The story of Heisenberg and Boehr is very interesting, and it seems like the series will explore that. (Me asuming the elderly gentleman was Boehr). From what I have read, Heisenberg warned Boehr what Germany was doing.
I am not sure Heisenberg was a hero... sabotaging the atom bomb project from within. But, neither was he a nazi nuthead.
To me as a scientist, Heisenberg is a hero for his work. Then the war. National loyaltes. And in nazi germany get a headshot if you did not cooperate.
It was a nightmare on many levels.
I wasn't suggesting that Heisenberg should be regarded as a Hero, more like that he doesn't appear to have been a committed Nazi. If I recall properly, after our team of scientists got a look at the German Atomic bomb project, they were flabbergasted at why it hadn't made more progress. They felt that Heisenberg was more than capable of working out the science that the Allies had, yet it appeared as though he didn't get very far.
To me as a scientist, Heisenberg is a hero for his work. Then the war. National loyalties. And in nazi germany get a headshot if you did not cooperate.
I find myself of a divided mind about this. If German Scientists slow walked some of their research because they opposed what the Nazis were doing with it, I think that is a good thing. On the other hand, when people such as Klaus Fuchs were feeding information to the Russians about our Atomic Research (as were others in the program) I thought they should have been shot.
I want national loyalty when they are ours, but not so much when they are theirs. I guess it's because I used to think we were the "good guys" and the good guys are always supposed to win.