The bomb was developed to save the world from the Nazi regime at the risk of destroying the entire world. To this day, the weapon is used as a geopolitical threat.
In a mini-lecture before the film, university historian Ab Flipse tells the story of a special contemporary of Oppenheimer: professor Sizoo, the first VU professor of physics in 1930. Sizoo's work formed the basis for nuclear physics research in the Netherlands. He also published on the ethical aspects of the new nuclear technologies and, after World War II, became chairman of the Dutch National Defence Organisation and director of the NATO institute SHAPE Air Defense Technical Centre. Sizoo can hardly be called the Dutch Oppenheimer - he operated in too different a context for that - but the dilemmas raised by the bomb were equally real for both.
Speaker: Ab Flipse is a university historian at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). He researches diverse aspects of the history of the VU and published, among other things, a book on the history of its Physics Department.
Cost of admission: Regular 14 euros, VU student 8 euros, other students 11 euros