We are now in the year of 1945;
atomic bombing of Germany,
probably one of the most spectacular
scenarios in the exhibition.
But how realistic was an atomic bombing of Germany?
The starting point there are two statements by General Groves,
the head of the later atomic bomb project in the U.S.,
who recounts two conversations with President Roosevelt
in late 1944 up to early 1945.
Where Roosevelt asks him if it would be possible
to drop an atomic bomb on Germany.
This is surprising, because at this point
the war was actually decided.
But in December 1944, the German Wehrmacht tried to
regain control and launched an offensive in the west,
the so-called Ardennes Offensive,
to retake the port of Antwerp.
This was an important port for Allied supplies.
Had this succeeded, the Allied advance would have been
delayed by several weeks, if not months.
Then, in the end, the use of nuclear weapons would have been
quite realistic.