While on Easter break Haber had gotten questionnaires to give out to all of his institutes staff. The questionnaire was about the family ancestry. If some one was related to or was Jewish they would have to be dismissed from work unless they were a veteran that was the only exception. Haber and a few of the other scientists were veterans, but many weren’t. Haber would have to fire his co-workers on the fact they were Jewish. Many famous scientists left Germany before they got fired like Albert Einstein and James Franck. Haber wanted to leave Germany, but he really did love his country so much he wanted to wait to see what the German people did about this and if the government would see what they are doing. This law would make Germany suffer especially in science because a lot of their most famous scientists are Jewish. Haber’s institute and the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute weren’t aloud to reopen after their break because of too many Jewish scientists there. Haber was told to fire a few of his Jewish scientists so he could at least reopen his institute. Haber decided to fire only ones he knew would get jobs in other countries quickly. The Nazis wanted all the Jewish gone except veterans though. Haber decided to retire, but stay until he could help the Jewish people he had to fire find jobs and to find a good person to take over his institute. The Nazis hated that Haber was leaving because he was there best German scientists and he was a hero to most Germans. Max Planck even tried to get Haber to stay because with Haber leaving it meant that Germany wasn’t going to be a science world power any more. Planck even went directly to Hitler about this, but Hitler just said Jews are communists and they need to leave. Haber was devastated that all his life he wanted to be the perfect German. He had won an iron cross, Nobel Prize, serving in the war, everything he achieved, and all he had done trying to help Germany meant nothing because he was a Jew.
Carl Bosch didn’t like Hitler. He thought everything Hitler was talking about was crazy. Bosch company Farben wasn’t going to be affected by the ancestry papers because it wasn’t a government company. Some of the directors of Farben met with Hitler to see if he was on board with synthetic gasoline which he was because he liked the idea of the German people riding German cars which were Volkswagens. Hitler knew that Germany didn’t have oil so they needed synthetic gasoline. A week before the elections the Nazis met with twenty of the biggest industrialist and bankers including Farben. Hitler talked for an hour and a half about his plan for the government and Germany. The industrialists and bankers were shocked because he didn’t have any notes and they didn’t even know Hitler was actually coming to the meeting. At the end Hitler asked if they could make donations to his campaigns of about 500 thousand marks each. Bosch didn’t go to the meeting, but when he heard of how much money Hitler wanted from each person he shrugged his shoulders. Bosch decided to put money into the Nazis campaign just because Bosch needed more government funding for Leuna and Hitler was certainly going to win so he needed to be on good terms. The Nazis then won the spring election. Right after the election he began asking for funding. Bosch was asked by the Nazi government to be on a economic council that gave advice to the government. But what Bosch didn’t know was that Hitler had private investigators investigating Bosch and Hermann Bucher. He found that Bosch hated the Nazis and was never going to become one and Bucher (head of a large German electrical firm) was so anti-nazi he had to be calmed down by friends so he wouldn’t do something irrational. Bucher found out about these files and got someone to steal his and Bosch’s. Bosch and Hitler had a meeting together about Leuna and synthetic gasoline which they both agreed on, but Bosch decided to then talk about how Hitler was ruining science in Germany for getting rid of the Jews. Hitler started to scream and say how Bosch didn’t understand and how they can’t live with Jews, but can live without science. Hitler and Bosch never spoke again and only had one other meeting together with other people and when Bosch had to give a speech Hitler left and said that another speaker was to speak, but there were no other speakers so the meeting was cancelled. Bosch never really was friend with fritz Haber, but felt a bond when Haber resigned because his fellow co-workers had to quit. Bosch sent a letter to Haber and Haber was very happy to get the letter. Haber then wrote one back saying that he was kind of glad because he would finally find relief from his stress.
Haber didn’t find relief long because he wanted to find a new job. He sent things to many different countries and offers did come, but slowly. Not because of his research, but because he was very old and sick. His heart was failing, he was at the age of retirement, and he was use to being the head of his own institute not working in a lab. The biggest thing was he was a war criminal of World War One due to his work on chlorine gas. He did get an exciting offer in israel from Jewish chemist Chaim Weizmann (soon to be israel's first president).
This offer was to be in the new science center. Haber then went to Spain to talk at a science conference and visit his son Hermann who lived in Paris with his wife. Many people when they saw Haber were saddened to see how sick he was. After this Haber actually didn’t take the job in Israel that he was so excited about. He went to work in Cambridge, England. His goal was to become a British citizen before he died. He finally got to Spain and gave his speech while his heart was spasming. After his visit to Spain he went back to Germany. He started to become stressed out. He felt torn between being a Jew and a German. During the train ride his sickness got so bad he had to be carried off the train. Haber felt a little better so he wanted to visit Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann was at a resort in the Swiss mountains. Haber had to get to him even though his doctor told him he couldn’t go to higher altitudes it could make him feel worse. When he got to Weizmann he gave a speech at dinner talking about how important it was to have a Jewish homeland and about how he was one of the most powerful Germans and did so much for them, but since he was a Jew it didn’t mean anything now. Weizmann offered the job in his science center again and Haber did say he would take it, but a little later in life he wanted to know what was in Cambridge for him. Weizmann agreed and Haber went on his way down the mountain. Haber didn’t get far when he had a heart attack. Haber was clinging to life, but he made a recovery in a few weeks. He then traveled to Germany just to settle everything so he could finally move to Cambridge. He had no home at this point so he lived in the University Arms Hotel with his sister who was taking care of him now. At the university he got a full lab and an assistant. His job was to research the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. He was pretty happy there. Even as a surprise some of his coworkers from Cambridge and for the Kaiser-Wilhelm institute stopped by to have a science discussion which he loved those. Haber did feel like many people didn’t like him at Cambridge because of what he did for the Germans in the war so some people avoided him. Haber’s illness was becoming worse and he did have another heart attack, but he was in so much pain all the time he didn’t even call a doctor. He knew what he wanted to do. Haber wanted to take the job that Weizmann offered so he started to travel to the science center. He never got there because he died from too much heart damage. Haber in his will said he wanted his ashes to buried next to his first wife Clara’s.
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