Engelbert Broda

File ref KV 2/2349-2354

Broda was a leading Austrian scientist who arrived in the UK in 1938 seeking sanctuary from Nazi persecution. Though Special Branch, on information supplied by a reliable informer, was convinced that Broda was an active Communist, the Security Service was less certain. KV 2/2349 (1931-1940) shows that an intermittent watch of his correspondence and contacts was maintained, and that while it showed he was active in London Austrian affairs, there was nothing to confirm Broda as being an active Communist. When no evidence could be found the Service took to trailing Broda in the evenings, and a report of this observation is at serial 61A. There is a photo of Broda from his aliens registration card at serial 2A.

Broda was offered employment at the Cavendish Laboratory and the Security Service advised caution to the Department for Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in case he was ready to pass intelligence to his undoubted Communist associates. DSIR employed Broda anyway, and this led to a very close watch being kept on his activities, documented on file by intercepted correspondence and other reports (KV 2/2350, 1941-1943; KV 2/2351, 1943-1944; KV 2/2352, 1945-1946; and KV 2/2353, 1946). This last file includes details of the Security Service's alarm at the lack of concern shown by the Department for Atomic Energy when Broda resigned from the Cavendish Laboratory and declared that he wished to return to Austria.

Broda finally left in April 1948. It was only gradually that his connection to the case of atom spy Alan Nunn May began to emerge. Divorced in 1946, Broda's former wife Hildegarde married Nunn May when he was released from prison in 1953. Though no evidence was found to confirm that Broda had played a part in any espionage, he fitted well the sketchy detail provided by Nunn-May as to the identity of his recruiter, and a summary at serial 495B (KV 2/2354) confirms the importance now attached to Broda's case: "...we feel sure that BRODA was engaged in espionage during the war, although we have no proof of it...BRODA might well have been the person who recruited NUNN MAY for the R.I.S."

This release also contains files on other foreign scientists involved in the Tube Alloys project: Otto Frisch (KV 2/2421), Hans Halban (KV 2/2422) and Friedrick Paneth (KV 2/2423).