Louis Slotin, a little-known Canadian, helped build the real-life atomic bombs portrayed in ‘Oppenheimer’

In one of the summer’s buzziest blockbuster films—Oppenheimer, about the real-life Jewish head of the top-secret American wartime Manhattan Project—the film’s director neglected to include an important Canadian figure. A Jewish scientist from Winnipeg, Louis Slotin was a key part of the team of groundbreaking researchers at the Los Alamos atomic laboratories. He helped build and assemble the bombs that would be dropped on Japan in 1945, ultimately ending the Second World War. Slotin’s family thought he was researching medical uses for nuclear radiography. They only learned the truth after he was killed in a controversial experiment after the war had ended. Slotin received an immense—and fatal—dose of radiation, but not before he heroically saved everyone else in the room by separating unstable plutonium pieces with his bare hands. Slotin died in Los Alamos in 1946 at age 35. On The CJN Daily, Slotin’s surviving Canadian relatives Beth Shore and Rael Ludwig both of Winnipeg, join to tell their uncle’s story, in hopes the world will learn more about what _Oppenheimer _overlooked.

What we talked about

• Learn more about the “Trinity” nuclear bomb test of July 16, 1945, and see original silent film of Louis Slotin as part of the Manhattan Project, from the Trinity Remembered website
• Read Beth Shore’s tribute to her late uncle Louis Slotin on the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba website
• Learn more about scientist Louis Slotin in Ellin’s book, Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and WWII, published by the University of Toronto Press

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.