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Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, USA
1Correspondence: 16 Washington Ave., Irvington-on-Hudson NY, 10533, USA. E-Mail: aedelson{at}verizon.net
Receipt of a Nobel Prize is clearly one of the major events in the lifetime of those fortunate enough to be chosen. Laureates are expected to accept their gold medal and certificate in person at a majestic ceremony steeped in tradition, held in Stockholm or Oslo (the Peace Prize) on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. The prize is never awarded posthumously and it is therefore rare that a Nobel laureate has failed to appear for the award presentation. Among those rarities are five laureates of particular interest, whose absence reflects more the temper of their time, than of their achievement.
By 1922, most physicists recognized Einstein’s revolutionary contributions to the field, although relativity was still considered controversial by some and his theory of light quanta was not yet widely accepted as an explanation for the photoelectric effect. Still, the question was not whether, but when he would receive the prize.
Germany was embittered by the humiliation of defeat in World War I. During the four long years of war, the controlled press had spoken mainly of victories in the field. When the German front collapsed in November 1918, the populace was thrown into a state of shock and disbelief. The huge reparations forced on the nation by the Treaty of Versailles shattered its finances, and hyperinflation was destroying the economy. Strident right wing elements sought out scapegoats among internationalists and Jews who, they claimed, had "stabbed Germany in the back."
Einstein was both an internationalist and a Jew. Though born in Germany, he had long disliked what he perceived to be its atmosphere of militarism. While a student in Switzerland, he renounced his German citizenship, against his father’s advice, and became a Swiss citizen. But, beginning in 1914, he held a prestigious academic post in Berlin and was an honored member of the German scientific community.
Bitterness and recriminations erupted into violence in June 1922 when Einstein’s friend, Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau, also an internationalist and a Jew, was assassinated by right wing extremists. Even among Einstein’s German colleagues, there were some whose nationalist feelings caused them to distance themselves from him. In July 1922, he wrote to Max Planck, "A number of people who deserve to be taken seriously have independently warned me not to stay in Berlin for the time being, and especially to avoid all public appearances in Germany. I am assumed to be among those whom the nationalists have marked for assassination.... The trouble is that the newspapers have mentioned my name too often, thus mobilizing the rabble against me. I have no alternative but to be patient—and to leave the city" (1)
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Fortuitously, Einstein was offered a generous contract by a Japanese publisher to deliver a dozen lectures during a six-week tour of Japan. In October 1922, he and his wife embarked from Marseilles. A few days before arriving in Japan, after a six-week voyage, they learned that the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, which had been reserved in that year, had now been awarded to him "for his services to theoretical physics and in particular for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." No specific mention was made of relativity, but his photoelectric law had become a safe reason for awarding him the prize. At the same time, Niels Bohr of Denmark was awarded the 1922 prize in physics. He, but not Einstein, appeared in Stockholm on December 10, 1922 (2)
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On those rare occasions when a recipient is unable to accept a Nobel Prize in person, it is customary for his country’s ambassador to Sweden to accept it on his behalf. Einstein would have none of this. Instead, he asked that the Swiss ambassador to Sweden take his place, but the Germans strenuously objected. Eventually, a diplomatic solution was worked out: The Swedish ambassador to Germany presented Einstein with his medal and diploma in Berlin. Einstein finally delivered his Nobel lecture in July 1923 in Goteborg, Sweden, in the presence of King Gustav V. Characteristically, he ignored the cautious wording of the citation and lectured on his theory of relativity (1)
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Carl von Ossietzky was a German journalist of intense temperament who dedicated his life to the causes of pacifism and anti-militarism. In 1913, he wrote an article criticizing a pro-military court decision which drew charges of "insult to the common good" by the Prussian War Ministry, an offense for which he paid a fine. Later, in 1927, as the editor of Die Weltbühne [The World Stage] he published an article criticizing the Reichswehr for condoning paramilitary organizations. He was tried for libel and sentenced to one month in prison. Refusing to be intimidated, he mounted a campaign, in his magazine and in speeches, attacking Germany’s secret rearmament, including the development of war planes, in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. He was charged with betrayal of military secrets, tried in secret hearings in 1931, and sentenced to eighteen months in Spandau Prison. Allowed to keep his passport while waiting to appeal his case, he could have fled the country, but refused to leave. He told his anguished supporters, "If you wish to fight effectively against the rottenness in a nation, you must do it on the inside.... I will not flee abroad. A man speaks with but a hollow voice from across the border" (3)
. After serving seven months, he was released under the terms of the Christmas amnesty of 1932 (3)
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Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. On February 28, 1933, the morning after the Reichstag fire, Ossietzky was arrested by the secret police and sent to a series of concentration camps. As confirmed by the International Red Cross, he was horribly mistreated both physically and mentally, in addition to suffering from tuberculosis. Thus, Germany’s leaders silenced their most widely read critic. Or so they thought.
In 1934, his close colleagues began an international campaign to promote Ossietzky’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize. Eventually, supporters throughout the world submitted letters and formal nominations to the Nobel Committee in Oslo. Among them were Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, Jane Addams, Aldus Huxley, Gilbert Murray, J. B. Priestley, Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells, and Leonard and Virginia Woolf. A German refugee strategically living in Oslo named Karl Frahm, later known as Dr. Willy Brandt, worked tirelessly to garner support from members of the Norwegian parliament. The organizers hoped that a well-publicized campaign might induce the Nazi government to give Ossietzky better treatment and perhaps restore his liberty. At the least, the focus on this one concentration camp victim would expose the government-sanctioned atrocities to a world that was still unaware of them (4)
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The Nobel Committee and other important figures in Norway had strong differences of opinion over the rationale for Ossietzky’s nomination. Was it because of his work for peace or out of sympathy for his concentration camp confinement? Moreover, if the prize went to him, it could be seen as political disapproval of National Socialism and interference in Germany’s internal affairs. Some feared it could bring further harm to him. The Nobel Committee decided to postpone the decision for the 1935 award until the following year, which caused his supporters to redouble their efforts. Indeed, in the 1936 campaign, Ossietzky received an unprecedented 86 nominations, with many more arriving in Oslo after the deadline of January 31st. Records from the files of the Gestapo published after the war make clear that all the international attention strongly influenced the decision in May 1936 to move Ossietzky from the Esterwegen camp to the police wing of Virchow Hospital and, ultimately, to Westend Hospital in Berlin for treatment of his worsening tuberculosis (4)
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In the fall of 1936, the Nobel Committee announced that the 1935 Peace Prize had been awarded to Ossietzky and that the 1936 prize would be given to Saveedra Lamas. The announcement of Ossietzky’s award produced a paroxysm of anger in Berlin. When the German ambassador to Norway protested to the Norwegian government, the Norwegian foreign minister explained that the Nobel Committee was an independent body. The German Propaganda Ministry declared publicly that Ossietzky was free to go to Oslo to accept the prize, but secret police documents reveal that he was denied a passport. The German press was forbidden to report on the award, and the government announced that in future no German could accept any Nobel Prize (3)
. The German authorities warned Ossietzky that if he accepted his prize he would cast himself outside the deutsche Volksgemeinschaft (community of German people). His courageous reply was a ringing statement of defiance and civil disobedience:
"After much consideration I have made the decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize which has fallen to me. I do not happen to share the view put forward to me by the representatives of the Secret State Police that in doing so I exclude myself from German society. The Nobel Peace Prize is not a sign of an internal political struggle, but of understanding between peoples. As a recipient of the prize, I will do my best to encourage this understanding, and as a German I will always bear in mind Germany’s justifiable interests in Europe." (5)
Absent from the award ceremonies in Oslo on December 10, 1936 were not only Ossietzky but also his English wife, Maud, who was living in hiding in Germany, and his daughter, Rosalinde, then living in Sweden. King Haakon VIII and the royal family of Norway, who traditionally attended the ceremonies, were advised to absent themselves as well. Ossietzky had given a lawyer from Berlin power of attorney to collect the prize money, but neither he nor his family ever received it. His last public appearance was at a short court hearing at which his lawyer was sentenced to two years at hard labor for embezzlement of the prize money. Ossietzky died in a hospital on May 4, 1938, at the age of 48. The Swedish government later awarded some compensation to his family (6)
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There is a postscript to this story. In 1990, the Ossietzky family attempted to persuade the German federal courts to void his 1933 conviction. In a jaw-dropping 1992 ruling, the courts refused, stating that rehabilitation was not possible because the family had failed to present "new facts or evidence.... Erroneous applications of law are not sufficient grounds for reopening a criminal case." In 1996, several members of the German parliament tried to introduce a bill that would set the stage for Ossietzky’s rehabilitation by broadening the grounds on which such rehabilitation could be granted (7)
. No further word on this effort has been uncovered to date, but perhaps none is needed. Instead of robed judges, let Albert Einstein have the last word on the life of Carl von Ossietzky:
"It will be to the eternal fame of the Nobel Foundation that it bestowed its high honor on this humble martyr and that it is resolved to keep alive the memory of his work. It is also wholesome for mankind today since the fatal illusion against which he fought has not been removed by the outcome of the last war [WWII]. The abstention from the solution of human problems by brute force is the task today as it was then" (8)
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The life of Andrei Sakharov is the story of a brilliant nuclear physicist who gradually awoke to the moral problems inherent in his work. He paid a high price for daring to speak out about these issues in the Soviet Union. In 1948, he was a key scientist working on the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, including their hydrogen bomb, successfully tested in 1953 (9)
, as well as on methods to produce controlled thermonuclear reactions to harness nuclear power. During the next twenty years, convinced that this work was of great importance for the balance of power in the world, and admittedly fascinated by the grandeur of the task, he worked under conditions of top security. For his many contributions to Soviet nuclear programs, he was showered with honors and lived a life of privilege as a member of the Soviet Nomenclatura (9)
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Sakharov, however, became increasingly concerned about the moral and political implications of his work. He spoke out against nuclear proliferation in the 1960s and pressed for a halt to atmospheric nuclear testing. He also opposed political discrimination. When anti-ballistic missile defense became a major issue in U.S.–Soviet relations, he became convinced that he had a moral obligation to speak out for bilateral rejection of ABM defense, lest this technology lead to an arms race and increased risk of nuclear war. The Soviet government refused to allow him to discuss the ABM question in the press. In 1968, he wrote an essay, "Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom," criticizing ABM defense for increasing the threat of nuclear war. At first circulated within the Soviet Union only via samizdat (readers’ underground dissemination of forbidden works), his essay was eventually published widely in other countries. Sakharov was subsequently removed from his top-secret military work, and his privileges were withdrawn. One of the founders of the Moscow Human Rights Committee, he came under ever-increasing government pressure as he continued openly to oppose Soviet policies (9)
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Sakharov was awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize for his "fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles for peace between men" and for his struggles "against the abuse of power and all forms of violation of human dignity." The Soviet government forbade him to travel to Oslo to receive the prize in person on the pretext that he was acquainted with state and military secrets. In his place, his wife, Yelena Bonner Sakharov, accepted his award (10)
. In 1980, he was stripped of all his government honors and awards and sentenced to internal exile in the remote city of Gorky for protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (9)
. When Gorbachev came to power, Sakharov was permitted to return to Moscow in 1986. He was elected a member of the new parliament in early 1989, but died of a heart attack that same year (9)
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Pasternak was already a widely known poet when he began writing Doctor Zhivago after the end of World War II. His characters were vibrant, diverse, and richly characterized, but they did not reflect "Marxist-Leninist views." Soviet authorities initially approved the novel’s publication, but ultimately rejected it for expressing "a negative attitude toward the revolution and a lack of faith in social transformation." It was smuggled out of the Soviet Union, translated into Italian, and published in Milan in 1957. By the end of 1958, it had been translated into eighteen languages (3)
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In announcing its decision to award Pasternak the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy cited his "important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition." Pravda and other Soviet publications promptly labeled him a "traitor," a "Judas," a "malevolent Philistine," a "libeler," and an "extraneous smudge on our socialist country" (3)
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Pasternak cabled the Swedish Academy that he was "immensely thankful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed...." But, four days later, pressured to reject the prize, and ultimately expelled from the Soviet Writer’s Union, he cabled again to say: "Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must reject this undeserved prize.... Please do not receive my voluntary rejection with displeasure." At the awards ceremony, the speaker for the Swedish Academy proclaimed that "This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award....There remains only for the academy...to announce with regret that the presentation of the prize cannot take place" (3
, 11)
. Pasternak died two years later.
"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Fearlessness is the best response to government violence" (12)
. These are the words of Aung San Suu Kyi, born in 1945, a fragile-looking woman who has provided a remarkable example of civil courage and tenacity in Asia by opposing the brutal military regime that has ruled over Myanmar (Burma) since 1962. Inspired by the example of Gandhi and imbued with the teachings of Buddha, she is the daughter of the man who led Burma’s struggle for independence in 1948, and of the woman who was her country’s ambassador to India.
In 1988, protests against political oppression and economic disarray were ruthlessly suppressed when the military opened fire on demonstrators. But the uprising ultimately forced the government to hold elections in 1990. Fearlessly leading the opposition party in its quest for the return of democratic rule, Aung San Suu Kyi so galvanized the people that the government placed her under house arrest even before the elections took place. Nevertheless, her influence prevailed, and her party won 83% of the parliamentary seats. The military government prevented her from becoming Prime Minister by invalidating the elections and jailing other leaders of her party. She has been offered permission to leave the country, but has refused, knowing that she would be permanently exiled and unable to continue her fight for her country’s freedom from military dictatorship.
In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" (13)
. At the ceremony in Oslo on December 10th, her presence was symbolized by her picture facing the audience, and by the attendance of her husband and two sons. Her elder son, 18, accepted the prize on behalf of his mother. She was unable to be with her husband, Dr. Michael Aris, when he died of cancer in England in 1999. Now 60, she has spent nine of the past sixteen years behind bars or under house arrest. The government has recently extended her house arrest for another year (14)
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FOOTNOTES
Figures from the Nobel Prize website (www.Nobelprize.org) were gratefully reproduced with permission.
The opinions expressed in editorials, essays, letters to the editor, and other articles comprising the Up Front section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of FASEB or its constituent societies. The FASEB Journalwelcomes all points of view and many voices. We look forward to hearing these in the form of op-ed pieces and/or letters from its readers addressed to journals{at}faseb.org
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