Schimmel, Herbert (1907-2002)

Biographies

A doctor of  physics (University of Pennsylvania, 1936 ) who was employed as a consultant in the 1940s by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization of the Military Affairs Committee, then commonly known as the Kilgore Committee (after the name of its chairman, Senator Harley M. Kilgore).

In 1938, Schimmel co-authored a monograph entitled “National Research Project on Reemployment Opportunities and Recent Changes in Industrial Technologies” (Philadelphia, WPA, National Research Project).

As a consultant to the Kilgore Committee, Schimmel is known to have been behind a science bill submitted to the U.S. Senate by Senator Kilgore in the later part of 1942 (and revised in early 1943) that focused on mobilizing American personnel and resources during the war. The pressure from supporters of the proposed legislation forced the Roosevelt administration to establish the Office of War Mobilization (OWM) in May 1943.  By early 1944, the investigations into war mobilization led to an examination of the role of international cartels in World War II — particularly, the impact of cartels on the development of the German military machine — as well as into Japan’s use of business relationships to further its militaristic policies. By war’s end, the committee’s hearings produced a liberal proposal which provided for the establishment of a national science foundation. 1 Schimmel served with the Kilgore Committee until it was dissolved in September 1946.

By that time, Schimmel was already under surveillance by the FBI, which was investigating the allegations of a former Soviet NKGB foreign intelligence agent, Elizabeth Bentley, who defected to the FBI in November 1945.  According to FBI investigative files from 1945 to 1948, Schimmel maintained a professional and social relationship with a number of individuals who were named by Bentley as sources for Soviet intelligence — in particular, the members of the so-called Perlo group. 2 However, there is no information to indicate that Schimmel had any relationship with Soviet intelligence.

Later, Schimmel returned to the scientific field. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Physics in the Department of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. 3

  1. “Senator Harley M. Kilgore and Japan’s World War II Business Practices,” by Robert F. Maddox, West Virginia History, Volume 55 (1996), pp. 127-142. ↩
  2. See, for instance, The FBI Silvermaster File, No 65-56402, vol. 80, serials 1751-1815, PDF pp. 102-103; vol. 81, serials 1816-1862, PDF p. 126; vol. 084, serials 1908-1908x, PDF 16; vol. 088, serials 1938, PDF p. 91. ↩
  3. See, for instance, Herbert Schimmel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, “Evidence for Possible Acute Health Effects of Ambient Air Pollution From Time Series Analysis: Methodological Questions and Some New Results Based on New York City Daily Mortality, 1963-1976,” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 54 (11):1052-1109 (1978), 12/78. ↩