American Experience

J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn): Are we talking about today?

Roger Robb, courtroom prosecutor (Michael Cumpsty): Yes.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn): Certainly not necessarily so. They could conceivably be.

Roger Robb, courtroom prosecutor (Michael Cumpsty): Was that your view in 1943 and during the war years?

Narrator: The hearings would go on for nearly a month, the story of Oppenheimer’s life laid bare, his secrets exposed, his brilliance and arrogance, naïveté and insecurities debated, dissected, and judged. A special three-man board appointed by the Atomic Energy Commission would rule on the charges. To defend himself, the embattled scientist felt compelled to tell his own story in his own way.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn): The items of so-called derogatory information… cannot be fairly understood except in the context of my life and work. I was born in New York in 1904. My father came to this country at the age of 17 from Germany.

Narrator: Julius Oppenheimer was a penniless Jewish immigrant who arrived in America in 1888 unable to speak a word of English and went to work in his uncle’s textile importing business. By the time he was 30, he was a partner in the company and a wealthy man. When he fell in love, it was with a sensitive, talented woman of exquisite taste and refinement.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn): My mother was born in Baltimore and before her marriage she was an artist and teacher of art.