Klaus Fuchs: Oppenheimer’s atomic spy

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

German-born physicist Klaus Fuchs played a key role in the development of the first atomic bomb during World War Two.

The project, known as the Manhattan Project, was led by scientist J Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos in the US.

But, in January 1950, Fuchs admitted passing top secret nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union and was sentenced to 14 years in jail.

His nephew Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski tells Louise Hidalgo about his uncle.

This programme was first broadcast in 2015.

To hear more about the story of Klaus Fuchs, the spy who changed history, search for The Bomb, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Klaus Fuchs. Credit Jung/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 2024, we were here for the gritty ones.
0:04.8	The adrenaline was building up in me.
0:06.6	With gripping true crime podcasts, people can shock you all the time.
0:11.3	Dead man running.
0:12.4	The word was out.
0:13.9	A wanted man may have staged his disappearance.
0:17.0	Intrigue to catch a scorpion.
0:18.9	Scorpion actually really does look scary.
0:21.2	I mean, how do you get through that fear?
0:23.0	And how are we going to get near him?
0:24.4	And gangster.
0:25.5	It was an organised hit in the middle of his heartland territory.
0:29.8	The Best of 2024 is here.
0:32.1	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:43.7	Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:50.0	We're going back to February 2, 1950, and the arrest in London of Klaus Fuchs,
0:55.2	who was accused of passing America and Britain's nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.
1:01.1	As Louise Hidalgo found out in 2015, his colleagues couldn't quite believe it.
1:04.4	When the first news came, I thought maybe it was somebody else.
1:10.4	And then when it was obviously it was him, we thought maybe there was some misunderstanding.
1:13.1	Perhaps he had had a nervous breakdown and had imagined things or had exaggerated the importance of some little slip he had made. But the German
1:19.2	atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs had not made some slip, as his friend and fellow physicist Nicholas
	...

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