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On July 13, 1938, Lise Meitner left Germany in secrecy in the dead of night. She left behind her career as one of the most prominent physicists of her generation, her collaboration with Otto Frisch that would lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, her livelihood, pension and the place she had called home for 31 years. On the other side was uncertainty, and a future that would not live up to her past.

Meitner had registered her Jewish ancestry as required by the Nuremberg laws, but she didn’t believe that she herself would be affected. After all, she was an Austrian citizen, not a German. Once German troops marched over the border into Austria, however, her Austrian passport became invalid, and leaving Germany was harder than she had thought.

Lise Meitner was one of the first female students to attend her local University of Vienna in October 1901. She her doctorate in physics there on February 1, 1906.

As there weren’t many positions for women physicists in Vienna, Lise moved to Berlin, where she audited Max Planck’s classes, and began her collaboration with Otto Hahn.  In 1912 Otto Hahn joined the staff of the new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin.

In 1933 Hitler was sworn in as chancellor of the German Reich. On April 7 of the same year, non-Aryans were to be purged from universities and governmental agencies. Lise declaring her Jewish ancestry but convinced herself this would not affect her. After all, she as an Austrian, not a German.

In fact, Meitner was able to stay in Germany until 1938. By that time, Europe was already oversaturated with Jewish refugee scientists, and Lise had to be smuggled out.

On Tuesday, July 13, 1938, Lise Meitner went to work at the institute as usual. Otto Hahn went home with her, helping her pack a few of her belongings. While they were saying their goodbyes, Hahn slipped her his mother’s diamond ring.  She said goodbye to no one else, her excursion that night cloaked in utmost secrecy.

Paul Rosbaud drove her to the train station. Kirk Coster was already on the train when Lise boarded. They greeted each other as if by chance. As Lise’s train approached the Dutch border, Coster quietly took possession of the diamond ring, just in case. They crossed without incident.

Coster was congratulated by scientists around the world. One telegram from Linus Pauling read:

“You have made yourself as famous for the abduction of Lise Meitner as for [the discovery of] Hafnium.”

"I left Germany forever - with 10 marks in my purse," Lise Meitner would later write. And Hahn’s diamond ring.