Juda Kreisler (1904–1940s?): A Bio-Bibliographical Sketch of a Lviv Physicist and a Popularizer of Science

We present a detailed biographical account and analysis of works of Juda Kreisler (1904–1940s?), a theoretical physicist from Lviv. He was born in Tlumach (Ukrainian: Тлумач, Polish: Tłumacz, Yiddish: שטימלאט ), nowadays a town in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in the western part of Ukraine. In 1923, Juda Kreisler finished a gymnasium in Stanislaviv and entered the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Lviv (Wydział Filozoficzny Uniwersytetu Jana Kazimierza [UJK] we Lwowie) in order to study physics.


Introduction
The Interbellum, i.e., the period between the First and Second World War, was not only the time of major geopolitical changes that shaped the future landscape of the world, but also the time of significant achievements

Biographical note
The information in this section is mostly based on Juda Kreisler's personal files deposited at the State Archive of Lviv oblast and the Archive of the University of Lviv (Kreisler archive files). Other sources are referenced when necessary. Shortened versions of this biography appeared previously in papers by Rovenchak (2013) and Maligranda, Prytula (2013).
His mother, Schewe Kreisler, was a daughter of Lipe and Ruchel Kreisler and was single. No father is mentioned in Juda Kreisler's birth record, however, in later documents, he sometimes put "Mojżesz" as his father's name. We suppose that it might be used as a generic Jewish male name to comply with the form of documents.
In 1910, Juda Kreisler started his primary education at the Mickiewicz Community School in Stanislaviv (presently Ivano-Frankivsk; Polish: Szkoła Ludowa im. A. Mickiewicza w Stanisławowie). Upon completing the fourth grade in 1914, he passed the entrance examination for the first grade at the Second State Gymnasium in Stanislaviv (Polish: II Państwowe Gimnazjum w Stanisławowie). However, because of Russian invasion, he continued his education there only in 1915.
Juda Kreisler passed his maturity exam in 1923 and entered the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Lviv (Polish: Wydział Filozoficzny Uniwersytetu Jana Kazimierza [UJK] we Lwowie), where he studied physics. He was a member of the Court of Honor of the Society of Jewish Students of Philosophy (Polish: Towarzystwo żydowskich studentów filozofji U. J. K.). 1 Also, we discovered that a list of members of the Rigorosant Society (Jewish Academic House) in Lviv (Polish: Towarzystwo Rygorozantów (Żydowski dom akademicki)) contained the name "Juda Kreisler" in the report for the academic year 1924/25, 2 but not in later reports, so we cannot identify him here firmly. In 1928, Juda Kreisler passed the scientific part of his teacher's examination. In 1928-29, he taught at a private Jewish gymnasium in Stanislaviv, then, during 1929-31, he had a teaching practice at the Third State Gymnasium in Stanislaviv and at the Second State Gymnasium in Lviv. In June 1931, 1 See Towarzystwo… 1927, p. 19. 2 Sprawozdanie roczne… 1925, p. 50.   Od asystentów wymagano ukraińszczyzny, ale nie zawsze to było przestrzegane. Kiedy przyszedł do nas dr Kreisler prowadzić ćwiczenia z fizyki teoretycznej, zaczął mówić po ukraińsku, ale powiedzieliśmy mu, że jesteśmy wszyscy polskojęzyczni i zaniechał tego (Hartman 1994, p. 43).
[Assistants were required to speak Ukrainian, but this was not always observed. When Dr. Kreisler came to us to conduct theoretical physics lessons, he started to speak Ukrainian, but we told him that we were all Polish-speaking and he abandoned it.] On March 28, 1941, Juda Kreisler's doctoral degree was reconfirmed as its Soviet equivalent, "Candidate of Sciences". 7  unknown: he is listed among Jewish employees of the University of Lviv murdered by Nazis in 1941-43, with a note barely readable as "убитий імовірно… [probably killed in…]", see Fig. 4.

Scientific works
Dr. Kreisler authored the following four papers: [S1] Kreisler, J Some works are shown in Fig. 5. […A lot of help was then provided by the Department of Geophysics of the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv (Dr. Józef Kreisler).] Obviously, the above was a misidentification: the lists of the University employees contained no Kreisler at the Department for Geophysics of the University of Lviv (headed in the 1920-30s by Prof. dr. Henryk Arztowski); the only "dr J. Kreisler" worked at the Department for Theoretical Physics. As we can observe, Dr. Kreisler's scientific interests were focused on atomic physics. Their detailed analysis would bring us far beyond the scope of the present paper. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Kreisler also started working in the new domain [S7], namely the unitary field theory 9 which had been proposed just two years earlier by Max Born and Leopold Infeld, who was a senior assistant at the Department for Theoretical Physics of the University of Lviv in 1929-37 and had a research leave as a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in Cambridge in 1933-34. 10 We note that, most probably, Dr. Kreisler did not publish any scientific work after 1937. In particular, his name was not listed in the recently discovered tables of contents of unpublished issues of the Lviv University Communications (Наукові записки Львівського університету. Фізико-математичний факультет) from 1940- 41. 11 However, there was another field, where Dr. Kreisler was extremely prolific in the late 1930s: popular science articles in "Chwila"

Popular scientific works
Publication of popular scientific articles was typical of Lviv physicists in the second half of the 19 th century and in the first half of the 20 th century. 13 However, such works appeared mainly in journals (Kosmos, Mathesis Polska, Przyroda i Technika, etc.) or as books and rarely -in newspapers. However, the latter option would certainly ensure a wider audience. This was perfectly reflected in Dr. J. Kreisler's articles published in the "Felieton naukowy" [Scientific feuilleton] section of the "Chwila" newspaper during the years 1935-1939. Further on, we will select the main eight themes that were raised systematically in these articles (at the same time, several topics were often combined and intertwined in one article), and trace the timeline dynamics of their topics. In addition, we will determine the branches of science highlighted in the publications.
Among the various themes, a particular type of publications were articles dedicated to certain events, or their anniversaries. Such events included, e.g., the birth and death of prominent scholars. In this context, Galvani, E. Rutherford were referenced. The publications described major events and periods of life of these scholars, their most important scientific achievements, their relationship with other scholars and their impact on the development of science in general. These articles were written as biographical notes. Two examples are shown in Fig. 8.
In this kind of publications, we discern particularly those that were devoted to Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry in [1935][1936][1937][1938]. readers about the scientific achievements of the winners, both previous and those, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize, as well as the relevant work of other scholars associated with them. Additionally, many Dr. Kreisler's articles mentioned the Nobel Prizes awarded to E. Rutherford (1908) and A. Einstein (1921), and the fact of awarding this prizes to German scholars before 1932. However, these facts were also mentioned in publications dedicated to biographies of scholars, the history of science, and the science in Germany, which will be discussed further on. Kreisler also informed his readers about the principles of awarding Nobel Prize [90]. In his series of popular science publications, Dr. Kreisler referred to topic such as the history of science. We find this topic in the publications dedicated to certain scholars and their achievements, as well as in the publications devoted to certain scientific inventions and studies. Among others, the author wrote about the history of studies of space and the atmosphere of the Earth; the inventions of phone, telegraph, television, incandescent lamps; the theory of relativity, and the theory of light. Within the framework of these topics, the author referred to the structure of matter, research history, ways of converting some substances to others, and making artificial substitutes of important materials. In addition, the theme of the history of science in Germany and the so-called "German science" was discussed separately; we will show this subject in what follows.
In contrast to the history of science, the author also paid attention to then new studies, inventions, and discoveries. In the area of new studies, most often there were stories about the research of viruses (as intermediaries between alive and dead matter), research of space objects and rays, as well as research within the "new" (quantum) physics. As for the new discoveries, here it was also partly about the scope of space, however, the bulk of the new discoveries was dedicated to the structure of the atom, structure of matter, ways of changing it, and transformation of certain substances into others. About half of the articles on new achievements was devoted new inventions, mostly related to novelties in the field of television and film production, and new types of microscopes, see Fig. 9. As a rule, such publications contained digressions about the history of given research, the relevant stages of technological progress that led to those inventions; or was related to the field, but led to different results. Usually, when it came to new discoveries and inventions, the author was aware of their relevant and/or potential practical application. In addition, several publications provided facts and reflections on dangers to humanity arising from scientific and technical progress. At the same time, Dr. Kreisler expressed his hopes and expectations that people would be able to avoid or minimize this harm. This was one of his three main subjective attitudes conveyed in the analyzed publications. Others will be discussed later on.
In a large part of the publications by Dr. Kreisler, the theme of the applied value of science, in particular for medicine and economy, was considered. The articles about the interrelation of scientific inventions and research in medicine, as a rule, were dedicated to the ultrasound waves (and other), methods of extraction and use of radium, and new opportunities in the study of viruses and the treatment of diseases caused by them. In addition, the practical significance of scientific innovations was important in the field of transport. Here it was, first of all, about aviation: the perfection of aircrafts, new studies of the stratosphere, and opportunities for the fast and safe air traffic to distant parts of the world. In addition to air transport, these articles also referred to ground transport, namely, the improvement of engines and fuel. Within the theme of the practical application of the scientific inventions, author also addressed the sphere of entertainment, i.e. television, photo and film production, and animation. However, the most attention in this topic was paid to the use of scientific developments in the industry. The articles of this subgroup were about new ways of extracting natural resources and metal processing, as well as the ability to create artificial substitutes of rare and/or expensive natural substances and materials (by changing the structure of matter, inclusively). Among the materials, rubber, fuel, textiles, metals, and food products (such as sugar) were most often mentioned. Interestingly, the subject of the practical application of scientific achievements was discussed in a separate article "Przemiany pierwiastków" [Transformations of elements] of 27.11.1938 [91], in which the author explained in a reasoned way how scientific developments of previous years or decades subsequently found their practical application.
Dr. Kreisler's publications included those about science and war being interconnected. The topic was taken up in two ways. First, all sorts of inventions that enhance the military-industrial complex of the countries were being described, i.e. ones facilitating reconnaissance, warfare, increasing the ability to protect and win. Among those inventions were, for example, radio-controlled submarines, torpedoes, and methods of using ultrasound waves, as well as scientific methods of weather forecasting. Second, within this topic we can identify publications, in which the author reflected on military conflicts for natural resources and a need for countries to ensure all the necessary resources. There, Kreisler wrote on creating a kind of state-autarky that would not depend on others in terms of providing the necessary resources, as well as on the importance of scientific development in creating artificial substitutes for the lacking resources, especially important in case of war. It is necessary to recall that we mean interwar period here, and the real examples of the usage of scientific and technical development were taken from military actions of the First World War. Moreover, Kreisler wrote about upcoming military conflict (World War II, seen as Revenge of Germany, to which, obviously, all the leading countries of the world were preparing at that time). Fig. 9. Dr. Kreisler's articles [65] and [118]. Source: Polona.pl Describing the interwar period in science, Dr. Kreisler wrote about an organization of scientific life. Here, in particular, he meant functioning and (re)organization of departments, laboratories, universities, and their financing: both public and private. For example, one of the articles, "Fundacje Rockefellerowskie" [31], wasis dedicated to the Rockefeller Foundation and its financing of scientific research in various fields.
However, within this topic much more attention was paid to: 1) chronological sequence of discoveries and research (including accidental discoveries); 2) interdisciplinarity, which primarily referred to the connection of physics with sciences such as chemistry and biology, and, mostly -3) internationality. Actually, focusing on the latter, the author repeatedly expressed the opinion that the development of the world science could only take place in the interaction and mutual influence of scientists from various countries (which is the second of the mentioned subjective attitudes expressed by Dr. Kreisler). A striking example of the chronological sequence, interdisciplinarity, and internationality of the science was described, in particular, in the article "Święto wiedzy" (A celebration of knowledge) of 04. 12.1938 [92].
Besides, this topic included the forced or voluntary change of the place of work and/or residence of German scientists and how their work and German science in general were influenced by National Socialists coming to power in Germany.
The topic of Hitler's Germany could be found repeatedly among the publications by Dr. Kreisler. In general, Germany as a country was mentioned in 20 articles out of a total number of 122 that we have analyzed. These publications can be divided into three groups.
The first of them includes the articles in which Germany was mentioned as an example of a country that seeks for economic independence and aims for self-sufficient state-autarky. This was evaluated as not only advantageous from the economic point of view, but also strategically important in the case of an international military conflict. There, scientific development helping to create artificial substitutes of natural resources and materials was emphasized.
The second and third group of publications are often intertwined. But, the second group refers to articles on discrimination of the scientists of non-Aryan origin by the Nazi regime (in particular, Victor Hess and Enrico Fermi were mentioned). They informed also about reasons and organization of emigration from Germany due to the "Aryan paragraph" and National Socialists policy, as well as following contribution made by immigrating scientists to the development of science in the U.S. and the U.K, particularly. In a report about the First International Conference on Exact Sciences (Warsaw, 30 May -2 June 1938) [71], obstacles hindering Werner Heisenberg from visiting this conference were described.
However, the most interesting, in terms of the science sphere analysis, is the third group of publications. They covered reorganization of German universities and the country's scientific life influenced by ideas of "German science". Kreisler explained there that "German/ Nordic/Aryan physics" meant not a combination of groundwork and achievements of the scientists who lived and worked in Germany, but the scholars who had a particular genetic bond and belonged to the Aryan race. A "spirit" of science was important for the Nazi regime. At the same time, the regime denied such important -for Dr. Kreisler in particular -peculiarities of science as consistency, or, moreover,internationality. The position of the German state leaders at that time was: "The origin is more important than intelligence". Kreisler strongly criticized the policy, admired the achievements of German scientists and regretted that they did not have the opportunity to work as before the establishment of Nazism in Germany (when they had been not forbidden to attend conferences abroad, neither had they been censored and non-Aryan books had been not burned). The author considered such "German science" as a dead-end. The perception of "German science" and the criticism of Nazi policy in science is the third and the most subjective attitude -namely, the most emotionally charged comparing to other rather neutral ones -of those expressed by Dr. Kreisler in this series of publications. Probably, this was partly due to the Jewish origin of the author himself. Five publications in this group were almost entirely dedicated to the topic. These were the articles from 19.12.1935 [33]. Some excerpts are demonstrated in Fig. 10. Instead, in publications from 1939 this subject was practically not taken up.
Unlike Germany, Poland, in which Dr. Kreisler lived and published, was rarely mentioned in his journalistic work that we analyzed. Basically, Kreisler wrote about Poland when he exemplified quantitative indicators of the economy. Here, Poland was just an example. What concerns Polish cities, Warsaw (the capital of Poland), and Lviv (where the author lived and that belonged to Poland at that time) was mentioned in several articles as points of reference for measuring distances and  [4] and [18]. Source: Polona.pl drawing analogies, for example, for comparison with distances between space objects and between elementary particles. In addition, we also found several mentions of these cities in reference to certain events, like scientific conference, or exhibitions. In general, the development of science in Poland was not discussed and practically not covered by Kreisler in his works published in the Polish newspaper "Chwila".
Taking into account the genre of publications by Dr. Kreisler, namely, popular science articles, we can analyze what science he paid attention to. Thus, publications informing about development of medicine, like studies of viruses or use of ultrasonic waves, which we mentioned above, were in the field of biology and chemistry. Also, Dr. Kreisler did not ignore geology, writing about Earth structure studies, movement of continents, or new possibilities in predicting earthquakes. In addition, he discussed meteorology, mainly, in the context of already tested and just developed methods of weather forecasting, and, slightly lessstudies of the stratosphere, which were necessary for development of aviation. But, much more attention he gave to chemistry, because it was important for medicine (e.g., artificial extraction of oxygen, radium, new drugs for anesthesia), and for economy (e.g., creating artificial substitutes for natural materials, such as rubber, fuel, and textiles). Several excerpts from the articles on the topics mentioned above are shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
However, Dr. Kreisler was still a physicist, and the publications in this field had twice as much attention as it is taken together. The three largest groups among the articles on physics can be identified. They were the studies of electromagnetic phenomena, astrophysics, and atomic and quantum physics, respectively.
As for the electromagnetic phenomena, we have found articles that described inventions of electric devices (both old ones and modern for the author), usage of electromagnetic field and radio waves, as well as studies on light and its application. This group of publications was the smallest one compared to the other two ones.
Publications in the field of astrophysics made a significant part of the author's works that we have analyzed. Among them, we have found ones discussing "mystery of cosmic rays"; ones that gave that time newest popular science information about the planets of the Solar system; and publications about other space objects, such as comets, meteorites, and stars. Actually, Dr. Kreisler paid attention to the study of stars mostly.
He wrote about their structure, weight, mass, density, brightness, as well as about aggregations of stars (Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies), distances between such objects and their distances to Earth, and, of course, about the "Life Path" of stars: from "birth" to "fading". In this context, the novae and supernovae phenomena were been repeatedly mentioned. Some of the articles are shown in Fig. 13. More than every second article on physics belongs to the third groupatomic and quantum physics. Many of them discussed structure of an atom and discovery of the new elementary particles, such as positron, neutrino, or heavy electron, cf. Fig. 14. Another topic in this group was the possibility of transforming some metals into other (precious ones), creating artificial gold, platinum, and obtaining transuranic elements. This became possible due to splitting atoms of some substances by bombardment and transforming them to the atoms of other substances.  [35] and [119]. Source: Polona.pl In this context, Lord Ernest Rutherford, who was the first to split an atom (and made the transformation of matter the subject of science, not alchemy), and Enrico Fermi, who won the Nobel Prize in 1938 for inducing radioactivity by neutron bombardment of atoms, were presented to the readers. Besides, the articles of this group discussed possibility of creating artificial rays, a potential of nuclear energy, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and the light in the context of changes in the structure of matter ("dualism of matter and light").   [53] and [73]. Source: Polona.pl Interesting, from our point of view, is also a part of Kreisler's publications on atomic and quantum physics, in which he referred simultaneously to "new" physics and to Einstein's theory of relativity, see Fig. 15.
He wrote both about the chronological sequence and the contradiction and interaction of these two branches of physics. Dr. Kreisler called Einstein's theory of relativity and Heisenberg's quantum mechanics two major milestones of the scientific revolution in physics of the first half of the 20 th century. He pointed out that classical (traditional) physics was based on the principle of causality. Instead, an unpredictable chance (uncertainty, probability) was the basis for the "new" physics. For comparative analysis, timeline dynamics of the publication topics is also important. Even though most of the topics in the publications of the section "Felieton naukowy" presented evenly during the analyzed period (1935)(1936)(1937)(1938)(1939), certain differences in years can still be traced. Thus, in 1935-1937 the topics such as the history of science, the biographies of scientists, and the organization of scientific life were presented twice as much often than in biennium 1938-1939. In the topic of innovations, new studies were also presented more frequently in the years 1936-1937 while discoveries and new inventions are more frequent in 1938-1939. The Nazism and its criticism was discussed by Dr. Kreisler mostly in 1935-1937, but, somewhat strange, practically not mentioned in 1939. In the same 1939, Kreisler wrote and published half of all his articles on the relationship between scientific achievements and opportunities in the conduct of (potential) military actions.
So, as we see, the topics of "Felieton Naukowy" by Dr. Kreisler were: the history of science and the biographies of its creators, scien-tific studies, inventions and discoveries, their practical application, and, interestingly, -the negative impact of politics (in particular, politicians of dictatorial regimes) on science. Mostly, the author was quite objective there and rarely resorted to evaluative judgments. However, this does not apply to all his topics. In particular, he systematically expressed his opinion that, in order to develop, science should be international, and that people would always have enough of common sense to use scientific achievements only in favor, not for the destruction of mankind. And of course, the author was the most categorical when it came to criticism of the Nazi German leadership in connection with its policy of discrimination and the destruction of science in their country.
Because Dr. Kreisler himself was a physicist, it was quite obvious that this science was mostly represented in his popular publications. The next would be chemistry, especially when it closely bonded with physics. The analysis of the timeline of the publications has not shown significant differences in the terms of years. In general, the series of articles by Kreisler in the newspaper "Chwila" can be divided into periods of 1935-1937 years, and 1938-1939 biennium. However, given the small number of these differences, we did not focus on them. Instead, we emphasized what kind of topics Dr. Kreisler raised in "Felieton naukowy" and how he did it.

Final remarks
We have given a detailed biographical account and analysis of publications by Juda Kreisler, a theoretical physicist working in Lviv during the 1930s and early 1940s. The biographical data were collected from various sources, with a focus on secondary details that complement previously published information based on archival documents. The list of Juda Kreisler's scientific papers was supplemented with the list of his conference abstracts. The information about citation of his works has been extended by a few items comparing to Maligranda, Prytula 2013.
The major part of our study is constituted by the popular papers by Juda Kreisler published in "Chwila", a local Jewish newspaper. We present here a detailed analysis of the subjects covered by his 122 texts discovered so far. The following topics can be tentatively defined: the chronicles and personalia; the history of science; the discoveries, the new studies and inventions; the applied value of science (in particular, focused on medicine and economy); the interconnection between science and war; the organization of scientific life; as well as Hitler's Germany and the problem of the so-called 'Aryan science'. Juda Kreisler's popular papers were not limited to physics, but covered also other natural sciences, like biology, chemistry, meteorology, and geology. The latter field was closely related to his professional career, as he worked at the Geophysical Institute of the Joint-stock company for the exploration and exploitation of bituminous materials, "Pionier".
Numerous popular papers by Juda Kreisler suggest that he could have been involved in some larger-scale popularization activity. The primary place to look for it would be the local cultural and educational association known as The Albert Einstein Jewish People's University in Lviv; full official title in Polish reads: Stowarzyszenie kulturalnooświatowe "Żydowski Uniwersytet Ludowy im. Alberta Einsteina" we Lwowie. 15 Unfortunately, the archival documents of this organization do not contain any information about lectures given. We found only a large share of lectures concerning medicine and hygiene, while natural sciences (in the modern narrow sense) were not principal interest of this institution. 16 Although "Chwila" listed announcements of such lectures, we are not sure whether they were published regularly. So far, no trace of Juda Kreisler's lecture has been discovered in those announcements.
A large share of Dr. Kreisler's popular papers presented topics linked to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Thus, we see that he attempted to inform his readers on current and rather hot scientific achievements related to what was later called "the paradigm shift" by Thomas Kuhn (1962;1996). In our opinion, such enlightening activities are essential for maintaining the overall educational level within various strata of society. Their lack or insufficient quality would lead to rise of pseudo-and antiscientific beliefs among people, like flat-Earth doctrine or anti-vaccination propaganda, that dangerously spread in recent years.