As part of Operation Epsilon, captured German nuclear physicists were secretly recorded at Farm Hall, a house in England where they were interned. Here's how the German scientists reacted to the news (on August 6th, 1945) that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, taken from the now-declassified transcripts (pp. 116-122 of this copy):
Otto Hahn (co-discoverer of nuclear fission): I don't believe it... They are 50 years further advanced than we.
Werner Heisenberg (leading figure of the German atomic bomb effort): I don't believe a word of the whole thing. They must have spent the whole of their £500,000,000 in separating isotopes: and then it is possible.
It's interesting to read how the German scientists reacted, and how some of them seemed to have not wanted to succeed in doing the same thing for the Nazis.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday October 29 2016, @02:58PM
A bit more context on that would be helpful as the quote doesn't really say anything.
They'd been living under the Nazis and the constant eyes of the Gestapo for many years. If you look at the quote itself it doesn't indicate that they're afraid of being heard. Or perhaps I'm rather sneaky and I wouldn't be talking about microphones in a room I thought or knew had them.