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I'm not only a pacifist,
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but a militant pacifist, militant.
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I'm willing to fight, to fight for peace.
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I do not know how the Third
World War will be fought,
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but I can tell you what
they'll use in the Fourth:
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rocks.
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The myth of Einstein was created in 1919.
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You can date it very specifically.
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The British astronomer Stanley Eddington
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confirmed Einstein's
general theory of relativity
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through observations of a solar eclipse.
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He announced them in
a very dramatic fashion
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in November 1919 to a joint
session of the Royal Society
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and the Royal Astronomical Society.
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And that was then followed
by sensational headlines
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in "The Times of London"
and "New York Times."
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There was almost a conspiracy
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of the great newspapers
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to elevate this man into the firmament.
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When Einstein's general
theory of relativity was confirmed
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by Eddington in 1919,
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this really was the start
for big public enthusiasm
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but also for a big public controversy.
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The English-speaking world
was quicker to accept him
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as this greater-than-life figure.
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Much more so, interestingly enough,
than in Germany.
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They were making jokes
about the theory of relativity,
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saying when people go dancing,
when they dance waltz,
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then you will lose weight
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when you dance in the
direction where the Earth rotates
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or you gain weight
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when you dance turning
in the other direction.
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So the theory of relativity
was really present
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in the public sphere everywhere.
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The theory of relativity was really a topic
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in all areas in the public
that you can think of.
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This world is a strange mad house.
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Every coachman and every baker
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is debating whether
relativity theory is correct.
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As a consequence
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of his celebrity status overnight,
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photographers and journalists
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started besieging his apartment,
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and from that moment on, basically,
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every public utterance that he would make
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and every trip that he undertook
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would be reported in great detail.
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With me, every peep becomes a trumpet solo.
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Einstein!
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Einstein!
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Professor and Mrs. Einstein,
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it is my pleasure to welcome
you to the City of San Diego
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and to the State of California.
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When Einstein came to America,
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there were parades turned out to meet him,
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and there were parades in several places,
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and he was invited here,
there, and everywhere.
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He was the first intellectual pop star.
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People go out into
the streets to greet him.
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He's a big celebrity.
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Everybody knows what Einstein looks like.
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A young Einstein felt
encouraged to enter science.
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He had a teacher at his home, Max Talmud,
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later called Talmey,
who was a medical student,
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enthusiastic about science,
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and who took the younger
Einstein as an equal,
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discussing with him science.
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Science was not the esoteric
world to be admired from below.
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It was a time of development,
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of sophisticated industrialization,
of electrotechnology,
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of technology conquering the world.
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It was a world in which one could enter,
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actively contribute, become part of it.
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And so, the young Einstein did.
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And he went to Italy and
experienced the freedom there
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and the great culture but
also the open mindedness
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towards exactly this kind of development.
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With his uncle,
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he communicated about
electrotechnical developments.
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My dear uncle,
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I'm really very glad that
you are still interested
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in my humble doings.
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It is rather naive and imperfect.
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This might be expected from
such a young fellow like myself.
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And was quite familiar
with this growing world,
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which really extended
from technical equipments
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that were changing the daily life,
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electric lighting was
being spread in the cities,
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to the intellectual
challenges this implied.
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You could have the feeling,
as a young person,
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of challenging the
foundation of your world,
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and this gave Einstein a lot of courage
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that there was something to be achieved,
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you could make a difference.
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Even if you were not born
into the center of the world
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and if you came from the margins,
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there was this way of
entering the big world.
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The class of people that made it,
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people who were open-minded,
who were believing in progress
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and not just in technological
but also in social progress,
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in a bright, international,
communicative world.
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And that's the world in
which Einstein grew up.
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His parents were from a
rural Southern German,
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more of a egalitarian ethos
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than the typical Prussian military ethos
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that we're familiar with when
we think of German culture.
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Part of Einstein's
support for social justice
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comes from his experiences
of anti-Semitism at school
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from quite an early age.
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He would be bullied on the way to school,
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even physically assaulted sometimes.
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A Catholic teacher once
brought a nail to school
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and presented it to the children and said,
"This is the nail
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with which the Jews
killed our Lord and Savior."
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And then everybody turned to Einstein,
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and he was quite mortified.
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Ever since Einstein was very little,
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he was a revolutionary.
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He revolted against the way German teaching
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basically crushed imagination
out of young children,
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the tedious memorization.
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You weren't supposed
to question the teacher.
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The teacher was god in the classroom.
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As a teenager,
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Einstein had to confront
the issue of war and peace.
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Einstein did not want to
go into the German Army,
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and so, he became a draft dodger.
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How many 16-year-old kids
have the political maturity
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to say to themselves
that they are against war
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so they're gonna
renounce their citizenship?
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Young Einstein leaves Germany for Italy
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to reunite with his parents
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because he cannot stomach the idea
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of being part of a war machine.
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Einstein had a political learning curve
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at the end of the 19th century,
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a son of a liberal Jewish family.
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So his family went to Italy,
he studied in Switzerland.
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It was an important place for him, also,
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to experience what a democracy is like,
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gave him an internationalist outlook
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that portrayed to him the model republic.
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When he came to Berlin at
the eve of the First World War,
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most of his colleague
were German nationalist,
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considered German militarism as a necessity
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to defend German culture.
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Einstein was taken aback by it,
and he had other views
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on the basis of this different
background that he had.
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That vilest offspring of the herd mind,
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the odious militia.
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He wasn't a political animal at this time
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but he mobilized some of
the intellectual moral resources
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that his education had give
him to become more and more
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of a politically conscious human being.
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And so, his strong sense of justice,
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his strong sense of
universal and globalism,
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and his participation as a Jew
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are the foundation of his morality.
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Only morality in our actions
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can give beauty and dignity to life.
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And he, like in physics,
is a revolutionary thinker.
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He could identify with the underdog.
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Following his studies,
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when he was then looking
around desperately for a position,
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he was the only one in his class who,
ironically,
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did not secure a position as an assistant,
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the first step on the ladder
of an academic career.
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To some extent,
he blamed anti-Semitism for that.
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It was also probably to
do with his personality
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of not really getting on
with the powers that be.
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In 1914, Einstein came to Berlin,
where he discovered,
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as he said, for the first time, Jews.
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When there was a influx
of Eastern European Jews
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into Germany as a consequence
of the war in the East,
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he identified with their plight.
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German voices are increasingly heard
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that demand legal measures
against Eastern European truce.
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Measures that devastate so many individuals
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must not be triggered
by slogan-like assertions.
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Agitation by demagogues
diverts from the true problems.
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The expulsion of the Eastern European Jews,
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resulting in unspeakable misery,
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would only appear to the whole world
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as new evidence of German barbarism.
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Because, of course, in his childhood,
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he had been one of an outsider minority.
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Now in Berlin, he found very large numbers,
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especially from Eastern Europe,
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who did not have access
to higher education.
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He was very concerned
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that young Eastern European
Jewish academic talent
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was going to waste.
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For him, the most important thing was free,
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uninhibited research, scientific research.
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His sister later described
his sense of justice
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to that very thing in founding
the Hebrew University,
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a place where people like himself,
young Jews,
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could be educated.
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This institution of
research and scholarship,
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00:12:46,929 --> 00:12:49,658
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
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was founded long before the establishment
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of the independent State of Israel.
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But Einstein wasn't quite
yet the political animal
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that he was to become.
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That developed only over time.
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00:13:02,260 --> 00:13:05,366
He early on saw the
dangers of the Nazi regime.
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00:13:05,390 --> 00:13:07,496
He knew his German colleagues,
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both their strength in terms
of scientific competence
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and their weaknesses in
terms of willing to cooperate,
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to subordinate themselves
under the authorities.
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I have always found repulsive
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the undignified addiction to
conformity of many of my peers.
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At times like this,
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one realizes what a sorry
species one belongs to.
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He was politically unconventional.
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I mean,
his taking a stand on the First World War
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already was an extremely courageous thing
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for someone in his position.
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00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,310
Remember,
there are so few Jewish professors
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in Germany and Austria at that point
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that somebody had to write a letter
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00:13:49,860 --> 00:13:54,860
claiming he was free of
unpleasant Jewish characteristics.
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So, he could have retreated,
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and it would have been
the easiest thing in the world
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for him to do, to not be outspoken.
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00:14:03,690 --> 00:14:06,816
I think we all, as humans, to some extent,
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00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:11,256
compartmentalize domains of our lives.
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We separate work from
friendship from family.
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00:14:14,550 --> 00:14:16,946
So,
compartmentalization is just the usual way
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of dealing with complex
situations one experiences in life.
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Haber is just an extreme case.
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Haber really was
enthusiastically supporting the war
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00:14:24,690 --> 00:14:27,336
and putting science at its service.
234
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:31,536
But Einstein certainly felt
close to Haber intellectually.
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He was one of the leading
physical chemists of the time.
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00:14:35,330 --> 00:14:37,096
Einstein made great contributions
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to the foundations of physical chemistry.
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00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,896
Both had Jewish backgrounds,
and both problematic marriages.
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00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:47,920
So these two men certainly
were like-minded in many ways
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on an intellectual level,
but Haber was no exception.
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00:14:52,570 --> 00:14:55,016
Other close friends of Einstein
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00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,736
also were signing the famous declaration
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00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:01,910
in favor of German militarism
and the occupation of Belgium
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00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,117
and of the cruelties that
the German Army committed.
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00:15:06,890 --> 00:15:07,976
That was the way
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00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:11,083
that all of Einstein's
colleagues were thinking.
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Einstein really was the great exception.
248
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How do you deal with the fact
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if you are so incredibly
lonely in your political position?
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00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:47,956
You are not there as
a political ambassador,
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you are called there as a scientist.
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Feeling that your colleagues
were doing excellent work,
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00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:54,126
and some of the leading
scientists were there.
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00:15:54,150 --> 00:15:58,046
Most of them were
nationalist conservatives,
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00:15:58,070 --> 00:15:59,316
to say the least.
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00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:02,396
Some, like Fritz Haber, war criminals.
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From our perspective,
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Einstein should have broken with Haber,
259
00:16:05,540 --> 00:16:08,506
should have told him
to stop his war efforts,
260
00:16:08,530 --> 00:16:13,346
but that was an unthinkable
breaching of wars at the time.
261
00:16:13,370 --> 00:16:15,786
If people are working on dubious issues
262
00:16:15,810 --> 00:16:17,456
in the military industry,
263
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:20,743
and they see consequences,
dangerous consequences,
264
00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:23,266
do they have the courage
265
00:16:23,290 --> 00:16:25,546
of becoming what they call whistleblowers?
266
00:16:25,570 --> 00:16:26,626
So, whistleblowing,
267
00:16:26,650 --> 00:16:28,486
that's what we would have
expected from Einstein.
268
00:16:28,510 --> 00:16:32,186
But I think it is, again,
not just our general way,
269
00:16:32,210 --> 00:16:34,706
and certainly not the
specific way of Einstein,
270
00:16:34,730 --> 00:16:36,846
but it's the particular
situation of the time
271
00:16:36,870 --> 00:16:39,772
that people were just
more compartmentalizing
272
00:16:39,796 --> 00:16:41,646
than we do today.
273
00:16:41,670 --> 00:16:44,386
It's really one of the historical lessons
274
00:16:44,410 --> 00:16:47,016
that Einstein learned,
that we have learned,
275
00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,813
that there is a danger in
such compartmentalization.
276
00:16:50,810 --> 00:16:54,276
To come to the extreme, many Nazis,
277
00:16:54,300 --> 00:16:56,066
it seems we were friendly to their dogs
278
00:16:56,090 --> 00:16:58,146
and even to their family.
279
00:16:58,170 --> 00:17:00,986
Isn't that an extreme form
of this compartmentalization,
280
00:17:01,010 --> 00:17:02,866
and don't we despise this today?
281
00:17:02,890 --> 00:17:06,076
Yes, but it's a historical
lesson that we have learned
282
00:17:06,100 --> 00:17:09,376
that we should look across such boundaries
283
00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:11,986
and see what the full personality is,
284
00:17:12,010 --> 00:17:15,936
the full implications in the public life
285
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:17,796
or in the private life are.
286
00:17:17,820 --> 00:17:21,326
I think Einstein wasn't at
the point of having drawn
287
00:17:21,350 --> 00:17:23,636
or having taken in all those lessons yet,
288
00:17:23,660 --> 00:17:25,416
but he soon was to do that.
289
00:17:33,090 --> 00:17:35,836
Nationalism is an infantile disease.
290
00:17:35,860 --> 00:17:37,893
It is the measles of mankind.
291
00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:42,386
Anti-Semitism in all of
Europe and also in Germany
292
00:17:42,410 --> 00:17:44,146
has a long history, of course.
293
00:17:44,170 --> 00:17:47,716
I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured
294
00:17:47,740 --> 00:17:50,876
and the sight make my heart bleed.
295
00:17:50,900 --> 00:17:53,976
The gentile majority
undermines the confidence
296
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,310
even of the best of my fellow Jews,
297
00:17:57,334 --> 00:17:59,993
and I felt this could not
be allowed to continue.
298
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:02,866
And in Germany,
299
00:18:02,890 --> 00:18:07,116
it was accentuated by the
spectacular success of some Jews
300
00:18:07,140 --> 00:18:09,496
in the German political
and economic system,
301
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:11,516
which didn't compensate in any way
302
00:18:11,540 --> 00:18:14,156
for the repression that was still ongoing
303
00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:17,186
at other layers of social life,
304
00:18:17,210 --> 00:18:20,276
but it made the Jews so much more visible.
305
00:18:20,300 --> 00:18:23,586
And in the crisis of the First World War
306
00:18:23,610 --> 00:18:24,816
and after the crisis,
307
00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:27,423
after the German defeat
in the First World War,
308
00:18:28,470 --> 00:18:30,396
people needed to find scapegoats,
309
00:18:30,420 --> 00:18:33,336
and the Jews were quite appropriate,
in a way,
310
00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:37,136
because they were so
internationally-minded,
311
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:38,976
much more than the rest
of the German averages
312
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:40,856
and they were so exposed.
313
00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:42,946
Some of them were highly visible
314
00:18:42,970 --> 00:18:45,666
as part of the political
and intellectual elite
315
00:18:45,690 --> 00:18:49,016
of the Weimar Republic,
so they were targets, easy targets.
316
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,026
Ever since the abominable
murder of Rathenau,
317
00:18:52,050 --> 00:18:55,323
I myself am being constantly
warned to be cautious.
318
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,332
Anti-Semitism is very widespread.
319
00:19:09,176 --> 00:19:12,776
By 1922,
there are over 300 political murders
320
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:17,576
by right-wing radical groups, and this was
321
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,100
a particularly dangerous time,
also, for Einstein.
322
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,993
Einstein was, in the '20s,
323
00:19:25,017 --> 00:19:27,436
Weimar's prized public intellectual,
324
00:19:27,460 --> 00:19:28,706
one of the very few people
325
00:19:28,730 --> 00:19:31,746
who'd spoken out against
the First World War,
326
00:19:31,770 --> 00:19:34,126
and he was very happy to put himself
327
00:19:34,150 --> 00:19:36,496
in the services of the Weimar Republic
328
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:38,296
and do whatever could
be done to strengthen it,
329
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:43,003
the first democratic republic in Germany.
330
00:19:44,084 --> 00:19:46,606
Funny people, these Germans.
331
00:19:46,630 --> 00:19:48,846
To them, I'm a stinking flower,
332
00:19:48,870 --> 00:19:52,536
yet they put me into
their lapel time and again.
333
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:54,216
And it was a brave stand
334
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,216
because the Foreign Minister of Weimar,
Walter Rathenau,
335
00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:02,686
was actually murdered as a Jew,
and a left-leaning Jew,
336
00:20:02,710 --> 00:20:06,446
and some of the same group who murdered him
337
00:20:06,470 --> 00:20:09,396
offered to pay a reward to
anyone who would murder Einstein.
338
00:20:09,420 --> 00:20:11,546
Einstein, he received warnings
339
00:20:11,570 --> 00:20:14,666
that he's on the list of that group
340
00:20:14,690 --> 00:20:17,456
that murdered Walter Rathenau.
341
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,286
And he was withdrawing
from all public appearances
342
00:20:21,310 --> 00:20:24,536
at that time, he canceled his lectures.
343
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,136
It seems I belong to that group of people
344
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:29,853
whom the radical right plan to assassinate.
345
00:20:31,690 --> 00:20:34,156
There was a grand big
lecture he was supposed to give
346
00:20:34,180 --> 00:20:35,366
that was a centennial
347
00:20:35,390 --> 00:20:38,586
of the German Society of
Natural Sciences and Physicians,
348
00:20:38,610 --> 00:20:42,776
it was their 100th anniversary celebration,
349
00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:45,496
and Einstein's lecture had
to be rescheduled, I guess.
350
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:47,556
It was a big lecture for that celebration,
351
00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:49,316
and he had to cancel that.
352
00:20:49,340 --> 00:20:52,376
Many scientists,
like Max Planck and von Laue,
353
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,056
couldn't believe that it was possible
354
00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,286
that one of the most
important scientists in Germany,
355
00:20:58,310 --> 00:21:02,966
Einstein,
that he was somehow forced to withdraw
356
00:21:02,990 --> 00:21:05,686
from giving this lecture
by right-wing radicals
357
00:21:05,710 --> 00:21:07,496
who threatened his life.
358
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:11,246
And it extended,
one may be surprised at that,
359
00:21:11,270 --> 00:21:12,676
also to the field of science.
360
00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:16,706
There were different groups of people
361
00:21:16,730 --> 00:21:18,736
opposing the theory of relativity.
362
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,094
There was a political opposition.
363
00:21:21,118 --> 00:21:26,118
Einstein, as a democrat,
as a Jew in the Weimar Republic,
364
00:21:26,770 --> 00:21:28,776
he was a target of many people
365
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,806
who had nationalistic motivation,
who were anti-Semites,
366
00:21:32,830 --> 00:21:35,433
attacking Einstein as a person.
367
00:21:35,457 --> 00:21:38,776
And there was also an
opposition which mainly motivated
368
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,936
by different understandings of science.
369
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:46,676
It was not Einstein who
put the topic of anti-Semitism
370
00:21:46,700 --> 00:21:47,996
on the agenda.
371
00:21:48,020 --> 00:21:51,666
He was responding to a
widespread anti-Semitism
372
00:21:51,690 --> 00:21:56,276
in the public area but also
among his academic colleagues.
373
00:21:56,300 --> 00:21:59,496
The Einstein opponents
established their own academy.
374
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:02,306
So, an academy of the Einstein opponents.
375
00:22:02,330 --> 00:22:03,706
So, this was a network
376
00:22:03,730 --> 00:22:06,634
mainly between the
United States and Germany.
377
00:22:14,540 --> 00:22:16,446
Under the pretentious name
378
00:22:16,470 --> 00:22:19,413
Association of German Natural Scientists
379
00:22:19,437 --> 00:22:22,316
for the Preservation of Pure Science,
380
00:22:22,340 --> 00:22:26,136
a society has assembled
whose purpose of existence
381
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,706
seems to be to degrade
the theory of relativity
382
00:22:29,730 --> 00:22:31,843
as well as me as its originator.
383
00:22:34,390 --> 00:22:35,743
He left town,
384
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,606
but it did not deter him
from continuing to speak out.
385
00:22:40,630 --> 00:22:43,816
People who survey the
situation in Germany well
386
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:45,376
are indeed of the opinion
387
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,396
that a certain threat
to my life does exist.
388
00:22:48,420 --> 00:22:50,216
A yearning for the Far East
389
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:53,256
led me to accept the invitation to Japan.
390
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,431
Another part was the
need to get away for a while
391
00:22:56,455 --> 00:22:59,066
from the tense atmosphere in our homeland
392
00:22:59,090 --> 00:23:01,016
for a period of time.
393
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,276
After the murder of Rathenau,
I was certainly relieved
394
00:23:04,300 --> 00:23:08,336
to have an opportunity for a
long absence from Germany,
395
00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:11,950
taking me away from the
temporarily heightened danger.
396
00:23:19,020 --> 00:23:23,066
I seek solace in Mozart,
but when I am improvising
397
00:23:23,090 --> 00:23:25,506
and it appears that
something may come of it,
398
00:23:25,530 --> 00:23:28,063
I require the clear construction of Bach.
399
00:23:29,740 --> 00:23:31,636
The picture of Einstein
400
00:23:31,660 --> 00:23:35,226
that gets presented by so
many Einstein specialists
401
00:23:35,250 --> 00:23:36,986
is yes, he was absolutely brilliant,
402
00:23:37,010 --> 00:23:41,009
but he was a sort of childish, sad fool.
403
00:23:41,033 --> 00:23:43,496
The things that were most important to him
404
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:47,506
are described as being the
sort of ideas of a childish fool,
405
00:23:47,530 --> 00:23:48,530
of a luftmensch.
406
00:23:49,303 --> 00:23:52,706
A luftmensch being a Yiddish expression,
407
00:23:52,730 --> 00:23:54,546
not a German expression,
408
00:23:54,570 --> 00:23:58,876
which basically means
somebody who has a lot of ideas
409
00:23:58,900 --> 00:24:01,386
but keeps his head in the air, luft,
410
00:24:01,410 --> 00:24:05,616
without keeping his feet on the ground,
a naive person.
411
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:10,640
Is actually a way of undermining,
dare I say castrating him.
412
00:24:12,130 --> 00:24:14,576
Einstein, who was often portrayed
413
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:18,913
as somebody who kept a
distance from other people,
414
00:24:19,940 --> 00:24:22,546
which he certainly tried
to do and needed to do
415
00:24:22,570 --> 00:24:24,646
in order to be able to keep working,
416
00:24:24,670 --> 00:24:27,033
given that he was such a public celebrity,
417
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,186
but I think he was a realist of a way.
418
00:24:31,210 --> 00:24:35,856
He had experience enough
about people and their weaknesses
419
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:40,596
not just to dream about a utopian,
peaceful world.
420
00:24:40,620 --> 00:24:45,076
If you think when he was
talking against militarism,
421
00:24:45,100 --> 00:24:50,100
against the wrong way to be a nationalist,
422
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,877
before we knew that
there's the First World War,
423
00:24:53,901 --> 00:24:57,587
there will be a second one,
there will be the atomic bomb,
424
00:24:59,350 --> 00:25:01,293
beware of what can happen.
425
00:25:02,410 --> 00:25:05,756
It's a realistic political thinking.
426
00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:09,506
One should be impressed
that he could say these things
427
00:25:09,530 --> 00:25:13,293
so early and he was one of
the very few people who said,
428
00:25:13,317 --> 00:25:15,316
"Oh, be aware."
429
00:25:15,340 --> 00:25:16,896
It is strange that science,
430
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,636
which in the old days seemed harmless,
431
00:25:19,660 --> 00:25:21,796
should have evolved into a nightmare
432
00:25:21,820 --> 00:25:24,086
that causes everyone to tremble.
433
00:25:24,110 --> 00:25:28,196
He was very distressed
by his celebrity status
434
00:25:28,220 --> 00:25:29,396
at the beginning.
435
00:25:29,420 --> 00:25:33,216
It's dangerous,
because if you admire someone,
436
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,426
you follow him without thinking about it,
really,
437
00:25:36,450 --> 00:25:39,386
without using your own responsibility.
438
00:25:39,410 --> 00:25:42,676
So, without doing what Einstein always did,
439
00:25:42,700 --> 00:25:47,700
thinking himself and
thinking in a responsible way,
440
00:25:48,790 --> 00:25:51,106
thinking in a political way, also.
441
00:25:51,130 --> 00:25:55,466
So I think this is the reason
why famousness in general
442
00:25:55,490 --> 00:25:59,796
was not something he could admire
443
00:25:59,820 --> 00:26:01,986
or he could tolerate, really.
444
00:26:02,010 --> 00:26:04,966
Einstein really lends himself
445
00:26:04,990 --> 00:26:07,295
to that kind of mythologization
446
00:26:07,319 --> 00:26:12,136
insofar as he was a great
ham and the press loved him.
447
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,397
What do you think of prohibition,
Professor?
448
00:26:21,170 --> 00:26:21,980
He doesn't drink at all,
449
00:26:22,004 --> 00:26:23,553
so he's not interested in this question.
450
00:26:23,577 --> 00:26:24,537
And he would laugh,
451
00:26:24,561 --> 00:26:27,863
and he apparently had a
laugh like a barking seal.
452
00:26:28,910 --> 00:26:31,506
He was ideal as a kind of matinee idol.
453
00:26:31,530 --> 00:26:35,493
Mr. George Bernard Shaw
in honor of Professor Einstein.
454
00:26:43,460 --> 00:26:47,355
There's an order of men
who are makers of universes.
455
00:26:50,970 --> 00:26:55,633
Ptolemy made a universe
which lasted 1,400 years.
456
00:26:57,041 --> 00:27:02,041
Newton also made a universe
which has lasted 300 years.
457
00:27:02,570 --> 00:27:04,283
Einstein has made a universe,
458
00:27:05,179 --> 00:27:07,120
and I can't tell you
how long that will last.
459
00:27:09,180 --> 00:27:13,276
He was not naive but he saw very well
460
00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:17,236
it's useful for his goals,
for his political goals,
461
00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:19,346
for helping people.
462
00:27:19,370 --> 00:27:22,806
He saw it, basically, as a curse.
463
00:27:22,830 --> 00:27:23,996
Worshiped today,
464
00:27:24,020 --> 00:27:26,293
scorned or even crucified tomorrow,
465
00:27:27,290 --> 00:27:30,486
that is the fate of people whom,
God knows why,
466
00:27:30,510 --> 00:27:33,046
the bored public has taken possession of.
467
00:27:33,070 --> 00:27:36,046
He didn't quite understand why,
of all the scientists,
468
00:27:36,070 --> 00:27:37,426
he'd kind of been singled out
469
00:27:37,450 --> 00:27:42,116
for this unpleasant development,
470
00:27:42,140 --> 00:27:46,476
but eventually he learned
how to use his celebrity status
471
00:27:46,500 --> 00:27:48,867
to promote causes that
were important to him.
472
00:28:03,492 --> 00:28:05,296
As it contradicts the
image of him as being naive,
473
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,196
he became quite shrewd in
deciding what he would approve.
474
00:28:08,220 --> 00:28:11,286
We scientists who
released this immense power
475
00:28:11,310 --> 00:28:13,666
have overwhelming responsibility
476
00:28:13,690 --> 00:28:17,893
in this world life-and-death
struggle to harness atom.
477
00:28:19,150 --> 00:28:20,506
I agree.
478
00:28:20,530 --> 00:28:22,316
Which petition he would sign,
479
00:28:22,340 --> 00:28:26,336
which committee he would
become the honorary chairman of.
480
00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:30,633
He was pretty discretionary
about it and selective.
481
00:28:31,570 --> 00:28:33,586
I have tried to be very economical
482
00:28:33,610 --> 00:28:35,286
with my public utterances.
483
00:28:35,310 --> 00:28:36,566
This is the best way
484
00:28:36,590 --> 00:28:39,366
not to lose the small beneficial influence
485
00:28:39,390 --> 00:28:41,326
one is able to exercise.
486
00:28:41,350 --> 00:28:42,194
He thought,
487
00:28:42,218 --> 00:28:45,506
"Okay, if my famousness
is part of my moral capital,
488
00:28:45,530 --> 00:28:50,530
I can use it to help or to
have a political influence."
489
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:56,136
He was a political human
being before his American years.
490
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,606
It would be sad to waste much energy
491
00:28:58,630 --> 00:29:01,590
on the meager soil of politics.
492
00:29:01,614 --> 00:29:03,455
From time to time, however,
493
00:29:03,479 --> 00:29:06,576
the moment arrives
when I cannot help myself.
494
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:11,600
If you read his texts about peace,
about human rights,
495
00:29:12,090 --> 00:29:17,090
about human beings in the world,
it's easy to think,
496
00:29:17,307 --> 00:29:21,357
"Okay, this is very fundamental."
497
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:26,526
But it's really a political
engagement because, for him,
498
00:29:26,550 --> 00:29:29,163
the point of all things is the human being.
499
00:29:30,010 --> 00:29:34,576
It's not the German one,
the American one, the French,
500
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,346
it's the human being's right for freedom,
501
00:29:37,370 --> 00:29:38,803
for his individuality.
502
00:29:40,020 --> 00:29:42,386
He's being besieged all the time
503
00:29:42,410 --> 00:29:46,258
for requests to give a
kosher stamp to
504
00:29:46,282 --> 00:29:49,926
or an un-kosher stamp
to all kinds of enterprises.
505
00:29:49,950 --> 00:29:52,453
Magnus Hirschfeld had a
very important institute in Berlin
506
00:29:52,477 --> 00:29:53,586
in the '20s,
507
00:29:53,610 --> 00:29:56,166
when people were becoming
more open about sexuality,
508
00:29:56,190 --> 00:29:58,496
but there was still a lot of pushback,
509
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,706
and Hirschfeld's institute
was one of the first things
510
00:30:01,730 --> 00:30:03,006
the Nazis closed.
511
00:30:03,030 --> 00:30:04,746
They described him as decadent.
512
00:30:04,770 --> 00:30:07,716
He was gay, and not simply in favor
513
00:30:07,740 --> 00:30:09,646
of what we came to call gay liberation,
514
00:30:09,670 --> 00:30:13,116
but women's rights to open sexuality
515
00:30:13,140 --> 00:30:15,826
and a whole host of other things
516
00:30:15,850 --> 00:30:18,246
that were quite controversial at the time.
517
00:30:18,270 --> 00:30:23,270
When asked to support
Hirschfeld's institute, Einstein said:
518
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,816
Abortion up till a certain
stage of pregnancy
519
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,858
should be permissible at
the request of the woman.
520
00:30:33,060 --> 00:30:36,483
Homosexuality should be
exempt from punishment.
521
00:30:41,410 --> 00:30:45,313
In regard to sex education,
no secretiveness.
522
00:30:46,650 --> 00:30:49,753
Exactly the right things that are as valid,
I think,
523
00:30:49,777 --> 00:30:53,816
and important today as they were in 1929.
524
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:55,556
Einstein is often criticized,
525
00:30:55,580 --> 00:30:58,036
and I'm sometimes asked how can I,
as a woman,
526
00:30:58,060 --> 00:31:02,496
defend Einstein's relationship
toward women and his wives.
527
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:07,273
Einstein's first wife, Mileva,
was older than him,
528
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:13,320
partly crippled, not Jewish,
and anathema to his parents.
529
00:31:16,110 --> 00:31:21,110
She was the only woman
physics student in Zurich.
530
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,796
Einstein fell in love with a woman
531
00:31:23,820 --> 00:31:26,366
who could share his intellectual passions,
532
00:31:26,390 --> 00:31:29,486
and he only got permission to marry her
533
00:31:29,510 --> 00:31:31,836
on his father's deathbed.
534
00:31:31,860 --> 00:31:34,056
They had a daughter out of wedlock
535
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,456
before his parents would
permit them to marry.
536
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,276
My dearest sweetheart,
537
00:31:39,300 --> 00:31:41,526
it's such a shame that our dear Lieserl
538
00:31:41,550 --> 00:31:44,596
must be introduced
to the world in this way.
539
00:31:44,620 --> 00:31:48,276
I love her so much and
don't even know her yet.
540
00:31:48,300 --> 00:31:51,036
She probably gave the daughter,
541
00:31:51,060 --> 00:31:53,806
all we really know about her
is that she was named Lieserl,
542
00:31:53,830 --> 00:31:58,830
up for adoption,
and not only did they never see her again,
543
00:31:58,980 --> 00:32:01,836
no one, and many Einstein researchers
544
00:32:01,860 --> 00:32:04,883
have tried to find out what
happened to Lieserl, no one has.
545
00:32:05,870 --> 00:32:08,786
Diagnoses at a distance
are always a problem,
546
00:32:08,810 --> 00:32:13,810
but that was probably a
trigger for Mileva's depressions,
547
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,546
which continued and became more serious
548
00:32:18,570 --> 00:32:22,316
and more tinged with rage
as the marriage went on.
549
00:32:22,340 --> 00:32:25,966
She wound up failing
her PhD exam in physics,
550
00:32:25,990 --> 00:32:29,116
which cannot have been easy for her
551
00:32:29,140 --> 00:32:30,966
to be living with someone
552
00:32:30,990 --> 00:32:34,493
who was writing world
historical physics papers.
553
00:32:35,620 --> 00:32:38,676
And the marriage fell apart.
554
00:32:38,700 --> 00:32:40,776
There's a letter that he wrote for Mileva
555
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,466
in which he tells her to keep her distance
556
00:32:43,490 --> 00:32:45,716
and it is harsh and it is hostile.
557
00:32:45,740 --> 00:32:49,026
You will renounce all
personal relations with me
558
00:32:49,050 --> 00:32:50,696
as far as maintaining them
559
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,396
is not absolutely
required for social reasons.
560
00:32:54,420 --> 00:32:59,420
And all that I would say to that,
561
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,043
he did take care of her financially.
562
00:33:02,931 --> 00:33:05,676
He knew he was gonna get
the Nobel Prize eventually.
563
00:33:05,700 --> 00:33:09,246
He gave it almost in its entirety to her.
564
00:33:09,270 --> 00:33:10,943
So then, people say,
565
00:33:10,967 --> 00:33:14,096
"Ah, well, what do you say
about his marriage to Elsa?"
566
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:15,706
Elsa was his cousin.
567
00:33:15,730 --> 00:33:19,246
I suppose they had
some kind of familial bond.
568
00:33:19,270 --> 00:33:22,156
She was a divorced woman with two daughters
569
00:33:22,180 --> 00:33:24,026
whom Einstein treated as his own.
570
00:33:24,050 --> 00:33:29,050
She cared for him when
he nearly died in Berlin.
571
00:33:29,290 --> 00:33:31,986
I have to have someone to love.
572
00:33:32,010 --> 00:33:33,643
Otherwise, life is miserable.
573
00:33:34,490 --> 00:33:36,353
And this someone is you.
574
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:38,446
He was just in the process
575
00:33:38,470 --> 00:33:41,666
of getting out of a really crazy marriage,
576
00:33:41,690 --> 00:33:44,386
so it seemed like stability
577
00:33:44,410 --> 00:33:49,410
and something that he could
feel happy and comfortable in.
578
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:51,486
She also does, in those pictures,
579
00:33:51,510 --> 00:33:54,286
really look more like
his mother than his lover,
580
00:33:54,310 --> 00:33:57,476
and Einstein was a
man on fire all his life,
581
00:33:57,500 --> 00:34:00,606
and he needed to connect with other women
582
00:34:00,630 --> 00:34:02,903
in ways that he simply couldn't with Elsa.
583
00:34:04,490 --> 00:34:07,946
He made two completely
different bad marriages.
584
00:34:07,970 --> 00:34:09,433
He was sad about that.
585
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:13,416
What I admired in him the most as a person
586
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:17,256
is that he succeeded
in living for many years,
587
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:18,596
not just in peace,
588
00:34:18,620 --> 00:34:22,406
but in constant consonance with one woman,
589
00:34:22,430 --> 00:34:27,143
an endeavor in which I failed twice,
quite ignominiously.
590
00:34:28,710 --> 00:34:30,536
For his 50th birthday,
591
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:35,560
the City of Berlin decided
to give him as a gift
592
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,376
a house in the woods
where he could go sailing,
593
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,186
which everybody knew was
his favorite way of relaxing,
594
00:34:42,210 --> 00:34:44,556
and a group of right-wing people
595
00:34:44,580 --> 00:34:48,536
highly objected to the City of Berlin
596
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,666
giving a birthday gift
to that socialist Jew.
597
00:34:52,690 --> 00:34:56,731
Einstein said, "Okay, I'll buy it myself."
598
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,276
What attracted and appealed
to Elsa about Einstein's life
599
00:35:11,300 --> 00:35:13,986
was exactly what Einstein did not want,
600
00:35:14,010 --> 00:35:17,136
the social celebrity,
the being invited to aristocrat's,
601
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:18,526
and so on.
602
00:35:18,550 --> 00:35:21,946
She had no pretension of
trying to understand his physics,
603
00:35:21,970 --> 00:35:26,970
but she really wanted to be
a sort of high bourgeois wife.
604
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,886
The house was not only used
for him to get away from Berlin.
605
00:35:30,910 --> 00:35:33,876
It was a place where, really,
606
00:35:33,900 --> 00:35:37,576
some of the great minds
of his generation came to.
607
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,016
Rabindranath Tagore came from India,
608
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:45,143
Heinrich Mann, Chaim Weizmann, Max Planck,
609
00:35:46,590 --> 00:35:50,506
just a whole row of
people came out to discuss,
610
00:35:50,530 --> 00:35:53,326
as they say in German, God and the world,
611
00:35:53,350 --> 00:35:57,336
or sometimes to play
string quartets on the terrace.
612
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,456
Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful
613
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:02,436
that I see it as a reflection
614
00:36:02,460 --> 00:36:05,193
of the inner beauty of the universe.
615
00:36:06,310 --> 00:36:11,310
There is a rumor that
describes Einstein as antisocial.
616
00:36:11,380 --> 00:36:14,436
I've even seen him described as autistic.
617
00:36:14,460 --> 00:36:15,533
This is nuts.
618
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:21,440
Einstein was an extremely
socially engaged person
619
00:36:22,260 --> 00:36:26,263
when he wanted to be,
but he did not like formalities.
620
00:36:27,230 --> 00:36:30,296
A delegation of ministers
was coming out to visit him
621
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,043
from Berlin, and Elsa said,
622
00:36:34,067 --> 00:36:35,516
"Albert, the ministers are coming.
623
00:36:35,540 --> 00:36:38,686
It's time to put on your suit."
624
00:36:38,710 --> 00:36:43,196
And Einstein said,
"If they wanna see me, I'm here.
625
00:36:43,220 --> 00:36:45,959
If they wanna see my clothes,
you can open the closet."
626
00:36:45,983 --> 00:36:49,366
So, that says something
627
00:36:49,390 --> 00:36:52,566
about the way that he dealt with people.
628
00:36:52,590 --> 00:36:55,936
Einstein preferred to spend
as much time as possible
629
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:57,786
in the house in Caputh
630
00:36:57,810 --> 00:37:00,363
in those four years before he left Germany.
631
00:37:30,374 --> 00:37:31,796
I cannot understand
632
00:37:31,820 --> 00:37:35,086
the passive response of
the whole civilized world
633
00:37:35,110 --> 00:37:36,986
to this modern barbarism.
634
00:37:37,010 --> 00:37:40,497
Doesn't the world see
that Hitler is aiming for war?
635
00:38:50,263 --> 00:38:54,846
In all these years,
I have only enhanced Germany's prestige
636
00:38:54,870 --> 00:38:57,516
and never allowed myself to be alienated
637
00:38:57,540 --> 00:39:01,113
by the systematic attacks
on me in the rightist press,
638
00:39:04,750 --> 00:39:06,826
especially those in recent years
639
00:39:06,850 --> 00:39:10,083
in which no one took the
trouble to stand up for me.
640
00:39:13,940 --> 00:39:16,756
Is not the destruction of
German truce by starvation
641
00:39:16,780 --> 00:39:20,139
the official program of the
present German government?
642
00:40:08,230 --> 00:40:10,103
Einstein definitely was a realist,
643
00:40:10,127 --> 00:40:13,256
and he moved from
pacifism to militant pacifism
644
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:14,866
and then he abandoned it, of course,
645
00:40:14,890 --> 00:40:18,256
when confronted with Hitlerism.
646
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:22,336
It was pacifism that,
when confronted with odds
647
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,436
that were overwhelming,
would make concessions.
648
00:40:26,460 --> 00:40:30,306
I'm not only a pacifist,
but a militant pacifist.
649
00:40:30,330 --> 00:40:32,483
I am willing to fight for peace.
650
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,376
He felt that the danger,
651
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,696
after the discovery of nuclear fission,
652
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,076
of building atomic bombs, was a real one.
653
00:40:40,100 --> 00:40:42,566
He was right that there was such a danger,
654
00:40:42,590 --> 00:40:44,636
and it was hard to assess how realistic
655
00:40:44,660 --> 00:40:48,916
and how long it would take,
actually, to build such a bomb.
656
00:40:48,940 --> 00:40:52,696
So that he supported it by
the famous letter to Roosevelt,
657
00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:54,216
which he signed.
658
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:55,336
In the letter itself,
659
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:56,996
it talks about the bomb being so heavy
660
00:40:57,020 --> 00:41:00,206
that it would have to be delivered by ship
661
00:41:00,230 --> 00:41:01,973
and exploded in the harbor,
662
00:41:03,370 --> 00:41:06,226
so there was no concept of feasibility,
then,
663
00:41:06,250 --> 00:41:08,616
of transporting it by plane.
664
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:10,966
The American engagement
in building the bomb
665
00:41:10,990 --> 00:41:14,216
was quite understandable,
given the situation.
666
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:16,696
Therefore, I'm saying Einstein had become,
667
00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:18,996
I think he didn't change
his fundamental positions,
668
00:41:19,020 --> 00:41:21,986
but he was becoming
more and more of a realist.
669
00:41:22,010 --> 00:41:25,136
And so, he found that this
was an important move to take
670
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:26,017
at the time.
671
00:41:26,041 --> 00:41:28,126
Organized power can be opposed
672
00:41:28,150 --> 00:41:30,266
only by organized power.
673
00:41:30,290 --> 00:41:33,896
Much as I regret this,
there is no other way.
674
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:35,856
Einstein deeply regretted, eventually,
675
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,126
writing the famous letter to FDR.
676
00:41:38,150 --> 00:41:40,666
He thought that it was very instrumental
677
00:41:40,690 --> 00:41:43,736
in setting up the Manhattan Project.
678
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,168
He thought that that
was his major contribution
679
00:41:47,192 --> 00:41:51,616
to the dawning of the atomic era.
680
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,556
He didn't think that his formula
681
00:41:53,580 --> 00:41:55,734
had played any role in that.
682
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,906
Albert Einstein felt very
much his responsibility
683
00:42:09,930 --> 00:42:14,906
for young scientists who
want to came to America
684
00:42:14,930 --> 00:42:19,930
or didn't have an affidavit
or any help to get a job there,
685
00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:25,900
and he tried whatever he
could to help other emigres,
686
00:42:27,450 --> 00:42:32,450
other scientists,
and a lot of time, a lot of power,
687
00:42:32,950 --> 00:42:37,006
a lot of money, he gave to these people,
688
00:42:37,030 --> 00:42:41,426
and he tried nearly to
help all he could help.
689
00:42:41,450 --> 00:42:45,906
He had something like
a little grove for emigres.
690
00:42:45,930 --> 00:42:47,546
I think it's a very important part
691
00:42:47,570 --> 00:42:50,236
of the man Albert Einstein,
692
00:42:50,260 --> 00:42:55,260
of the immigrant Albert Einstein,
of the exiled,
693
00:42:58,356 --> 00:43:02,216
and of the political human
being Albert Einstein too
694
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:06,526
because I think this
engagement for other emigres
695
00:43:06,550 --> 00:43:10,006
is part of his responsibility, of course,
696
00:43:10,030 --> 00:43:13,265
because he was a famous one
and he could help them, really.
697
00:43:13,289 --> 00:43:16,806
But it's also part of
his political thinking
698
00:43:16,830 --> 00:43:19,150
that this is now what one should do
699
00:43:20,684 --> 00:43:24,836
to make it possible for
them to come to America,
700
00:43:24,860 --> 00:43:27,346
to get a chance to get a job there.
701
00:43:27,370 --> 00:43:31,196
My dad had left Germany in December '35
702
00:43:31,220 --> 00:43:32,226
to come to the United States.
703
00:43:32,250 --> 00:43:33,976
The idea was the family would follow.
704
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,496
In May of '36,
we all went to the American consulate.
705
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:39,896
My mother and my
brother each got their visa,
706
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:44,396
but I was turned down,
allegedly for having tuberculosis.
707
00:43:44,420 --> 00:43:45,936
My dad was a physician.
708
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:49,766
The likelihood that I had
tuberculosis was just very remote.
709
00:43:49,790 --> 00:43:53,186
My mother had me examined
by German physicians,
710
00:43:53,210 --> 00:43:56,146
colleagues of my dad, and they all said,
711
00:43:56,170 --> 00:43:59,016
"There's no evidence of tuberculosis.
712
00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:00,206
This must be a mistake."
713
00:44:00,230 --> 00:44:03,236
My mother and my brother
left to come to the United States
714
00:44:03,260 --> 00:44:04,187
and join my dad.
715
00:44:04,211 --> 00:44:09,210
The idea was that you could
reapply after three months
716
00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:15,246
for a visa,
and since this obviously was a mistake,
717
00:44:15,270 --> 00:44:16,696
I would get the visa then.
718
00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:17,667
After three months,
719
00:44:17,691 --> 00:44:22,016
my grandmother now took me
to the American consulate again,
720
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,216
and I even had some medical statements
721
00:44:24,240 --> 00:44:26,896
that there was no evidence of tuberculosis
722
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:30,936
but, much to everybody's surprise,
I was turned down again.
723
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:33,246
This went on for a total of four times.
724
00:44:33,270 --> 00:44:35,066
Each time I was turned down
725
00:44:35,090 --> 00:44:36,946
by a physician from the American consulate.
726
00:44:36,970 --> 00:44:39,196
My parents, of course,
were in the United States,
727
00:44:39,220 --> 00:44:42,386
they were getting frantic about all this.
728
00:44:42,410 --> 00:44:44,196
They enlisted all kinds of help.
729
00:44:44,220 --> 00:44:48,306
Finally,
Albert Einstein got interested in this.
730
00:44:48,330 --> 00:44:52,306
Einstein then wrote two letters,
very strong letters,
731
00:44:52,330 --> 00:44:55,932
one to the Surgeon General Thomas Parran.
732
00:45:05,330 --> 00:45:07,056
I shall spare no effort
733
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:08,853
to straighten out this matter.
734
00:45:11,650 --> 00:45:14,746
And one to an assistant secretary of state
735
00:45:14,770 --> 00:45:16,296
by the name of Messersmith.
736
00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:19,432
And he wrote them himself
because in one case, at least,
737
00:45:19,456 --> 00:45:22,903
I have the handwritten original draft.
738
00:45:23,780 --> 00:45:27,376
My dad was able to get the consul in Zurich
739
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:28,386
to make an exception.
740
00:45:28,410 --> 00:45:31,511
An aunt of mine brought me to Switzerland.
741
00:45:31,535 --> 00:45:34,346
I got my physical examination, I passed it,
742
00:45:34,370 --> 00:45:38,973
and I arrived in the United
States on March 4th, 1938.
743
00:45:40,070 --> 00:45:44,686
I finally had an opportunity
to visit him in Princeton.
744
00:45:44,710 --> 00:45:47,806
He had never met me before
but he remembered the case.
745
00:45:47,830 --> 00:45:48,946
The way we talked
746
00:45:48,970 --> 00:45:53,970
was the way I might talk to
just a nice elderly gentleman,
747
00:45:55,290 --> 00:45:57,876
I mean, to my grandfather.
748
00:45:57,900 --> 00:46:00,796
I was already working
in industry at that time,
749
00:46:00,820 --> 00:46:03,106
and he wanted to know
exactly what I was doing.
750
00:46:03,130 --> 00:46:04,786
He was very interested in it
751
00:46:04,810 --> 00:46:07,908
and we sorta discussed technical details.
752
00:46:07,932 --> 00:46:11,796
We talked just like we were colleagues,
I mean,
753
00:46:11,820 --> 00:46:16,820
in a very warm and
simple kind of friendly way.
754
00:46:18,750 --> 00:46:20,206
Einstein apparently worked very hard
755
00:46:20,230 --> 00:46:23,006
on behalf of German
Jewish immigrants all along,
756
00:46:23,030 --> 00:46:25,396
so my case was not that unusual.
757
00:46:25,420 --> 00:46:26,746
There's a little anecdote
758
00:46:26,770 --> 00:46:31,770
that four young men came
to a hospital to get a job there
759
00:46:32,850 --> 00:46:36,996
and each of them had a letter
of Albert Einstein
760
00:46:37,020 --> 00:46:39,816
telling, "Yes,
you should give him this job."
761
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:41,336
Of course, this is an anecdote.
762
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:45,116
I think it's not true
because he knew very well
763
00:46:45,140 --> 00:46:48,336
if you do it like this,
it won't help anybody.
764
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,196
His recommendations are serious.
765
00:46:52,220 --> 00:46:53,646
They did try and actively save
766
00:46:53,670 --> 00:46:56,746
and did actively save individuals
767
00:46:56,770 --> 00:47:00,416
from the claws of Hitler and of Nazism.
768
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,876
So he knows that Jews
have to go some place,
769
00:47:02,900 --> 00:47:05,386
he sees the great tragedy.
770
00:47:05,410 --> 00:47:07,966
With respect to his political attitudes
771
00:47:07,990 --> 00:47:11,236
toward Israel and the Palestinian problem,
772
00:47:11,260 --> 00:47:15,796
some of his ideas of
how to solve the problem
773
00:47:15,820 --> 00:47:18,666
seem unrealistic to our modern ear,
774
00:47:18,690 --> 00:47:21,476
given the intransigence of both sides.
775
00:47:21,500 --> 00:47:26,246
He was opposed to the
establishment of a Jewish state.
776
00:47:26,270 --> 00:47:29,926
He had advocated vociferously
against it for decades,
777
00:47:29,950 --> 00:47:32,146
even after the Holocaust.
778
00:47:32,170 --> 00:47:37,170
By '33, Einstein can see
the disaster that's unfolding
779
00:47:37,550 --> 00:47:38,886
because of nationalism.
780
00:47:38,910 --> 00:47:40,973
And even in the First World War,
781
00:47:41,876 --> 00:47:44,586
he can see the great conflict of it.
782
00:47:44,610 --> 00:47:46,446
So, in that context,
783
00:47:46,470 --> 00:47:50,136
why support a national
expression for the Jews?
784
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:52,596
He had been very concerned already,
785
00:47:52,620 --> 00:47:56,986
even from his first visit
to Palestine in 1923,
786
00:47:57,010 --> 00:48:00,956
of tendencies towards narrow nationalism
787
00:48:00,980 --> 00:48:04,346
and what he termed to be chauvinism.
788
00:48:04,370 --> 00:48:06,126
And he saw that being played out
789
00:48:06,150 --> 00:48:07,536
even in the early years of the state,
790
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:12,426
and even in pre-state Jewish
community in Palestine.
791
00:48:12,450 --> 00:48:15,986
He was in favor of more
of a binational solution.
792
00:48:16,010 --> 00:48:18,569
I should much rather see
a reasonable agreement
793
00:48:18,593 --> 00:48:21,439
with the Arabs on living together in peace
794
00:48:21,463 --> 00:48:24,216
than the creation of a Jewish state.
795
00:48:24,240 --> 00:48:26,246
He was in favor of a Jewish homeland
796
00:48:26,270 --> 00:48:29,916
and he was in favor of joint
institutions and, basically,
797
00:48:29,940 --> 00:48:32,946
of the formation of a
committee of technocrats.
798
00:48:32,970 --> 00:48:34,806
He wanted the politicians
out of the picture
799
00:48:34,830 --> 00:48:36,842
and he wanted technocrats from both sides
800
00:48:36,866 --> 00:48:41,656
to make the important
decisions in a most objective,
801
00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:45,136
neutral, unbiased, unemotional manner.
802
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,526
The state idea is not
according to my heart.
803
00:48:48,550 --> 00:48:51,186
It is connected with many difficulties
804
00:48:51,210 --> 00:48:53,429
and a narrow mindedness.
805
00:48:53,453 --> 00:48:55,616
I believe it is bad.
806
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:58,590
After the establishment of the state,
he resigned himself
807
00:48:59,660 --> 00:49:01,763
to, basically, to the fait accompli.
808
00:49:02,770 --> 00:49:07,770
Wasn't happy with it,
to lend the state his support,
809
00:49:08,020 --> 00:49:12,223
but became very
critical of certain policies,
810
00:49:13,430 --> 00:49:14,686
even in the early years.
811
00:49:14,710 --> 00:49:15,736
He cosigned a letter
812
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:20,006
together with other prominent
Jewish intellectuals in 1948
813
00:49:20,030 --> 00:49:20,840
to "The New York Times,"
814
00:49:20,864 --> 00:49:23,306
in which he protested the
visit of Menachem Begin
815
00:49:23,330 --> 00:49:26,046
to the U.S. and called
him a terrorist leader.
816
00:49:26,070 --> 00:49:29,647
At the time he was here,
he was the head of the Irgun.
817
00:49:31,870 --> 00:49:34,306
It only plays into the more conflict
818
00:49:34,330 --> 00:49:38,306
and, of course,
if you look at the current sadness
819
00:49:38,330 --> 00:49:39,456
about the State of Israel,
820
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:41,743
you could congratulate Einstein,
you could say,
821
00:49:41,767 --> 00:49:43,326
"Yes, look at it, you were right."
822
00:49:43,350 --> 00:49:45,986
Nationalism is,
no matter what kind of nationalism,
823
00:49:46,010 --> 00:49:46,977
is gonna be difficult.
824
00:49:47,001 --> 00:49:50,826
The absolute disaster of
not having a Jewish state
825
00:49:50,850 --> 00:49:52,596
is in front of his eyes.
826
00:49:52,620 --> 00:49:56,006
My awareness of the
essential nature of Judaism
827
00:49:56,030 --> 00:50:00,066
resists the idea of a Jewish
state with borders, an army,
828
00:50:00,090 --> 00:50:02,146
and a measure of temporal power.
829
00:50:02,170 --> 00:50:03,986
Einstein is the poster child
830
00:50:04,010 --> 00:50:05,316
for everything in the universe
831
00:50:05,340 --> 00:50:07,646
but also for Jewish peoplehood.
832
00:50:07,670 --> 00:50:10,526
He needs a nation to back up the people.
833
00:50:10,550 --> 00:50:11,360
I really believe
834
00:50:11,384 --> 00:50:13,546
he thought that all the
nations would get together
835
00:50:13,570 --> 00:50:15,876
and just start to dissolve nationalism.
836
00:50:15,900 --> 00:50:17,566
The United Nations General Assembly,
837
00:50:17,590 --> 00:50:19,556
which helped to create the State of Israel,
838
00:50:19,580 --> 00:50:21,716
now elects her a member nation.
839
00:50:21,740 --> 00:50:24,316
Assembly President Evatt announces.
840
00:50:24,340 --> 00:50:26,586
Formally declare Israel
admitted to membership
841
00:50:26,610 --> 00:50:28,466
in the United Nations.
842
00:50:28,490 --> 00:50:29,866
The young republic, born of war,
843
00:50:29,890 --> 00:50:31,926
now joins the Council of Peace.
844
00:50:31,950 --> 00:50:33,796
The blue and white Star of David.
845
00:50:33,820 --> 00:50:37,106
So, once we participated in it,
we could understand it,
846
00:50:37,130 --> 00:50:39,017
we could be a complete people.
847
00:50:39,041 --> 00:50:41,586
Complete peoples have a land, a language,
848
00:50:41,610 --> 00:50:42,666
a history, a culture.
849
00:50:42,690 --> 00:50:44,346
And then we could,
850
00:50:44,370 --> 00:50:46,906
as Jewish participants in the human family,
851
00:50:46,930 --> 00:50:49,526
to begin to reduce nationalism
852
00:50:49,550 --> 00:50:51,996
and bring more global harmony.
853
00:50:52,020 --> 00:50:53,736
Prime Minister Ben-Gurion of Israel
854
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:55,196
arrives at Princeton, New Jersey
855
00:50:55,220 --> 00:50:56,943
to call on Dr. Albert Einstein.
856
00:50:56,967 --> 00:50:58,756
The man whose physics formula
857
00:50:58,780 --> 00:51:01,006
led the way to the atomic explosion
858
00:51:01,030 --> 00:51:03,246
plays host to the leader
who played a great part
859
00:51:03,270 --> 00:51:05,087
in the creation of the Israeli nation.
860
00:51:17,590 --> 00:51:18,816
I am deeply moved
861
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:21,446
by the offer from our State of Israel,
862
00:51:21,470 --> 00:51:23,287
and at once sad and abashed
863
00:51:23,311 --> 00:51:26,466
that it is impossible for me to accept it.
864
00:51:26,490 --> 00:51:29,441
All my life,
I have dealt with objective matters.
865
00:51:29,465 --> 00:51:33,356
Hence, I lack the natural
aptitude and the experience
866
00:51:33,380 --> 00:51:35,396
to deal properly with people
867
00:51:35,420 --> 00:51:38,296
and to exercise official functions.
868
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:39,207
For these reasons,
869
00:51:39,231 --> 00:51:42,186
I do not feel able to
fulfill the requirements
870
00:51:42,210 --> 00:51:43,603
of this great task.
871
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:47,746
I am the more distressed
over these circumstances
872
00:51:47,770 --> 00:51:50,466
because my relationship
to the Jewish people
873
00:51:50,490 --> 00:51:52,793
has become my strongest human bond.
874
00:51:55,530 --> 00:51:57,176
If I were to be president,
875
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:00,136
sometimes I would have
to say to the Israeli people
876
00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:01,913
things they would not like to hear.
877
00:52:04,350 --> 00:52:07,306
He saw the humor in situations,
878
00:52:07,330 --> 00:52:09,596
he saw the irony in situations,
879
00:52:09,620 --> 00:52:12,166
and it ties in partly with his playfulness.
880
00:52:12,190 --> 00:52:16,130
He had a very playful,
childlike appreciation of things.
881
00:52:53,240 --> 00:52:55,786
One of the things that
makes him very appealing,
882
00:52:55,810 --> 00:52:57,956
aside from his great sense of humor,
883
00:52:57,980 --> 00:53:01,083
is that he was genuinely
a modest human being.
884
00:53:01,940 --> 00:53:05,946
You can tell just by looking at his eyes,
885
00:53:05,970 --> 00:53:10,546
this is a man with incredible spark.
886
00:53:10,570 --> 00:53:13,186
I like to call it a sense of being alive,
887
00:53:13,210 --> 00:53:18,006
a sense of intense
curiosity about the real world.
888
00:53:18,030 --> 00:53:21,986
The ability to relate to all
kinds of different people,
889
00:53:22,010 --> 00:53:25,836
from kings and queens to small children,
when he wanted to.
890
00:53:25,860 --> 00:53:29,796
He hated hierarchy,
hated class distinctions,
891
00:53:29,820 --> 00:53:32,746
and that was obvious,
also, then, in America,
892
00:53:32,770 --> 00:53:35,486
where he was outraged by racism.
893
00:53:35,510 --> 00:53:36,716
The distinctions
894
00:53:36,740 --> 00:53:40,006
separating the social classes are false.
895
00:53:40,030 --> 00:53:43,336
In the last analysis, they rest on force.
896
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:44,646
Many people don't realize
897
00:53:44,670 --> 00:53:46,566
that Albert Einstein was at the forefront
898
00:53:46,590 --> 00:53:49,986
of the struggle for racial
equality in the United States.
899
00:53:50,010 --> 00:53:53,663
It pained him to see the
plight of African Americans.
900
00:54:04,030 --> 00:54:05,496
He was right there,
901
00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:07,456
right there with W. E. B. Du Bois,
902
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:11,756
right there with Paul Robeson,
right there with the struggle
903
00:54:11,780 --> 00:54:14,330
of African Americans for equality.
904
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:17,376
In order for the American people
905
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:20,816
to wake up to the plight of discrimination
906
00:54:27,207 --> 00:54:28,528
The race problem
907
00:54:28,552 --> 00:54:30,726
is a disease of the white people.
908
00:54:46,814 --> 00:54:48,418
Segregation tomorrow,
909
00:54:48,442 --> 00:54:52,741
and segregation forever!
910
00:54:57,820 --> 00:54:59,286
There is a somber point
911
00:54:59,310 --> 00:55:01,846
in the social outlook of Americans.
912
00:55:01,870 --> 00:55:04,816
Their sense of equality and human dignity
913
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:08,366
is mainly limited to men of white skins.
914
00:55:08,390 --> 00:55:10,366
The more I feel an American,
915
00:55:10,390 --> 00:55:13,216
the more the situation pains me.
916
00:55:13,240 --> 00:55:15,736
I can escape the
feeling of complicity in it
917
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:17,233
only by speaking out.
918
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:23,336
Albert Einstein not only
pioneered new strategies,
919
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,476
new ways of looking at the heavens,
920
00:55:25,500 --> 00:55:27,416
not only did he open up new pathways
921
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,816
by which we can oppose fascism,
he also was at the forefront
922
00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:34,436
for the struggle for racial
equality in the United States.
923
00:55:34,460 --> 00:55:37,523
When he moved to Princeton,
924
00:55:38,550 --> 00:55:42,923
Marian Anderson was playing
a sold-out concert in Princeton
925
00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:47,990
but the Nassau Inn would
not allow her to stay there.
926
00:55:59,670 --> 00:56:01,186
When Einstein found out about it,
927
00:56:01,210 --> 00:56:03,456
he invited her to stay at his place
928
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:05,993
and they became friends
for the rest of his life.
929
00:56:07,130 --> 00:56:10,556
Similar stories with Paul Robeson.
930
00:56:10,580 --> 00:56:14,196
There's a story the first time
Robeson came to meet him
931
00:56:14,220 --> 00:56:15,936
at his house in Princeton,
932
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:20,960
the man accompanying Robeson,
whose name I now forget, said,
933
00:56:21,137 --> 00:56:23,306
"Oh, Mr. Einstein, it's such a privilege
934
00:56:23,330 --> 00:56:25,356
to meet a great man."
935
00:56:25,380 --> 00:56:28,116
And Einstein said,
"You just came with a great man."
936
00:56:28,140 --> 00:56:32,536
So, enormous respect for Robeson
937
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:37,560
and enormous commitment
to civil rights as human rights.
938
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:42,206
He accommodated to
the realities of the situation,
939
00:56:42,230 --> 00:56:44,306
and he was not an ideologue.
940
00:56:44,330 --> 00:56:49,330
Most important for Einstein
in the political sphere
941
00:56:49,530 --> 00:56:51,459
was the need for human beings
942
00:56:51,483 --> 00:56:53,326
to have peace with one another.
943
00:56:53,350 --> 00:56:57,756
And this comes, really,
from Einstein's own background
944
00:56:57,780 --> 00:56:59,146
and his physics career.
945
00:56:59,170 --> 00:57:03,026
He is someone who realizes
that scientific progress
946
00:57:03,050 --> 00:57:05,336
can only be made through cooperation,
947
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:09,106
can only be made through
the sharing of information,
948
00:57:09,130 --> 00:57:11,236
through the sharing of sensibilities
949
00:57:11,260 --> 00:57:13,616
and the taking into account
950
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:16,846
what the wishes and
the views of others are.
951
00:57:16,870 --> 00:57:21,236
He was, of course, not a man of the people,
952
00:57:21,260 --> 00:57:24,526
although he certainly
was presented as such,
953
00:57:24,550 --> 00:57:26,566
but he was an elitist.
954
00:57:26,590 --> 00:57:28,876
And for him, the elite that mattered
955
00:57:28,900 --> 00:57:31,406
was the elite of intellectuals
956
00:57:31,430 --> 00:57:35,706
who live in a society in which
the exchange of information,
957
00:57:35,730 --> 00:57:37,756
the exchange of knowledge, is everything.
958
00:57:37,780 --> 00:57:40,236
Don't think it was anything peculiar
959
00:57:40,260 --> 00:57:41,936
about Einstein's character
960
00:57:41,960 --> 00:57:46,206
that made him reject any
membership of German institutions
961
00:57:46,230 --> 00:57:47,226
after the war.
962
00:57:47,250 --> 00:57:49,706
It has to more to do with
Germany that with Einstein.
963
00:57:49,730 --> 00:57:51,316
All the scientific institutions,
964
00:57:51,340 --> 00:57:53,176
the academic institutions in Germany
965
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:55,446
have gotten deeply involved,
966
00:57:55,470 --> 00:57:58,566
and not necessarily under external force
967
00:57:58,590 --> 00:58:03,590
but most often also voluntarily,
with the Nazi regime,
968
00:58:04,240 --> 00:58:07,376
and at the time when Einstein,
after the war,
969
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:10,856
had interactions with them,
hadn't cleansed themselves
970
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:14,066
from these interactions,
hadn't worked up their own history.
971
00:58:14,090 --> 00:58:19,026
It was the most natural
and understandable position
972
00:58:19,050 --> 00:58:20,345
that Einstein took.
973
01:00:44,980 --> 01:00:48,326
So I don't think he didn't even need to be
974
01:00:48,350 --> 01:00:50,946
a particularly upright man,
which, of course, he was,
975
01:00:50,970 --> 01:00:52,246
in order to take that position.
976
01:00:52,270 --> 01:00:57,270
It was just a position of good
common sense that he took.
977
01:00:57,460 --> 01:00:59,426
Einstein was prescient
978
01:00:59,450 --> 01:01:02,886
on every political issue
he ever engaged with,
979
01:01:02,910 --> 01:01:05,636
He thought
Germany was irredeemable.
980
01:01:05,660 --> 01:01:07,586
Germany had started two world wars
981
01:01:07,610 --> 01:01:12,610
and there was no way to atone for that sin.
982
01:01:13,740 --> 01:01:16,343
He never wanted to set foot there again.
983
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:20,896
But about the mid-'60s,
984
01:01:20,920 --> 01:01:24,296
the Germans did a look at their history.
985
01:01:24,320 --> 01:01:28,316
People were outraged, as they came of age
986
01:01:28,340 --> 01:01:32,446
and saw the Auschwitz
trials or the Eichmann trial,
987
01:01:32,470 --> 01:01:36,166
that their parents had,
at the very least, been bystanders,
988
01:01:36,190 --> 01:01:38,336
and at the very worst, been Nazis.
989
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:42,873
To the point where the
government would actually say,
990
01:01:42,897 --> 01:01:46,506
"This is our identity, we do not forget."
991
01:01:46,530 --> 01:01:51,186
And the slogan is not collective guilt
992
01:01:51,210 --> 01:01:54,066
but collective
responsibility for the future
993
01:01:54,090 --> 01:01:56,536
by continuing to look at the past.
994
01:01:56,560 --> 01:01:59,273
Einstein could not have seen that coming.
995
01:02:12,720 --> 01:02:16,506
And so,
I don't see him there as a dreamy scientist
996
01:02:16,530 --> 01:02:18,426
who didn't see the realities.
997
01:02:18,450 --> 01:02:19,886
He saw the dangers
998
01:02:19,910 --> 01:02:22,426
that were connected with nuclear armaments,
999
01:02:22,450 --> 01:02:24,846
and he could foresee such dangers
1000
01:02:24,870 --> 01:02:27,546
as they come with the
uncontrolled spreading
1001
01:02:27,570 --> 01:02:29,203
of radioactive materials.
1002
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:33,036
This is the "CBS Evening News,"
Dan Rather reporting.
1003
01:02:33,060 --> 01:02:37,056
Every indication is that it
was a serious nuclear accident.
1004
01:02:37,080 --> 01:02:39,616
Chernobyl is a string
of four nuclear reactors
1005
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:43,266
some 80 miles north of
the Ukrainian capital of Kiev,
1006
01:02:43,290 --> 01:02:44,286
an urbanized region
1007
01:02:44,310 --> 01:02:47,626
believed populated by 2 1/2 million people.
1008
01:02:47,650 --> 01:02:48,460
Several hours
1009
01:02:48,484 --> 01:02:50,656
before the Soviets admitted the accident,
1010
01:02:50,680 --> 01:02:52,726
increased radiation was first detected
1011
01:02:52,750 --> 01:02:55,146
at this nuclear power
plant North of Stockholm.
1012
01:02:55,170 --> 01:02:56,906
600 workers were evacuated
1013
01:02:56,930 --> 01:02:58,696
after one of them set off an alarm
1014
01:02:58,720 --> 01:03:01,356
while passing through a
routine radiation check.
1015
01:03:01,380 --> 01:03:03,366
Soon,
there were reports of higher than usual
1016
01:03:03,390 --> 01:03:05,926
radiation levels throughout Scandinavia.
1017
01:03:05,950 --> 01:03:08,006
Winds blowing in a northwesterly direction
1018
01:03:08,030 --> 01:03:09,956
apparently carried
the radioactive pollution
1019
01:03:09,980 --> 01:03:12,453
nearly 1,000 miles from the Ukraine.
1020
01:03:12,477 --> 01:03:13,384
"That," say experts,
1021
01:03:13,408 --> 01:03:16,217
"indicates the accident
was extremely serious."
1022
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:19,326
And the danger that small conflicts
1023
01:03:19,350 --> 01:03:21,596
might escalate into larger ones,
1024
01:03:21,620 --> 01:03:26,620
and so, his only hope,
his only perspective was control,
1025
01:03:28,230 --> 01:03:33,230
was understanding
communication on a global scale.
1026
01:03:33,680 --> 01:03:35,646
Human beings are not condemned
1027
01:03:35,670 --> 01:03:38,276
because of their biological constitution
1028
01:03:38,300 --> 01:03:40,006
to annihilate each other
1029
01:03:40,030 --> 01:03:43,709
or to be at the mercy of
our cruel self-inflicted fate.
1030
01:03:47,710 --> 01:03:49,526
He was one of the first intellectuals
1031
01:03:49,550 --> 01:03:53,366
to clearly see the full
dimension of a globalized world
1032
01:03:53,390 --> 01:03:55,786
because the world became globalized
1033
01:03:55,810 --> 01:04:00,810
once these arms had the
potential of destroying the planet.
1034
01:04:01,610 --> 01:04:04,896
However, later,
when he saw what the consequences were,
1035
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:08,116
he felt, first of all, even more compelled
1036
01:04:08,140 --> 01:04:11,696
to take an explicit public stance
1037
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:13,680
in regard to political measures
1038
01:04:14,770 --> 01:04:17,516
in terms of nuclear armaments.
1039
01:04:17,540 --> 01:04:20,756
The war is won, but the peace is not.
1040
01:04:20,780 --> 01:04:23,956
The great powers, united in fighting,
1041
01:04:23,980 --> 01:04:27,096
are now divided over the peace settlements.
1042
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:29,826
He took it on as a deep moral obligation
1043
01:04:29,850 --> 01:04:33,076
and he saw it as a moral
obligation for all scientists
1044
01:04:33,100 --> 01:04:36,406
to become responsible for their deeds,
for the knowledge,
1045
01:04:36,430 --> 01:04:37,926
for the use of their knowledge.
1046
01:04:37,950 --> 01:04:39,756
This is the political learning curve
1047
01:04:39,780 --> 01:04:40,936
that Einstein had undergone.
1048
01:04:40,960 --> 01:04:43,266
His capacity to take up challenges,
1049
01:04:43,290 --> 01:04:44,606
to deal with those challenges,
1050
01:04:44,630 --> 01:04:49,096
to intellectually digest them,
and to draw consequence.
1051
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:51,996
He is known as a proponent
of a world government
1052
01:04:52,020 --> 01:04:54,866
that one needed to establish
a peaceful world order.
1053
01:04:54,890 --> 01:04:57,386
And this in the midst of
the period of the Cold War
1054
01:04:57,410 --> 01:05:00,216
when he became engaged with these issues
1055
01:05:00,240 --> 01:05:02,106
in a very strong way,
1056
01:05:02,130 --> 01:05:06,053
arguing against nuclear armament
and against the arms race.
1057
01:05:08,430 --> 01:05:12,826
Mr. Welch talks about this
being cruel and reckless.
1058
01:05:12,850 --> 01:05:14,026
He was just baiting.
1059
01:05:14,050 --> 01:05:16,763
He has been baiting
Mr. Cohn here for hours,
1060
01:05:18,217 --> 01:05:20,960
requesting that Mr. Cohn before sundown
1061
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:24,740
get out of any department of the government
1062
01:05:25,780 --> 01:05:27,880
anyone who is serving the Communist cause.
1063
01:05:29,780 --> 01:05:34,146
Now, I just give this man's record,
1064
01:05:34,170 --> 01:05:39,170
and I want to say, Mr. Welch,
that it has been labeled
1065
01:05:40,900 --> 01:05:45,260
long before he became a member,
as early as 1944-
1066
01:05:46,944 --> 01:05:48,821
Senator, may we not drop this?
1067
01:05:48,845 --> 01:05:50,844
We know he belongs to the Lawyers Guild.
1068
01:05:50,868 --> 01:05:52,491
Let me finish-Let us not
1069
01:05:52,515 --> 01:05:55,396
assassinate this man further, Senator.
1070
01:05:55,420 --> 01:05:57,376
Let's, let's-
You've done enough.
1071
01:05:57,400 --> 01:06:01,400
Have you no sense of decency,
sir, at long last?
1072
01:06:02,897 --> 01:06:05,730
Have you left no sense of decency?
1073
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:25,886
Because of the alleged external danger
1074
01:06:25,910 --> 01:06:29,506
to our country,
freedom of the press is obstructed.
1075
01:06:29,530 --> 01:06:32,046
This is done by creating a situation
1076
01:06:32,070 --> 01:06:35,536
in which people fear their
economic positions endangered.
1077
01:06:35,560 --> 01:06:37,486
This is a state of affairs
1078
01:06:37,510 --> 01:06:40,876
which a democratic
government cannot survive.
1079
01:06:40,900 --> 01:06:43,666
The U.S. is no longer a free country.
1080
01:06:43,690 --> 01:06:48,496
My house is closely watched.
1081
01:06:48,520 --> 01:06:51,436
He not only spoke out
against the blacklist,
1082
01:06:51,460 --> 01:06:55,436
but encouraged younger
people to do the same.
1083
01:06:55,460 --> 01:06:57,076
You may appear with flowers
1084
01:06:57,100 --> 01:07:00,796
on the day when the last
witch hunter has been silenced,
1085
01:07:00,820 --> 01:07:01,863
but not before.
1086
01:07:02,922 --> 01:07:04,706
And the beautiful thing about it is,
1087
01:07:04,730 --> 01:07:08,116
he didn't just encourage
people to refuse to testify,
1088
01:07:08,140 --> 01:07:10,636
he tried to help them find jobs afterwards
1089
01:07:10,660 --> 01:07:13,183
and did what he could to leverage his name.
1090
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:18,436
Reactionary politicians
1091
01:07:18,460 --> 01:07:20,706
have managed to instill suspicion
1092
01:07:20,730 --> 01:07:23,776
of all intellectual
efforts into the public.
1093
01:07:23,800 --> 01:07:27,376
They are now proceeding to
suppress the freedom of teaching
1094
01:07:27,400 --> 01:07:29,276
and to deprive of their positions
1095
01:07:29,300 --> 01:07:32,266
all of those who do not prove submissive,
1096
01:07:32,290 --> 01:07:34,383
in effect, to starve them.
1097
01:07:35,516 --> 01:07:38,186
What to do against this evil?
1098
01:07:38,210 --> 01:07:40,423
Frankly, I can only see
1099
01:07:40,447 --> 01:07:43,616
the revolutionary way of non-cooperation
1100
01:07:43,640 --> 01:07:46,863
in the sense of Gandhi's refuse to testify.
1101
01:07:48,170 --> 01:07:52,336
He must be prepared
for jail and economic ruin,
1102
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,916
for the sacrifice of his personal welfare
1103
01:07:54,940 --> 01:07:57,793
in the interest of the
welfare of his country.
1104
01:07:59,500 --> 01:08:01,976
It is shameful for a blameless citizen
1105
01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:04,396
to submit to such an inquisition
1106
01:08:04,420 --> 01:08:07,716
that violates the spirit
of the Constitution.
1107
01:08:07,740 --> 01:08:09,506
I believe that older people
1108
01:08:09,530 --> 01:08:11,786
who have scarcely anything to lose
1109
01:08:11,810 --> 01:08:13,516
ought to be willing to speak out
1110
01:08:13,540 --> 01:08:15,666
on behalf of those who are young
1111
01:08:15,690 --> 01:08:18,886
and who are subject to
much greater restraint.
1112
01:08:18,910 --> 01:08:21,896
We're really talking
about the character feature
1113
01:08:21,920 --> 01:08:25,416
of Einstein, and I don't think
it's so much the loneliness
1114
01:08:25,440 --> 01:08:27,693
or the aloofness of Einstein.
1115
01:08:28,930 --> 01:08:31,966
If you see pictures, movies of the '20s,
1116
01:08:31,990 --> 01:08:34,396
Einstein was quite a party animal.
1117
01:08:34,420 --> 01:08:36,916
He was talkative, communicative.
1118
01:08:36,940 --> 01:08:40,786
He had, from his early days,
an incredible self-confidence,
1119
01:08:40,810 --> 01:08:42,856
and I think that is the self-confidence
1120
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:44,723
that gave him so much inner freedom.
1121
01:08:45,610 --> 01:08:48,366
And it was, of course,
confirmed by his life's achievement,
1122
01:08:48,390 --> 01:08:52,846
which gave him even greater freedom,
and it made him capable
1123
01:08:52,870 --> 01:08:57,313
of sustaining contradictions, rejections.
1124
01:08:58,490 --> 01:09:00,176
The loneliness that he experienced
1125
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:02,936
in his political positions
in the First World War
1126
01:09:02,960 --> 01:09:05,466
was a loneliness that he didn't choose.
1127
01:09:05,490 --> 01:09:09,466
How vile and despicable war seems to me.
1128
01:09:09,490 --> 01:09:11,906
I would rather be hacked into pieces
1129
01:09:11,930 --> 01:09:14,763
than take part in such
an abominable business.
1130
01:09:15,780 --> 01:09:16,866
But this self-confidence
1131
01:09:16,890 --> 01:09:18,928
into his intellectual capabilities,
1132
01:09:18,952 --> 01:09:21,746
into his own moral autonomy,
1133
01:09:21,770 --> 01:09:25,496
gave him the strength to
sustain those differences.
1134
01:09:25,520 --> 01:09:27,796
One needs courage not to go with the crowd,
1135
01:09:27,820 --> 01:09:29,526
but to stay different.
1136
01:09:29,550 --> 01:09:32,206
One is, and I think that's very important,
1137
01:09:32,230 --> 01:09:34,076
never quite alone in these things
1138
01:09:34,100 --> 01:09:38,296
because there is, on the one hand,
an intellectual community
1139
01:09:38,320 --> 01:09:40,976
of the great people with
whom one communicates,
1140
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:44,493
the people one reads
and one identifies with,
1141
01:09:45,330 --> 01:09:47,046
the great scientists of the past
1142
01:09:47,070 --> 01:09:50,176
but also the great moral
thinkers of the past.
1143
01:09:50,200 --> 01:09:52,137
Einstein loved Spinoza.
1144
01:09:52,161 --> 01:09:55,766
He had this world of philosophical
and intellectual thinking
1145
01:09:55,790 --> 01:09:57,636
with which he communicated,
1146
01:09:57,660 --> 01:09:59,786
but there were also the real friends
1147
01:09:59,810 --> 01:10:02,106
that were not necessarily
the famous scientists
1148
01:10:02,130 --> 01:10:04,556
but people like Michele Besso,
1149
01:10:04,580 --> 01:10:06,880
with whom he maintained
a lifelong friendship,
1150
01:10:07,750 --> 01:10:11,856
with whom he shared many
views about life and science.
1151
01:10:11,880 --> 01:10:13,396
And from the early days on,
1152
01:10:13,420 --> 01:10:17,026
from the famous Olympia Academy youth club,
1153
01:10:17,050 --> 01:10:20,596
Akademie Olympia, the friends,
the Habicht, the Solovine,
1154
01:10:20,620 --> 01:10:23,236
Einstein had a group
of people that actually,
1155
01:10:23,260 --> 01:10:24,676
in certain occasions of his life,
1156
01:10:24,700 --> 01:10:27,233
also helped him to stay stubborn.
1157
01:10:28,380 --> 01:10:30,326
Einstein thinks about the world
1158
01:10:30,350 --> 01:10:32,236
from Spinoza's perspective,
1159
01:10:32,260 --> 01:10:36,006
which is that the world is
radically one because God is one
1160
01:10:36,030 --> 01:10:39,076
and, therefore,
he has to be able to come up with a theory
1161
01:10:39,100 --> 01:10:40,793
to explain everything.
1162
01:10:41,840 --> 01:10:45,806
Spinoza believed that the universe was God
1163
01:10:45,830 --> 01:10:49,396
and, therefore,
he believed that every part of the universe
1164
01:10:49,420 --> 01:10:52,386
had the impact of God.
1165
01:10:52,410 --> 01:10:54,026
This is different than atheism.
1166
01:10:54,050 --> 01:10:56,456
This would be called pantheism.
1167
01:10:56,480 --> 01:10:58,796
All the aspects of the world are determined
1168
01:10:58,820 --> 01:11:01,876
and all of them are God.
1169
01:11:01,900 --> 01:11:03,626
You think about Spinoza,
1170
01:11:03,650 --> 01:11:07,546
he is a completely independent thinker,
1171
01:11:07,570 --> 01:11:10,566
he's a Jew without community,
he's a Jew without constraint,
1172
01:11:10,590 --> 01:11:14,326
he's a Jew without tradition,
he's a Jew without ritual.
1173
01:11:14,350 --> 01:11:16,016
And Einstein also.
1174
01:11:16,040 --> 01:11:17,816
Albert Einstein is a Jew,
1175
01:11:17,840 --> 01:11:20,406
he's called that in a consistent way.
1176
01:11:20,430 --> 01:11:23,216
And so,
Albert Einstein sees himself very much
1177
01:11:23,240 --> 01:11:26,053
as a secular Jew, of the Jewish people,
1178
01:11:26,077 --> 01:11:29,436
and this is an understanding
of his that's indelible.
1179
01:11:29,460 --> 01:11:30,916
I will never not be a Jew.
1180
01:11:30,940 --> 01:11:31,750
And he's happy,
1181
01:11:31,774 --> 01:11:34,876
eventually becoming more
and more happy to be a Jew.
1182
01:11:34,900 --> 01:11:37,066
From a philosophical or religious
1183
01:11:37,090 --> 01:11:39,506
or, in particularly, physics perspective,
1184
01:11:39,530 --> 01:11:44,206
think about Spinoza and the
idea that the universe is God.
1185
01:11:44,230 --> 01:11:47,136
There can be no random
action in the universe.
1186
01:11:47,160 --> 01:11:49,356
Einstein is reading Spinoza
1187
01:11:49,380 --> 01:11:51,896
and he's saying nothing can be random.
1188
01:11:51,920 --> 01:11:55,226
If I have a theory,
it has to explain everything.
1189
01:11:55,250 --> 01:11:58,676
And it has to be the
most simple explanation
1190
01:11:58,700 --> 01:11:59,866
that you can come up with.
1191
01:11:59,890 --> 01:12:03,196
Einstein believes if you
can figure out the cause,
1192
01:12:03,220 --> 01:12:04,866
you can figure out the effect.
1193
01:12:04,890 --> 01:12:07,606
His morality is based on that.
1194
01:12:07,630 --> 01:12:10,396
We have to be a cause for good.
1195
01:12:10,420 --> 01:12:11,277
He doesn't believe
1196
01:12:11,301 --> 01:12:13,626
that following Jewish tradition and rituals
1197
01:12:13,650 --> 01:12:16,806
is going to be the heart of his morality.
1198
01:12:16,830 --> 01:12:19,286
I myself am non-observant,
1199
01:12:19,310 --> 01:12:21,433
yet consider myself a loyal Jew.
1200
01:12:22,300 --> 01:12:25,456
He thinks that the
Jewish tradition and rituals
1201
01:12:25,480 --> 01:12:29,946
were for the theocracy that
existed in the land of Israel
1202
01:12:29,970 --> 01:12:31,566
thousands of years before,
1203
01:12:31,590 --> 01:12:34,476
and they're no longer
relevant in their details,
1204
01:12:34,500 --> 01:12:38,216
but they are relevant in their impact.
1205
01:12:38,240 --> 01:12:41,356
So if we are going to
be citizens of the world,
1206
01:12:41,380 --> 01:12:45,586
part of the people who are
thinking rigorously for justice,
1207
01:12:45,610 --> 01:12:48,346
then that justice has to be worked on.
1208
01:12:48,370 --> 01:12:52,846
And Einstein worked hard on that justice.
1209
01:12:52,870 --> 01:12:55,966
He can make, and does make,
lots of moral pronouncements
1210
01:12:55,990 --> 01:12:58,506
because he thinks they're
for the betterment of the world.
1211
01:12:58,530 --> 01:13:00,756
The most important human endeavor
1212
01:13:00,780 --> 01:13:04,376
is the striving for
morality in our actions.
1213
01:13:04,400 --> 01:13:08,936
Our inner balance and even
our very existence depend on it.
1214
01:13:08,960 --> 01:13:11,176
Only morality in our actions
1215
01:13:11,200 --> 01:13:13,886
can give beauty and dignity to life.
1216
01:13:13,910 --> 01:13:15,416
And he does live
1217
01:13:15,440 --> 01:13:18,686
at one of the most
extraordinary times of change,
1218
01:13:18,710 --> 01:13:22,456
both disaster and creation,
in Jewish history.
1219
01:13:22,480 --> 01:13:26,216
Einstein says, and I quote,
"I believe in Spinoza's God,
1220
01:13:26,240 --> 01:13:29,926
who reveals himself in the
lawful harmony of the world,
1221
01:13:29,950 --> 01:13:32,286
not in a God who concerns himself
1222
01:13:32,310 --> 01:13:34,806
with the faith and the doings of mankind."
1223
01:13:34,830 --> 01:13:37,906
It's a beautiful sentence,
it's an elegant sentence.
1224
01:13:37,930 --> 01:13:40,136
We don't have a God sitting on cloud.
1225
01:13:40,160 --> 01:13:43,076
We don't have a God that's
making for human progress.
1226
01:13:43,100 --> 01:13:45,726
We don't have a God
that's going to stop evil.
1227
01:13:45,750 --> 01:13:49,106
And in Einstein's life,
there's plenty of evil in the world.
1228
01:13:49,130 --> 01:13:51,256
He's alive during some of the greatest evil
1229
01:13:51,280 --> 01:13:52,776
in the history of humankind.
1230
01:13:52,800 --> 01:13:56,536
Einstein knows the terrible
disasters of the world,
1231
01:13:56,560 --> 01:13:58,666
of the 20th century.
1232
01:13:58,690 --> 01:14:00,826
But he also thinks that
the God that he believes in
1233
01:14:00,850 --> 01:14:04,076
is Spinoza's God,
which is about the harmony of the world,
1234
01:14:04,100 --> 01:14:07,916
and it's his job,
both in physics and morality
1235
01:14:07,940 --> 01:14:10,376
and even in politics, to build a world
1236
01:14:10,400 --> 01:14:14,206
which is more harmonious, and that is God.
1237
01:14:14,230 --> 01:14:15,616
If something is in me
1238
01:14:15,640 --> 01:14:16,986
that can be called religious,
1239
01:14:17,010 --> 01:14:19,586
then it is the unbounded admiration
1240
01:14:19,610 --> 01:14:21,446
for the structure of the world,
1241
01:14:21,470 --> 01:14:23,866
as far as science can reveal it.
1242
01:14:23,890 --> 01:14:25,876
It's very empowering to humanity,
1243
01:14:25,900 --> 01:14:27,166
it doesn't give you the sense
1244
01:14:27,190 --> 01:14:28,946
that God will intervene at the last minute.
1245
01:14:28,970 --> 01:14:33,006
After all, in the '30s and the early '40s,
1246
01:14:33,030 --> 01:14:35,256
if God could've, He really should've.
1247
01:14:35,280 --> 01:14:40,016
For you to pray for the change
of some kind of physical law
1248
01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:44,666
or that the gas or bullets
don't kill the people,
1249
01:14:44,690 --> 01:14:45,966
this is worthless.
1250
01:14:45,990 --> 01:14:47,987
You have to stop the war.
1251
01:14:48,011 --> 01:14:50,736
There is no other
salvation for civilization
1252
01:14:50,760 --> 01:14:52,846
and even for the human race
1253
01:14:52,870 --> 01:14:56,136
than in the creation of a world government.
1254
01:14:56,160 --> 01:14:59,986
And for Einstein,
this is a very significant,
1255
01:15:00,010 --> 01:15:03,186
and I think one could say,
significant religious belief.
1256
01:15:03,210 --> 01:15:06,946
I think that Einstein has
the most benevolent image
1257
01:15:06,970 --> 01:15:11,686
of any philosopher,
theologian, or physicist
1258
01:15:11,710 --> 01:15:13,186
of the 20th century.
1259
01:15:13,210 --> 01:15:18,210
He was, in some ways, fearless,
he was deep, he was active.
1260
01:15:19,630 --> 01:15:21,576
He believed that his imagination
1261
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:23,856
was the most important of all of his tools.
1262
01:15:23,880 --> 01:15:27,106
Not his reason, not his learned intellect,
1263
01:15:27,130 --> 01:15:29,203
not his schooling, not his degrees.
1264
01:15:30,540 --> 01:15:34,546
Imagination is more
important than knowledge.
1265
01:15:34,570 --> 01:15:39,153
Knowledge is limited,
imagination encircles the world.
1266
01:15:40,007 --> 01:15:44,966
Einstein was described much later
1267
01:15:44,990 --> 01:15:49,990
by the last woman in his life
as a revolutionary to the end.
1268
01:15:51,610 --> 01:15:54,536
There was so much more
to Einstein besides physics.
1269
01:15:54,560 --> 01:15:59,560
There were his humanitarian endeavors,
his love of music,
1270
01:15:59,870 --> 01:16:04,416
his love of children and
animals and ice cream
1271
01:16:04,440 --> 01:16:06,926
and just talking to everybody
1272
01:16:06,950 --> 01:16:10,386
who was not necessarily
on the faculty or higher up.
1273
01:16:10,410 --> 01:16:13,366
He made himself available
to all kinds of people.
1274
01:16:13,390 --> 01:16:17,176
He is, in some ways, the victorious child.
1275
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:19,506
A lucky boy, oh he was a lucky boy, yeah.
1276
01:16:19,530 --> 01:16:21,403
Eventually, in the final years,
1277
01:16:22,240 --> 01:16:24,755
mellowing to a certain extent
1278
01:16:24,779 --> 01:16:28,556
and then he becomes that
kind of chubby teddy bear figure
1279
01:16:28,580 --> 01:16:31,646
that we all like and love.
1280
01:16:31,670 --> 01:16:33,487
Not the real Einstein, but,
1281
01:16:35,060 --> 01:16:36,653
but a nice mythical figure.
1282
01:16:42,080 --> 01:16:45,126
Abortion,
up till a certain stage of pregnancy,
1283
01:16:45,150 --> 01:16:48,526
should be permissible at
the request of the woman.
1284
01:16:48,550 --> 01:16:52,093
Homosexuality should be
exempt from punishment.
1285
01:16:52,970 --> 01:16:54,446
It is strange that science,
1286
01:16:54,470 --> 01:16:56,781
which in the old days seemed harmless,
1287
01:16:56,805 --> 01:16:59,346
should have evolved into a nightmare
1288
01:16:59,370 --> 01:17:01,690
that causes everyone to tremble.
1289
01:17:03,193 --> 01:17:06,528
The race problem is a
disease of the white people.
1290
01:17:06,552 --> 01:17:09,116
Their sense of equality and human dignity
1291
01:17:09,140 --> 01:17:11,963
is mainly limited to men of white skins.
1292
01:17:16,140 --> 01:17:19,966
Reactionary politicians have
managed to instill suspicion
1293
01:17:19,990 --> 01:17:22,813
of all intellectual
efforts into the public.
1294
01:17:35,000 --> 01:17:37,206
Yes, I'm an old revolutionary.
1295
01:17:37,230 --> 01:17:40,923
Politically,
I'm still a fire-spewing Vesuvius.
104636
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