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Science History Institute Details Story
of Chemist’s Holocaust Survival
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
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JANUARY 26, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
“Science and Survival,” an exhibit about Jewish chemist Georg Bredig’s survival and escape from the
Holocaust, will be on display outside of the Science History Institute through the spring.

mentioned in a lot of the letters that he knew the
dangers that would come, so he wanted to preserve
his legacy.”
With the help of his connections in the fi eld,
Max Bredig was able to fi nd a professorship at
the University of Michigan in 1937. Along with
international colleagues, Max Bredig helped his
father immigrate from the Netherlands after he fl ed
Germany to the U.S. after securing a lectureship
for Georg Bredig at Princeton University. Bredig
accepted the position in 1939.

“I venture to convey my heartiest thanks to you
and the Department of Chemistry for the great honor
and kindness bestowed upon me by the invitation to
come to your illustrious university,” Bredig wrote in
a letter. “Be sure that I shall endeavour to be worthy
of it.”
Concurrently, Max Bredig was also able to help
his sister and brother-in-law Marianne and Viktor
Homburger, as well as their daughter, escape from a
French concentration camp.

Georg Bredig died in 1944 and never lectured at
Princeton, but his scientifi c legacy was preserved
elsewhere. George Bredig, son of Max Bredig,
found the collection in his father’s basement and
recognized the collection’s value after viewing
letters from Bredig’s mentors, including many Nobel
Prize winners. In 2019, the Scientifi c History Institute
acquired the Papers of Georg and Max Bredig, a
collection of over 2,500 objects.

Though a small series of photos, letters and
descriptions are displayed outside of the museum,
the rest of the 21-linear-foot collection is available to
researchers. Detailing a story of an unlikely survival,
the Papers of Georg and Max Bredig should be
widely available, according to Patrick Shea, Science
History Institute’s chief curator of manuscripts and
archives. “The very existence of it is pretty unique,” Shea
said. “Certainly it might be more common to fi nd
in European archives, but just a collection that was
pretty much created pre-Nazi Germany and during
Nazi Germany — it made it out during the war years.

A lot of that material in similar collections were
confi scated by the Nazis and just burned. Entire
libraries no longer exist because of Nazi policies.”
For more information about the collection, visit
sciencehistory.org/science-and-survival. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Sasha Rogelberg
f asked to conjure an image of a Jewish German
scientist who came to America to escape Nazi
clutches, many think of Albert Einstein. But his isn’t
the only story that matches the description.

In 1940, German chemist Georg Bredig arrived
in the U.S., three years after his son Max Bredig
fl ed Nazi Germany and laid the groundwork for his
family’s escape. A network of scientists around the
world helped the family make their voyage. The
Bredig family’s story, complete with letters and
photographs, is on display in “Science and Survival,”
an outdoor exhibit on the facade of the Science
History Institute in Old City. The exhibit runs through
April 25.

“It’s a story of victimization and a premature, forced
ending of [Georg’s] career,” said Jocelyn McDaniel,
research curator of the Bredig Project at the Science
History Institute. “But then he also knew that there
was hope, in either Israel or the United States and,
that one day, his legacy might be shown or his work
might be valuable for scientists in the future.”
Bredig was born in Prussia, in what is now western
Poland, in 1868 to a middle-class German-speaking
family. After studying at Berlin’s Friedrich-Wilhelm
University, Bredig went on to become a physical
chemist in a time when the fi eld was just taking off
and when Germany was at the center of this age of
scientifi c innovation.

The young scientist was the protege of Nobel Prize
winners and exchanged letters with Einstein and
Nobel Prize winner Johannes Stark, among other
scientists. Bredig is best known for his arc method, a
type of colloidal chemistry still used today.

Despite his renown, Bredig’s career abruptly halted
in the 1930s, when the 1933 Law for the Restoration
of the Professional Service and 1935 Nuremberg
Race Laws stripped many German Jews of their right
to work, travel and own land. Bredig lost his profes-
sorship at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, and
his passport was marked with a “J.” The death of his
mother just months before only made matters worse.

Despondent and growing hopeless, Bredig sent a
letter to the Daniel Sieff Research Institute, in what
was then the British Mandate of Palestine, with
his scientifi c research, asking them to accept and
preserve the collection. They accepted.

“He did save all of his papers, which is amazing,”
McDaniel said. “And he sensed that as well. He



COMMUNITY NEWS
The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia mobilizes financial
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Get Involved: Jewish Disability Awareness
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D uring the month of February, Jewish commu-
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the Jewish Special Needs/Disability Awareness
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the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

“There has never been a more important time
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Check out the following ways to get involved both
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make a more inclusive and welcoming community for
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Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Sunday, Feb. 12
JDAIM Shabbat: Featuring Author
Arielle Silverman
Friday, Feb. 10 | 6:30-7:45 p.m.

Main Line Reform Temple
Join Arielle Silverman for a presentation about her
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Friday, Feb. 10 | 7-9 p.m.

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Join Congregation Kol Ami for a discussion on
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jkidaccess: Sensory-Friendly Sunday at the
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Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish
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Participants will enjoy crafts, a story time and a
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Monday, Feb. 13 - Sunday, Feb. 19
The Torah of Disability
Tuesday, Feb. 14 | 3-4 p.m.

Virtual Join Rabbi Elliot Kukla for an impactful hour for
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JDAIM Community Forum: Judaism, Mental Health
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Sunday, Feb. 15 | 7-8:15 p.m.

Virtual Join the Jewish Disability Inclusion Consortium
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Including All Students: Attention and Regulation
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Virtual Join Alanna Raffel, OTD, OTR/L, for an evening
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Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: A Discussion
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JDAIM Shabbat: Featuring Sawah Sharma
Friday, Feb. 24 | 7-8:15 p.m.

Shir Ami
Join Shir Ami for a special Shabbat service with
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**** To see the full JDAIM listing and registration
details, visit jewishphilly.org/jdaim.

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