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I restrict my question to mathematics since this is probably the most internationalized of all sciences. During WWII, did any British mathematicians (or mathematicians from allied countries) publish any papers in German journals? And vise versa. Did journals have any policies about papers submitted from enemy countries? I would like to see specific cases, if any.

Remark. This question has a practical meaning today (I am on the editorial board of a Ukrainian journal).

Alexandre Eremenko
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  • Please see American Chemical Society's Statement on this situation in Ukraine "https://www.acs.org/about/acs-statements/ukraine.html"... It is not barring any Russian authors from submitting their publications. – AChem Dec 29 '22 at 18:44
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    @AChem: thanks. But this is not what I am asking. I am asking on the situation when country A is at war with country B. Is it a normal practice for journals in country A to reject papers submitted from B. What are the historical precedents. – Alexandre Eremenko Dec 29 '22 at 18:50
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    It is my understanding that during WWII there was no direct mail between, say, Germany and Great Britain (or Germany and United States after the war between the two was declared). There was an "Undercover Mail" system for sending letters between the warring countries (see here). This indicates the practical difficulties of such publishing. On the other hand, for instance Niels Bohr and Otto Hahn in 1942 did publish a coauthored paper in "Nature" (with Aston, Hahn, Harkins, Joliot, Mulliken and Oliphant). – Moishe Kohan Dec 29 '22 at 20:01
  • I don't know of specific WW2 publishing cases. But there were general laws against 'trading with the enemy' and publishing anything officially rated as secrets useful in war, in UK and also vice versa. They were given wide interpretation. So by analogy there could very easily be grave personal legal risks now for (say) a Russian author who submits and publishes in a Ukrainian journal. Aside from any matters of policy, it might well be a friendly and humanitarian act in such a case to check that the author indeed wishes to go ahead in spite of such possible personal risks. – terry-s Dec 29 '22 at 22:25
  • I guess it also depends on one's definition of being at war. Technically, Russia and Japan never signed a peace treaty, though I'm sure there have been some scientific publications from nationals from one country in journals from the other. – Jean-Marie Prival Dec 30 '22 at 09:50

2 Answers2

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I just looked through the WWII issues of Crelle's Journal:

Volume 182 (1940) contains four papers by Philip Hall in Cambridge. The first two had been submitted in the summer of 1939, before the war; but the latter two in 1940, when the UK was officially at war with the German Empire.

Volume 184 (1942) contains one paper by Jean Dieudonné in Nancy, France, submitted in April 1941. At that time, however, France was formally no longer at war with Germany, as it had been split up into a German occupied zone (where Nancy was) and the infamous "Vichy France". (There is another paper in French in that issue, by a Spanish author. Franquist Spain was never at war with Germany.)

Beyond that, a cursory look shows no papers by authors from countries at war with Germany. In fact, most papers come from Germany itself, plus a couple from Turkey (which at that time was neutral) and Japan (a German ally).

Torsten Schoeneberg
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I found this paper by Rosa Morris from Cambridge, published in 1940 in Math. Annalen The internal problems of two dimensional potential theory

There is also a paper from a mathematician by Brno (Brunn) which at the time was occupied.

I've also found in German newspapers a couple of papers by Ky Fan, Chinese and studying in Paris. And a paper by Cartan in Zeitschrift in 1939, which could well have been handled before the war started.

Of course you'll know well about nazification (and similar processes in Italy) of Editorial Boards which resulted almost certainly in making the whole process of publishing math papers from abroad quite unusual. On Italian journals (like Annali di Matematica Pura e Applicata) the Editorial Board had to be approved by the Minister of Culture and Education and there are letters showing that submissions from allied (I mean Axis Pact) countries were encouraged. None appeared from GB, France or USA. Even papers from Italian mathematicians not loyal to the regime were usually published abroad.

(As for your personal position I think that as long as you do not receive any kind of pressure your presence in the Editorial board of an Ukrainian journal should be something welcomed from the whole math community).

Nicola Ciccoli
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