In the heart of World War II, as the Nazis took control of Copenhagen, a peculiar situation took place at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, led by physicist Niels Bohr. Two Nobel laureates Max von Laue and James Franck, fearing the confiscation of their gold Nobel Prize medals by the Nazis, had sent their medals to Bohr for safekeeping.

On the day the Nazis arrived in Copenhagen, Hungarian chemist Georgy de Hevesy, who was working in Bohr’s lab, devised a plan to prevent the discovery of the medals. Initially considering burying the medals, they quickly dismissed the idea, fearing the thorough searches the Nazis would conduct. Instead, de Hevesy proposed a chemical solution — literally. Utilizing a mixture known as “aqua regia” (a blend of hydrochloric and nitric acids), he set about dissolving the gold medals. This concoction is one of the few substances capable of dissolving gold, a notably unreactive element. As the Nazis marched outside, de Hevesy dissolved the precious medals, reducing them to a colorless solution that eventually turned bright orange. The liquid containing the dissolved gold was then placed on a high shelf in the laboratory, where it remained unnoticed throughout the Nazi occupation​.

Post World War II, upon returning to the laboratory after V-E Day, de Hevesy found the beaker undisturbed on the shelf. The gold was recovered from the solution and returned to the Nobel Prize committee, who then reminted the medals and presented them back to Laue and Franck in a ceremony in 1952.

Source: Fermat’s Library via LinkedIn