KORTRIJK – There is a good chance that Oppenheimer – the father of the atomic bomb – will become the film of the current year 2023. It is little known, but at the time a Kortrijk entrepreneur played first fiddle for the supply of the necessary uranium that the uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima ( ‘Little Boy‘) had to feed. His name: Edgar Sengier, mining engineer by training, entrepreneur-manager by profession. Sengier conducted his business on his own and in the greatest secrecy and undeniably wrote history in that way. At the time, and after the bombs were dropped, he was received with the highest respect at the White House. Portrait, part II, of a crucial historical entrepreneur who wrote an improbable – say unreal – life story. Today: the American connection.
With his life story, Kortrijkzaan Sengier has been in the crosshairs of the highest American authorities for some time. This would lead to the so-called Manhattan project of Robert Oppenheimer in World War II.
The military-strategic value of ‘Belgian’ uranium and the role of Sengier had also reached the US. In 1939 Sengier and his retinue left for New York. He carried a stock of radium (120 grams, worth several million dollars) and moved into a suite at the Ambassador Hotel with his wife. The Americans clearly wanted to purchase uranium from Katanga, but no agreement was initially reached.
Finally, Sengier had half of the stocks present in Shinkolobwe (Belgian Congo) transhipped (1,139 tons) in 2,007 barrels and shipped to New York where the entire stock ended up with Archer Daniels Midland, a firm on Staten Island that traded in plant oil. Sengier had previously also ordered supplies of radium and uranium salts to be shipped from Olen via England to the United States. However, part of that shipment of uranium fell into the hands of the occupying forces.
Around Manhattan
After the arrival of the first ore cargo, the Americans showed little interest. Until September 1942 and until the Manhattan Project. Sengier then sold a shipment of ore in great secrecy – and without informing the Belgian government – for one dollar per pound to the Manhattan Engineering District (WITH).
Meanwhile, from New York, Sengier conducted the African Metal Corporation (Afrimet). This subsidiary of Union Minière, a crucial hub for supplies from Africa, concluded further contracts for the supply of uranium to the MED. A total of 5,000 tons of ore is said to have been delivered during the war (in addition to several hundred tons that ended up on the seabed at the hands of U-boats). All the while, Sengier acted on his own and without informing his board of directors, nor the Belgian government. In March 1943 he had sworn to secrecy. The uranium supplied by Sengier served as raw material for the US attack on Hiroshima.
Strange political agreement
In February 1944, the MED wanted to increase the purchased quantities and above all to get a right of priority. This was part of the strategic thinking about the post-war balance of power, and can be seen as an early step in the Cold War.
Sengier was very reluctant to this question. After the war, he did not want to give the Americans control over the supplies. He first sought support from the Belgian government in the person of Camille Gutt. After months of negotiations, a political agreement was reached immediately after the liberation: the Triparite Agreement between Belgium, the United States and Great Britain. This provided for the reopening of the Shinkolobwe mine, exclusive supplies to the Combined Development Trust (a joint initiative of Americans, British and Canadians) and Belgium’s access to nuclear energy technology. Sengier signed a contract for 3.4 million pounds and returned to Brussels. He had shown himself to be a tough negotiator. The reopening of the Congolese mine gave Union Minière a virtual monopoly but was financed by the Americans.
After the war it came to light that Union Minière had also supplied uranium to Nazi Germany, but Sengier did not await prosecution, also through political lobbying. Sengier retained his leading positions until 1949. He then remained active as a director of Société Générale (until 1960). He spent his last years in Cannes, where he died at the age of 84 of a heart attack (July 26, 1963).
Guest of Honor at the White House
The smooth and direct Edgar Sengier has always been considered a reliable figure by the Americans. The Kortrijk mining engineer even had the honor of dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima (Japan) the day before.Little Boy) to be called personally with the advice to listen carefully to the 11 o’clock radio news. The next day, Sengier informed his American interlocutors that they could count on his continued support.
After the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the Kortrijkzaan was received in the White House, where he was introduced to US President Harry Truman. The message from Supreme General (and walking keg) Leslie Groves to the US President read: “I want you to meet the man without whose assistance we could not have accomplished what we have done.”
Kortrijkzaan and entrepreneur-manager Edgar Sengier was the first non-American to receive the highest civilian medal, the Legion of Merit (1946). Later similar awards followed in Great Britain and in his own country.
Photo: Wikipedia archive
info: A new book will be published in 2024 with portraits of 100 iconic Kortrijk residents who have died in the past hundred years. The book is written by author Karel Cambien, who is now in his 27th edition. Edgar Sengier is one of the names included in the book, along with many other historic Kortrijk entrepreneurs and figures.
2023-08-21 08:26:25
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