Doc. 27: M. von Laue, Sep. 18, 1933 26 Sir Joseph John Thomson: Letter to George Jaffe [July 18, 1933] 67 Source: The Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California. For a facsimile see Rider [1984]' p. 113, (fig. 2). Handwritten signed letter on J. J. Thomson's letterhead: 'Trinity Lodge, Cambridge.' Dear Professor Jaffe, I well remember your stay in Cambridge and your work in the Cavendish Laboratory[l] and I am very sorry to hear that your Professorship has been taken from you: [2] I will certainly take every opportunity I getn of supporting proposals for finding you some scientific work in this Country Believe me Yours most sincerely J. J. Thomson[4] 27 Max von Laue: Opening Address at the Physics Conference in Wiirzburg [September 18, 1933] Source: Max von Laue, 'Ansprache bei Eroffnung der Physikertagung in Wiirzburg am 18. September 1933', 1 Physikalische Zeitschrijt 34 [1933], pp. 889-890 (reprinted in von Laue [1961]' Vol. 3, pp. 61-62).2 lGeorg Jaffe researched at the Cavendish Laboratory immediately after taking his degree 1903-04. In 1904 he went to Paris and served for one year as interpreter for J. J. Thomson and the renowned French physicist and chemist Pierre Curie (1859-1906). 2See doc. 25 for his official dismissal from the Civil Service by the Hessen authorities. On emergency placement organizations founded in 1933 to help such victims of the discriminatory German laws, see doc. 24, footnote 5. 3The word 'have' is crossed out and changed to 'get'. 4The English physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856 1940) was the discoverer of electrons and received the Nobel Prize in physics for 1906 for his work on the conduction of electricity through gases. He held the Cavendish professorship at Cambridge 1884 to 1919 and was master of Trinity College 1918-40, being thus one of the most influential scientists in England. Cf., e.g., Lord Rayleigh, J. J. Thomson, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1943, as well as in Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 3 [1941]' pp. 587-609. 1 For press reports on the meeting see, e.g., Wurzburger General-Anzeiger, Sep. 18, 1933, no. 214, p. 3; Sep. 19, 1933, no. 215, p. 4; Sep. 21, 1933, p. 3 (obtained by courtesy of archivist Renate Mayer, Stadtarchiv Wiirzburg). According to Friedrich....., Hund, Max....., von Laue's speech was added to the program on short notice (personal communication). It directly preceded J . ....., Stark's speech, thus taking the wind out of his sails: See here doc. 28. See also M . ....., Planck's letter to von Laue of Sep. 9, 1933, in which he congratulates von Laue for chairing the Wiirzburg meeting: "Physicists are lucky that you are at the top this time." (DMM, No. 1964-6 138a,b, Sheets 35-36). For other papers given at the conference see Zeitschrift fur technische Physik 14 [1933], issue no. 11. Laue himself had been implemental in the discovery of X-ray diffraction; see footnote 3 of doc. 76. 2The editor has also discovered a carbon copy of the typescript in the von Mises Papers, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass., Call No. HUG 4574.24, entitled 'Ansprache, gehalten von M. von Laue bei der Eroffnung der Physikertagung am 18. 9. 33 im Platzschen Garten in Wiirzburg.' The few discrepancies between the published version and the typescript K. Hentschel (ed.), Physics and National Socialism © Birkhäuser Verlag 1996