Heisenberg letters show courage in horrific times

Silvan Schweber’s review of My Dear Li: Correspondence 1937–1946 (Physics Today, July 2017, page 59 ) by Werner Heisenberg and Elisabeth Heisenberg is a poignant commentary—sadly, at the end of his life. It is poignant because it bespeaks the impossibility of reconciling any life lived in freedom of expression and governed by law with the one Werner Heisenberg chose in Germany, against the odds, despite being deprived of such liberty. Is it the right moral choice to continue living in one’s country under repressive circumstances? What considerations play into such a decision?

The correspondence in the book sheds a direct light on such questions and the consequences of the answers. When individual needs yield to responsibility writ large, there is much to be admired, even when it does not line up with unambiguous heroism. The luxury of 20/20 hindsight, now that we know the full extent of the Holocaust and, yes, the first two atomic bombs, makes us contemporaries shudder.

While I was translating my parents-in-law’s letters, I was acutely conscious that certain passages in them would raise eyebrows for many with different life experiences. False dichotomies so easily arise. I understand historic judgment and its merit in establishing valuable markers for future generations. Yet I also think that the bulk of the correspondence is persuasive as an example of courage and honor during horrific times.