Life before the war
When Margrethe talks with Bohr about the work relation he used to have with Heisenberg before the war started and how the two of them used to spend their summers together, going on vacation with Margrethe and their children, the characters portray an idyllic picture, that which allows coexisting and happiness. For them, it did not matter than one was German and the other Dutch but rather what type of person they were. This image changes in time and Heisenberg is no longer seen as a friend by Margrethe but rather as an enemy. This image is also used to show just how much the war influenced the opinions the normal citizens had about the ones deemed the enemy.
Like any other man
When Heisenberg starts his recalling about what happened in Copenhagen, he starts by describing the night when he arrived there. Heisenberg took the night train and when he arrived he was dressed in civilian clothes, looking at the sea of German officers in the train station. The image described here, of Germans everywhere and almost no civilian in sight, is important because it has the purpose of transmitting just how oppressive the German forces were in the countries they occupied. In a way, their influence was so great that everyone and everything else simply disappeared until all that was left were the German forces.
Yellow star
When Heisenberg suggests that maybe Bohr could use one of his cabins to go skiing, Bohr gets enraged, telling him that Margrethe will have to sew a yellow star on his jacket, an allusion made to his nationality. The image of the star becomes important, symbolizing the mark the Nazi regime left on the Jewish community and the violent way they treated them. The star is also an important image for the Jews, becoming a visual representation of their oppression and pain, often gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. By mentioning the star, Bohr wants to make Heisenberg aware of the pain the Jewish community had to go through and how these problems remain largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.
People who succeed despite the adversities they have to face
When Bohr and Heisenberg talk about the situation in Germany, it is mentioned how there are almost no German scientists interested in studying nuclear energy and thus, as a result, the country does not feel the need to invest in it. The reason why this is presented as being the case is because the ones who were studying nuclear energy were Jews, more than often pushed from other fields of science. Because of this, they had to study what was allowed for them, that being nuclear power. Through this description, the Jews are portrayed here as people always ready to get over every obstacle put in their path. They were unwilling to give up and chose to do something which was allowed for them, to study something which in many ways no one else would find interesting.
