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Comment by jnbiche | Hacker News Reader

Please forgive me for going off-topic and for asking a personal question (and please don't answer if it's too personal), but how did the government inform your grandfather that his movement was restricted during WWII? Did he receive some sort of notice from the FBI?

I'm sorry that our government chose to restrict the civil liberties of a very important member of his community during WWII on the basis of his ethnicity.

A cautionary tale for today's America.

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Note that the OP's grandfather was not a US citizen, but a refugee from a declared enemy during a time of war. There's a huge difference between the two. That fact that he was even allowed to practice medicine is amazing.

The atomic bomb was built in large part by refugees from a declared enemy during time of war.

But those weren't doing house calls and were under guard. :)

Most of the US based scientists were either US citizens (some natural born; others naturalized) or came to the US in the 20s or early 30s. Even then very, very few of these men were German citizens. Fuchs, who was one of the few German refugees, was part of a contingent from the UK. The only reason why Fuchs was even allowed to be a part of the project was because of political pressure outside the project.

This is all documented in exrutiating detail in Rhodes' series on the making if both the atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Was it? The Germans and Austrians involved, for the most part, left for the US years before the war, often by receiving academic positions in neutral or allied countries. Leaving during the war would naturally be treated with greater suspicion.

You nailed it. He was early in the immigration process.

In odd bureaucracy, he DID get a doctor's special gas ration anyway. (He had a good institutional job in the Kaiser shipyards.)

Come to think of it, that's another reminder that in those days, medicine --> home visits.

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