---
born: 1895-05-03
category: World War II & Nazi Era
died: 1992-04-06
location: Vienna, Austria
summary: Mark was driven out of Europe in 1938 by the Nazis and eventually became
  dean of faculty at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, turning it into a haven
  for Jewish refugees, including Chaim Weizmann.
tags:
- Person
- WW2
- Nazi
---

Herman F. Mark was an Austrian chemist who became an eminent figure in polymer science. He was a colleague of [Ernst David Bergmann](/people/ernst-david-bergmann/) at the Emil Fischer Institute of the University of Berlin in the early 1920s, where they worked together and published joint papers on the chemical structure of rubber, paint, and adhesives.[^1]

Mark was driven out of Europe in 1938 by the Nazis and eventually became dean of faculty at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, turning it into a haven for Jewish refugees, including [Chaim Weizmann](/people/chaim-weizmann/). He remained a close friend and colleague of [Ernst David Bergmann](/people/ernst-david-bergmann/), sharing Bergmann's view on the inevitability of Israeli nuclear weapons research. Mark believed that whether it was for desalination, power, or a bomb, nuclear energy still involved fission, and that [Israel](/places/israel/) needed to be fully cognizant of nuclear physics.[^1]

Mark became a constant commuter between Brooklyn and [Israel](/places/israel/) after World War II, serving on planning boards and as a scientific adviser to the fledgling [Weizmann Institute of Science](/organizations/weizmann-institute-of-science/). He insisted that without Bergmann, there would have been no Israeli bomb, stating that Bergmann was in charge of every kind of nuclear activity in [Israel](/places/israel/) and completely understood nuclear fission.[^1]

His son, Hans M. Mark, served as secretary of the Air Force in the [Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/) administration and was head of the executive committee of the [National Reconnaissance Office](/organizations/national-reconnaissance-office/) (NRO), responsible for the development, procurement, and targeting of America's intelligence satellites. Hans Mark also worked at the [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory](/organizations/lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory/), a main U.S. nuclear weapons facility.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.