Original subtitles

[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 bête 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 Führer'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 Führer'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]