Strassmann Fritz

Strassmann, Fritz Professor Fritz Strassmann a physical chemist of world renown, who was part of the team that broke the secrets of nuclear fission, was born at Boppard in 1902. He was the youngest of nine siblings. After finishing secondary school in Düsseldorf in 1920, he went on to study chemistry at the Technische Hochschule of Hannover. In 1929, he won a scholarship for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. His instructors and colleagues were Professor Otto Hahn and Professor Lise Meitner. Meitner had to leave Germany, in 1938, because of her Jewish descent. Strassmann refused to disown his Jewish colleague. In 1934, he sacrificed a lucrative position solely because of his steadfast refusal to join the Nazi party. In March 1943, Strassmann was asked to take in a Jewish woman who was sought by the Gestapo. The woman, Andrea Wolffenstein, had met him at the house of the Schiemann sisters – one of whom was a biology professor at the University of Berlin – where she was hiding at the time. Although Strassmann had only fleetingly met the woman, he agreed without hesitation, in complete disregard of the danger, not only to himself but also to his wife and young son. The situation was even more complicated because the housekeeper and the neighbors below were diehard Nazis. Wolffenstein stayed with the Strassmanns until she found an alternative hiding place outside Berlin. Professor Strassmann died in Mainz in 1980. On July 16, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Professor Fritz Strassmann as Righteous Among the Nations.