Harris H. Levee was born in August 1919 in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. He had one sister. His mother was paralyzed due to a stoke when Levee was only six years old. She died when she was 45. His father was a mechanical contractor focusing on plumbing. He built swimming pools working in Coney Island, New York. His family was very wealthy until the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. Then they had to move to a small apartment. Levee continued to go to school through high school. He always wanted to be an engineer like his father. Levee played handball in high school and thought he was one of the best players in the county. He was invited to a competition and after to a dance where he met his wife. They never talked about the war until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was playing at a pool hall when he heard about the attack. He called his wife from a corner phone to relay the news to her. Levee was attending Cooper Union Institute [Annotator's Note: in Manhattan, New York, New York] and had a newborn son when he was drafted into service. He reported to Fort Belvoir, Virginia to join the combat engineers. He was trained to build and remove mines and to build and blow-up bridges. After his high scores on the Army General Classification Test, Levee moved to the Special Engineering Detachment at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago [Annotator's Note: also called Met Lab, Chicago, Illinois] on the Manhattan Project [Annotator's Note: program that produced the first nuclear weapons]. He was not allowed to have contact with his family during this time due to secret security. He was given a two-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to see his family and report back to base. He took a train to Chicago and telephoned a number given to him. The person on the phone told him to keep a newspaper under his left arm and someone will come and find him at the depot. About an hour later, a man approached him, and Levee confirmed his identity. He was taken to an apartment to meet his sergeant. He was ordered to get civilian clothes, which Levee did not have, so his wife had to mail him some. While he waited for his clothes to arrive, he visited various places in Chicago, amazed that he did not have to pay for anything because he was a serviceman.

Harris H. Levee reported to the University [Annotator's Note: Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Illinois] where he met a Colonel Metcalf [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Harvard E. Metcalf]. He was introduced to three Nobel Prize Winners, including, Dr. Enrico Fermi [Annotator's Note: Enrico Fermi, Italian born American physicist] and Dr. Leo Szilard [Annotator's Note: Leo Szilard; Hungarian-American physicist and inventor]. He assisted the scientists with whatever they needed. Levee enjoyed working with Fermi because he was very nice and pleasant. He thought Szilard was very difficult and would not relay his secrets during the project. Levee worked on the first nuclear reactor [Annotator's Note: Chicago Pile-1 or CP-1; world's first artificial nuclear reactor], they named the "West Stand's Pearl." He was also ordered to keep tabs on the scientists because they were foreigners. [Annotator's Note: The interview skips at 0:20:23.000.] One day, Dr. Szilard asked Levee to draft him a drawing. Levee began drawing to Szilard's directions, but finally asked Szilard to tell him what he is drawing. Szilard took the paper and walked away. Levee mentioned that Szilard liked to pick buds off plants, examine them, then stick them in his pocket. On 6 August 1945, he was called to an academic meeting, where it was announced that the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945] was dropped on Japan. Levee was now allowed to call his family to tell them what he had been working on these last few years. Levee was glad the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, but some of the scientists working on the project were opposed to the action. In fact, one of the assistant scientists went to Congress and complained. Levee believes that by dropping the bombs and ending the war, it saved millions of American and Japanese lives.

Harris H. Levee reported to the University [Annotator's Note: Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Illinois]. He was told that they would be testing nuclear energy because they wanted to see what kind of power they could develop. He did not realize until a couple years later that they wanted to use it as a bomb. Levee did not think much of nuclear energy, and preferred other methods of energy. Today, his friends who stayed in the field are probably multi-millionaires. Levee cannot remember the detail of his work with nuclear energy, but he worked closely with Dr. Enrico Fermi [Annotator's Note: Enrico Fermi; Italian born American physicist]. Levee believes that many of the foreign scientists that came to America to work on the nuclear bomb were Jewish or related to someone Jewish. Part of Levee's job was to draw or check on patents and that is how he discovered that the scientists and government were trying to develop an atomic bomb. He was doing what he could for his country. Everything was secret, and he could not talk to anyone at work except on the project they were working on. Levee took orders from Colonel Metcalf [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Harvard E. Metcalf]. Once, Levee's secretary accidently left a safe open. Colonel Metcalf was so upset, he removed Levee from the security duty and replaced him with someone else. The papers in the safe that was left open was a letter from Albert Einstein [Annotator's Note: Albert Einstein; German born theoretical physicist] and President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States], telling him that the government needs to get into nuclear energy. One of Levee's duties was to sometimes check on people and make sure they were working on the specific projects given to them. He usually went home for lunch and only socialized with a couple of people at the University. Levee was surprised that after the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] were dropped, many of the scientists were upset and opposed the action. Levee left the University in 1946.

After leaving his post [Annotator's Note: in the Metallurgical Laboratory] at the University of Chicago [Annotator's Note: in Chicago, Illinois] in 1946, Harris H. Levee went to a consulting engineering company where he designed electric power station in several states. He eventually moved his family to New York so he could be chief engineer at an air conditioning company. Levee later supervised the construction of the first pressurized water submarine reactor [Annotator's Note: a pressurized water reactor, or PWR, is a light-water nuclear reactor developed for use in submarine propulsion] in West Milton, New York. He oversaw the mechanics and other workers, making sure everything was built according to the plans and specifications. He was the first person to be able to test the reactor. Levee primarily worked with electrical generators, but sometimes he was assigned to projects that involved nuclear power. His projects required him to travel and live around the world. He lived half a year in New Delhi, India to work on a power plant. He enjoyed seeing the different cities and worldly sights. He often supervised the engineers and foremen. In India many of the laborers were women and the tools and the equipment were very primitive. Many of the women would nurse their babies while they were working. He also trained other engineers to supervise after he left. He believes that working on the Manhattan Project [Annotator's Note: program that produced the first nuclear weapons] benefitted his career after the war. He worked in Milano, Italy and hired Italian engineers to build power plants. After the war, Levee received several letters of gratitude from high-ranking officials including Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] and the Secretary of the Army. Levee was part of the second tier of staff that helped with the atomic bomb project. He did not design or develop the bomb, but he assisted the head scientists. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview at 0:53:18.000.] Levee believes that if the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] were not dropped, millions of lives would have been lost because Japan would not surrender. It was necessary to end the war. Today, he does worry about the security of America with new developments like the hydrogen bomb. Levee was surprised by the influence the Manhattan Project had on the United States postwar. Levee had no interest had no interest in staying in the Army or working in nuclear field at the University of Chicago.

Harris H. Levee's most memorable experience of World War 2 was climbing up and down the nuclear reactor [Annotator's Note: while working in the Special Engineering Detachment at Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Illinois on the Manhattan Project]. He did not recall any radiation procedures or being concerned about radiation. He believes the scientists, Dr. Enrico Fermi [Annotator's Note: Enrico Fermi; Italian born American physicist] and Dr. Leo Szilard [Annotator's Note: Leo Szilard; Hungarian-American physicist and inventor], behind the project were very remarkable people. Levee feels did his share for World War 2. He was trained to blow up bridges and use an M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. He is glad he did not have to go into combat. World War 2 changed Levee's life completely because his career benefitted from his work with the Manhattan Project. He believes America does not value the efforts to defeat the dictator of World War 2. Our country should continue to rid the world of dictators, and he believes the President is too weak to do that today. When Levee was in India, the local people were very friendly and welcoming to him and his wife. [Annotator's Note: A female voice interjects in the interview 1:03:13.000.] When he arrived in India, he and his wife had to clean the residence they were staying at. His wife took over the kitchen duties because they did not like the food that the chef was preparing. His wife also helped the local population that was in need. They stayed near the Taj Mahal [Annotator's Note: ivory-white marble mausoleum on the Yamuna river, Agra, India] and visited many sights and areas of India. Levee thinks that there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] to continue to teach World War 2 to future generations and about the possibility that the world can go up in flames. Future generations should know why World War 2 occurred. This interview brought back a lot of memories.