WEBVTT - S05 Episode 2 Extra: Breaking Bonds

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<v Speaker 1>dot com introducing the Fountain Road Files, a new horror

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<v Speaker 1>fiction podcast from Unexplained creator Richard mc clean smith. In

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<v Speaker 1>March twenty twenty, twenty seven year old cafe worker Ben

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<v Speaker 1>Williams began recording an audio diary of the coronavirus pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>Two months later, he was found dead in the South

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<v Speaker 1>London flat where he was spending lockdown alone, or so

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<v Speaker 1>he thought. Search the Fountain Road Files wherever you get

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<v Speaker 1>your podcasts, and for more information go to the Fountain

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<v Speaker 1>Road Files dot com. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me

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<v Speaker 1>Richard mc clean smith, where for the weeks in between episodes,

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<v Speaker 1>we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason

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<v Speaker 1>or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In

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<v Speaker 1>the last episode, The Unceasing Cloud, we tracked the inadvertent

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<v Speaker 1>consequences of Alexander von Humboldt's introduction of guano to Europe,

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<v Speaker 1>from the subsequent explosion of international crop yields to the

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<v Speaker 1>discovery of the harbor Bosch process, to arrive eventually at

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<v Speaker 1>a world forever haunted by the specter of chemical warfare.

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<v Speaker 1>As for the Phantom Gasser of Badatort County, the jury

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<v Speaker 1>remains out as to whether the really had been a

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<v Speaker 1>mystery perpetrator terrorizing the community, or whether in fact it

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<v Speaker 1>had been gripped by a kind of mass hysteria instead,

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<v Speaker 1>or perhaps even a mixture of the two. At the

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<v Speaker 1>center of it all, however, was the looming and polarizing

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<v Speaker 1>presence of chemist Fritz Harbor, with the episode in danger

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<v Speaker 1>of becoming too long for its own good. There was

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<v Speaker 1>much about Harbor's life that I wasn't able to include,

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<v Speaker 1>not least of all the inspiring and tragic story of

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<v Speaker 1>Harbor's first wife, Clara Imovar. Clara Imovar was born in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen seventy in a small town near Breslau in what

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<v Speaker 1>used to be the Kingdom of Prussia. With the unification

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<v Speaker 1>of Germany in eighteen seventy one, Breslau experienced an explosion

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<v Speaker 1>of culture and industry, becoming the sixth largest city in

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<v Speaker 1>the German Empire as its population tripled between eighteen seventy

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<v Speaker 1>and nineteen hundred. Being the daughter of a wealthy chemist

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<v Speaker 1>who was also the owner of a textile store in Breslau,

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<v Speaker 1>Clara had spent much of her time in the city,

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<v Speaker 1>inspired by its newfound dynamism and dreaming of becoming a

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<v Speaker 1>scientist in her own right. However, such were the social

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<v Speaker 1>constraints of the day, the education offered to women was

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<v Speaker 1>of a somewhat different variety to that offered to men.

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<v Speaker 1>The Women's College, as it was known, provided only what

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<v Speaker 1>women were thought to need by the people power at

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<v Speaker 1>the time, preparing them for what was considered to be

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<v Speaker 1>their natural purpose as housewives, mothers, and companions of their husbands.

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<v Speaker 1>There was also the teacher's Seminary, in which you could

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<v Speaker 1>study to become a teacher at the women's and girls' schools.

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<v Speaker 1>Gaining employment as a science professional, however, was an impossibility

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<v Speaker 1>for the simple reason that women were prohibited from officially

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<v Speaker 1>enrolling at university. Without an official degree, you could not

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<v Speaker 1>be employed. Women could, however, attend university classes in a

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<v Speaker 1>guest capacity, provided they passed an entrance exam for which

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<v Speaker 1>they were unlikely to have ever had the education for,

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<v Speaker 1>and even if they could pass the exam, permission to

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<v Speaker 1>attend would still require the gaining of approval from the

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<v Speaker 1>faculty and the support of a professor from the university. Undeterred,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks to the support of her parents, Clara was able

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<v Speaker 1>to enroll in private lessons and successfully passed the un

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<v Speaker 1>Versity of Breslau's exam in eighteen ninety six at the

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<v Speaker 1>age of twenty six. Later that year, she enrolled as

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<v Speaker 1>a guest student at Breslau. Clara was taken under the

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<v Speaker 1>wing of chemist Richard Arbek, who cared little for her

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<v Speaker 1>guest status, preferring to treat her as if she were

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<v Speaker 1>an official student like anyone else. It was through Arbek

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<v Speaker 1>that Clara was first introduced to his friend and fellow

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<v Speaker 1>lecturer Fritz Harbor, who was working at the University of

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<v Speaker 1>Karl's Brewer. The pair wouldn't meet again for some time.

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<v Speaker 1>In the following years, Arbek would become an important confidante

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<v Speaker 1>of Clara's, to whom she would regularly write to express

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<v Speaker 1>her frustration with the sexist attitudes she regularly came up

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<v Speaker 1>against in the laboratory. Nonetheless, Clara persevered, and with Arbek

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<v Speaker 1>as her PhD supervisor, she graduated with distinction nineteen hundred,

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<v Speaker 1>becoming the first woman ever to receive a doctorate in

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<v Speaker 1>chemistry from the University of Breslau. After graduation, although still

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<v Speaker 1>unable to work, she remained with Arbek as an unofficial

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<v Speaker 1>lab assistant while making a living lecturing on chemistry at

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<v Speaker 1>various women's organizations. With little else like it around at

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<v Speaker 1>the time, Clara's lectures were immensely popular among women, helping

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<v Speaker 1>to popularize science for those who were largely denied access

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<v Speaker 1>to it. Then, in spring nineteen oh one, Clara received

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<v Speaker 1>a letter from Fritz Harbor inviting her to accompany him

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<v Speaker 1>to a conference in Freiburg. As it transpired, Harbor had

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<v Speaker 1>struggled to forget Clara from the moment they had first met,

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<v Speaker 1>and was eager to impress her. At the conference, Harbor

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<v Speaker 1>stunned Clara by proposing to her, which she accepted. Clara

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<v Speaker 1>wrote later that she accepted the proposal almost on a whim,

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<v Speaker 1>due to her belief that you should try and experience

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<v Speaker 1>everything that life had to offer. It was certainly never

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<v Speaker 1>her intention to let her professional career take a back

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<v Speaker 1>seat to what might be expected of her as a wife.

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<v Speaker 1>Some have suggested that she may have envisioned herself and

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<v Speaker 1>Harbor becoming a successful team together, much in the manner

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<v Speaker 1>of Marie and Pierre Curie, who only a few years

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<v Speaker 1>before had announced their discovery of radium to the world.

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<v Speaker 1>In the first few months after moving to Karl's Ruher

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<v Speaker 1>to live with Fritz. Clara did her best to balance

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<v Speaker 1>the housework with attending meetings at Carl's Ruhe University's Chemical

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<v Speaker 1>Society and giving lectures. As the months went by, however,

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<v Speaker 1>this would become increasingly difficult, and with the birth of

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<v Speaker 1>her and Fritz's son, Hermann in nineteen oh two, Clara

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<v Speaker 1>had little option but to put her professional ambitions on

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<v Speaker 1>hold indefinitely, and though she adored and doated on Hermann,

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<v Speaker 1>within a few years Clara was forced to accept that

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<v Speaker 1>her professional ambitions had slipped permanently from her grasp. It was,

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<v Speaker 1>no doubt all the harder to take that while her

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<v Speaker 1>career stagnated, Harbors truly began to flourish. By nineteen ten,

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<v Speaker 1>with Clara only able to watch from the sidelines, Harbor

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<v Speaker 1>had established himself as one of the greatest chemists of

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<v Speaker 1>all time, with his work taking significant precedence over his

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<v Speaker 1>personal life. Before long, Clara and Fritz also began to

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<v Speaker 1>your first order. In April nineteen ten came a particularly

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<v Speaker 1>tough blow when Clara's friend and mentor, Richard Arbek, was

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<v Speaker 1>killed in a ballooning accident at the age of forty one.

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<v Speaker 1>The following year, she and Fritz moved to Berlin, where

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<v Speaker 1>Harbor established the Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and electro

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<v Speaker 1>Chemistry and was made director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society,

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<v Speaker 1>the leading German science organization of the day. With the

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<v Speaker 1>outbreak of war a few years later, Harbor and his

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<v Speaker 1>team were drafted in by the German military to begin

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<v Speaker 1>the process of turning chemicals into viable weapons. Harbor's transition

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<v Speaker 1>from pioneering chemist to weapons manufacturer did not sit well

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<v Speaker 1>with Clara, having already been uncomfortable with it morally. After

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<v Speaker 1>seeing first hand the gruesome effect his experiments were having

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<v Speaker 1>on the animals he used for testing, she became positively

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<v Speaker 1>repulsed by the whole venture. The realities of war were

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<v Speaker 1>brought home even more starkly when, on December fourteenth, nineteen fourteen,

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<v Speaker 1>Otto Saka, a close friend of the Harbors and a

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<v Speaker 1>colleague of Fritz's the institute, was experimenting with kacadial chlorite

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<v Speaker 1>when it exploded in his face, killing him instantly. Clara,

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<v Speaker 1>who'd been in the laboratory at the time, watched it

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<v Speaker 1>happen in front of her, though the exact degree to

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<v Speaker 1>which Clara opposed her husband's new line of work has

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<v Speaker 1>been questioned by many. Some say she often pleaded with

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<v Speaker 1>him again and again not to work on gas warfare. Harbor, however,

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<v Speaker 1>felt his duty was ultimately to his country, not his family,

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<v Speaker 1>and that was what his country needed of him. Harbor

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<v Speaker 1>also famously saw no ethical difference between killing with gas

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<v Speaker 1>and killing with the bullet. Five months later, in April

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifteen, Clara and the rest of the world woke

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<v Speaker 1>to the news of that first devastating application of her

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<v Speaker 1>husband's weapon at the pre salient on the Western Front.

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<v Speaker 1>Harbor return earned from the front a week later, and

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<v Speaker 1>on the first of May, a day before he was

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<v Speaker 1>due to ship out again to supervise another attack, this

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<v Speaker 1>time on the Eastern Front. A gathering was held at

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<v Speaker 1>his and Clara's home to celebrate the success of the

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<v Speaker 1>gas attack. But attached, Clara could only watch on as

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<v Speaker 1>those in attendance lavished praise on Harbor and congratulated him

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<v Speaker 1>on his invaluable work for the war effort. It isn't

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<v Speaker 1>known exactly what happened between the couple later that night,

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<v Speaker 1>only that at some point Harbor retired to bed alone

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<v Speaker 1>after taking two sleeping pills, which he'd become increasingly dependent on.

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<v Speaker 1>By the time he woke up the following morning, Clara

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<v Speaker 1>was dead at some point. It's believed that after sitting

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<v Speaker 1>down in her study to compose a series of letters

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<v Speaker 1>to friends and family, she took her husband's service revolver

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<v Speaker 1>and headed out into the garden with it. After firing

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<v Speaker 1>off test shot, she aimed the gun at her heart

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<v Speaker 1>and pulled the trigger. She was found dying moments later

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<v Speaker 1>by her twelve year old son Hermann. What is clear

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<v Speaker 1>from letters of acquaintances that being the reluctant housewife that

0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.960
<v Speaker 1>Clara was, she was considered somewhat of an outlier by

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<v Speaker 1>many of those in her and Fritz's social circle, criticized

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<v Speaker 1>by some for not accepting her lot, picked on by

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<v Speaker 1>others because she didn't make more of an effort to

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<v Speaker 1>be more presentable. The suicide notes, if she did write them,

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<v Speaker 1>have never been published, leaving many to speculate as to

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<v Speaker 1>what her exact frame of mind was that night. Whether

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<v Speaker 1>her death was due to the devastation of what her

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<v Speaker 1>husband had wrought on the battlefield or merely on her life,

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<v Speaker 1>will never be entirely known. It's been speculated that Harbor

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<v Speaker 1>was having an affair at the time with Charlotte Nathan,

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<v Speaker 1>the manager of newly established political club, and that Clara

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<v Speaker 1>had walked in on them at the celebration dinner. This

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<v Speaker 1>was later denied by Nathan after learning about his wife's

0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.920
<v Speaker 1>death in the morning. By the afternoon, Fritz Harbor was

0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.720
<v Speaker 1>already on his way to the Eastern Front. Some claim

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<v Speaker 1>he made attempts to stay at home with his son,

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<v Speaker 1>only to be denied permissioned by the military, but this

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<v Speaker 1>has not been verified. Two years later, in nineteen seventeen,

0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.440
<v Speaker 1>he married Charlotte Nathan, with whom he would go on

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<v Speaker 1>to have two more children. As is well documented, Harbor

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<v Speaker 1>would also go on to develop even more lethal chemical weapons,

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<v Speaker 1>and at the war's end was controversially awarded the Nobel

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<v Speaker 1>Prize for his contribution to the Harbor Bosch process. Though

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<v Speaker 1>many would question his character, few could deny his genius.

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<v Speaker 1>The following year, Harbor, through his institute, founded the German

0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.040
<v Speaker 1>Society for Pest Control also known as de Gesh, a

0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.560
<v Speaker 1>state controlled institution for the development of pesticides but also

0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.120
<v Speaker 1>the development of chemical weapons. It was there in the

0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:24.120
<v Speaker 1>nineteen twenties that scientists experimenting with methyl cinoformate developed a

0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.480
<v Speaker 1>lethal pesticide that released hydrogen cyanide when exposed to water

0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:33.440
<v Speaker 1>and heat. Cyclone, as it was called, was soon banned

0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:38.720
<v Speaker 1>due to its lethality. Despite his patriotism and all he'd

0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.160
<v Speaker 1>done for his country during the war, things would become

0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.200
<v Speaker 1>increasingly difficult for Harbor when Adolf Hitler and his National

0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:51.120
<v Speaker 1>German Socialist Workers Party came to power. Harbor was born

0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.840
<v Speaker 1>into a Jewish family, and despite his conversion to Christianity

0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.520
<v Speaker 1>in the eighteen nineties, it was not enough to save

0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:02.560
<v Speaker 1>him from the rising tide of antisemitism. In the nineteen thirties,

0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.480
<v Speaker 1>Harbor was ordered to dismiss all Jewish personnel from his

0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.920
<v Speaker 1>Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Though Harbor was entitled to remain as

0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.720
<v Speaker 1>director of the institute, he refused to do so, delaying

0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.480
<v Speaker 1>the sacking of his staff just long enough for them

0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:23.160
<v Speaker 1>to find somewhere to go before withdrawing himself. Harbor, along

0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.160
<v Speaker 1>with Charlotte and his three children, moved to England, where

0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.240
<v Speaker 1>he worked for a brief time at Cambridge University. In

0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.040
<v Speaker 1>nineteen thirty three, he was invited by him Vatesman, who

0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.960
<v Speaker 1>would become the first president of Israel to work in

0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.480
<v Speaker 1>what was known by some as mandatory Palestine at the time.

0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.000
<v Speaker 1>Harbor left for his new job in January the following year,

0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.520
<v Speaker 1>but would never complete the journey, dying on route to

0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.280
<v Speaker 1>Palestine of heart failure at the age of sixty five.

0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.520
<v Speaker 1>After the banning of Zyclon developed under Harbor's guidance in

0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:03.440
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen twenties, chemists Vaulter heat and Bruno Tesh began

0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.159
<v Speaker 1>working on a revised version of the product, seeking to

0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.399
<v Speaker 1>distinguish it from the earlier model. It was renamed Cyclon B.

0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.960
<v Speaker 1>In August nineteen forty one, Karl Fritz, the SS, chief

0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.280
<v Speaker 1>in charge of prisoners at Auschwitz Concentration Camp, intrigued by

0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.760
<v Speaker 1>the effectiveness of Cyclon B at delousing the clothes of

0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.399
<v Speaker 1>the prisoners, began experimenting with it for use as a

0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:35.240
<v Speaker 1>possible human extermination device. In September that year, he tested

0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.480
<v Speaker 1>it out on six hundred Russian prisoners of war and

0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.800
<v Speaker 1>two hundred and fifty six prisoners in the basement of

0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:48.080
<v Speaker 1>Auschwitz Block eleven. Camp Commandant Rudolph Hears was so impressed

0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.919
<v Speaker 1>by the results, Cyclon B GAS was adopted as the

0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.000
<v Speaker 1>main method of killing at Auschwitz. Over the course of

0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.359
<v Speaker 1>the next few years, Cyclon B would be used to

0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.760
<v Speaker 1>kill up of one point one million, mostly Jewish victims

0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:09.040
<v Speaker 1>of the Holocaust, including members of Harbour's own extended family.

0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.560
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