Re:I'm not sure what people are trying to show (Score 1)

The main contoversy is over Heisenberg's interpretation of his role in the German WWII effort. In a book by a Swiss journalist (Brighter Than a Thousand Suns )Heisenberg claims that because of his refusal to work on the bomb the Nazis did not obtain it. The problem with his version is the fact that transcripts were taken secretly in the U.K. where many of the German nuclear physicists were held after being captured in Germany by the allieds (out of fear they could work for the Russians later!). From these transcripts it is concluded that the German effort concentrated on building a reactor to breed plutonium and use that as bomb fuel (hence the importance of heavy water, which is used to moderate reactors). It is very likely that the Germans overestimated the amount of fissible uranium needed for a chain reaction (critical mass) by a huge amount and therefore did not attempt to separate uranium isotopes.
The problem with Heisenberg was therefore perhaps not so much his role in WWII, but his dramatic reinvention of his role after the war. The Bohr papers again suggest that the failure of the German nuclear effort was due to Hitler being uninterested and their miscalculations rather than heroic resistance.
Things are of course very complicated and I am very impresessed by Bohr's handling of the whole affair.