Letters From the Front: The Malcolm Thurgood Collection

Photo of Malcolm Thurgood leaning against building. May 2nd, 1945.
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection. Alsos B6

A man is forced to leave behind his beloved wife and children to fight in a war. In a far-away place, he performs his duty but longs for home. It’s a tale as old as warfare itself, and here at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, the Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book
What was the Alsos Mission?
Before diving into Thurgood’s letters, it is important to first know about the Alsos Mission, for which he served as photographer. The Alsos Mission was a division of the Manhattan Project (best known for the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos) comprised of a series of intelligence-gathering units tasked with learning first-hand how close Germany was to developing a nuclear weapon. Closely following, and in many cases simultaneously accompanying the Allied advance into Europe, the Alsos teams captured German nuclear scientists, located caches of uranium ore and other nuclear materials, and confiscated thousands of documents about German atomic energy research.

The Alsos team dismantling a ‘uranium machine’ in a cave at Haigerloch, Germany (the ‘Haigerlock pile’). Uranium cubes are in the center, surrounded by graphite. Pitching in are Lansdale and Eric Welch (top left center), Rupert Cecil (nearest camera) and Perrin (bottom center) and Rothwell (right, kneeling).
Brookhaven National Laboratory, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Goudsmit Collection. Goudsmit Samuel H7

Thurgood was a relative latecomer to the Alsos Mission. By the time he joined the Mission in April 1945, they had already captured enough records and scientists in Italy and France to be almost certain that Germany was not anywhere close to developing a nuclear weapon. Therefore, Thurgood’s photos and correspondence only record the latter third of the Mission’s operations in Germany during the final months of the war and several months afterwards, including the capture and dismantling of the Germans’ failed nuclear reactor at Haigerloch. As Thurgood wrote in a letter days after VE Day: “I joined just in time to say hooray boys! You did a swell job!’”

Alsos team at cache of uranium
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection. Alsos D12

As mentioned previously, the goal of the Alsos Mission was to collect as much information and materials as possible related to German nuclear research. As the Allies pushed further into Europe, soldiers with the Alsos mission accompanied them to seize research papers and, as pictured here, caches of uranium ore. Thurgood took this photo in April 1945 in Germany.

Portrait of Colonel Boris Pash
Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection. Alsos A2

The Alsos Mission was commanded by Colonel Boris Pash, sketched here by Thurgood. Aside from the heroic presentation of Pash in this sketch, we can get a sense of Thurgood’s respect for Pash in a letter he sent to the mission’s scientific consultant, Dr. Samuel Goudsmit, after the war (most likely in 1947). Referring to an article that Goudsmit wrote about the Alsos Mission in Life magazine, Thurgood wrote:
I felt a sincere sense of satisfaction every time you mentioned the sawed-off-Russian [Pash] in the Life article.
While he seems to have been greatly admired by his peers in the Alsos Mission, Pash later became known (controversially) for investigating J. Robert Oppenheimer after the war for suspected Communist ties—he was depicted by Casey Affleck in the 2023 movie Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. He also wrote a book

Samuel Goudsmit in office during Alsos Mission. Original caption: “Dr. Samuel Goudsmit, Scientific Chief, satisfied with a job well done.”
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele and Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection. Goudsmit Samuel B37

Dr. Samuel A. Goudsmit, who Thurgood befriended during the mission, was tapped as a civilian to serve as the scientific consultant for the Alsos Mission. This photograph was taken by Thurgood in August 1945, three months after the war in Europe ended, perhaps why Thurgood notes that he was “satisfied with a job well done.”
Born July 11, 1902 in The Hague, he went on to study physics at the University of Leiden under Paul Ehrenfest, where he and George Uhlenbeck jointly proposed the idea of electron spin. After obtaining his PhD in 1927, he left the Netherlands to take a professorship at the University of Michigan where he taught for nearly 20 years—a move that, unbeknownst to him at the time, would eventually save his life as a Jew. During the war he worked for a time at MIT’s Radiation Laboratory before finally joining the Manhattan Project as the scientific lead of the Alsos Mission.
The American Institute of Physics holds the Samuel Goudsmit papers, which have been fully digitized and are available for viewing through our online repository
Alsos from the photographer’s lens: Thurgood’s letters home
While Malcolm Thurgood’s letters tell us little about the actual operations of the Alsos Mission—such information would have been highly classified—they do tell us a lot about his feelings while he was there and the people he served with. The following pamphlet page found at the beginning of his letters describe the restrictions to which Thurgood was bound in his writings home:

When you are overseas these facts are vital.
Box 1, Folder 1, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Despite the restrictions, through Thurgood we are able to get a glimpse of a typical soldier’s life in the Alsos Mission, although Thurgood himself was rather unique even amongst Alsos operatives. His papers prove an especially vivid source because, as we have seen and will see even more, Thurgood was a trained artist who did not hesitate to both write and sketch about his experiences.

Peeling potatoes.
Box 1, Folder 45, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Before even being assigned to the Alsos Mission and setting off for Europe, Thurgood was writing home to his “Dearest Darling Angels” about his time in the military. He was shuffled around several military bases in the US throughout 1944 and early 1945—here he writes from Indiantown Gap, PA, about his experience peeling potatoes for two hours and playing cards with his fellow soldiers.

Somewhere in Bonnie Sco’land.
Box 1, Folder 123, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

From Thurgood’s letters, we can tell that sometime between March 16 and April 5, 1945, he was deployed to Europe, starting in either England or Scotland—he sent letters from both places but it is not entirely clear where he landed first. Here he writes home about his experiences from “Somewhere in Bonnie Sco’land,” admiring the landscape and architecture, if not the weather.

People enjoying a park in Paris, France. Photo taken during Malcolm Thurgood’s time while on the Alsos Mission.
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and Terry Thurgood. Alsos H91

By April 9, 1945, Thurgood had crossed the English Channel and found himself in a liberated Paris. Finally learning of his new assignment with the Alsos Mission, he wrote to his “Dearest Darlings”:
Yes, I’m now part of Military Intelligence but you can rest assured that I wasn’t chosen for my intelligence—just my plain old qualifications as always. But there is a lot of intelligence about me and I’m highly flattered to be allowed to tag along. I’m happier with the job than I ever thought I could be and it surely will keep me busy so time will pass more quickly.
Before heading out to the front, however, he seems to have had some time to enjoy Paris and take some photographs. He began the same letter expressing his excitement: “Yes, I’m in Paris in the Spring! And that combination is really something to behold though it would take reams to try to explain my reaction.” He then goes on for four more pages describing everything he saw in Paris, from the mademoiselles who “still bravely try to maintain Paris’s prestige as a fashion center by wearing the cock-eyedist hats the world ever saw,” to the “antiquity of the gingerbread buildings” and much more.

Yes, that’s me lingering over my supper coffee.
Box 1, Folder 58, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Thurgood’s time in Paris was not to last, however, and he was soon off to the front in Germany—though not without the occasional luxury, as we can see here. In addition to the lovely, though perhaps intentionally vague, depiction of the mission’s “home base,” this letter also provides an insight into a soldier’s reaction to major events of the day, namely the deaths of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and beloved war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed in the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945:
F.D.R.’s passing was quite a shock to everybody over here but as you probably guessed – the greater shock to me was the news that Old Ernie got his in the South Pacific. I will miss him very much. I will cherish the memory of Ernie in the same sepulchre of my mind that Will Rogers lies in.
When viewed with an outsider’s perspective from the future, it’s remarkable that such a major event as the death of the President was nearly an afterthought compared to that of Pyle. However, considering that Thurgood likely read Pyle’s articles along with his fellow soldiers on a regular basis, the loss would surely have felt much more personal. This is a common thread in Thurgood’s letters—events that in 2025 are seen as key turning points get only brief mentions from him, whereas matters closer to home could get up to several pages .

Today’s Stars & Stripes has the headline “Nazis Quit.”
Box 1, Folder 123, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Thurgood had only been in Europe for about a month before the Germans surrendered on May 8, 1945, as described in this letter. Nevertheless, his work was not yet over. As he writes here, “I have no idea at all as to the effect this big news will have on me personally.” The Mission still had much work to do in claiming nuclear research and material, as well as, in part at least, determining the fate of many captured German scientists. As the photographer, Thurgood would have been the one to document much of this activity; he did not return home until six months later in November, as we will see.
Three days after this letter, Thurgood wrote another letter from which we can get a sense of his eagerness to finally return home. He concludes the letter:
Thank you darling for marrying me and I think I should be the one to take congratulations on your birthday—happy birthday tho, darling and may you have many many more but with a slight difference—I don’t want to miss any more.

The last letter.
Box 1, Folder 121, Malcolm Thurgood correspondence and remembrance book, 1943-1945. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Luckily, “Daddy Longlegs” got his wish—he would not miss any more of Louise’s birthdays (at least not due to being in the military anyway). He sent this letter home to his “angel baby darlings” to announce his imminent arrival from Fort Myers, Virginia, on November 14, 1945. Aside from a telegram informing them which train he would be arriving on, this was the last letter that Thurgood sent home during his time in the military. One can only imagine what a happy reunion it was at the train station.
A different view of Alsos: Dr. Samuel Goudsmit
Malcolm Thurgood’s are not the only letters home from the Alsos Mission held at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Assigned as the scientific lead for the mission, Samuel Goudsmit also wrote several letters
But I can’t forget the terrible destruction I saw, so many people must have lost all they had and often lost members of their family. The number will never be known. In some places they were still carrying victims out of the ruins. I can’t forget coming by a house or ruin, where the volunteers just carried out a beautiful woman on a stretcher. She looked like she was asleep, smiling and peacefully, and I try to believe she was. But the fighting had been over for a few days already at that spot.

A bombed building in Cologne, Germany in 1945
Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Michaele Thurgood Haynes and Terry Thurgood, Thurgood Collection. Alsos H14

Also unlike Thurgood, Goudsmit was Jewish. He writes occasionally about the hope of finding his and his wife Jaantje’s family members, including his parents who were sent to concentration camps, as well as his small efforts to assist several unrelated Jews he encountered. One can only imagine how much this would have compounded the enormous stress he felt in his role. On September 29, 1944, he wrote:
I met some pupils of Coster who told me that Coster had sent my parents food parcels while they were in the concentration camp. He also had tried to keep them from being deported by appealing to influential German colleagues, but without success.
He never did find his parents alive. While I found no mention of it in his letters home (they stop in September 1944), he later wrote in his book
The world has always admired the Germans so much for their orderliness. They are so systematic; they have such a sense of correctness. That is why they kept such precise records of their evil deeds, which we later found in their proper files in Germany. And that is why I know the precise date my father and my blind mother were put to death in the gas chamber. It was my father’s seventieth birthday.
Life after the war
Goudsmit and Thurgood became friends during the war and kept up some level of correspondence afterwards. In Goudsmit’s book, he praised the Alsos team members while directly calling out Thurgood:
The whole outfit—the drivers, mechanics, agents, clerks under Sergeant Lolli, our splendid photographer Micky Thurgood—exemplified the best kind of teamwork.
“Several years” after the war (the exact year was not written), Thurgood wrote to “my S.A.G.” with the pleasantries of a family update, the hope that his family could get together with the Goudsmits for an unnamed event, and a conclusion in which Thurgood wrote that he was “not quite 20 lbs heavier but considerably more than the 3 shades grayer.”
In a 1947 letter to Goudsmit, Thurgood even expressed his regret that he couldn’t have provided his services as an artist for Goudsmit’s book:
But doggone it, I can’t help but mention my regret that I didn’t have a chance to at least have made you some small line sketches for your chapter heads and maybe a jacket design. You could have had them gratis and even sans credit line---and in my ignorance, I couldn’t have distracted you [from writing the book].
We do not have any records within the Thurgood collection itself to indicate what exactly he did after he returned home to his beloved family in Indiana. From other records however, such as his two letters to Goudsmit and from his obituary, we can piece together a little more. Shortly after Goudsmit’s article about the Alsos Mission came out in Life magazine, Thurgood seems to have been able to “bathe in reflected glory” which he “enjoyed immensely” due to his involvement in the mission:
At long last my friends will know that I’m not just mumbling in my beer when I mention ALSOS.
Goudsmit may have been slightly concerned about Thurgood’s enthusiasm with regard to the continued need to maintain some level of secrecy. In response to the previous letter, Goudsmit stressed: “At any rate be careful with what you give to the press. Use your own judgement, which you have already done, as I noticed from your letter.”
Eventually the Thurgood family relocated to Austin, Texas, where Malcolm taught art at the University of Texas for many years. He passed away in Wimberly, Texas, in 1987 at the age of 73.
Thurgood’s letters provide a reminder that the scientific enterprise depends on the support and teamwork of people who are not scientists. At NBLA especially, any mention of the Alsos Mission quickly (and justifiably) brings to mind the physicist Dr. Samuel Goudsmit. As Dr. Goudsmit himself wrote in his own book, however, the Alsos Mission would never have been as successful as it was without the extraordinary teamwork of “the whole outfit—the drivers, mechanics, agents, clerks” and more. Science is not much different today, even outside wartime, and we would do well to remember that even an artist like Malcolm Thurgood has their place in it.
References and Further Reading
“Alsos Mission.” ahf.nuclearmuseum.org. Atomic Heritage Foundation, June 6, 2014. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/alsos-mission/
Ashworth, William B. “Scientist of the Day – Boris Pash.” lindahall.org. Linda Hall Library, June 20, 2024. https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/boris-pash/
Ashworth, William B. “Scientist of the Day – Samuel Goudsmit.” lindahall.org. Linda Hall Library, December 4, 2024. https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/samuel-goudsmit/
Goudsmit, Samuel A. (Samuel Abraham). Alsos. Los Angeles, CA: Tomash Publishers, 1983.
Pash, Boris T. The Alsos Mission. New York: Charter Books, 1980.
van Calmthout, Martijn. Sam Goudsmit and the Hunt for Hitler’s Atom Bomb. United States: Prometheus, 2018.