Page 210 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

CONCLUSION
An appraisal
This assessment must take into account two aspects which were highlighted during the creation of the ILL, and justified creating a Franco-German scientific collaboration to reinforce the Adenauer- de Gaulle agreements.
10.1 The Franco-German Cooperation
As I mentioned in the introduction, this collaboration was not obvious. In 1965 the war was not far away. There was still a distrust of Germany amongst the ordinary French. We [the French] continued to use the pejorative term “Boche” when speaking of the Germans. This was particularly true in Grenoble where the memories of the resistance in the Vercors, and its tragic end, were very alive. German researchers came at a late date to use neutron beams, and their contributions were often ignored by their more experienced French colleagues. The collaboration was not always well viewed in France. It is extraordinary that amongst the main players in the creation of the ILL, two Frenchmen, Jules Horowitz and Robert Dautray, both of Jewish origin had both suffered from the Nazis. The father of Dautray, and mother of Horowitz had
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