Einstein and the Bomb (2024) Movie Script
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
- [clock ticking]
- [dog barking]
[static]
[man 1] The first atomic bomb
heralded the dawn of a troubling new era.
[somber music plays]
In a single stroke, the Japanese city
of Hiroshima and some 70,000 men,
women, and children were annihilated.
In the years since, that momentous event
has come under increasing scrutiny.
Was the bomb
a price worth paying for pea...
[man speaking German]
[bomb explodes]
[Einstein] The physicists who participated
in forging the most formidable
and dangerous weapon of all time
are harassed
by an equal feeling of responsibility,
not to say guilt.
[man 2] Dr. Albert Einstein,
one of the world's greatest scientists.
[man 3] A scientific giant who sometimes
generated political controversy,
as well as brilliant equations.
[man 4]
Called the father of the atomic age,
Einstein's great contribution
to human knowledge
was his theory of relativity.
[man 5] The key to the atom secrets was
first given to the world when the genius,
Albert Einstein, defined the relation
between all matter and energy.
[Einstein] E is equal to MC squared.
Had I known
that the Germans would not succeed
in producing an atomic bomb,
I would not have taken part
in opening that Pandora's box.
[music fades, ends]
[crowd cheering]
[in German] Hail to victory!
[somber music plays]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[music continues]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[somber music plays]
[man in English]
Order! Motion under the ten-minute rule,
bill to promote and extend
opportunities of citizenship for Jews
resident outside the British Empire.
- Commander Locker-Lampson.
- [Locker-Lampson] Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not personally a Jew,
but I hope
that I do not require to be a Jew
to hate tyranny anywhere in the world.
[crowd chatting indistinctly]
Germany has selected
the cream of her culture
and suppressed it.
She has even turned upon
her most glorious citizen.
Einstein.
[music builds]
The road hog and racketeer of Europe
have plundered his place.
They've even taken away his violin.
Today, Einstein is without a home.
He had to write his name
in a visitor's book in England.
And when he came to write his address,
he put...
"Without any."
[music ends]
Here we are, Professor.
Welcome to Roughton Heath.
[bird caws]
Isn't it wonderful?
Let's get you settled in, eh?
[sheep bleat]
[sighs]
[knocking at door]
I know it's rudimentary
for a man of your importance
but, under your current circumstances...
I believe that a simple
and unassuming life
is best for body and mind.
Couldn't agree more.
What I like best is a tent on a heath,
plain viands, a glass of beer,
and the sweet communion of... friends.
[Locker-Lampson laughs]
For you.
To replace the one the Hun stole from you.
I'll let you unpack in peace.
[crow cawing]
[Einstein]
The present state of affairs in Germany
is a state of psychic distemper
in the masses.
Hitler picked up human flotsam
on the streets and in the taverns
and organized them around himself.
The worst outcrop of herd life,
the military system, which I abhor.
[man chanting in German]
German fascism
has been particularly violent
in its attack upon my Jewish brothers.
BE CAREFUL. JEWS.
I AM THE BIGGEST PIG IN TOWN
Our friends in Germany
need not do anything to protect me.
In fact, such action
would needlessly endanger them.
I cannot tell you yet,
whether I shall make England my home.
[woman] How is he?
As you'd imagine.
Poor fellow's lost everything,
his home, his money.
And now, I hear the Nazis have placed
a price of 20,000 marks on his head.
I really had no idea
that my head was worth all that.
I assure you, Professor.
You're perfectly safe
from the long arm of fascism here.
Uh, may I introduce Barbara Goodall.
Hello, Professor.
[Locker-Lampson] And Margery Howard.
Hello, Professor.
Delighted.
[Locker-Lampson]
These ladies are your bodyguards.
If any unauthorized person comes near,
believe me, Professor...
They will most certainly get
a charge or two of buckshot.
Sorry, Professor,
I know you're not one for bearing arms,
but really we can't be too careful.
Hope you understand?
Marvelous. [claps]
Keep a close eye out, ladies.
I'm relying on you both.
[birds cawing]
[microphone feedback]
[Hitler in German] A precious possession
in this world, however,
is one's own people
and we want to lead
and fight for these people.
And never flag, never tire, never despair.
[Einstein in English] As long as I have
any choice in the matter...
[exhales]
...I shall live only in a country
where civil liberty,
tolerance, and equality
of all citizens before the law prevail.
[men talking indistinctly]
These conditions do not exist
in Germany at the present time.
This breeding ground of disease
will soon pose a grave danger
for the rest of the world.
[in German] We have one aim,
and we will follow it fanatically
and ruthlessly to the grave.
[crowd chanting] Hail to victory!
[Einstein in English] To stay in Germany
would have been impossible for me
as a pacifist.
I'm not only a pacifist,
but a militant pacifist.
I am willing to fight for peace.
My great friend has invited me here.
I can live quietly,
working out my mathematical problems.
All I want is peace,
and could I have found
a more peaceful retreat
than here in England?
No one will know where I am.
Indeed not! [chuckles]
Shall we get some pictures?
[upbeat music plays]
[man] The Observer diary,
17th September 1933.
England is not
a very good place to hide in.
Dr. Einstein, who has come here
to escape Nazi persecution,
finds his wooden hut
photographed in the papers
with full indications of locality,
and Cromer Council considers
the question of presenting an address.
Germany, I suppose,
is presumed to be looking the other way.
[music continues]
When did you start thinking about time
and space and all those things, Professor?
[Einstein chuckles]
[chuckles softly]
[metal clanging]
[Einstein] Ah!
As a child of four or five,
my father showed me a compass.
This experience made
a deep and lasting impression on me.
That this needle behaved
in such a determined way.
Something deeply hidden
had to be behind things.
When I was four or five,
I couldn't tie my own shoelaces.
[all laughing]
The most beautiful thing we can experience
is the mysterious.
[crow cawing]
I can still remember
my first childish experiments in thinking
that had a direct bearing
on the theory of relativity.
What if one were to run
after a ray of light?
If one were to run fast enough,
would it no longer move at all?
[music intensifying]
[music builds, ends]
[scoffs]
Of course, such a thing is impossible.
- Your teachers must have loved you.
- [Einstein laughs]
"You'll never amount to anything,
Einstein."
"You're an extremely clever boy,
but you have one great fault."
"You'll never let yourself
be told anything."
"Your mere presence spoils
the respect in the class for me."
[laughing]
The teachers had
the characters of drill sergeants.
Mistrust of every kind of authority grew.
An attitude that has never again left me.
- [waves crashing]
- [seagulls cawing]
It is only men who are free,
who create the inventions
and intellectual works,
which make life worthwhile.
[somber music playing]
Out yonder there was this huge world,
which stands before us
like a great, eternal riddle.
[camera shutter clicking]
I became convinced
that nature could be understood
as a relatively simple
mathematical structure.
A storm broke loose in my mind.
[man]
Einstein's great theory of relativity.
Two towers flash signals at the same time
to a balloonist
and to a man on the ground.
The observer on the ground says
the signals were given from both towers
at the same time.
Light rays from both towers
are the same length.
But the motion of the balloonist means
one signal takes more time to reach him
and he insists that one tower signaled
before the other.
[Einstein] My solution actually had to do
with the concept of time.
[man]
Two observers moving at different speeds
experience time at different rates.
[Einstein]
Time cannot be absolutely defined.
Time is relative.
It stretches and shrinks.
Or, in our Earth language, an hour for us
may be a century on another planet,
and vice versa.
[laughs]
[Einstein] There is no audible ticktock
everywhere in the world.
[bird singing]
[clocks ticking]
Past, present, and future
is only an illusion.
But one more consequence
also occurred to me.
According to the theory of relativity,
there is no essential distinction
between mass and energy.
Energy is put equal to mass
multiplied by
the square of the velocity of light.
So, a very small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
[suspenseful music plays]
Kind fate allowed me
to find a couple of nice ideas
after years of feverish labor.
[reporter 1] Mr. Einstein.
[reporters] Einstein! Einstein! Einstein!
[reporter 2] Professor Einstein.
Professor.
Professor.
Professor Einstein.
Times of London.
Um, you have caused a revolution
in science,
and Newtonian ideas are overthrown.
[reporter 3]
New York Times. Our headline today,
"Lights all askew in the heavens!"
"Men of science more or less agog!"
"Einstein's theory triumphs!"
How do you feel?
My faculties have been quite overrated.
[all laugh]
Professor, could you possibly
explain your theory to the man,
or possibly the woman, in the street?
An hour sitting with a pretty girl
on a park bench passes like a minute,
but a minute sitting on a hot stove
seems like an hour.
That's relativity.
[reporters laughing]
Very funny. Very funny indeed.
- [reporters laughing]
- [flashing]
[Einstein] Like the man in the fairy tale
who turned everything into gold,
so with me,
everything is turned
into newspaper clamor.
[music builds]
[inaudible dialogue]
To punish me for my contempt of authority,
fate made me an authority myself.
It turned out that the inertia of a system
necessarily depends on its energy content,
and this led straight to the notion
that inert mass is simply latent energy.
Mass and energy are both different
manifestations of the same thing.
So, a small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
Sorry, Professor,
but are you saying it could be possible
to, well, somehow release that energy?
[chuckles] Science in its present state
makes it appear almost impossible
that we should ever succeed in so doing.
It would be like, uh,
shooting birds in the dark
in a country
where there are very few birds.
Still, energy released on that scale
sounds... rather worrying.
Concern for man himself and his fate
must always be the chief objective,
in order that the creations of our minds
should be a blessing
and not a curse to mankind.
[loud bang]
[car engine revs]
[Locker-Lampson] Stand down, ladies!
I'm expecting someone. Friend, not foe.
[sighs]
I think you'll very much enjoy meeting
this gentleman, Professor.
[horn honking]
Been spending some more time
chatting with the professor, Margery?
- Oh, listening mainly.
- [Locker-Lampson chuckles]
He's been explaining the finer points
of his theory of relativity to us.
And?
And I'm quite certain
that he understands it.
[upbeat music playing]
[laughing]
[man] Epstein.
No, no. Einstein.
Professor, this is Jacob Epstein.
The sculptor.
Oh! [laughs]
Professor, I'm very interested
in your head.
[jazz music playing]
I understand you're none too popular
in Germany, Professor.
[Einstein grunts]
I read recently that 100 Nazi professors
have condemned your theories as incorrect.
Were I wrong, one professor
would have been quite enough. [chuckles]
[Jacob laughs]
I thought I was a physicist.
[music fades]
I did not bother being a non-Aryan
until Hitler made me conscious of it.
[somber music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[man speaking German]
[in English] Only those of German blood,
whatever their creed,
may be members of the Nation.
All non-German immigration
must be prevented.
No Jew may be a member of the Nation.
Leaders of the party promise
to work ruthlessly,
if need be, to sacrifice their very life
to translate this program into action.
[somber music continues]
[man coughs]
[indistinct chatter]
At present, every coachman
and every waiter is debating
whether relativity theory is correct.
Here is yet another application
of the principle of relativity
for the delectation of the reader.
Today, you are described in Germany
as a "German savant,"
and in England as a "Swiss Jew."
[both laugh]
Should it ever be my fate
to be represented as a bte noire,
I should, on the contrary,
become a "Swiss Jew" for the Germans
and the "German savant" for the English.
[Einstein laughs]
"This event has been organized
by the 'Working Society
of German Scientists
for the Preservation of Pure Science.'"
Their conviction is determined
by the political party
to which they belong.
"First speaker, Paul Weyland."
[applause ends]
Our theme this evening,
to protect the German people
from being misled
by highly acclaimed scientists,
who set
the scientifically-interested world
in disarray with half-baked opinions.
He doesn't seem to be an expert at all.
Doctor? Engineer? Politician?
[Weyland] We present observations
on Einstein's theory of relativity
and the manner of its introduction.
[person coughing]
Rarely in science
has a postulated scientific system
been promoted as extravagantly
as the general principle of relativity,
which at a closer glance,
is revealed
to be severely lacking in proof.
Einstein engages in a businesslike
booming of his theory and his name.
In short,
Einstein's theory of relativity
is nothing less than scientific Dadaism.
[audience gasps]
[audience cheering, applauding]
It is the product
of an intellectually-confused time,
and plagiarized to boot.
It is, in fact, a hoax
promoted by the clique
of his academic supporters.
All of this is
a consequence of the intellectual
and moral decay of German society,
which is being exploited and promoted
by a certain press.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[tense music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[Einstein] My answer to the
Anti-Relativity Theory Company Limited.
I have reason to believe
that motives
other than the striving for truth
are at the bottom of this enterprise.
Were I a German nationalist,
whether bearing a swastika or not,
rather than a Jew
of liberal international bent...
I am neither a German citizen
nor do I believe in a Jewish faith.
[music ends]
But I am a Jew,
and I am glad
to belong to the Jewish people.
[Jacob coughing]
[Jacob inhales] Professor,
do you think you might put out your pipe?
I would rather view the individual
in a fog and semi-darkness
than in the light.
[hesitates] It's just I can barely see you
through the smoke.
[Einstein inhales deeply]
[exhales]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Locker-Lampson] Gentlemen. Shall we?
[inhales]
[exhales]
Someone to see you, Professor.
Walter Adams.
I think you should listen
to what he has to say.
[sighs]
[Walter] Uh, Professor, I'm here
in my role as secretary
of the Academic Assistance Council.
We formed earlier this year
with the explicit intention
of helping displaced academics
who might need to flee Germany
in light of the, um...
current appalling circumstances
for Jews there.
I have been promoted
to an evil monster in Germany,
and all my money
has been taken away from me.
Yes, I'm so sorry.
Professor, we're organizing an event
in support of academic refugees
and, uh... well, we wonder
whether you would agree to speak?
Mr. Adams,
if I were to appear in public
as a prosecutor of the German government,
it would have terrifying consequences
for the German Jews.
Yes, perhaps.
But the circumstances
are already terrifying for them
even without your intervention.
Professor, you are
the most renowned physicist of the age.
Your voice would echo around the world
and help to reveal the scale
of the Jewish academic purge in Germany.
I assure you,
it will only be a modest meeting
where a small number
of well-known people will speak.
Would you at least consider it?
[somber music playing]
[tense music playing]
[man] Few Germans were alert to the threat
that Hitler and the Nazis posed.
A failed coup attempt
did little to dispel their image
as a tin pot army of political no-hopers.
Yet, in the wake of World War I,
Hitler courted
the many disillusioned team of soldiers
to swell the party's ranks
and set him on the road to power.
[Einstein]
Humanity is suffering in Germany.
The present wave of nationalism
is a severe sickness.
[seagulls cawing]
It takes but the slightest provocation,
or at times no provocation at all,
to be transformed into chauvinism.
[gun fires]
[crowd clamoring]
[music ends]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
My feelings for Rathenau
were ones of thanks
for the hope and consolation he gave me
during Europe's presently bleak situation.
[ominous music playing]
He was the first victim
of Nazi propaganda.
[car horn honking]
[reporter] Professor,
just a few questions.
Professor, there are rumors
you are not returning to Germany.
In view of the attitude that large numbers
of educated Germans have towards Jews,
I have been warned against making
any kind of public appearances in Germany.
For I am supposedly
among the group of people
being targeted by nationalist assassins.
But you deny you are fleeing Germany?
I am going to Japan because that means
12 weeks of peace on the open sea.
[engine whirring]
I am glad to just disappear
for six months.
The voyage is wonderful,
even though Japan is quite exhausting.
Here, I have already given 13 lectures
and been photographed
for the 10,000th time.
No living person deserves
this sort of reception.
[children laughing]
An enthralling walk along the coast.
In the afternoon,
a tour to the peak of the mountain.
[music ends]
[clock ticking]
[inhales]
[radio feedback]
[announcer 1]
In Berlin and throughout Germany,
people are suffering from hunger,
an absence
of the bare necessities of life.
Unemployment and mounting inflation
are bringing the country
to the edge of ruin.
Money means almost nothing.
300 billion marks
for a half-pound of apples,
and the mark's value continues to fall
lower and lower.
The middle class is wiped out.
The Reichsbank works overtime
printing more and more paper money
that buys less and less.
The Nazi ranks now begin to swell,
aimless, jobless young men
fed on promises of power and gold.
[announcer 2]
The Berlin adherents of the Nazi party
spent yesterday at Nuremberg
and formed part of a body of 12,000,
mostly Bavarians,
who paraded before the famous Hitler.
[chanting in German]
[foghorn blares]
[announcer 3] The globe-trotting
Professor Einstein arrives back
in New York
to be met by a mob of reporters.
The greatest scientist of Germany
in the greatest city of the world.
I'm delighted.
The reporters asked
exquisitely inane questions,
to which I replied with cheap jokes.
[reporter] What do you think
of prohibition, Professor?
[in German]
I don't drink, so I couldn't care less.
[all laugh]
[crowd clamoring]
[announcer 1 in English]
Germany and election day,
Herr Hitler stuns the world
as his vote soars.
Now, 6 million of his countrymen
back the Nazis,
making them
the second-largest party in the Reichstag.
Is there no stopping
the self-styled Fhrer's onward march?
[shouting in German]
[announcer 2]
Professor Einstein suddenly became grave
and almost vehement when asked about
the Nazi party's recent election success.
"I do not enjoy
Mr. Hitler's acquaintance," he said.
"Hitler is living
on the empty stomach of Germany."
"As soon as economic conditions
in Germany improve,
he will cease to be important."
Beyond this statement,
Dr. Einstein would not discuss politics.
[in German]
The struggle between the people
and the hatred amongst them
is being nurtured
by very specific interested parties.
It is a small,
rootless, international clique
that is turning people against each other.
They are the only ones who can really
be regarded as international elements
because they conduct
their business everywhere.
[foghorn honking]
[all] Einstein!
[crowd cheering]
[Einstein in English]
Mere words do not get pacifists anywhere.
They must initiate action.
[upbeat music playing]
Deeds are needed.
Even if only 2% of those
supposed to perform military service
should declare themselves
war resisters and assert,
"We are not going to fight,"
the governments would be powerless.
[announcer 1] More than one million Jews
throughout the United States
will join protest meetings today
against the persecution of Jews
in Germany by the Hitler government.
- [crowd cheering]
- [soldiers marching]
[announcer 2]
Brownshirts are marching in triumph,
for Adolf Hitler rules Germany at last.
Great crowds assembled
when the announcement came
that Hitler had accepted command.
What now,
for 50 million Germans
give allegiance to the Hitler flag,
the famous swastika.
[in German]
On this evening, I call on our people
every hour
of every day
to think only of Germany, the Reich,
and our German nation,
our German people.
Hail to victory!
[woman laughing]
[announcer 3 in English] In Pasadena,
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Einstein
bid friends farewell.
The professor has spent
the best part of a decade
darting between his homeland
and the rest of the world.
But the Germany
he's returning to this time
is a far cry from the one he left.
Now, Herr Hitler reigns supreme.
[announcer 4]
Germany was a land of devilry by night.
That in which you did not believe
must be destroyed.
And in the burning,
liberty, tolerance, and gentleness
vanished from the land.
[in German] German men and women.
The age of an exaggerated
Jewish intellectualism
has now come to an end.
[announcer 5 in English] The Einsteins'
transatlantic voyage is rudely interrupted
with the news that
their summer home has been raided.
[Einstein]
My summer home has often in the past
been honored by the presence of guests.
They were always welcome.
No one had any reason to break in.
These acts are the result
of a rabid mob of the Nazi militia.
I think it is quite possible
that the political circus at home
will go on for some time,
and that I will not return.
[announcer 6] What is the real attitude
of the new German dictator?
Is it Hitler's plan
to continue to maintain Germany
under his National Socialist rule,
or does he plan to restore
a semblance of the former monarchy
with himself
as the power behind the throne?
Whatever Hitler's plans may be,
it is certain
that in his scheme of things,
no one but himself will be allowed
to play the principal role.
[radio feedback]
[Barbara] There is Professor's picture.
"Was greatly honored by the Jewish press
and the unsuspecting German people."
[tense music playing]
[Barbara] "Showed his gratitude
by lying atrocity propaganda
against Adolf Hitler."
And below that, it says...
It says...
It says...
"Not yet hanged."
[birds chirping]
When I was young,
all I wanted from life
was to sit quietly in a corner somewhere,
doing my work
without the public paying attention to me.
Now look what has become of me.
I'm so very sorry, Professor.
I cannot understand the passive response
of the whole civilized world
to this modern barbarism.
Doesn't the world see
that Hitler is aiming for war?
It would seem not.
This must be difficult for you.
I mean, as a committed pacifist.
Yes, but I have little need to tell you
that I am an unconditional anti-fascist.
The entire German population
is being poisoned with nationalism
and drilled for war.
I loathe all armies.
And any kind of violence.
Yet, I am firmly convinced
that in the present state of the world,
organized force can be opposed
only by organized force.
There is no other way.
No other way.
[scoffs]
[seagulls cawing]
The world is in greater peril from those
who tolerate or encourage evil
than from those who actually commit it.
Silence would have made me
feel guilty of complicity.
[Locker-Lampson]
Einstein will speak. Stop.
Forget the "modest meeting."
You want to raise money
to help the German Jews, don't you?
Stop.
Leave the venue to me. Stop.
[tense music playing]
I've already booked a bigger hall.
You have?
The biggest.
Locker-Lampson. Stop.
To Walter Adams. Urgent delivery.
[announcer] October 2nd, 1933.
Daily Mail editorial. London.
There is due to take place
at the Albert Hall a mass meeting,
nominally to appeal for funds
on behalf of the exiles from Germany.
Actually, it will everywhere be regarded
as a demonstration
against the Hitler regime.
And Nazi policy.
[crowd cheering]
We have every sympathy
with the German Jews as such,
but their treatment will not be improved...
GERMANS, DON'T BUY IN JEWISH SHOPS
...by Albert Hall denunciations of Nazis.
We venture to put it to Dr. Einstein
that he would be wise
to stop this injudicious agitation
in this country against the Nazi regime.
[music intensifies]
[music ends]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[mumbling unintelligibly]
The first thing is my gratitude
as a man...
as a good European...
as a Jew.
[shaky breathing]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[knocking at door, opens]
[Locker-Lampson]
I've just spoken to Mr. Adams.
Every ticket has been sold.
Ten thousand people.
[scoffs]
You've got the speech prepared?
[sighs]
Proud of you.
The car's ready. Ready when you are.
[exhales]
Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Einstein.
[audience applauding]
"I am glad you have given me
the opportunity...
an opportunity..."
"I am glad you have given me
the opportunity...
...of expressing to you here
my deep sense of gratitude as a man,
as a good European,
and as a Jew."
"It cannot be my task
to sit in judgment
over the conduct of a nation
which for many years
counted me among its citizens."
"It is perhaps futile
even to try to evaluate
its policies at a time
when it is so necessary to act."
"The crucial questions today are
how can we save mankind
and its cultural heritage?"
"How can we guard Europe
from further disaster?"
"Discontent breeds hatred."
"And hatred leads to acts of violence,
revolution,
and even war."
"Thus, we see how distress
and evil beget new distress and evil."
"If we are to resist
the powers that threaten
intellectual and individual freedom,
we must be very conscious of the fact
that freedom itself is at stake."
"We must realize
how much we owe to that freedom
which our forefathers won
through bitter struggle."
"Without such freedom,
there would have been no Shakespeare,
no Goethe,
no Newton,
no Faraday,
no Pasteur,
and no Lister."
Should we merely lament the fact
that we live in a time of tension,
danger, and want?
I think not.
Only when subjected
to peril and social upheaval,
do nations feel induced
to adopt progressive measures.
One can only hope that the present crisis
will lead to a better world.
One can only hope
that the present crisis
will lead to a better world.
[audience applauding]
[car engine starts]
[dramatic music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
The Institute will be located in Princeton
and will begin in the fall of 1933,
the School of Mathematics
headed by Professor Einstein.
[somber music playing]
[Einstein] I found Princeton lovely.
A wondrous little spot.
[Flexner] I consider that we are
extraordinarily fortunate
in being able to begin
with a man like Professor Einstein,
who is one
of the ranking scientists of all time.
[Einstein]
Into this small university town,
the chaotic voices of human strife
barely penetrate.
I am almost ashamed
to be living in such a place
whilst all the rest struggle and suffer.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] Hitler continues to arm,
while suppressing the rights of all
whose ideas do not agree with his.
Jews, Catholics, liberals, Protestants,
and women who, under his regime,
have been reduced to medieval slavery,
all stand aghast
as the threat of war again appears.
[Einstein] When asked why
I have given up my position in Germany,
I made this statement.
As long as I have any choice,
I will only stay in a country
where political liberty,
toleration, and equality is the rule.
I do feel that in America,
the most valuable thing in life
is possible.
The development of the individual
and his creative power.
[glass shatters]
[announcer 2]
The night of the broken glass.
Two hundred synagogues
and 7,500 shops are put to the torch.
Ninety Jews are murdered,
hundreds injured,
thousands demeaned and spat upon.
BE CAREFUL, JEWS
26,000 Jewish men are arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
The visible destruction
matches the violence
that has been done
Germany's 250,000 remaining Jews.
[Hitler in German]
And never flag, never tire, never despair...
[announcer 2 in English]
Desperate and destitute,
they are pushed to the edge of existence.
[Hitler in German]
Long live the German people...
[announcer 2 in English]
Germany has turned down
a dark and sinister path
from which there is no return.
[crowd chanting, cheering in German]
[announcer 3]
Scientists at George Washington University
heard a report of startling significance.
Word has just come through from Germany
that uranium atom,
under neutron bombardment,
actually splits into two parts.
[announcer 3] To the scientists,
this dramatic news
brought a great sense of urgency.
[Einstein] A very small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
[announcer 4] Military intelligence fear
that Hitler may have already taken
the first steps toward an atomic bomb.
Energy released on that scale
sounds... rather worrying.
Science in its present state
makes it appear almost impossible
that we should ever succeed in so doing.
[sinister music playing]
[announcer 5] Conscious of the disaster,
which would inevitably follow
if Nazi Germany should be the first
to succeed in releasing atomic energy,
Dr. Einstein decided to write
a personal letter to the president
and stressed the urgent need for action
by the US government.
[Einstein] Sir,
some recent work,
which has been communicated to me,
leads me to expect
that the element uranium
may be turned into a new
and important source of energy.
This new phenomena would also lead
to the construction of bombs,
extremely powerful bombs of a new type.
In view of this situation,
you may think it desirable
to speed up the experimental work,
which is at present being carried on.
Yours, very truly, A. Einstein.
[breathes deeply]
[tense music playing]
Organized force can be opposed
only by organized force.
[thunder cracking]
[announcer 1]
Nazi troops have invaded Poland
by land and by air in undeclared war.
[announcer 2] Hitler's war machine
sweeps through Europe,
conquering the old enemy France.
[Churchill] We shall break up and derange
every effort which Hitler makes.
We shall strive to resist him
by land and sea.
He will find no peace, no rest, no parley.
[Hitler in German]
Mr. Churchill may be convinced
that Great Britain will win.
I doubt not for a second
that Germany will be the victor.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer 3] With the fall of Belgium,
her stockpiles
of the nuclear material uranium
are seized by the Nazis.
[announcer 4] Pearl Harbor,
our great Pacific outpost
in the Hawaiian islands,
is ruthlessly bombed
as Japan's perfidious declaration of war.
[Roosevelt]
No matter how long it may take us,
the American people
in their righteous might
will win through to absolute victory.
[crowd applauding, cheering]
[typewriter clacking]
E is equal MC squared.
The basic formula that unlocked
the secrets of the atom.
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[guns firing]
[Einstein] It is important
that we be vividly aware
of the mass murders
which the Germans have committed
against the civilian populations
of the occupied countries.
The Germans are intent everywhere
on exterminating those which represent
a nation's independent spirit.
[announcer 5] In Norway,
Allied Forces deliver a devastating blow
to the Nazi nuclear program.
A series of raids
on a hydroelectric power plant
cuts off their source
to vital chemical supplies.
[announcer 6] D-Day. Over 150,000 troops,
carried by more than 5,000 vessels.
The largest amphibious invasion
in history.
The tide of the war is turning on Germany.
[guns firing]
[announcer 7] Allied Forces recover
a cache of secret Nazi files
that show that their atomic weapon program
has failed.
[somber music playing]
[announcer 8] As the Allies advance
deeper into the European mainland,
the true horror
of Hitler's plan is revealed.
[announcer 9] Pictorial evidence
of the almost unprecedented crimes
perpetrated by the Nazis
at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
[announcer 10]
These bones were men, women, and children
sent to be exterminated.
[Einstein] The crime of the Germans
is truly the most abominable ever
to be recorded in the history
of so-called civilized nations.
[announcer 11] In the official report,
the Buchenwald Camp is termed
an extermination factory.
[crowd cheering]
[Einstein] They elected Hitler
after he made
his shameful intentions clear
beyond the possibility
of misunderstanding.
[in German] Hail to victory!
- [crowd chanting]
- [somber music playing]
[Einstein in English]
Since they massacred my Jewish brethren,
I will have nothing further to do
with Germans.
[firing]
[announcer 1] April 1945.
The Soviet Army launches
its final assault on Hitler's forces,
encircling Berlin
and closing in on the Fhrer's bunker.
[firing]
[firing]
Hopelessly defeated,
Hitler takes his own life
with a single gunshot to the head.
- [gun fires]
- [somber music playing]
[announcer 2] The war in Europe is won,
but US-led forces continue
their search for a decisive end
to the war with Japan.
- [man] Five, four, three, two, one.
- [speaking German]
[announcer]
After years of scientific endeavor,
the Manhattan Project
has delivered an atomic bomb.
[somber music continues]
Alamogordo in the New Mexico desert.
The first atomic test.
It's a terrifying prelude
to the onslaught that awaits
the unsuspecting citizens of Hiroshima.
[pilot] Height approximately 32,000 feet.
Course, 265 degrees magnetic.
Air speed, 250 knots.
Am approaching target area.
Cloud cover less than three-tens
at all altitudes.
Immediate target area clear.
[pilot speaking indistinctly]
- [pilot speaks indistinctly]
- [tense music playing]
[children laughing]
[film rolling]
[melancholic music playing]
[Truman] A short time ago,
an American airplane
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.
What has been done
is the greatest achievement
of organized science in history.
[clock ticking]
[melancholic music continues]
[announcer] The first atomic bomb heralded
the dawn of a troubling new era.
In a single stroke,
the Japanese city of Hiroshima
and some 70,000 men, women, and children
were annihilated.
In the years since,
that momentous event
has come under increasing scrutiny.
Was the bomb a price
worth paying for peace?
[typewriter clacking]
[melancholic music continues]
[Hara] My dear Professor.
At present,
the Japanese people are keenly conscious
of their own responsibility
for the last war.
And are showing
sincere repentance for their crime.
[tense music playing]
Recently, years since
the termination of the war,
the Japanese people
have come for the first time
face-to-face with the annihilating effects
of an atomic bomb.
[gulps, inhales]
And now, we ask you, Professor Einstein,
why science,
whose primary aim is but to serve
the welfare and happiness of mankind,
should have been instrumental
in producing such horrible results?
[gasps]
I do not consider myself the father
of the release of atomic energy.
My part in it was quite indirect.
In view of the fact
that you played an important role
in the production of the atomic bombs?
My sole contribution was that in 1905,
I established the relationship
between mass and energy.
I believed only that atomic energy
was theoretically possible.
I did not, in fact,
foresee that atomic energy
would be released in my time.
[sighs]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[hesitates]
I made one great mistake in my life.
When I signed that letter
to President Roosevelt.
The likelihood that the Germans
were working on the same problem
with every prospect of success
forced me to take this step.
[bomb explodes]
[melancholic music playing]
[Einstein] Had I known
that the Germans would not succeed
in producing an atomic bomb,
I would not have taken part
in opening that Pandora's box.
I never would have lifted a finger.
[exhales]
Before the raid on Hiroshima,
leading physicists
urged the War Department
not to use the bomb
against defenseless women and children.
[tense music playing]
Had we shown other nations
the test explosion of New Mexico,
we could have used it
to make proposals for world order.
To end war.
The physicists who participated in forging
the most formidable
and dangerous weapon of all time
are harassed
by an equal feeling of responsibility,
not to say guilt.
[crowd cheering]
We delivered this weapon into the hands
of the Americans and the British people
as trustees of the whole mankind,
as fighters for peace and liberty.
But so far,
we fail to see any guarantee of peace
or the freedoms
that were promised to the nations.
[melancholic music playing]
The situation calls
for a courageous effort.
For a radical change in our whole attitude
in the entire political concept.
Otherwise,
human civilization will be doomed.
The war is won.
The peace is not.
[film rolling]
[announcer 1]
President Truman's dramatic announcement
that Russia has created
an atomic explosion
sends reporters racing
for Flushing Meadow,
where Russia's Vyshinsky
arrives to address the United Nations.
Mr. Vyshinsky, have you got any statement...
- Please, excuse me.
- Does Russia have the atomic bomb?
[bomb exploding]
[announcer 2] A crack, a blast.
The release of deadly radioactive rain.
And in a matter of seconds,
downtown New York would be a massive ruin.
[typewriter clacking]
Our country is at war.
A war declared against us
by the rulers of international communism.
[announcer 3] This constitutes
the greatest crisis
in the history of America.
[announcer 4] There are signs
that the Kremlin is already intensifying
its use of another weapon.
Communist propaganda.
We are in the midst
of a continuing struggle
for the minds of men.
[sighs]
The German calamity
of years ago repeats itself.
People act fierce without resistance
and align themselves
with the forces of evil.
How long should we tolerate politicians
hungry for power or trying to gain
political advantage in such a way?
[tense music playing]
It is strange that science,
which in the old days seemed harmless,
should have evolved into a nightmare
that causes everyone to tremble.
- [bomb exploding]
- [clock ticking]
One thing I have learned in a long life
is that all our science
measured against reality is childlike.
And yet,
it is the most precious thing we have.
Science is not,
and never will be, a closed book.
Every important advance
brings new questions.
But the years
of anxious searching in the dark
and the final emergence into the light,
only those who have experienced it
can understand.
We must not condemn man
because his conquest
of the forces of nature
are being exploited
for destructive purposes.
Rather, the fate of mankind
hinges entirely upon
man's moral development.
[music ends]
[exhales, inhales]
[melancholic music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[clock ticking]
[typewriter clacking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Einstein] Dear posterity,
if you have not become more just
or peaceful and generally more rational
than we are or were,
then may the devil take you.
I am, or was,
your Albert Einstein.
[film rolling, stops]
[instrumental music playing]
[instrumental music intensifies]
[instrumental music ends]
[typewriter clacking]
- [clock ticking]
- [dog barking]
[static]
[man 1] The first atomic bomb
heralded the dawn of a troubling new era.
[somber music plays]
In a single stroke, the Japanese city
of Hiroshima and some 70,000 men,
women, and children were annihilated.
In the years since, that momentous event
has come under increasing scrutiny.
Was the bomb
a price worth paying for pea...
[man speaking German]
[bomb explodes]
[Einstein] The physicists who participated
in forging the most formidable
and dangerous weapon of all time
are harassed
by an equal feeling of responsibility,
not to say guilt.
[man 2] Dr. Albert Einstein,
one of the world's greatest scientists.
[man 3] A scientific giant who sometimes
generated political controversy,
as well as brilliant equations.
[man 4]
Called the father of the atomic age,
Einstein's great contribution
to human knowledge
was his theory of relativity.
[man 5] The key to the atom secrets was
first given to the world when the genius,
Albert Einstein, defined the relation
between all matter and energy.
[Einstein] E is equal to MC squared.
Had I known
that the Germans would not succeed
in producing an atomic bomb,
I would not have taken part
in opening that Pandora's box.
[music fades, ends]
[crowd cheering]
[in German] Hail to victory!
[somber music plays]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[music continues]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[somber music plays]
[man in English]
Order! Motion under the ten-minute rule,
bill to promote and extend
opportunities of citizenship for Jews
resident outside the British Empire.
- Commander Locker-Lampson.
- [Locker-Lampson] Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not personally a Jew,
but I hope
that I do not require to be a Jew
to hate tyranny anywhere in the world.
[crowd chatting indistinctly]
Germany has selected
the cream of her culture
and suppressed it.
She has even turned upon
her most glorious citizen.
Einstein.
[music builds]
The road hog and racketeer of Europe
have plundered his place.
They've even taken away his violin.
Today, Einstein is without a home.
He had to write his name
in a visitor's book in England.
And when he came to write his address,
he put...
"Without any."
[music ends]
Here we are, Professor.
Welcome to Roughton Heath.
[bird caws]
Isn't it wonderful?
Let's get you settled in, eh?
[sheep bleat]
[sighs]
[knocking at door]
I know it's rudimentary
for a man of your importance
but, under your current circumstances...
I believe that a simple
and unassuming life
is best for body and mind.
Couldn't agree more.
What I like best is a tent on a heath,
plain viands, a glass of beer,
and the sweet communion of... friends.
[Locker-Lampson laughs]
For you.
To replace the one the Hun stole from you.
I'll let you unpack in peace.
[crow cawing]
[Einstein]
The present state of affairs in Germany
is a state of psychic distemper
in the masses.
Hitler picked up human flotsam
on the streets and in the taverns
and organized them around himself.
The worst outcrop of herd life,
the military system, which I abhor.
[man chanting in German]
German fascism
has been particularly violent
in its attack upon my Jewish brothers.
BE CAREFUL. JEWS.
I AM THE BIGGEST PIG IN TOWN
Our friends in Germany
need not do anything to protect me.
In fact, such action
would needlessly endanger them.
I cannot tell you yet,
whether I shall make England my home.
[woman] How is he?
As you'd imagine.
Poor fellow's lost everything,
his home, his money.
And now, I hear the Nazis have placed
a price of 20,000 marks on his head.
I really had no idea
that my head was worth all that.
I assure you, Professor.
You're perfectly safe
from the long arm of fascism here.
Uh, may I introduce Barbara Goodall.
Hello, Professor.
[Locker-Lampson] And Margery Howard.
Hello, Professor.
Delighted.
[Locker-Lampson]
These ladies are your bodyguards.
If any unauthorized person comes near,
believe me, Professor...
They will most certainly get
a charge or two of buckshot.
Sorry, Professor,
I know you're not one for bearing arms,
but really we can't be too careful.
Hope you understand?
Marvelous. [claps]
Keep a close eye out, ladies.
I'm relying on you both.
[birds cawing]
[microphone feedback]
[Hitler in German] A precious possession
in this world, however,
is one's own people
and we want to lead
and fight for these people.
And never flag, never tire, never despair.
[Einstein in English] As long as I have
any choice in the matter...
[exhales]
...I shall live only in a country
where civil liberty,
tolerance, and equality
of all citizens before the law prevail.
[men talking indistinctly]
These conditions do not exist
in Germany at the present time.
This breeding ground of disease
will soon pose a grave danger
for the rest of the world.
[in German] We have one aim,
and we will follow it fanatically
and ruthlessly to the grave.
[crowd chanting] Hail to victory!
[Einstein in English] To stay in Germany
would have been impossible for me
as a pacifist.
I'm not only a pacifist,
but a militant pacifist.
I am willing to fight for peace.
My great friend has invited me here.
I can live quietly,
working out my mathematical problems.
All I want is peace,
and could I have found
a more peaceful retreat
than here in England?
No one will know where I am.
Indeed not! [chuckles]
Shall we get some pictures?
[upbeat music plays]
[man] The Observer diary,
17th September 1933.
England is not
a very good place to hide in.
Dr. Einstein, who has come here
to escape Nazi persecution,
finds his wooden hut
photographed in the papers
with full indications of locality,
and Cromer Council considers
the question of presenting an address.
Germany, I suppose,
is presumed to be looking the other way.
[music continues]
When did you start thinking about time
and space and all those things, Professor?
[Einstein chuckles]
[chuckles softly]
[metal clanging]
[Einstein] Ah!
As a child of four or five,
my father showed me a compass.
This experience made
a deep and lasting impression on me.
That this needle behaved
in such a determined way.
Something deeply hidden
had to be behind things.
When I was four or five,
I couldn't tie my own shoelaces.
[all laughing]
The most beautiful thing we can experience
is the mysterious.
[crow cawing]
I can still remember
my first childish experiments in thinking
that had a direct bearing
on the theory of relativity.
What if one were to run
after a ray of light?
If one were to run fast enough,
would it no longer move at all?
[music intensifying]
[music builds, ends]
[scoffs]
Of course, such a thing is impossible.
- Your teachers must have loved you.
- [Einstein laughs]
"You'll never amount to anything,
Einstein."
"You're an extremely clever boy,
but you have one great fault."
"You'll never let yourself
be told anything."
"Your mere presence spoils
the respect in the class for me."
[laughing]
The teachers had
the characters of drill sergeants.
Mistrust of every kind of authority grew.
An attitude that has never again left me.
- [waves crashing]
- [seagulls cawing]
It is only men who are free,
who create the inventions
and intellectual works,
which make life worthwhile.
[somber music playing]
Out yonder there was this huge world,
which stands before us
like a great, eternal riddle.
[camera shutter clicking]
I became convinced
that nature could be understood
as a relatively simple
mathematical structure.
A storm broke loose in my mind.
[man]
Einstein's great theory of relativity.
Two towers flash signals at the same time
to a balloonist
and to a man on the ground.
The observer on the ground says
the signals were given from both towers
at the same time.
Light rays from both towers
are the same length.
But the motion of the balloonist means
one signal takes more time to reach him
and he insists that one tower signaled
before the other.
[Einstein] My solution actually had to do
with the concept of time.
[man]
Two observers moving at different speeds
experience time at different rates.
[Einstein]
Time cannot be absolutely defined.
Time is relative.
It stretches and shrinks.
Or, in our Earth language, an hour for us
may be a century on another planet,
and vice versa.
[laughs]
[Einstein] There is no audible ticktock
everywhere in the world.
[bird singing]
[clocks ticking]
Past, present, and future
is only an illusion.
But one more consequence
also occurred to me.
According to the theory of relativity,
there is no essential distinction
between mass and energy.
Energy is put equal to mass
multiplied by
the square of the velocity of light.
So, a very small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
[suspenseful music plays]
Kind fate allowed me
to find a couple of nice ideas
after years of feverish labor.
[reporter 1] Mr. Einstein.
[reporters] Einstein! Einstein! Einstein!
[reporter 2] Professor Einstein.
Professor.
Professor.
Professor Einstein.
Times of London.
Um, you have caused a revolution
in science,
and Newtonian ideas are overthrown.
[reporter 3]
New York Times. Our headline today,
"Lights all askew in the heavens!"
"Men of science more or less agog!"
"Einstein's theory triumphs!"
How do you feel?
My faculties have been quite overrated.
[all laugh]
Professor, could you possibly
explain your theory to the man,
or possibly the woman, in the street?
An hour sitting with a pretty girl
on a park bench passes like a minute,
but a minute sitting on a hot stove
seems like an hour.
That's relativity.
[reporters laughing]
Very funny. Very funny indeed.
- [reporters laughing]
- [flashing]
[Einstein] Like the man in the fairy tale
who turned everything into gold,
so with me,
everything is turned
into newspaper clamor.
[music builds]
[inaudible dialogue]
To punish me for my contempt of authority,
fate made me an authority myself.
It turned out that the inertia of a system
necessarily depends on its energy content,
and this led straight to the notion
that inert mass is simply latent energy.
Mass and energy are both different
manifestations of the same thing.
So, a small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
Sorry, Professor,
but are you saying it could be possible
to, well, somehow release that energy?
[chuckles] Science in its present state
makes it appear almost impossible
that we should ever succeed in so doing.
It would be like, uh,
shooting birds in the dark
in a country
where there are very few birds.
Still, energy released on that scale
sounds... rather worrying.
Concern for man himself and his fate
must always be the chief objective,
in order that the creations of our minds
should be a blessing
and not a curse to mankind.
[loud bang]
[car engine revs]
[Locker-Lampson] Stand down, ladies!
I'm expecting someone. Friend, not foe.
[sighs]
I think you'll very much enjoy meeting
this gentleman, Professor.
[horn honking]
Been spending some more time
chatting with the professor, Margery?
- Oh, listening mainly.
- [Locker-Lampson chuckles]
He's been explaining the finer points
of his theory of relativity to us.
And?
And I'm quite certain
that he understands it.
[upbeat music playing]
[laughing]
[man] Epstein.
No, no. Einstein.
Professor, this is Jacob Epstein.
The sculptor.
Oh! [laughs]
Professor, I'm very interested
in your head.
[jazz music playing]
I understand you're none too popular
in Germany, Professor.
[Einstein grunts]
I read recently that 100 Nazi professors
have condemned your theories as incorrect.
Were I wrong, one professor
would have been quite enough. [chuckles]
[Jacob laughs]
I thought I was a physicist.
[music fades]
I did not bother being a non-Aryan
until Hitler made me conscious of it.
[somber music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[man speaking German]
[in English] Only those of German blood,
whatever their creed,
may be members of the Nation.
All non-German immigration
must be prevented.
No Jew may be a member of the Nation.
Leaders of the party promise
to work ruthlessly,
if need be, to sacrifice their very life
to translate this program into action.
[somber music continues]
[man coughs]
[indistinct chatter]
At present, every coachman
and every waiter is debating
whether relativity theory is correct.
Here is yet another application
of the principle of relativity
for the delectation of the reader.
Today, you are described in Germany
as a "German savant,"
and in England as a "Swiss Jew."
[both laugh]
Should it ever be my fate
to be represented as a bte noire,
I should, on the contrary,
become a "Swiss Jew" for the Germans
and the "German savant" for the English.
[Einstein laughs]
"This event has been organized
by the 'Working Society
of German Scientists
for the Preservation of Pure Science.'"
Their conviction is determined
by the political party
to which they belong.
"First speaker, Paul Weyland."
[applause ends]
Our theme this evening,
to protect the German people
from being misled
by highly acclaimed scientists,
who set
the scientifically-interested world
in disarray with half-baked opinions.
He doesn't seem to be an expert at all.
Doctor? Engineer? Politician?
[Weyland] We present observations
on Einstein's theory of relativity
and the manner of its introduction.
[person coughing]
Rarely in science
has a postulated scientific system
been promoted as extravagantly
as the general principle of relativity,
which at a closer glance,
is revealed
to be severely lacking in proof.
Einstein engages in a businesslike
booming of his theory and his name.
In short,
Einstein's theory of relativity
is nothing less than scientific Dadaism.
[audience gasps]
[audience cheering, applauding]
It is the product
of an intellectually-confused time,
and plagiarized to boot.
It is, in fact, a hoax
promoted by the clique
of his academic supporters.
All of this is
a consequence of the intellectual
and moral decay of German society,
which is being exploited and promoted
by a certain press.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[tense music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[Einstein] My answer to the
Anti-Relativity Theory Company Limited.
I have reason to believe
that motives
other than the striving for truth
are at the bottom of this enterprise.
Were I a German nationalist,
whether bearing a swastika or not,
rather than a Jew
of liberal international bent...
I am neither a German citizen
nor do I believe in a Jewish faith.
[music ends]
But I am a Jew,
and I am glad
to belong to the Jewish people.
[Jacob coughing]
[Jacob inhales] Professor,
do you think you might put out your pipe?
I would rather view the individual
in a fog and semi-darkness
than in the light.
[hesitates] It's just I can barely see you
through the smoke.
[Einstein inhales deeply]
[exhales]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Locker-Lampson] Gentlemen. Shall we?
[inhales]
[exhales]
Someone to see you, Professor.
Walter Adams.
I think you should listen
to what he has to say.
[sighs]
[Walter] Uh, Professor, I'm here
in my role as secretary
of the Academic Assistance Council.
We formed earlier this year
with the explicit intention
of helping displaced academics
who might need to flee Germany
in light of the, um...
current appalling circumstances
for Jews there.
I have been promoted
to an evil monster in Germany,
and all my money
has been taken away from me.
Yes, I'm so sorry.
Professor, we're organizing an event
in support of academic refugees
and, uh... well, we wonder
whether you would agree to speak?
Mr. Adams,
if I were to appear in public
as a prosecutor of the German government,
it would have terrifying consequences
for the German Jews.
Yes, perhaps.
But the circumstances
are already terrifying for them
even without your intervention.
Professor, you are
the most renowned physicist of the age.
Your voice would echo around the world
and help to reveal the scale
of the Jewish academic purge in Germany.
I assure you,
it will only be a modest meeting
where a small number
of well-known people will speak.
Would you at least consider it?
[somber music playing]
[tense music playing]
[man] Few Germans were alert to the threat
that Hitler and the Nazis posed.
A failed coup attempt
did little to dispel their image
as a tin pot army of political no-hopers.
Yet, in the wake of World War I,
Hitler courted
the many disillusioned team of soldiers
to swell the party's ranks
and set him on the road to power.
[Einstein]
Humanity is suffering in Germany.
The present wave of nationalism
is a severe sickness.
[seagulls cawing]
It takes but the slightest provocation,
or at times no provocation at all,
to be transformed into chauvinism.
[gun fires]
[crowd clamoring]
[music ends]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
My feelings for Rathenau
were ones of thanks
for the hope and consolation he gave me
during Europe's presently bleak situation.
[ominous music playing]
He was the first victim
of Nazi propaganda.
[car horn honking]
[reporter] Professor,
just a few questions.
Professor, there are rumors
you are not returning to Germany.
In view of the attitude that large numbers
of educated Germans have towards Jews,
I have been warned against making
any kind of public appearances in Germany.
For I am supposedly
among the group of people
being targeted by nationalist assassins.
But you deny you are fleeing Germany?
I am going to Japan because that means
12 weeks of peace on the open sea.
[engine whirring]
I am glad to just disappear
for six months.
The voyage is wonderful,
even though Japan is quite exhausting.
Here, I have already given 13 lectures
and been photographed
for the 10,000th time.
No living person deserves
this sort of reception.
[children laughing]
An enthralling walk along the coast.
In the afternoon,
a tour to the peak of the mountain.
[music ends]
[clock ticking]
[inhales]
[radio feedback]
[announcer 1]
In Berlin and throughout Germany,
people are suffering from hunger,
an absence
of the bare necessities of life.
Unemployment and mounting inflation
are bringing the country
to the edge of ruin.
Money means almost nothing.
300 billion marks
for a half-pound of apples,
and the mark's value continues to fall
lower and lower.
The middle class is wiped out.
The Reichsbank works overtime
printing more and more paper money
that buys less and less.
The Nazi ranks now begin to swell,
aimless, jobless young men
fed on promises of power and gold.
[announcer 2]
The Berlin adherents of the Nazi party
spent yesterday at Nuremberg
and formed part of a body of 12,000,
mostly Bavarians,
who paraded before the famous Hitler.
[chanting in German]
[foghorn blares]
[announcer 3] The globe-trotting
Professor Einstein arrives back
in New York
to be met by a mob of reporters.
The greatest scientist of Germany
in the greatest city of the world.
I'm delighted.
The reporters asked
exquisitely inane questions,
to which I replied with cheap jokes.
[reporter] What do you think
of prohibition, Professor?
[in German]
I don't drink, so I couldn't care less.
[all laugh]
[crowd clamoring]
[announcer 1 in English]
Germany and election day,
Herr Hitler stuns the world
as his vote soars.
Now, 6 million of his countrymen
back the Nazis,
making them
the second-largest party in the Reichstag.
Is there no stopping
the self-styled Fhrer's onward march?
[shouting in German]
[announcer 2]
Professor Einstein suddenly became grave
and almost vehement when asked about
the Nazi party's recent election success.
"I do not enjoy
Mr. Hitler's acquaintance," he said.
"Hitler is living
on the empty stomach of Germany."
"As soon as economic conditions
in Germany improve,
he will cease to be important."
Beyond this statement,
Dr. Einstein would not discuss politics.
[in German]
The struggle between the people
and the hatred amongst them
is being nurtured
by very specific interested parties.
It is a small,
rootless, international clique
that is turning people against each other.
They are the only ones who can really
be regarded as international elements
because they conduct
their business everywhere.
[foghorn honking]
[all] Einstein!
[crowd cheering]
[Einstein in English]
Mere words do not get pacifists anywhere.
They must initiate action.
[upbeat music playing]
Deeds are needed.
Even if only 2% of those
supposed to perform military service
should declare themselves
war resisters and assert,
"We are not going to fight,"
the governments would be powerless.
[announcer 1] More than one million Jews
throughout the United States
will join protest meetings today
against the persecution of Jews
in Germany by the Hitler government.
- [crowd cheering]
- [soldiers marching]
[announcer 2]
Brownshirts are marching in triumph,
for Adolf Hitler rules Germany at last.
Great crowds assembled
when the announcement came
that Hitler had accepted command.
What now,
for 50 million Germans
give allegiance to the Hitler flag,
the famous swastika.
[in German]
On this evening, I call on our people
every hour
of every day
to think only of Germany, the Reich,
and our German nation,
our German people.
Hail to victory!
[woman laughing]
[announcer 3 in English] In Pasadena,
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Einstein
bid friends farewell.
The professor has spent
the best part of a decade
darting between his homeland
and the rest of the world.
But the Germany
he's returning to this time
is a far cry from the one he left.
Now, Herr Hitler reigns supreme.
[announcer 4]
Germany was a land of devilry by night.
That in which you did not believe
must be destroyed.
And in the burning,
liberty, tolerance, and gentleness
vanished from the land.
[in German] German men and women.
The age of an exaggerated
Jewish intellectualism
has now come to an end.
[announcer 5 in English] The Einsteins'
transatlantic voyage is rudely interrupted
with the news that
their summer home has been raided.
[Einstein]
My summer home has often in the past
been honored by the presence of guests.
They were always welcome.
No one had any reason to break in.
These acts are the result
of a rabid mob of the Nazi militia.
I think it is quite possible
that the political circus at home
will go on for some time,
and that I will not return.
[announcer 6] What is the real attitude
of the new German dictator?
Is it Hitler's plan
to continue to maintain Germany
under his National Socialist rule,
or does he plan to restore
a semblance of the former monarchy
with himself
as the power behind the throne?
Whatever Hitler's plans may be,
it is certain
that in his scheme of things,
no one but himself will be allowed
to play the principal role.
[radio feedback]
[Barbara] There is Professor's picture.
"Was greatly honored by the Jewish press
and the unsuspecting German people."
[tense music playing]
[Barbara] "Showed his gratitude
by lying atrocity propaganda
against Adolf Hitler."
And below that, it says...
It says...
It says...
"Not yet hanged."
[birds chirping]
When I was young,
all I wanted from life
was to sit quietly in a corner somewhere,
doing my work
without the public paying attention to me.
Now look what has become of me.
I'm so very sorry, Professor.
I cannot understand the passive response
of the whole civilized world
to this modern barbarism.
Doesn't the world see
that Hitler is aiming for war?
It would seem not.
This must be difficult for you.
I mean, as a committed pacifist.
Yes, but I have little need to tell you
that I am an unconditional anti-fascist.
The entire German population
is being poisoned with nationalism
and drilled for war.
I loathe all armies.
And any kind of violence.
Yet, I am firmly convinced
that in the present state of the world,
organized force can be opposed
only by organized force.
There is no other way.
No other way.
[scoffs]
[seagulls cawing]
The world is in greater peril from those
who tolerate or encourage evil
than from those who actually commit it.
Silence would have made me
feel guilty of complicity.
[Locker-Lampson]
Einstein will speak. Stop.
Forget the "modest meeting."
You want to raise money
to help the German Jews, don't you?
Stop.
Leave the venue to me. Stop.
[tense music playing]
I've already booked a bigger hall.
You have?
The biggest.
Locker-Lampson. Stop.
To Walter Adams. Urgent delivery.
[announcer] October 2nd, 1933.
Daily Mail editorial. London.
There is due to take place
at the Albert Hall a mass meeting,
nominally to appeal for funds
on behalf of the exiles from Germany.
Actually, it will everywhere be regarded
as a demonstration
against the Hitler regime.
And Nazi policy.
[crowd cheering]
We have every sympathy
with the German Jews as such,
but their treatment will not be improved...
GERMANS, DON'T BUY IN JEWISH SHOPS
...by Albert Hall denunciations of Nazis.
We venture to put it to Dr. Einstein
that he would be wise
to stop this injudicious agitation
in this country against the Nazi regime.
[music intensifies]
[music ends]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[mumbling unintelligibly]
The first thing is my gratitude
as a man...
as a good European...
as a Jew.
[shaky breathing]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[exhales]
[knocking at door, opens]
[Locker-Lampson]
I've just spoken to Mr. Adams.
Every ticket has been sold.
Ten thousand people.
[scoffs]
You've got the speech prepared?
[sighs]
Proud of you.
The car's ready. Ready when you are.
[exhales]
Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Einstein.
[audience applauding]
"I am glad you have given me
the opportunity...
an opportunity..."
"I am glad you have given me
the opportunity...
...of expressing to you here
my deep sense of gratitude as a man,
as a good European,
and as a Jew."
"It cannot be my task
to sit in judgment
over the conduct of a nation
which for many years
counted me among its citizens."
"It is perhaps futile
even to try to evaluate
its policies at a time
when it is so necessary to act."
"The crucial questions today are
how can we save mankind
and its cultural heritage?"
"How can we guard Europe
from further disaster?"
"Discontent breeds hatred."
"And hatred leads to acts of violence,
revolution,
and even war."
"Thus, we see how distress
and evil beget new distress and evil."
"If we are to resist
the powers that threaten
intellectual and individual freedom,
we must be very conscious of the fact
that freedom itself is at stake."
"We must realize
how much we owe to that freedom
which our forefathers won
through bitter struggle."
"Without such freedom,
there would have been no Shakespeare,
no Goethe,
no Newton,
no Faraday,
no Pasteur,
and no Lister."
Should we merely lament the fact
that we live in a time of tension,
danger, and want?
I think not.
Only when subjected
to peril and social upheaval,
do nations feel induced
to adopt progressive measures.
One can only hope that the present crisis
will lead to a better world.
One can only hope
that the present crisis
will lead to a better world.
[audience applauding]
[car engine starts]
[dramatic music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
The Institute will be located in Princeton
and will begin in the fall of 1933,
the School of Mathematics
headed by Professor Einstein.
[somber music playing]
[Einstein] I found Princeton lovely.
A wondrous little spot.
[Flexner] I consider that we are
extraordinarily fortunate
in being able to begin
with a man like Professor Einstein,
who is one
of the ranking scientists of all time.
[Einstein]
Into this small university town,
the chaotic voices of human strife
barely penetrate.
I am almost ashamed
to be living in such a place
whilst all the rest struggle and suffer.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] Hitler continues to arm,
while suppressing the rights of all
whose ideas do not agree with his.
Jews, Catholics, liberals, Protestants,
and women who, under his regime,
have been reduced to medieval slavery,
all stand aghast
as the threat of war again appears.
[Einstein] When asked why
I have given up my position in Germany,
I made this statement.
As long as I have any choice,
I will only stay in a country
where political liberty,
toleration, and equality is the rule.
I do feel that in America,
the most valuable thing in life
is possible.
The development of the individual
and his creative power.
[glass shatters]
[announcer 2]
The night of the broken glass.
Two hundred synagogues
and 7,500 shops are put to the torch.
Ninety Jews are murdered,
hundreds injured,
thousands demeaned and spat upon.
BE CAREFUL, JEWS
26,000 Jewish men are arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
The visible destruction
matches the violence
that has been done
Germany's 250,000 remaining Jews.
[Hitler in German]
And never flag, never tire, never despair...
[announcer 2 in English]
Desperate and destitute,
they are pushed to the edge of existence.
[Hitler in German]
Long live the German people...
[announcer 2 in English]
Germany has turned down
a dark and sinister path
from which there is no return.
[crowd chanting, cheering in German]
[announcer 3]
Scientists at George Washington University
heard a report of startling significance.
Word has just come through from Germany
that uranium atom,
under neutron bombardment,
actually splits into two parts.
[announcer 3] To the scientists,
this dramatic news
brought a great sense of urgency.
[Einstein] A very small amount of mass
may be converted
into a very large amount of energy.
[announcer 4] Military intelligence fear
that Hitler may have already taken
the first steps toward an atomic bomb.
Energy released on that scale
sounds... rather worrying.
Science in its present state
makes it appear almost impossible
that we should ever succeed in so doing.
[sinister music playing]
[announcer 5] Conscious of the disaster,
which would inevitably follow
if Nazi Germany should be the first
to succeed in releasing atomic energy,
Dr. Einstein decided to write
a personal letter to the president
and stressed the urgent need for action
by the US government.
[Einstein] Sir,
some recent work,
which has been communicated to me,
leads me to expect
that the element uranium
may be turned into a new
and important source of energy.
This new phenomena would also lead
to the construction of bombs,
extremely powerful bombs of a new type.
In view of this situation,
you may think it desirable
to speed up the experimental work,
which is at present being carried on.
Yours, very truly, A. Einstein.
[breathes deeply]
[tense music playing]
Organized force can be opposed
only by organized force.
[thunder cracking]
[announcer 1]
Nazi troops have invaded Poland
by land and by air in undeclared war.
[announcer 2] Hitler's war machine
sweeps through Europe,
conquering the old enemy France.
[Churchill] We shall break up and derange
every effort which Hitler makes.
We shall strive to resist him
by land and sea.
He will find no peace, no rest, no parley.
[Hitler in German]
Mr. Churchill may be convinced
that Great Britain will win.
I doubt not for a second
that Germany will be the victor.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer 3] With the fall of Belgium,
her stockpiles
of the nuclear material uranium
are seized by the Nazis.
[announcer 4] Pearl Harbor,
our great Pacific outpost
in the Hawaiian islands,
is ruthlessly bombed
as Japan's perfidious declaration of war.
[Roosevelt]
No matter how long it may take us,
the American people
in their righteous might
will win through to absolute victory.
[crowd applauding, cheering]
[typewriter clacking]
E is equal MC squared.
The basic formula that unlocked
the secrets of the atom.
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[guns firing]
[Einstein] It is important
that we be vividly aware
of the mass murders
which the Germans have committed
against the civilian populations
of the occupied countries.
The Germans are intent everywhere
on exterminating those which represent
a nation's independent spirit.
[announcer 5] In Norway,
Allied Forces deliver a devastating blow
to the Nazi nuclear program.
A series of raids
on a hydroelectric power plant
cuts off their source
to vital chemical supplies.
[announcer 6] D-Day. Over 150,000 troops,
carried by more than 5,000 vessels.
The largest amphibious invasion
in history.
The tide of the war is turning on Germany.
[guns firing]
[announcer 7] Allied Forces recover
a cache of secret Nazi files
that show that their atomic weapon program
has failed.
[somber music playing]
[announcer 8] As the Allies advance
deeper into the European mainland,
the true horror
of Hitler's plan is revealed.
[announcer 9] Pictorial evidence
of the almost unprecedented crimes
perpetrated by the Nazis
at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
[announcer 10]
These bones were men, women, and children
sent to be exterminated.
[Einstein] The crime of the Germans
is truly the most abominable ever
to be recorded in the history
of so-called civilized nations.
[announcer 11] In the official report,
the Buchenwald Camp is termed
an extermination factory.
[crowd cheering]
[Einstein] They elected Hitler
after he made
his shameful intentions clear
beyond the possibility
of misunderstanding.
[in German] Hail to victory!
- [crowd chanting]
- [somber music playing]
[Einstein in English]
Since they massacred my Jewish brethren,
I will have nothing further to do
with Germans.
[firing]
[announcer 1] April 1945.
The Soviet Army launches
its final assault on Hitler's forces,
encircling Berlin
and closing in on the Fhrer's bunker.
[firing]
[firing]
Hopelessly defeated,
Hitler takes his own life
with a single gunshot to the head.
- [gun fires]
- [somber music playing]
[announcer 2] The war in Europe is won,
but US-led forces continue
their search for a decisive end
to the war with Japan.
- [man] Five, four, three, two, one.
- [speaking German]
[announcer]
After years of scientific endeavor,
the Manhattan Project
has delivered an atomic bomb.
[somber music continues]
Alamogordo in the New Mexico desert.
The first atomic test.
It's a terrifying prelude
to the onslaught that awaits
the unsuspecting citizens of Hiroshima.
[pilot] Height approximately 32,000 feet.
Course, 265 degrees magnetic.
Air speed, 250 knots.
Am approaching target area.
Cloud cover less than three-tens
at all altitudes.
Immediate target area clear.
[pilot speaking indistinctly]
- [pilot speaks indistinctly]
- [tense music playing]
[children laughing]
[film rolling]
[melancholic music playing]
[Truman] A short time ago,
an American airplane
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.
What has been done
is the greatest achievement
of organized science in history.
[clock ticking]
[melancholic music continues]
[announcer] The first atomic bomb heralded
the dawn of a troubling new era.
In a single stroke,
the Japanese city of Hiroshima
and some 70,000 men, women, and children
were annihilated.
In the years since,
that momentous event
has come under increasing scrutiny.
Was the bomb a price
worth paying for peace?
[typewriter clacking]
[melancholic music continues]
[Hara] My dear Professor.
At present,
the Japanese people are keenly conscious
of their own responsibility
for the last war.
And are showing
sincere repentance for their crime.
[tense music playing]
Recently, years since
the termination of the war,
the Japanese people
have come for the first time
face-to-face with the annihilating effects
of an atomic bomb.
[gulps, inhales]
And now, we ask you, Professor Einstein,
why science,
whose primary aim is but to serve
the welfare and happiness of mankind,
should have been instrumental
in producing such horrible results?
[gasps]
I do not consider myself the father
of the release of atomic energy.
My part in it was quite indirect.
In view of the fact
that you played an important role
in the production of the atomic bombs?
My sole contribution was that in 1905,
I established the relationship
between mass and energy.
I believed only that atomic energy
was theoretically possible.
I did not, in fact,
foresee that atomic energy
would be released in my time.
[sighs]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[typewriter clacking]
[hesitates]
I made one great mistake in my life.
When I signed that letter
to President Roosevelt.
The likelihood that the Germans
were working on the same problem
with every prospect of success
forced me to take this step.
[bomb explodes]
[melancholic music playing]
[Einstein] Had I known
that the Germans would not succeed
in producing an atomic bomb,
I would not have taken part
in opening that Pandora's box.
I never would have lifted a finger.
[exhales]
Before the raid on Hiroshima,
leading physicists
urged the War Department
not to use the bomb
against defenseless women and children.
[tense music playing]
Had we shown other nations
the test explosion of New Mexico,
we could have used it
to make proposals for world order.
To end war.
The physicists who participated in forging
the most formidable
and dangerous weapon of all time
are harassed
by an equal feeling of responsibility,
not to say guilt.
[crowd cheering]
We delivered this weapon into the hands
of the Americans and the British people
as trustees of the whole mankind,
as fighters for peace and liberty.
But so far,
we fail to see any guarantee of peace
or the freedoms
that were promised to the nations.
[melancholic music playing]
The situation calls
for a courageous effort.
For a radical change in our whole attitude
in the entire political concept.
Otherwise,
human civilization will be doomed.
The war is won.
The peace is not.
[film rolling]
[announcer 1]
President Truman's dramatic announcement
that Russia has created
an atomic explosion
sends reporters racing
for Flushing Meadow,
where Russia's Vyshinsky
arrives to address the United Nations.
Mr. Vyshinsky, have you got any statement...
- Please, excuse me.
- Does Russia have the atomic bomb?
[bomb exploding]
[announcer 2] A crack, a blast.
The release of deadly radioactive rain.
And in a matter of seconds,
downtown New York would be a massive ruin.
[typewriter clacking]
Our country is at war.
A war declared against us
by the rulers of international communism.
[announcer 3] This constitutes
the greatest crisis
in the history of America.
[announcer 4] There are signs
that the Kremlin is already intensifying
its use of another weapon.
Communist propaganda.
We are in the midst
of a continuing struggle
for the minds of men.
[sighs]
The German calamity
of years ago repeats itself.
People act fierce without resistance
and align themselves
with the forces of evil.
How long should we tolerate politicians
hungry for power or trying to gain
political advantage in such a way?
[tense music playing]
It is strange that science,
which in the old days seemed harmless,
should have evolved into a nightmare
that causes everyone to tremble.
- [bomb exploding]
- [clock ticking]
One thing I have learned in a long life
is that all our science
measured against reality is childlike.
And yet,
it is the most precious thing we have.
Science is not,
and never will be, a closed book.
Every important advance
brings new questions.
But the years
of anxious searching in the dark
and the final emergence into the light,
only those who have experienced it
can understand.
We must not condemn man
because his conquest
of the forces of nature
are being exploited
for destructive purposes.
Rather, the fate of mankind
hinges entirely upon
man's moral development.
[music ends]
[exhales, inhales]
[melancholic music playing]
[typewriter clacking]
[clock ticking]
[typewriter clacking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Einstein] Dear posterity,
if you have not become more just
or peaceful and generally more rational
than we are or were,
then may the devil take you.
I am, or was,
your Albert Einstein.
[film rolling, stops]
[instrumental music playing]
[instrumental music intensifies]
[instrumental music ends]