science before Hitler and many of these refugees were leaders in their fields or would become leaders in there fields when they left Germany. Germany status as a leader in science fell dramatically after the Nazis never to recover. Hitlers Gift was to the countries where these refugees ended up and the contributions they made to science and their adoptive countries, including the development of the first atomic bomb. This is a powerful story and a very enjoyable read.
September 13, 2018
The thesis that their own hatred helped destroy the Nazis through the expulsion of scientists many of whom went on to help the Allies, is well supported.
I did think that not including Emmy Noether in this book seemed like a big oversight since not all of the other scientists were involved with the war effort.
I did think that not including Emmy Noether in this book seemed like a big oversight since not all of the other scientists were involved with the war effort.
March 20, 2024
Very interesting!
I enjoy historical works on WWII. This was a totally different approach to what happened before the war actually started. I also am interested in things scientific so the contributions of the exiting scientists was a bonus.
I enjoy historical works on WWII. This was a totally different approach to what happened before the war actually started. I also am interested in things scientific so the contributions of the exiting scientists was a bonus.
August 4, 2024
“Francis Simon recalled Heisenberg remarking to him after the war: 'The Nazis should have been left in power longer, then they would have become quite decent' - this after the discovery of the death camps, to a man who had lost relatives in them.”
February 24, 2017
This book is a must read. Anyone who thinks that by marginalizing a whole group of people means a gain for them should realize what we lose as a society.
July 10, 2022
An amazing and informative look at the scientists who fled Nazi Germany and helped win the war.
September 18, 2022
I enjoyed learning about the group that was so important to science.
November 17, 2025
very well researched and written
Very interesting, easy to read and learning a lot of history
Great panoram of that time
Very well written and informative
Very interesting, easy to read and learning a lot of history
Great panoram of that time
Very well written and informative
February 21, 2017
A great read for anyone interested in the intellectual diaspora created when Hitler took power. I wish it could've been longer and more detailed though.
March 21, 2016
having worked with the most wonderful Dr Pyke, one of the gentlest humans I have ever known it was amazing to read this insight into his world. A great read for an avid reader and an absolute page turner. He certainly made an impression on me.
September 12, 2010
A must read to understand the history of science in the 20th century.
January 5, 2011
after Einstein, it gets kinda boring. also, Madame Curie's on the cover photo and gets, like, 1 mention in the book?
July 12, 2014
Worth reading, but a little dry. The book covers a lot of individuals and I found it a little hard to distinguish them all at the end, but that could just be due to my poor memory!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews