The Beginnings of the Secret Space Program? Nazi Bell Uncovered — Behind the Myth

 May 19, 2015 ,http://www.theeventchronicle.com/study/the-beginnings-of-the-secret-space-program-nazi-bell-uncovered-behind-the-myth/

(Simon Gunson) Put most simply the Nazi Bell was in fact a heavy particle accelerator used as an artificial neutron source to breed Protactinium 233 from Thorium 232. Protactinium would naturally degrade after 27 days into pure bomb grade Uranium 233
Uranium 233 derived from spent reactor waste is often contaminated by Uranium 232 when Thorium 230 gets bombarded by a second neutron, but in a particle accelerator this process does not have time to occur and thus U232 contamination is as low as one part per million and thus as safe to handle as weapons grade Plutonium.
According to speech notes recently uncovered in KGB archives, Heisenberg advocated harvesting Protactinium for a nuclear weapon at the Harneck Haus conference in July 1942. Later whilst interned at Farm Hall Cambridgeshire after the War, Heisenberg also identified harvesting Protactinium as one of three methods of obtaining fissile material for a nuclear bomb.

Plasma at 15 million degrees inside a Spherical Tokamak

The other two of course, being to either enrich U235, or to reprocess Plutonium from spent fuel in a thermal nuclear  reactor… Our history books tell us all about these other two methods in Nazi Germany but are strangely silent on the Protactinium harvesting project. Why is that?
The wartime Chairman of AEG, Herman Bucher revealed to OSS informant Erwin Respondek that his company was funding development of a Heavy Particle Accelerator for the Atomic Bomb Project at Bisingen.
The process harnessed the fluorescent quality of Mercury to cause collisions between electrons and photons, which in result released thermal neutrons. The device was surrounded by a concave beryllium mirror to reflect neutrons back into a mass of Thorium oxide placed at the core. The machine generated this X-ray plasma in orbit around an axle which spun two carefully frequency  phased contra-rotating drums.
Respondek also revealed to the OSS that Heisenberg worked closely with Swiss engineer Dr Walter Dallenbach at a secret facility known as “Forschungsstelle D” at Bisingen to develop the Nazi bell. A report by the OSS in November 1944, cited information from an engineer named  Nagglestein who related Otto Hahn’s laboratory at Tailfingen in a town close to Bisingen was using Thorium to obtain Uranium for an Atomic Bomb.

How the Story Emerges

In August 1997 a Polish Intelligence officer with access to Polish Government documents made writer Igor Witkowski aware of the Nazi Bell. Original documents came from war crime interrogation of former SS Lt General Jakob Sporrenberg after the war.
According to Witkowski whilst working as a military journalist, an undisclosed member of Polish military intelligence showed him some interesting documents. Witkowski received discreet access over a period of a month during which he transcribed files by hand. These documents have not been independently verified, however there are several less well detailed corroborations of the Bell project from entirely different sources. Leader for the Bell project was Prof Walther Gerlach, who was also the leader of Germany’s Uranium project from January 1944. It’s logical to assume therefore that the Bell was part of Nazi Germany’s Atomic weapons project.
Witkowski read from Sporrenberg’s depositions for his War Crimes trial of a centrifuge device shaped like a Bell with a hemispherical domed top. The outer Bell was made of three inch thick ceramic, much like a high voltage porcelain insulator. Said to be 9 feet in diameter and 12-14 feet high. It consumed prodigious amounts of electrical power and glowed violet-blue when operated for short periods.

Popular rather mystical representation of the Bell

Inside the Bell was located two contra rotating drums. Norwegian born physicist Rolf Wideroe wrote in his autobiography about development of the Bell at Hamburg, by the company CHF Muller. In his patent his diagrams showed one sphere inside another spun on a common axle. As is common with particle accelerators a vacuum has to be created to propagate plasma inside these evacuated chambers. Then heated mercury vapour would have been bled into the cavity and then once spun up subjected to powerful discharges of electricity to ionise the Mercury. Under this influence the Mercury would fluoresce and photons would collide with extremely energetic electrons, creating Gamma X-rays. These X-rays in turn would stimulate the Beryllium oxide in the Xerum 525 to emit thermal neutrons. In turn these thermal neutrons would be absorbed by the Thorium 232 changing it into Protactinium 233.
Wideroe called this device the Wirbel-Rohr, or Vortex Tube. Patents for variations on the same theme had been applied for in 1935 by both Prof Max Steenbeck and his rival Swiss scientist Dr Walter Dallenbach. After WW2 Steenbeck co-operated with the Soviets to replicate the Nazi Bell. The Soviets named it the Tokamak.
The Bell concept exploited an even earlier patent. In March 1934 Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard applied for a patent which was titled “improvements in, or relating to the transmutation of Chemical Elements. His Patent described how radioactive bodies are generated by bombarding suitable elements with neutrons. Szilard went on to describe “such uncharged nuclei penetrate even substances containing the heavier elements without ionisation loss and cause the formation of radio-active substances.”
[1] Mercury (alternate accounts say amalgams of Mercury) were spun inside these drums. In likelihood the Mercury was introduced from beneath as a heated vapour. Jelly like compounds of Beryllium with Thorium were located in flasks contained within the central axis. The Nazis were known to have made special paraffin from Deuterium (heavy Hydrogen) because of it’s catalytic qualities in radioactive exchanges. Mercury also played a role by releasing photons into the plasma. It is the collision of energetic electrons with photons which gives off gamma radiation.
Beryllium compounds used in the Nazi Bell were called “Xerum 525.” During WW2 Nazi scientists discovered paraffin was useful as a moderator in reactor experiments. Paraffin would fit the description of “Xerum 525” as a pinkish jelly like substance. Pink colour possibly came from the mixing of Mercury (II) Iodide also known as Red Mercury into the compound, thus by implication Xerum 525 most likely contained Beryllium and Thorium suspended in heavy paraffin.

Location

The Nazi Bell was initially housed in a basement beneath the Charity hospital in Berlin and thus the project was known as Charite Anlage.
From November 1943 the Nazi bell was housed in an underground laboratory beneath Gandau airfield on the western outskirts of Breslau, now known as the Polish city of Wroclaw. Xerum 525 compounds were supplied from a laboratory in the city of Danzig now known as Gydina. After operation the spent and altered compound was reprocessed at a laboratory west of Breslau then known as Neuberg.
It was shifted from Gandau in November 1944 to Furstenstein Castle and later in December 1944 located inside Wenceslas mine. Following the war Professor Manfred von Ardenne led two Soviet scientists Nicolai Flyerov (aka N.I. Frolov) and Igor Kurchatov to the Wenceslas mine and gave them a description of installing what he called a cyclotron in the mine.
This mine was abandoned before the war. Above ground there was a power station with two steam cooling towers. The bases of these have become known by various names like the “Henge” after Stonehenge, or the Fly Trap. Bizarre claims are made by some that these are related to Nazi UFOs.
Near the mine entrance Nobel Dynamit AG operated a bullet manufacturing plant. Wenceslas mine was also known by it’s codename Komplex Milkow. A short distance away was Ludwikowice. The area in wartime had been part of Germany’s Silesia region, but after the war most Germans were forced into East Germany and their homes were turned over to Polish refugees. In German the village was called Ludwidsdorf.
http://www.ludwikowice.info/english/about.html

Modern Ludwikowice near the entrance to Wenceslas mine (Komplex Milkow) by Kamil Żylewicz

Witnesses

A constant criticism of the Bell story is that it is a myth based entirely upon the unverified claims of Polish author Igor Witkowski. In fact there are others who contribute small portions of the story who are also witnesses to the Bell at Ludwikowice.

1. SS Lieutnant General Jakob Sporrenberg, Police Chief (ie Gestapo) Lublin (occupied Poland)
2. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Schuster, from interrogation report at Berlin Document Centre about evacuation of the Bell by air in 1945.
3. Dr Wilhelm Voss, Chief Executive of Skoda Works, Czechoslovakia given to Tom Agoston
4. Soviet plasma scientist G.N. Frolov in 1983 interview referred to Prof Baron Manfred von Ardenne as first hand witness.
5. Railway employee from Opole, Joachim Ibrom
6. Dr Otto Cerny (whilst working at NASA, recounted Nazi Bell to Greg Rowe)
7. Argentine Economic Ministry report declassified 1993 refers to Bell being unloaded in Argentina from a multi-engined German aircraft in May 1945

Other individuals who may not have first hand witnessed the Bell device itself have also contributed to understanding the project surrounding the Bell. Dr Ronald Richter strove to recreate the Bell project in Argentina after the war and the dismantling of his Bell device under political pressure applied upon Argentina in 1952 grant further insights.
It is also worth noting that Ardenne disclosed to Frolov that whilst Ardenne had installed one cyclotron like device in the mine at Ludwikowice, he said there was already another one inside the mine. At Bissingen in April 1945 the French captured what appears to have been another, incomplete Bell device created by the Swiss scientist Dallenbach. When ALSOS reached the Austrian town of Melk they came across another nuclear project with what was termed a transformer room. Dr Rolf Wideroe after the war referred to a device known as an X-ray transformer which also appears to be the Nazi Bell.
At least four such devices may have existed including Bells at Melk, Bissingen and Ludwikowice. Furthermore a giant underground transformer room at Jonsthal may have contained yet more Nazi Bell machines. The contents of Jonsthal remain classified by US authorities.
The Nazi Bell is intimately connected with the work of Swiss Plasma physicist Dallenbach’s work with Forschungsstelle D. Dallenbach was contracted by AEG and his laboratory was located at Bisengen in Germany just north of Zurich. Dallenbach scrupulously avoided giving any impression that he was anything other than a neutral during the war, however he was a fervent Nazi and several slip-ups by Nazi officials and his own deputy, revealed that he was working on an atomic bomb project vital to Germany’s war effort. Dallenbach himself maintained his work was pure research yet during his time in Germany the Nazis refused to fund any scientific work not vital to the war effort.

Charite Anlage

Numerous Top Secret codenames are associated with the so-called Nazi Bell. The term Nazi Bell however is just a modern affectation, due to the device’s resemblance to a Bell. When the Bell arrived in Argentina in May 1945 however, Argentine Intelligence referred in a report classified until 1993, calling this device the “Bell.”
By protocol of the Army Weapons Office session of 21.7.1942, this project was awarded the priority classification “Kriegsentscheidend” – decisive for the outcome of the war – the highest known category of secrecy and funding priority known in the Third Reich. No other known project had it. The electrical giant AEG provided the huge amounts of electrical power under the contract code-name “Charite-Anlage”.
The code name Charite-Anlage co-existed with Project Thor. Priority classification was invoked for the Bell with the Gestapo in 1944, quoted as SS/1940. This classification was cited seeking the release from  of engineer Richard Cremer from a 2 year sentence for defeatist attitudes. The name Charite-Anlage applied specifically to electrical engineering and manufacture of the Bell itself and the supply of power.
Another code name associated was Der Laternenträger (Lantern Bearer), a loose metaphor for the Light Bearer, Lucifer presumably refers to medical and biological experiments with radiation. It may also refer to the weaponisation of nuclear material produced by the Bell.Der Laternenträger research was based at Furstenstein Castle according to Gross Rosen camp survivour, Professor Mieczyslaw Moldavia. According to Prof Mieczyslaw Moldavia, other Researchers at Furstenstein Castle were also investigating and testing pressure suits for a manned V-2 rocket, known as the A-9/A10, part of a manned two stage rocket for attacking New York.
Rainer Karlsh’s book, Hitler’s Bombe relates that a team of physicists from Leibig University at Giessen carried out a lot of research at Ludwikowize, which is where the Nazi Bell was located. Sporrenberg commented on various animals and personnel dying horrible deaths after exposure to the Bell. He said their flesh would liquify. Giessen is north of Frankfurt am Main and it’s research appears focused on genetics and biological research. Was this ghastly research to discover what radiation could do to Germany’s enemies?

The project was also known as Kronos (Saturn) which refers to spin polarisation plasma physics. Thus it could easily be inferred that the rings of Saturn represent the plasma torus inside the Bell. The Bell exploited spin polarisation of atoms to create a plasma, it would be entirely fitting to apply Kronos to Gerlach’s scientific role. The final, but the most well known code name was Die Glocke. The meaning behind this code name or it’s association is entirely unclear.

Science behind the Bell

No credible satisfactory explanation of the Bell’s purpose has ever emerged and indeed it’s very existence is still disputed. Facts would suggest however, that the Bell used a hitherto barely mentioned alternate method to acquire fissile Uranium for Atomic weaponry. A photo-chemistry method mentioned in secretly recorded conversations between Nazi scientists interned at Farm Hall near Cambridge after the War.
At Farm Hall after the war, captured Nazi nuclear scientists repeatedly referred to obtaining fissile material from a photo-chemistry process. Our history books are silent on this method.
As I hypothesize this device worked, vapourised Mercury was spun in a magnetic field to provide excited electrons. Mercury is known to fluoresce easily. Under the influence of an elctro-magnetic filed electrons would disassociate from their atomic nucleii and would swirl around the machine much like a doughnut shaped plasma (toroid). As photons collided with free electrons those collision would generate X-rays.
The spinning of these electrons, probably in an evacuated low pressure chamber with just small amounts of mercury vapour, would lead to faster and faster speeds. With each rotation more and more electrons would be stripped from the Mercury perhaps causing double and triple ionisation.
Plasma is an electrically induced state of matter beyond those which we are normally used to, like solids, liquids, or gas. We have all see Plasma. It is present in Lightning.

Photo-chemistry:

During their incarceration at Farm Hall scientists, Gerlach, Diebner and Harteck all referred to the photo-chemistry method for obtaining fissile uranium, yet historical accounts of World War 2 remain utterly silent on what the process was which they referred to.
Whilst the science of photo chemistry is understood, the role it played in Nazi science is not mentioned and remains classified.

Photochemistry relies upon ionisation of an intermediary element to create a plasma. In this case using Mercury. X-rays would be generated from the ionised plasma. Sporrenberg referred to use of Beryllium  oxide inside the Bell centrifuge. Beryllium is known to donate slow neutrons when bombarded by X-rays. So how is that useful?
It is worth noting, there are slow neutrons and fast neutrons. Fast neutrons are only useful in fission for the splitting of atoms. What it appears the Nazis were attempting to achieve was fusion ,or the adding of neutrons and protons to Thorium 232 to transform it into Uranium 233.
An element is defined by the number of Protons in it’s nucleus. Normally the number of Protons and neutrons are the same, but in an isotope the number of Protons remains the same, but the number of neutrons can vary in a small percentage of atoms. This could be excess or lower numbers of neutrons. For Thorium to transmute to Uranium requires taking up extra protons. When Protons are emitted that is called Beta radiation.
Thorium has only one naturally occurring isotope therefore when converted to Uranium it would be relatively free from impurity. This is another important factor for building atomic weapons because more than 0.5% contamination renders U233 impossible to use in nuclear weapons.
Sporrenberg mentioned Xerum 525 placed at the central axis of the centrifuge. From his descriptions we can postulate that Xerum 525 was probably paraffin impregnated with Beryllium oxide and Thorium oxide.  Sporrenberg mentions red mercury which is Mercury (II) Iodide. This would have caused the red or pinkish colour which the jelly had. Red Mercury scintillates under X-rays and is used as a super-conductor.
Paraffin works by creating a large cross section, or target and by slowing down fast particles.

Spin Polarisation:

Principle scientist in charge of the Projekt Thor, was Prof Walther Gerlach. In 1922 he became famous as an understudy to Otto Stern, for their discovery of the deflection of atoms in a magnetic field, known as the Stern–Gerlach effect. This was also the basis of Quantum Physics.When Stern fled Jewish persecution Gerlach continued research at Goeth Institute, Frankfurt am Main where in 1933 he experimented with the fluroescence of Mercury under the influence of magnetic fields. Gerlach had also worked on transmutation of elements by photo chemistry.
I suggest the Bell, combined spin polarisation with another effect, photo-chemistry pioneered in 1936 by Dr Ronald Richter. Richter developed Carbide arc plasma furnaces for a chemical plant at Eger in Czechoslovakia. When the plant switch to developing Lithium batteries for U-boats Richter discovered he could induce radiation by injecting Deuterium into the Lithium plasma.
With photo-chemistry the concept creates a dense plasma contained by powerful electric magnets to cause fluorescence in Mercury. Excited Mercury ions would then cause Beryllium to emit slow neutrons to be captured by Thorium 232, changing it into Uranium 233.
A variation of this method using Uranium 238 could also conceivably breed Plutonium for atomic weapons without the need for a nuclear reactor.

Project Thor began with Heeres Versuchanstalt No.10 – Wehrmacht Laboratory in January 1942. The project office was originally located at Torgau. From November 1943 the project office relocated to  Neumakt west of Breslau (modern Wroclaw). During the War Torgau was a penal centre where prisoners were employed in explosives manufacture.
Dr Ing Ernst Nagelstein visited a conference in Switzerland on 2 November 1944 where he disclosed to an OSS agent present that Auer was refining Thorium to metal. He added there was no known industrial use for Thorium. He also added that Otto Hahn was working on an A-bomb using either Uranium or Thorium. This Thorium project is associated with Project Thor.
Thorium was mined in Silesia near the Bell’s location. Even larger stocks were available in France. Indeed when the Allies landed at Normandy in 1944, Germany urgently shipped tons of French Thorium by rail eastwards, deep into Germany. Why ship it so urgently and what made Thorium so important?
On 1 November 1943, Thor moved into it’s new home, a complex built beneath Gandau air base. Thor operated in partnership with private joint ventures by Fürstenau und Co. GmbH, AEG, Siemens and Bosch.
Thor also seems to have involved a powerful Tesla Coil, or Van der Graff generator built near Frankfurt am Main. Radiation from high voltage discharges were reported to have stopped engines of bomber aircraft flying overhead. This prompted a special Allied investigation called Project 1217 to investigate whether radiation discharges were a new form of weapon.
Prof Walther Gerlach who headed Thor for Heereswaffenamt was a dedicated scientist. In 1943 Gerlach received the Nobel prize for his work on spin polarisation of atoms. This itself was peculiar because his published work on the subject was in the 1920s and early 1930s. What prompted the awarding of recognition in 1943?
As an administrator, in emergency measures to progress the German A-bomb project, Gerlach was also charged with procuring fissile Uranium from January 1944. He was appointed in charge of the entire Uranium project by Heereswaffenamt, replacing Dr Abraham Essau.
Documents captured by ALSOS at Strassburg, often referred to as the Goudsmitt Papers which were classified after the War today reveal drawings of a tall standing device, looking like a Van der Graff generator, or perhaps a Tesla Coil. At the very top inside it’s spherical head was a spinning device. In the margin are notes describing 5 million volts!
Nazi research papers captured at Strassburg concerning wartime nuclear projects were classified and archived in USA. One report has a diagram of a tall cylindrical device said in the plan to generate 5 Million Electron Volts (5MeV). This device resembled a giant Van der Graff generator and had no obvious purpose for a conventional nuclear reactor.[2]
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/archiv/archiv-online/geheimdokumente/beurteilung/statusbericht-gerlach/dokument-12/
At the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics in 1940, biologist Boris Rajewsky raised concerns about increased experimentation with artificial radiation and called for a project to research the effects of radiation. A 3 million volt device was built for Rajewsky’s research whose existence remains obscure.

When Gerlach took over from Essau in January 1944 he shunned KWI’s extravagant and wasteful research projects. He focused exclusively on development of nuclear weapons. At a meeting with Mentzell and Schumann in October 1944 they passed a motion not to turn over the still unfinished 3 million volt machine to Rajewsky because other previous high voltage “neutron generators” had been destroyed by Allied bombing. The new machine was vital for “the production of neutrons in physics and in the physics of explosives.” No information is available to identify what these earlier neutron generators were, or where their location was. [3]
After 22 July 1944, the SS took over all nuclear projects from Heereswaffenamt. Oversight of Thor was administered thereafter by Fuhrungsstab Kammler as one of his key responsibilities. Increasingly as the war neared it’s end, Kammler assumed direct control of several projects including production and testing of jet aircraft. Farrell in his book defines Kammler’s role as the production end.
The Bell was clearly part of a weapons project administered in part by the SS Armaments office, or Forschungen Entwicklungen, Patente (research development section patents) FEP headed by Admiral Rhein. The armaments office was overall headed by SS Brigadeführer Heinrich Gärtner. The Bell project was led by SS Obergruppenfuhrer Emil Mazauw. SS Lt General Dr Hans Kammler is often associated with the Bell project however Kammler’s command appears connected more with armaments production whilst Mauzaw’s command was focused on research and development. It is possible however given his responsibility for nuclear weapons that he was connected with the weaponisation of material produced by the Bell. [4]
Almost exactly a year after it arrived at Breslau, as Soviet forces fought across Poland the Bell was shifted a short distance south into foothills of the Owl Mountains inside a complex of tunnels beneath Furstenstein castle. The complex had been built by organisation Todt under the supervision of Xavier Dorsch These tunnels included a 2 kilometre long subterranean rail connection with the main railway line through Lubiechow in the valley below. The tunnel was connected with the castle above by elevator in a 50 metre tall shaft.
Laboratories for developing electrical discharge systems for the Bell were at Neumarkt (modern Sroda Slaska) and Leubus (modern Lubiaz) disguised in the facility of Schlesische Wekstätten dr Fűrstenau, (Furstenstein Castle) with corporate involvement by AEG (AEG-Allgemeine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft, Annaberg in Erzgebirge -bn) and Seimens (control mechanism). Manufacture of the complex, contra-rotating centrifugal drum mechanism was performed by BMAG (Berlin Anhaltische Maschinenbau AG) located at Dessau, home of the sprawling Junkers aircraft factory complex. In this context, BMAG was also awarded a contract for industrial scale production of Dr Erich Bagge’s Isotope Sluice centrifuges.
A sizeable underground facility existed at Schloss Fürstenstein (underneath Fürstenstein Castle) lower Silesia. Nearby and to the east The main Nazi Bell facility itself was located in the Wenceslas mine at Ludwigsdorf (modern Ludwikowize). First experiments with the Nazi Bell occurred in May and June 1944.

Evidence of the Project’s existence

At Farm Hall after the War whilst interned by the Allies, Prof Gerlach complained to colleagues about difficulties assembling the engineers required for his photo-chemistry project. [5][6]

Gerlach:  It is not true that we neglected the separation of isotopes. On the contrary, we discussed the whole thing at Tubingen in February and there was a meeting at Munich. Clusius, Harteck and I said that this photo chemical thing must be done. It took until the end of the year before the people who could do it were got together and the spectrograph obtained and special accommodation acquired, as the Litz Institute had been smashed up.

In fact one of his difficulties occured when project engineer, SS officer and ardent Nazi Dr Kurt Debus, denounced his colleague at AEG, Dr Richard Cremer to the Gestapo. On Cremer’s behalf another colleague Dr Carl Ramsuer intervened and wrote to the Gestapo about the importance of Cremer’s work referring to the nature of their project:

Loosely translated as language is not my strength the message says:

Herr Doctor-engineer Richard Kremer from AEG transformer factory, together with the research institute of AEG is developing the project with regard to high voltage, which was commissioned by the Office of Army Ordinance as a secret device, for deciding the course of war.
Realisation of this project is half dependent on Kremer, who is only AEG employee qualified in this special field of electricity. Without the co-operation of Kremer further implementation of this project is impossible. Can we not choose to temporarily waive punishment?

Anti Gravity Claims

Unfortunately the Nazi Bell attracts a lot of outlandish claims linking it to anti-gravity theories, or claims that it was a propulsion system for UFOs. I do not subscribe to, nor agree with such claims.
Some such claims may have been intended as disinformation by Sporrenberg to his interrogators. Others may be founded on Dr Ronald Richter’s work in Argentina during the early 1950s on plasma shockwave induced fusion and his claims in a letter seeking work in USA on plasma ramjet engines. Richter claimed this engine could enable vertical take of fighters, but with fuel consumption 20 times greater than that of a comparable jet engine.
Joseph Farrell wrote that Gerlach never before the war referred to Gravitational physics, nor after the war returned to the subject. Oddly I point out that Gerlach made no reference to the subject during the war either. Farrell apparently ignores the obvious that this absence only corroborates the Bell had nothing to do with anti-gravity.

Identities within the Bell Project

Of the other Nazi engineers or scientists claimed, or thought to be involved with the Nazi Bell, were Prof Kurt Debus, Dr Ronald Richter, Ing Otto Cerny, Dr Otto Ambros, Dr Elizabeth Adler and Ing Dr Richard Cramer. Witkowski  in his book noted from Polish Intelligence sources that the SS shot 66 scientists involved with the Bell to prevent their falling into Soviet hands.[7] These however may have been captured Soviet and eastern European “guest workers.”
There are two distinct bodies of scientists and engineers involved. Those who developed the device itself Like Richter, Cremer, Cerny and Debus, were more in the realm of high voltage electrical engineers. Ambros, Adler and Gerlach on the other hand were more likely concerned with the applications of the Bell device.

Photo of a Ju-290, four engined relative of the Ju-390 which evacuated the Bell.

Dr Elizabeth Adler was a mathematician said to have been evacuated with the Bell and Debus on a Junkers Ju-390 flight in April 1945.[8][9] Mathematics play an important role in calculating particle deflection in quantum physics. No record of Adler survives the war, however Gerlach’s assistant before the war was a talented mathematician Miss Elisabeth Borman who had also worked for Max Born. It is known that their favorite hotel in Stockholm was the Adler Hotel.
Dr Otto Ambros was expert in Chemical warfare and chairman of Albert Speer’s “S” Committee. The Bell served two different projects. One for nuclear physics and the other for biological warfare research, in particular studying the effects of radiation exposure on Concentration camp inmates, animals and plants.

Bell Engineers

Kurt Debus is best known for his role in managing V-2 launches for the SS and later working for NASA on Apollo moon launches. He also had expertise however in the measurement of high voltage discharges. His official NASA biography says:
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1908, Dr. Debus received all his schooling in that country. He attended Darmstadt University where he earned his initial and advanced degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. He served as a graduate assistant on the faculty for electrical engineering and high-voltage engineering while studying for his master’s degree. In 1939 he obtained his engineering doctorate with a thesis on surge voltages and was appointed assistant professor at the university. During this period he became actively engaged in the rocket research program at Peenemunde.
A common criticism of the Bell story is that the only reference to it’s existence is from Witkowski’s claim of Sporrenberg’s post war testimony, however Debus also described the Bell. Document dated April 22, 1943 Foreign Scientist Case Files, K Debus NARA/RG 28, US Nat. Archive, College Park, Maryland USA.
Another reference to the Bell’s existence comes from Prof Meiczyslaw Moldovia, a former prisoner of Gross Rosen Concentration camp who worked at the technical office in Furstenstein Castle. One of the few to survive
Dr Otto Cerny revealed his role in the Nazi Bell in the early 1960s whilst working for NASA to Greg Rowe’s father. Greg recalled listening to the conversation as a child and recounted it for Henry Stevens. Cerny described it as something like a ring of stones with a hoop inside which sat the Bell. Cerny also mentioned a concave mirror above the axis through which one could see backwards.[10] The JIOA list of scientists most of whom were recruited for Operation Paperclip to work for USA. The list refers to Cerny as “Elec. Instal. on Supersonics” and that he had been attached to the technical University of Vienna. The Vienna technical university was involved with an underground SS nuclear facility at Melk and a nuclear research laboratory at Zell am See.
Cremer was a transformer engineer from Oberschönweide whom together with the AEG Research Institute was developing the Hochspannungsprojekt (High Voltages Project) under contract to Heereswaffenamt (HWA). This project was reborn under the SS in July 1944, codenamed Charite Anlage with the priority code reference SS/1040. When Cremer was denounced to the Gestapo by Gerlach, AEG Research institute’s Prof Dr. Carl Ramsaur defended Cremer’s importance to the war effort and the highest priority work of Prof Dr E. Schumann, to secure Cremer’s release. Ramsaur’s letter links the Bell with German atomic bomb research.

Clues to Bell’s Purpose

Dr Eric Schumann of course was working on designs in 1943 with Dr Walter Trinks for hollow, shaped charge tactical atomic weapons using Uranium 233 as their fissile mass. These tactical nuclear weapons fired superhot slugs of Lithium at Beryllium and Lithium Deuteride to cause a brief rush of neutrons in what is termed a Duteron beam. The question of course arises where would Schumann obtain extremely rare and hard to separate Uranium 233?
The answer I suggest is the Bell produced Uranium 233 for Schumann. Rainer Karlsch disclosed in his book Hitler’s Bombe that Schumann & Trinks had a laboratory at Grief near Peenemunde where R/Admiral Otto Haxel experimented with superheated Lithium at 20,000 atmospheres, using hollow shaped charges.
Dr Ronald Richter experiment in late 1936 with arc furnaces whilst producing Lithium for U-boat batteries. He discovered that by injecting Deterium into the plasma from Lithium, it would produce radiation. Richter could use the level of radiation produced to monitor the temperature inside the furnace. In 1942 Richeter was recruited to work on the Bell project.

Bell as a Uranium/Plutonium Breeder?

Otto Hahn experimented before the war with Lise Meitner on photo-fission techniques to determine the properties of slow neutrons and transmutation of elements. Because Hahn was not particularly gifted, or insightful, he relied heavily upon Meitner who as a Jewish scientist fled to Stockholm in 1938. Hahn used the excellent air mail service between Berlin and Stockholm throughout the war to seek Meitner’s advice and unwittingly was the prime security breech for Nazi Germany’s entire nuclear effort. Everything Hahn knew was relayed to MI5 through Operation Epsilon. [11]
Dr Ing Ernst Nagelstein contacted the OSS in Switzerland on 2nd November 1944 and disclosed that the Auer Company was refining Thorium to metal and he claimed there was no known use in Germany  for Thorium. In pre war days Thorium had been used in toothpaste, but this use had ceased during the war. Apart from large captured stocks of Thorium in France, which were suddenly removed to Germany in 1944 after Normandy landings, Thorium was also mined in the Erzbirge, right next to the Wenceslas mine,  home to the Bell project. Nagelstein added that Otto Hahn was working on the Atomic bomb using either Thorium, or Uranium.
Other scientists known to have been involved included Dr Herman Oberth who in late September 1944 journeyed with Dr Herbert Jensen (nuclear physicist), Dr Edward Tholen and Dr Elizabeth Adler from Prague to Breslau. The Nazi Bell was located a short distance southwest of Breslau. [12] Oberth’s wartime expertise lay in developing special explosives. Schumann relied upon special high speed explosives for his shaped hollow charge mini nukes.
The importance of Schumann being linked with the Bell project is that he and Trinks had made a patent application for a hollow charge A-bomb  which specified use of U233 as it’s fissile core. Thorium 232, if bombarded by Protons with less than 14MeV energy, may be transmuted to Uranium 233 without the risk of dangerous contamination by Uranium 232. This process is called Photo Fission, or Recoil Based Fuel Breeding. This method can also breed Plutonium 239 from Uranium 238.

Notes:
[1]Witkowski, Igor. The Truth About the Wunderwaffe, p.231.
[2](NA Gerlach’s Report dated 2 May 1945, RG 302, ref 244)
[3] Deichmann, Ute & Dunlap, Thomas. Biologists Under Hitler, p.13
[4]Farrell, Joseph. The SS Brotherhood of the Bell: The Nazis’ Incredible Secret Technology. P.147-148
[5]Bernstein, Jeremy. Hitler’s Uranium Club, The Secret recordings at Farm Hall. pp.134-135
[6]Litz Institiute, likeliest location Dessau aircraft manufacturing complex. Litz wire is a multi-braded wire for conducting very high voltage charges.
[7] Witkowski, Igor. The Truth About the Wunderwaffe, p.242-243. Witkowski believing these to be German scientists is perhaps unaware the degree to which captured Soviet scientists were recruited for work on SS projects and the probability that scientists who were shot were likely to be Russian scientists.  
[8] [9] Bell evacuation flight noted in Farrell, Joseph. Giza Death Star Deployed, pp 115-130, based upon report of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Schuster’s interrogation, Berlin Document Centre.
[10] Stevens, Henry (2007) Adventures Unlimited Press. Hitler’s Suppressed and Still Secret Weapons, Science and Technology. pp.251-255
[11] Bodanis, David.  E=MC²   p.105
[10] Witkowski, Igor. The Truth About the Wunderwaffe, p.257.

Flight of the Nazi Bell

A Junkers Ju-290 very similar to the six engined Ju-390 which evacuated the Nazi Bell

Anyone from the former Third Reich who might know anything was interrogated to piece together the facts and undoubtedly there was some awareness of Projekt Thor, but not a thorough grasp. It is from various interrogations that we have our clearest view. Three primary soures referred to:

1. SS Lieutnant General Jakob Sporrenberg, Police Chief (ie Gestapo) Lublin (occupied Poland)
2. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Schuster, from interrogation report at Berlin Document Centre
3. Dr Wilhelm Voss, Chief Executive of Skoda Works, Czechoslovakia given to Tom Agoston

Kammler oversaw removal and evacuation of the Bell project. He was frequently at Gross-Rosen concentration camp which supplied labour for an immense underground construction in the Eulengebirge Mountains. There is said to be a vast complex of tunnels over 35 square kilometres of territory. Today several tunnels are privately owned and open for tourists. Others are flooded and impossible to access. The existence of this complex is confirmed in a Polish document dated Warsaw 6 May 1947 “Action for De-Arming Oder Line” which speaks of the removal of huge quantities of machinery from the interior of this location before it was destroyed by explosives.
In April 1945 the Nazi Government in Berlin was preparing to evacuate key personnel and records from the capital. A vast armada of transport aircraft was required for this task. On 17 April 1945 Kammler responded to Berlin’s request for use of transport aircraft under his command. Kammler refused.

Betr: LKW Junkers
Gemaess Führerbefehl gehen Massnahmen Strahlflugzeug Militärischen voraus.  Bin deshalb nicht in der Lage gewesen, gewünschten LKW freizustellen. Bau-Insp. der Waffen-SS Reich Süd, Gez. Kammler

translated as:

Re: Lorry Junkers
In accordance with Führer-Order jet aircraft measures take precedence over military. Have therefore not been in the position to release the lorry you require. Bau-Insp etc, signed Kammler.

Lorry was simply code for the Junkers aircraft. This gives us an approximate date for the Bell’s evacuation. About 17 April 1945. Below is an excerpt from a Soviet military map at the time:

As the story is told, In April 1945 as Soviet forces closed on Schweidnz (modern Swidnica). At an airfield merely described by Rudolf Schuster as “West of Opole” the Bell was loaded on a Junkers Ju-390 aircraft. Other sources suggest the airfield may have been Bystzyca Klodzka airfield situated in a valley within the Eulenbirge mountains themseleves and indeed west of Opole.  Bystzyca Klodzka was connected by narrow guage railway with the Wenceslas mine at Ludwikowice.
Schuster noted the Ju-390 aircraft was hidden under tarpaulins at the airfield, but beneath those tarpaulins it was painted in pale blue with markings of the Sweedish Air Force. It departed with passengers engineer SS Mjr. Kurt Debus, mathematician Elizabeth Adler & scientist Dr Herman Obeth, for Bodo in Norway. Elisabeth Adler has proven impossible to identify with certainty, but she appears to have been Prof Walther Gerlach’s previous laboratory assistant Elisabeth Borman. She was a mathematician in her own right.
At this point German sources fell silent however in 1993 under pressure from the US Government a new administration in Argentina convened a Parliamentary Commission to investigate wartime support for the Nazis. A previously classified report of the Economic Ministry disclosed intelligence about a multi engined german aircraft arriving at Entre Rios province (northern Argentina) in May 1945. There it unloaded a device described only as a Bell. The report itself was not published.
Many years later, Abel Basti’s 2004 tourist guide to “Bariloche Nazi”, disclosed the report’s claims about the Bell arriving in 1945. Basti probably obtained this document by giving numerous undertakings to the Argentine authorities. This is not an abnormal procedure in this country. The Argentine Government does not wish to have sensitive matters involving its Nazi past given official airing, but occasionally Argentine authors are allowed to see documents unofficially. Undertakings usually include promising not to publish any photocopy, not to show the copy to anybody else, not to quote the issuing office, and to change important sensitive details – in this particular document it is not clear whether the aircraft landed in Uruguay, or Argentina because the location is deliberately obscured and confused.
At this point Witkowski re-enters the trail of evidence disclosing sightings witnessing a six engined Ju-390 aircraft being dismantled at a German owned ranch in Paysandu Province. The farm described is in an area east of Paysandu on the road east to Rivera at the village of “19 de abril” about 60 kilometres out of town. From there local inhabitants recall the aircraft’s parts were taken away and dumped in the River Uruguay which is two kilometres wide at this point.
© Simon Gunson (2010)
Source: Simon Gunson