During a stay in England in September
1933, Einstein met with Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, and prominent British
scientists and intellectuals. He tried to warn them of the Nazi danger. Many
noted academics were fleeing Germany, few of them received abroad as warmly
as Einstein. He worked on behalf of the Emergency Committee to Aid Displaced
German Scholars and other organizations that tried to find homes for both Jewish
and political refugees.
A Sample of Einstein's Public Activities: 1930-1935
1930
- With Stefan Zweig, Bertrand Russell, and others, signs petition favoring the
Kellogg-Briand arms limitation pact.
- Appeals against conscription and military training of young men; signs petition
with Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland, and others.
- Speaks at the New History Society, New York, translated by the pacifist Rosika Schwimmer.
1931
- Attends special screening in Hollywood of "All Quiet on the Western Front,"
a film banned in Germany; supports the German League for Human Rights campaign
to have the film shown in Germany.
- Speaks at the California Institute of Technology on the social role of science.
- Addresses a peace group at Chicago railway station.
- Joins an international protest to save lives of eight Scottsboro, Alabama
blacks wrongly convicted of rape.
- Speaks at a mass protest meeting supporting E.J. Grumbel, a liberal professor
under attack in Germany.
- Supports the International Union of Anti-militarist Clergymen and Ministers,
who call for a Geneva peace conference.
- Speaks at a student meeting of League of The Nations Association.
- Meets with War Resisters International; sends message to their conference in France.
1932
- Attends meeting of the Los Angeles University of International Relations.
- Speaks to the Joint Peace Council, with Lord Ponsonby, on the failure of disarmament
conferences.
- Exchanges letters with Freud under auspices of International Institute of Intellectual
Cooperation, leading to publication of pamphlet, "Why War?"
1933
- Addresses student group at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
- Resigns from the Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Science in protest after
Hitler takes power; in open letter, he denies the accusation that he spread
propaganda on anti-Semitic atrocities.
- Accepts election as a Founding Member, with Lord Davies, of the New Commonwealth
Society; discusses international army and navy police force.
- Speaks at a mass meeting in London for the Refugee Assistance Fund to aid
victims of the Nazis.
- Guest of honor at the World Peaceways dinner in New York.
1934
- Speaks at a Princeton, New Jersey state conference on Causes and Cures of
War.
- Sends letter to the Anti-War Committee at New York University.
- Makes national radio speech on Brotherhood Day, sponsored by National Conference of
Christians and Jews.
- Sends message to the Educators and World Peace conference of the Progressive
Education Association in New York.
1935
- With Alfred E. Smith, speaks on national radio and at a New York dinner to aid
political and non-Jewish refugees from Germany.
- Helps to initiate campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize for the pacifist Carl von Ossietzky,
then ill in a German concentration camp.
- With John Dewey and Alvin Johnson, becomes member of the United States section
of the International League for Academic Freedom.
- Speaks at Passover celebration in at the Manhattan Opera House, urging Jewish-Arab
amity in Palestine.