What's it to be Patriotic? How do you define the two sides of it?
I am confounded.And then i read about Fritz Haber. And I am confounded more!
I am confounded.And then i read about Fritz Haber. And I am confounded more!
Why have we forgotten Fritz Haber, Perhaps the most important scientist we have never heard of .Man responsible for feeding billions of people and also responsible for the birth of weapon of mass destruction.To the Nazi Holocaust ..to the foods on our plate today! He was a German jew. Need I say more.
At the turn of 20th century the population was increasing and the food production was swindling. He discovered the famous Nitrogen Fixation process which is still being used today and he got a Nobel prize in 1918 for converting atmospheric Nitrogen into ammonia.
At the turn of 20th century the population was increasing and the food production was swindling. He discovered the famous Nitrogen Fixation process which is still being used today and he got a Nobel prize in 1918 for converting atmospheric Nitrogen into ammonia.
He was deeply Patriotic. Fritz Haber ,triumphant and a noble prize winner and a patriot But there is a reason why her Daughter calls him by his full name as if he is a mere character from history. Haber's process can turn liberated nitrogen into fertilizer and….into weapon too. His contribution to WW1 goes even beyond that. He discovered poisonous gases to help German army. He produced poisonous gas and supervised personally the first gas attack. He was promoted to officer rank. There was a party organized to celebrate its success and it was at this party that her first wife committed suicide because she just could not stand it.
She shot herself in the heart by his service revolver. On that very day he left Berlin again to supervise another gas attack against Russians. According to him, he was working for the progress and prosperity for the country.
His world turned upside down when he was not allowed in places later because of his Jewish origin. And there is a letter that he wrote to Albert Einstein where he mentioned that he never felt so Jewish as now. Haber died in exile in 1934 in Switzerland. In a life filled with contradictions there is one final dreadful irony. Haber has also created an Insecticide for delousing the soldier's uniform named Zyklon. After his death Nazis modified it and made it Zyklone B used in gas chambers to murder millions of people, among them relatives of Haber himself.. here is another Fritz Haber, the father of chemical warfare. So how then should we remember him. As a scientist who helped people survive when needed and who solved food problem or the one who had no problem to use his scientific creativity for destruction. He had said "In times of war the scientist belongs to fatherland and in peace science is for mankind.
Would it make us a little uncomfortable to celebrate him just because he had two sides to him? But isn't it a part of human condition? SO why do we find it difficult to reconcile with the fact?
She shot herself in the heart by his service revolver. On that very day he left Berlin again to supervise another gas attack against Russians. According to him, he was working for the progress and prosperity for the country.
His world turned upside down when he was not allowed in places later because of his Jewish origin. And there is a letter that he wrote to Albert Einstein where he mentioned that he never felt so Jewish as now. Haber died in exile in 1934 in Switzerland. In a life filled with contradictions there is one final dreadful irony. Haber has also created an Insecticide for delousing the soldier's uniform named Zyklon. After his death Nazis modified it and made it Zyklone B used in gas chambers to murder millions of people, among them relatives of Haber himself.. here is another Fritz Haber, the father of chemical warfare. So how then should we remember him. As a scientist who helped people survive when needed and who solved food problem or the one who had no problem to use his scientific creativity for destruction. He had said "In times of war the scientist belongs to fatherland and in peace science is for mankind.
Would it make us a little uncomfortable to celebrate him just because he had two sides to him? But isn't it a part of human condition? SO why do we find it difficult to reconcile with the fact?
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