Albert Einstein FBI Files - Correspondences - Atomic Bomb Papers - Historical Documents - Newspapers

Albert Einstein FBI Files - Correspondences - Atomic Bomb Papers - Historical Documents - Newspapers

2,270 pages of FBI Files, Einstein correspondences, atomic bomb development papers, Sigmund Freud papers and newspapers articles.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is generally, considered the greatest physicist of all time. Time Magazine named him "Person of the Century" in 1999. He was born to Jewish parents in Ulm, Germany in 1879. Although most famous for his theory of relativity (and specifically mass-energy equivalence, E=mc²), he was also known as an international advocate of peace, human rights and an early supporter of a homeland for the Jewish people.

In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power. Because of his Jewish background, Einstein did not return to Germany. He eventually settled in the United States and became an American citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting FDR to the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" and recommending that the US begin similar research. This eventually led to the Manhattan Project. Einstein supported the Allies, but he generally denounced the idea of using nuclear fission as a weapon.

This collection includes:

 FBI Files

1,535 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., covering Albert Einstein. Files contain approximately 700 narrative pages from the investigations conducted by the FBI regarding the famous physicist. From the 1930's until his death, the FBI conducted several investigations to determine whether Einstein was a threat to the United States.

Files chronicle attempts by non-government organizations in the U.S. to keep Einstein out and rumors of attempts by the Soviet Union to get him to move there, instead of the  United States. Files show the Immigration and Naturalization Service investigated the possible revoking of Einstein's citizenship in 1951, due to suspicion that his secretary and housekeeper was a Soviet agent.

 

The FBI investigation of his political activity concluded that Einstein was a member, sponsor, or affiliated with fifty organizations the FBI considered communist fronts between 1937-1954. He also served as honorary chairman for three of these organizations.

 
Roosevelt Atomic Bomb Correspondences

55 pages of correspondence, originals and drafts, between Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, Roosevelt advisor Alexander Sachs and Manhattan Project Director Vannevar Bush, relating to the creation of the Manhattan Project. In August 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt warning that Nazi Germany could build a new weapon which would be more powerful and more destructive than any weapon ever known to mankind.

Includes draft copies and alternative versions of Einstein's famous August 2, 1939 letter to President Roosevelt.

In the summer of 1939, a group of physicists, including several who had fled Hitler’s Germany, met to discuss their fears of Germany developing a uranium-based weapon. It was decided that the best course of action was to inform President Roosevelt immediately of their concerns.

Because Albert Einstein had a previous personal relationship with the Roosevelts and was internationally well-known for his expertise, a letter informing the President about the dangers of a nuclear chain reaction bomb was drafted for Einstein’s signature.

This August 2, 1939 letter was personally delivered to the President on October 11, 1939 (the outbreak of the war intervened) by Alexander Sachs, a longtime economic adviser to FDR. After learning of the letter’s contents, President Roosevelt told his military adviser General Edwin M. Watson, “This requires action.” The action FDR required would evolve into the Manhattan Project.
 

Office of Scientific Research and Development Atomic Bomb Development Bush-Conant Papers - Excerpts

86 pages of excepts from the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) Atomic Bomb Development Bush-Conant Papers, related to Albert Einstein. 

Vannevar Bush during World War II headed the OSRD, through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including early administration of the Manhattan Project. James Conant was appointed to the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) in 1940, becoming its chairman in 1941. In this capacity, he oversaw vital wartime research projects including the Manhattan Project.

These records were maintained in Dr. James B. Conant's office for himself and Dr. Vannevar Bush. The files date from 1940 to 1945. The files are mostly composed of letters, memorandums, reports, and technical reports relating to the development of the atomic bomb.

Includes correspondence concerning Albert Einstein and why he was not being included in the S-1 project, as well as attempts to obtain certain theoretical data from Einstein without revealing its intended use.

 
Letters Received from Albert Einstein by the U.S. Navy Division of Research and Development, May 17, 1943 - Oct. 15, 1944

23 pages of 1943-44 Albert Einstein letters to Lieutenant Stephen Brunauer of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, related to the development of torpedoes and using mathematics in this process to maximize the impact of torpedoes against enemy ships. The letters include drawings and calculations Einstein made to illustrate his points.

Includes: Albert Einstein's idea of an electro-magnetic device that will automatically explode a torpedo as it passes underneath a ship. Einstein reveals that he has come up with a mathematical simplification to analyze the impact an underwater explosion would have on the hull of an armored ship. Einstein presented his idea to have a torpedo positioned itself parallel to the wall of a ship before it exploded. He reveals, however, that when he worked the problem out, the idea proved impossible.

 
Sigmund Freud Papers General Correspondence, Einstein, Albert, Concerning, "Why War?"

167 pages from the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Sigmund Freud Papers

Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud exchanged letters for the purposes of producing a pamphlet called "Warum Krieg?" [Why War?]. Both expressed a horror of war and the belief that it could be avoided only if nations were willing to renounce some of their sovereignty in favor of an international body. Neither was optimistic that this renunciation would happen. Includes an English translation of the two correspondences which were the basis for the pamphlet. The rest of the material is 156 pages of German language documents from the papers of Sigmund Freud, made up of Freud's drafts of correspondence with Einstein and material related to the publishing of their communication.
 

Einstein - Leo Szilard Correspondences 

132 pages of documents in English and German. Includes various drafts of the letter that Szilard drafted, and which Einstein signed and sent to Roosevelt on 2 August 1939. Source: Einstein Correspondences - Leo Szilard Papers. MSS 32. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
 

Holocaust Content Letters

13 pages of letters written by Einstein with content related to the persecution of Jews in Europe. Includes:

 In an October 1938 letter to his friend Dr. Michele Besso, a Swiss/Italian engineer, he writes about his attempts to help Jews in Europe by issuing them affidavits to aid their immigration.

 In a handwritten letter Einstein writes to his sister Maja Winteler-Einstein. Einstein encouraged her to come to the United States.

A 1941 letter to Eleanor Roosevelt expresses frustration at bureaucratic impediments to his efforts to aid Jewish refugees. He describes the effect of State Department policies, “makes it all but impossible to give refuge in America to many worthy persons who are the victims of Fascist cruelty in Europe.”

A 1948 letter Einstein to Joe J. Heydecker, president of Weltstaatliga (World State League). Einstein rejects an honorary position at the World State League, headquartered in Munich Germany. Einstein writes, “After the Germans bestially murdered more than half of my Jewish brethren, it is impossible for me to participate in any German public endeavor.”


Newspapers

206 full sheet newspaper pages from newspapers from across the United States, covering news carried by American newspapers about Einstein from 1920 to 1955.