The Hungarian Scientist Who Saved Nobel Prizes During WWII
During the Second World War, the scientific community faced unparalleled challenges, including ensuring the safety of intellectual achievements. A remarkable story from this time period revolves around Hungarian chemist George Charles de Hevesy, or György Károly Hevesy, who ingeniously saved two Nobel Prizes.
The story takes place in occupied Copenhagen, where two Nobel Prize winners of Jewish origin sent their medals to Niels Bohr’s Institute of Theoretical Physics to protect them from the Gestapo. The institute, part of German-occupied territory, provided refuge for Jewish scientists. The Nobel Prize medals of Max von Laue and James Franck were displayed prominently and posed a significant threat, as the Nazis were aware of Bohr’s support for Jewish intellectuals.
Hevesy, working in Bohr’s laboratory, proposed an unconventional plan to protect the medals. Instead of burying them, he decided to dissolve the medals using a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid known as ‘aqua regia’. This corrosive mixture, capable of dissolving gold, was the key to protecting the medals.
As the Nazi forces advanced through Copenhagen, Hevesy carefully dissolved the medals and stored the solution in an inconspicuous flask on a high laboratory shelf. When the Nazis raided Bohr’s institute, they failed to notice the flask of orange aqua regia. After the war, Hevesy reversed the process, precipitated the gold from the solution, and sent it back to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The Nobel Foundation recast the prizes from the original gold, and in 1952, both Laue and Franck were again awarded Nobel Prizes.
Hevesy’s use of chemistry to defend the valuable accolades highlights the ingenuity and bravery of the scientific community during a time of immense difficulty. The story of the preserved Nobel Prizes serves as a testament to the resilience and resourcefulness of individuals in the face of adversity.
