8. The Alsos mission underwent grave risk in Paris to obtain a great reward.
The second Allied jeep to enter Paris during the liberation of that city carried Colonel Pash and three other operatives determined to secure Frederic Joliot-Curie at all costs. The French physicist was so knowledgeable regarding nuclear physics he had been mentioned by Albert Einstein in his pre-war letter regarding an atomic bomb sent to Franklin Roosevelt. Pash and the Alsos teams reasoned, correctly as it turned out, German scientists involved in a weapons program would consult with the Frenchman. Simply identifying the scientists involved offered a coup to the Alsos mission. If those scientists could be captured or otherwise induced to surrender to the Allies their services would be denied to the Soviets, then swept through Poland into Germany.
Several of the scientists identified by Joliot-Curie as having visited him became of immediate interest to the Allies. Some worked in high levels of the German atomic weapons program. Others worked in areas of additional interest, including Erich Schumann. Schumann worked throughout the war in biological warfare, including the use of pathogens to attack the American homeland. Hitler approved research into biological weapons as a means of developing suitable defensive measures against them. Schumann supported their use as an offensive weapon. Schumann came under Allied control (British) following the war, another German scientist denied to the Soviets. Several of the scientists identified by Joliot-Curie were interned in Britain at Farm Hall. There they thought they enjoyed relative freedom, though their activities were under audio and visual surveillance at all times, their conversations recorded for later analysis.