Hitler’s Sunken Secret 2006
Distributed by WGBH Boston, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134; 617-300-2000
Produced by David Sington
Directed by Duncan Copp
DVD, color, 56 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Physics, World War II
Date Entered: 03/10/2006
Reviewed by Alexander Rolfe, Reference Librarian, George Fox University, Newberg, ORThis made-for-TV NOVA production answers some long-held questions about the 1944 sinking of the ferry Hydro by the Norwegian resistance. Believing the ferry carried “heavy water” for use in Germany’s atomic bomb project, the resistance sank the Hydro even though it carried some of their innocent neighbors. The NOVA team pulls a barrel up from the lake floor, to find that it did indeed contain heavy water, but not in the quantities necessary to significantly advance Germany’s feeble nuclear project.
The video presents much more than the underwater expedition. The actual retrieval of the barrel consumes enough time, though, that in an educational setting one may want to skip past some of it. The remaining material includes interviews with a resistance fighter, a surviving passenger, a Nazi nuclear physicist (interviewed in 1992), and some contemporary experts on the subject. The video assumes a basic knowledge of World War II. The production quality is very high.
Recommended for collections supporting classes on World War II or the history of science.