Hollywood’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Prompts DEFA Film Library to Make Documentary About Manhattan Project German Scientist Accessible to UMass Community

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The DEFA Film Library has made the documentary “Fathers of a Thousand Suns” (1988-89, dir. Joachim Hellwig) accessible to an English-speaking audience, with subtitles created by Barton Byg, professor emeritus of German and Scandinavian studies, and the DEFA Film Library staff.  The German-language film made its English-subtitled world premiere at the World Fellowship Center in Conway, N.H., on Hiroshima Remembrance Day and will soon be available to the UMass community.

The discovery of atom-splitting placed many researchers in moral dilemmas and forced them to make difficult decisions as wartime efforts during WWII engaged nuclear scientists in the development of atomic weapons. The rediscovered “Fathers of a Thousand Suns” tells the story of young German scientist Klaus Fuchs and other physicists who faced moral conflicts in relation to atomic warfare.

Fuchs was a member of the Manhattan Project who joined the highly secret Los Alamos Laboratory in the New Mexico desert in 1944. He became a spy for the Soviet Union while conducting nuclear research in the United States and Britain.

Director Joachim Hellwig used footage and photos from international archives and private collections. He also included clips from a 1983 filmed interview with Fuchs that was conducted by Markus Wolf, founding member and chief of the East German Foreign Intelligence Service within the Ministry for State Security.

“The Russian-Ukrainian War and the 2023 release of the Hollywood movie ‘Oppenheimer’ make access to this East German documentary very timely,” says Christoph Schmauch, World Fellowship Center director emeritus.

Starting Aug. 12 and through Aug. 20, a free streaming link can be accessed through the DEFA Library’s website.