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Annals by Glenn C. Altschuler

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At the time of his death in 1966, Peter University of Göttingen, and the Uni- Debye was internationally renowned for versity of Leipzig, Debye (in effect) re- his work on molecular structure, espe- placed as director of the cially moments (the interaction Kaiser Wilhelm (now ) Insti- of a collection of charged particles with tute for in in 1934, serving an electrical ½eld) and the of until 1939. From 1937–1939, he was also X-rays and in gases. For this president of the German Physical Soci- work, he won the in Chem- ety. istry in 1936. His name, Debye, is still In 1939, he left his German positions used as the unit of measurement of a and shortly afterwards emigrated to dipole moment. the , to join the faculty of Born in in 1884, Debye in Ithaca, New York, was educated at the Aachen Institute where he taught until 1952. By the time of Technology and Munich University, he retired, he had become a colleague where he received his Ph.D. in physics respected by many on the Cornell cam- in 1908. Following appointments at Zu- pus, and a mentor to a number of young rich University, , the , many of them now prominent in their ½elds. He was also a Foreign Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Honorary Member of the American Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell Academy of Arts & Sciences, elected in University. He has published eight books, includ- 1927. ing “Race, Ethnicity, and Class in American So- Given Debye’s reputation, the pub- cial Thought, 1865–1919” (1982), “Rude Re- lication in January 2006 of Einstein in public: Americans and Their Politics in the Nine- Nederland, by science writer Sybe Izaak teenth Century” (with Stuart M. Blumin, 2000), Rispens, came as a shock to academic and “All Shook Up: How Rock ’n’ Roll Changed communities on both sides of the Atlan- America” (2003). He is currently working on tic Ocean. two books: a history of Cornell University, 1945– In Chapter Five of the book–and in present (with Isaac Kramnick), and a history of newspaper articles he wrote to promote the G.I. Bill of Rights (with Stuart M. Blumin). it–Rispens charged that Peter Debye, “one of the greatest Dutch scientists of © 2006 by the American Academy of Arts the twentieth century,” had contributed & Sciences to “Hitler’s most important military re-

96 Dædalus Fall 2006 search program.” Acknowledging that “about what people in power expected The con- Debye was not a member of the Nazi of him.”3 Following the Kristallnacht victions of Peter Debye Party, Rispens branded him an “extreme pogrom against German Jews on No- opportunist” and “willing helper of the vember 9 and 10, 1938, he came under regime” whose “hands are dirtier than is pressure to make the German Physical commonly assumed.”1 Society conform to Nazi ideology and Rispens focused much of his attention practices by excluding all non-Aryan on Debye’s activities in Berlin. Support- members. Debye might have resigned ed by a grant from the Rockefeller Foun- from the organization in protest, as the dation (made before the Nazis came to Dutch-born physicist Samuel Goudsmit power), the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute had in 1937. Or protested to the Minis- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 boasted state-of-the-art research facili- try of Education and Culture. Instead, ties and a staff of ½rst-rate scientists. in December, he wrote to members of According to Rispens, Hermann Goer- the society: “Under the compelling ing, the second most powerful man in overarching circumstances the abiding the Third Reich, made sure Debye got of Reich-German Jews in the German all the resources he needed, especially Physical Society can no longer be main- after physicists and Fritz tained in the sense of the Nuremberg Strassman discovered that a ‘½ssion’ Laws. In agreement with the Executive bomb could release virtually unlimited Committee I request all members who energy. Debye received a large salary, fall under this regulation to communi- which reached 40,000 marks in 1939, cate to me their withdrawal from the and a house in Berlin-Dahlem, where Society. Heil Hitler!” Debye’s letter may he lived with his German-born wife, well have been “half-hearted,” Rispens Mathilde Alberer, and their two chil- writes, but it was “nonetheless effective dren.2 Aryan cleansing,” with about 10 percent Debye retained his Dutch passport of the society’s members excluded. And throughout the 1930s, Rispens asserts, Debye, Rispens notes, often used the because he believed that with the Na- odious closing salutation, “Heil Hitler!” zis in power a German citizen was less in his of½cial correspondence.4 likely to become a Nobel Laureate. Al- After invaded Poland in Sep- though he declined to formalize his tember 1939, the Nazis brought the Kai- German citizenship, he told physicist ser Wilhelm Institute directly under the Max Planck that he was nonetheless a control of the war ministry. To remain sturdy German nationalist. Debye made as director, Debye was told he must be- repeated inquiries, Rispens emphasizes, come a German citizen. Intent on keep- ing “all options open,” Debye negotiat- ed a leave of absence. Perhaps, Rispens 1 Sybe I. Rispens, Einstein in Nederland: Een In- tellectuelle Biogra½e (Amsterdam: Ambo, 2006), speculates, he thought he might be able 159–184; Sybe I. Rispens, “Nobelprijswinnaar to return in six months, after the Ger- met vuile handen,” Vrij Nederland, January 21, mans conquered Europe with their blitz- 2006. (Translations from the Dutch by Martij- krieg. In any event, the decision hinged na Briggs, Piet Brouwer, and my dear friend Ben Widom, who also commented incisively on this essay.) 3 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 175; Rispens, “Nobelprijswinnaar.” 2 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 176; Rispens, “Nobelprijswinnaar.” 4 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 180.

Dædalus Fall 2006 97 Annals by “least of all on his aversion to the Nazi for an answer to his repeated question, Glenn C. 7 Altschuler regime.” And although he did not return if and when he can return . . . . ” as director, Debye remained on the pay- Rispens’s case against Debye produced roll of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute until a ½restorm in the , which, 1943.5 of course, was especially sensitive to the Debye left Germany in January 1940, behavior of its citizens during World having accepted an invitation to deliver War II. In February, the universities at the Baker Lectures in at Cor- Maastricht and Utrecht took action. nell University in Ithaca, New York. Maastricht announced it would no lon- When Einstein learned that Debye was ger award a Peter Debye Prize and asked headed to Cornell, Rispens suggests, “he the sponsor, the Edmond Hustinx Foun- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 did something he had not done before.” dation, for permission to confer it under Instead of arranging employment, as he a different name. Utrecht deleted De- had for dozens of European refugees, bye’s name from its Institute of Physics Einstein wrote a letter to J. G. Kirkwood, and Chemistry of Nanomaterials and chairman of the chemistry department, Interfaces. and Cornell President Edmund Ezra In press releases, both universities ex- Day, which “opened up Debye’s baptis- plained that the action followed veri½- mal record.” A “reliable source,” Ein- cation of Rispens’s sources (though not stein indicated, had revealed that Debye his judgments) by the prestigious Neth- “maintained close contacts” with the erlands Institute for War Documenta- Nazis. Einstein asked Cornell’s scientists tion. Although the administration at to do “their duty as American citizens.” Maastricht agreed that “there has been In the end, Rispens notes, “Cornell did insuf½cient research to paint a full pic- not act against Debye,” who received his ture of Debye in ,” of½- tenured appointment, became chairman cials were convinced that Debye “in- of the department, and retired in 1952 as suf½ciently resisted the limitations on emeritus professor.6 academic freedom.” His behavior was Nonetheless, even as the German “dif½cult to reconcile with the example armies “trampled over half of Europe,” function connected to the naming of a Rispens concludes, Debye still “longed scienti½c prize.” Ludo Koks, a spokes- for his research institute.” On June 23, man for Utrecht, agreed that Debye 1941, long after the invasion and occu- may have been forced to expel Jews pation of the Netherlands, Debye sent from the . Re- a telegram to the General Consulate in moving his name, he noted, “had quite Berlin, declaring that he was “always an emotional impact,” generating de- ready and willing to take upon myself bate about whether Debye should be again, on the basis of the old conditions, disgraced without more de½nitive in- the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm formation. But “we had to make a deci- Institute.” For some reason, the tele- sion . . . . When an institute is named af- gram “remained unnoticed” and Debye ter someone, this person has to have the “waited in vain until the end of the war highest reputation.”8

7 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 183–184. 5 Ibid., 181; Rispens, “Nobelprijswinnaar.” 8 Links to the press releases can be found at 6 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 182–183; http://www.deye.uu.nl/. See also Arthur Max, Rispens, “Nobelprijswinnaar.” “Universities Strip Nobel Laureate’s Name

98 Dædalus Fall 2006 As the debate raged on in the Neth- Those who stayed and then left, as De- The con- erlands, it reached the United States. bye did, constitute the hardest cases.10 victions of Peter Debye The American Chemical Society, which Walker and historian Dieter Hoff- presents a Peter Debye Award in Physi- mann have also provided the context in cal Chemistry, announced it was moni- which Debye acted as chairman of the toring “the developing story.” The spot- German Physical Society. With his Exec- light landed as well on Cornell, which utive Committee demanding a purge of had established a professorship in De- Jewish members, Debye complied, they bye’s name and displayed a bust of him acknowledge, but in a “relatively gentle near the main of½ce of the Department and respectful way,” eschewing the pro- of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. As Nazi, anti-Semitic rhetoric employed, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 department members began discussing for example, by the chairman of the what action, if any, to take, evidence German Chemical Society, and provid- had already accumulated to warrant a ing a mechanism for withdrawal rather reconsideration of Sybe Rispens’s brief than expulsion. In doing so, Hoffmann against Peter Debye.9 demonstrates, Debye spent some politi- Historian Mark Walker has provided cal capital. Wilhelm Othmann, an insur- an analytical framework for evaluating gent in the Society, charged that Debye’s Debye’s actions as chairman of the Ger- ½rst sentence (“Under the compelling man Physical Society and director of the overarching circumstances I must re- Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Physics. The gard . . . ”) “was so formulated that it principal concerns of many scientists in could be misunderstood.” Debye stood Germany in the 1930s, Walker argues, his ground by taking responsibility for were their professional scienti½c repu- the wording and asking, as if to high- tations and relative autonomy to do light the intended ambiguity, that it “be their work. Some “opposed limited and understood in the way that it is meant.” isolated aspects of National Socialism, Wilhelm Schutz, another young, out- supported others, and acquiesced in, or spoken Nazi in the Society, claimed that were unaware of, a great many more.” Debye’s treatment of “the Jewish ques- Regarding themselves as apolitical, they tion” proved “that for political questions could be–and often were–opportunis- the necessary understanding fails him, tic when faced with political pressure, as is expected. I strove in vain at that and often did not fully comprehend the time to bring about a clear statement of “danger until it was too late.” The mo- the Chairman and thus a de½nitive so- tivations of these scientists, Walker be- lution to the problem.” And the news lieves, is less important than what they service of the Reich Lecturer Leadership did. Judging those who neither “resisted lambasted the leaders of the German nor joined Hitler’s movement” but Physical Society, who “seem obviously stayed and worked for the government to be very far behind and to hang very often involves applying shades of . much on the dear Jews.” Little wonder, then, Hoffmann concludes, that many in from Honors After Discovery of Nazi Links,” 10 Mark Walker, Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and Associated Press Worldstream, March 3, 2006. the German Atomic Bomb (New York: Plenum Press, 1995), 1–4, 269–271; Mark Walker, Ger- 9 William Schulz, “Debye Accused of Col- man National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear laboration,” March 6, 2006, at http:// www. Power, 1939–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- cen-online.org. versity Press, 1989), 1–12, 229–233.

Dædalus Fall 2006 99 Annals by the Society sought a new chairman “who Jew well known to the Nazis, out of Ger- Glenn C. Altschuler corresponded better than Debye to the many. After the ‘Anschluss’ between political pro½le of the Third Reich.”11 Germany and in March 1938, That Debye ended his letter to Society Meitner’s situation became untenable. members with “Heil Hitler!” is not sur- She did not have valid travel documents, prising to scholars of National Social- and Jews were forbidden from transfer- ism. In 1933, the Interior Ministry issued ring funds out of Germany. Nonetheless, detailed instructions about the proper on June 6, Debye assured that use of ‘Hitlergruss’–verbally, physically, there was no great urgency for Meitner and in of½cial communications. Bureau- to get out.13 By the end of the month, crats even speci½ed alternatives for however, he had joined an effort to get Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 those unable to use their right arms. A her a position in the Netherlands or school custodian, who had mocked the Sweden. In Berlin, only Debye, Otto Fuhrer by raising his ½st and shouting Hahn, , and “Heil Moskau” and “Rotfront,” lost his knew about the secret plan. Debye ex- pension, even though he argued that he changed coded messages with Dirk was drunk at the time. Thus, as long as Coster, a Dutch physicist who had as- they were in Germany, civil servants, sisted German Jewish refugees since including professors, used “Heil Hitler!” 1933, about a job for a male “assistant.” in work-related correspondence. Even In early July, Debye invited Coster to the physicist Max von Laue, an outspo- stay with his family in Berlin, and “if ken critic of the regime, used the saluta- you were to come rather soon–as if tion. To do otherwise was to put one’s you received an sos–that would give employment at risk, at the very least.12 my wife and me even greater pleasure.” Debye’s letter to the members of the A few days later, as the tension mount- Physical Society came a few months ed, he sent another telegram: “Without after he helped spirit , a answer from Coster. Clari½cation ur- world-class physicist and an Austrian gently requested.” In mid-July, after spending the night with the Debyes, 11 Dieter Hoffmann and Mark Walker, “The Coster met Meitner and accompanied German Physical Society Under National So- her across the border into the Nether- cialism,” Physics Today 57 (December 2004): 55; lands.14 Dieter Hoffmann, “Between Autonomy and Ac- A little more than a year later, Debye commodation: The German Physical Society During the Third Reich,” Physics in Perspective 7 negotiated his leave of absence from the (2005): 302–306. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Then–and later–he gave as the reason his desire 12 Jane Caplan, Government Without Administra- to retain his Dutch citizenship. Thus, tion: State and Civil Service in Weimar Germany Rispens’s claim that he was not motivat- (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988); Mark Walker, ed by an “aversion to the Nazi regime” Presentation to the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Itha- ca, N.Y., March 23, 2006. As J. L. Heilbron has 13 In his treatment of the episode, Rispens un- noted, Debye did cite “the fuhrer principle,” derscores Debye’s naiveté, obtuseness, and rela- which made him a virtual dictator in the labo- tive indifference to political realities. Rispens, ratories under him, to justify hiring and retain- Einstein in Nederland, 178–180. ing researchers for their scienti½c abilities rath- er than their politics. J. L. Heilbron, Max Planck 14 Ruth Lewin Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in and the Fortunes of German Science (Cambridge, Physics (Berkeley: University of California Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), 177. Press, 1996), 192–193, 200–204.

100 Dædalus Fall 2006 is dif½cult to evaluate. Family matters, An fbi investigation of Debye in 1940, The con- however, surely complicated Debye’s victions of initiated at the request of the National Peter Debye situation–and may explain why he did Defense Research Committee (ndrc), not elaborate on his decision to leave sheds more light on the warning Ein- Germany. In July 1939, his son Peter en- stein sent to Cornell. According to the tered the United States on a visitor’s agent who interviewed him, Einstein visa. When war broke out, Peter decided indicated that he knew Debye well to remain in the United States. Eventu- enough not to trust him on matters un- ally, he became a student at Cornell. In related to science. Debye was extraordi- 1941, Peter married Marian Morrison of narily intelligent, shrewd, versatile, and Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Oberlin, Ohio. But Debye’s wife, eigh- “knows what to do to obtain immediate teen-year-old daughter, and sister-in- and personal advancement.” Einstein law, all German citizens, did not ac- believed Debye had not helped Jewish company Debye to the United States, colleagues “in securing positions else- perhaps because he had not yet secured where.” a permanent position there. They re- But then Einstein hedged. He ac- ceived his salary while he was on leave knowledged that “he has never heard and lived in the director’s house. anything wrong concerning Debye” When President Day offered Debye and did not believe Debye had done a tenured position, his wife used the work for the military in Germany. De- Dutch passport she had obtained in bye “may be all right,” but if his “mo- 1939 to travel to Switzerland, where tives are bad he is a very dangerous she remained from June to October man.” Einstein suggested that the Unit- 1940, waiting for a U.S. immigration ed States government ascertain wheth- visa. Day and Karl Compton, president er Debye had severed all relations with of mit, interceded to overcome State German of½cials before sharing milita- Department objections to aiding a Ger- ry secrets with him. But “now that he man national, and she rejoined her hus- knows that Debye has a son with him in band in Ithaca in January 1941. The De- the United States perhaps Debye does byes’ daughter, also named Mathilde, not intend to return to Germany.”16 did not accompany her. By then, she had Other scientists interviewed by the a German boyfriend, Gerhard Saxinger, fbi evinced varying degrees of con½- whom she married in 1942. The couple had their ½rst child in August 1942. Fam- munication to Glenn Altschuler, April 14, ily lore has it that Mrs. Debye tried with- 2006. out success to secure a German exit visa for Mathilde, but it is also possible that 16 Interagency Working Group of the Mili- the young woman did not want to leave. tary Records Section, Declassi½ed Records, Record Group 319, Army Staff, irr Personnel She stayed in Berlin, as did her aunt, un- X fbi til the end of the war.15 Files, File 1107206, Report 77–148, Sep- tember 14, 1940 (in U.S. National Archives ii, College Park, Md.). On June 19, 1940, Einstein 15 Nordulf Debye, “Peter Debye Chronology,” wrote to Professor Kirkwood, chairman of the personal communication to Glenn Altschuler, Chemistry Department, “I did not know what April 23, 2006. The family believes that while to do with that letter, throw it in the paper Mathilde was in Switzerland, the Nazis tried basket or forward it. I forwarded it.” Cited in to lure Debye to a scienti½c meeting in Europe, Gijs van Ginkel, “Debye and the Trustworthi- but “sensing an attempt to recapture him,” De- ness of Sybe Rispens,” personal communica- bye demurred. Nordulf Debye, personal com- tion to Glenn Altschuler and others.

Dædalus Fall 2006 101 Annals by dence or skepticism about Debye. Debye Debye’s leave of absence was sched- Glenn C. Altschuler defenders, including Compton, Charles uled to expire at the end of April 1941. Smythe of Princeton, and George Debye may have believed that by appear- Scatchard of mit, asserted that “his ing to keep open the option of returning, family in Germany could be in liability” he could extend his leave and secure the and that, even so, they had heard him sustenance and safety of his daughter say Germany was “the enemy.” And no and sister-in-law. If this was his aim, he hard evidence against Debye surfaced. succeeded. His request was approved. Even Samuel Goudsmit, the Dutch phys- In August 1941, two months later, Debye icist who had triggered the ndrc inqui- ½led of½cial papers of his intention to ry by charging that Debye might be in become a citizen of the United States, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Ithaca working on gases for the Nazis, thus beginning the mandatory ½ve-year indicated that his concern “has no basis waiting period.20 Other than the tele- in fact.”17 gram, no evidence has surfaced that De- Despite the fbi investigation, De- bye considered leaving the United States bye’s situation in the United States was at any time during the war. relatively secure by the end of 1940. He Debye made substantial contributions assured Einstein that he had had no con- to the Allied military effort throughout tact with any German of½cial and had the war. In his authoritative history, decided “that in no case do I want to re- The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard turn to Germany.”18 Why, then, did he Rhodes points out that the letter sent send a telegram in 1941, offering to take to President Roosevelt by Einstein and up his post at the Kaiser Wilhelm Insti- fellow physicist Leo Szilard, which was tute? Debye’s telegram, according to his the catalyst of the Manhattan Project, defenders, has not turned up in the ar- reviewed the state of research chives, as per Rispens’s citation. Other in Germany, “about which they had documents refer to it, however, so, al- learned from the physical Peter though we cannot be certain precisely Debye.”21 what Debye said, it seems likely he com- In 1942 Bell Telephone Laboratories municated with the Nazis about the pos- recruited Debye to assist on war-relat- sibility of returning to Berlin.19 ed research. Since he was still a Dutch citizen and had not received a security clearance from the Navy, Debye was ac- 17 Interagency Working Group of the Military Records Section, Declassi½ed Records, Record companied by a uniformed policeman Group 319, Army Staff, irr Personnel Files, to all “sensitive areas.” An expert in sol- File X1107206, fbi Report 77-148, November id-state chemistry and materials science, 23, 1940; fbi Report 62-745, October 24, 1940; with a special interest in the emerging fbi Report 62-1132, September 27, 1940. Most ½eld of , Debye played an im- of his critics deemed Debye mercenary. Accord- ing to H. B. G. Casimir, the average physicist, portant role in the development of Debye’s contemporaries joked, was paid in mil- synthetic rubber to replace the Hevea li-Debyes. See H. B. G. Casimir, Haphazard Real- sources of natural rubber then con- ity: Half a Century of Science (New York: Harper trolled by Japan. He designed a method & Row, 1983), 197. 20 Nordulf Debye, “Peter Debye Chronology.” 18 Rispens, Einstein in Nederland, 182. 21 Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic 19 Van Ginkel, “Debye and the Trustworthi- Bomb (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), ness of Sybe Rispens.” 331–332.

102 Dædalus Fall 2006 to determine the precise molecular information, evidence and historical The con- weight of the polymers, and evaluated record known to date,” the Department victions of Peter Debye existing theories of high elasticity and of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at explanations of stress-strain curves for Cornell University decided in May 2006 rubbery substances. Debye’s under- that any action to dissociate Debye’s standing of the behavior of name from the department was unwar- and ferroelectrics, such as electrical-½l- ranted.24 ter elements, also helped improve Allied The case of Peter Debye, of course, is radar systems.22 not yet closed.25 The Dutch Institute for Debye’s defenders claim that it is dif- War Documentation has undertaken a ½cult to reconcile these actions with the thorough evaluation, and biographies of Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/4/96/1829208/daed.2006.135.4.96.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 man portrayed in Sybe Rispens’s book. Debye are likely to become a cottage in- To be sure, questions about the personal dustry in the Netherlands, and perhaps convictions of Peter Debye persist. What in the United States as well. Chemists at did he really think of Nazism? Did he Cornell promise to monitor all reviews have qualms about serving the Third and revisions closely. And so should the Reich–and if so, when did they surface? rest of us, for the role of scientists in the Why didn’t he accept the offer of a pro- Third Reich is fascinating, disturbing, fessorship at the University of Amster- and instructive, illuminating moral and dam extended to him in 1938? Would he political choices in the service of the have taken a leave from the Kaiser Wil- State. helm Institute if it had not come under 24 The statement by the Department of Chem- the control of the war ministry? Would istry and Chemical Biology will be published in he have done war-related work for the Chemical and Engineering News. Nazis if they had allowed him to retain his Dutch citizenship? 25 A resident of Debijeweg, a street in Rotter- Despite these questions, it seems clear dam, asked that the name be changed in the that the convictions of Debye by the uni- wake of Rispens’s book. The request was de- nied, according to F. Cossee-de Wijs, deputy versities at Maastricht and Utrecht were secretary of the Rotterdam Committee of Ad- premature. Einstein in Nederland is, at vice Concerning Streetnames: “A basic rule in best, a flawed book, with important in- the Rotterdam way of giving street names is: formation omitted, taken out of context, once named never changed. This is to prevent and perhaps even distorted. Martinus decisions following ‘delusions of the day.’” See F. Cossee-de Wijs, personal communication Veltman, the distinguished scientist who to Nordulf Debye, June 7, 2006. More impor- wrote the preface for Rispens’s book, has tantly, the administrators at the University of had second thoughts and asked that it be Utrecht have suppressed a booklet prepared removed from new editions and transla- by Gijs van Ginkel, the director of the former tions.23 For these reasons, “based on the Debye Institute at the University of Utrecht, which defends Debye and criticizes the Univer- sity’s decision to change the name of the Insti- 22 W. O. Milligan, ed., American Chemistry: Bi- tute. Copies in circulation have been recalled. centennial, Proceedings of the Robert A. Welch The Institute’s director and the University have Conferences on Chemical Research, vol. 20 agreed that the parts of the booklet containing (Houston: Robert A. Welch Foundation, 1977), an analysis of Rispens’s allegations will be pub- 154–200. lished at a later date. See “New Case of Censor- ship in Utrecht,” De Volkskrant, June 20, 2006; 23 M. Veltman, personal communication to and Martin Enserink, “Blocking a Book, Dutch board of directors and employees of the Debye University Rekindles Furor Over Nobelist De- Institute of Utrecht University, May 5, 2006. bye,” Science 312 (June 30, 2006): 1858.

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