thinker and its first
celebrity scientist. The name of Einstein became
synonymous with genius. He looks like a man who
witnessed the creation itself. [explosion] NARRATOR: His
revolutionary theories helped unlock the key
to the atomic bomb. His greatest achievement
E equals mc, squared also becomes this thing that
can destroy the world. [helicopter flying] [explosion] NARRATOR: Einstein was
forever torn between his work and the women in his life. There's a lot of
playfulness in there. They would swing from-- Einstein would swing from
comments about how beautiful she is, how voluptuous she is,
how he remembers her warm body. And then, he would swing into-- I just read a book on
electromagnetic waves. NARRATOR: Einstein considered
all marriages to be dangerous. Ultimately, it was his
work that always won out. [explosion] [music playing] NARRATOR: Nearly every wacky
scientist in the movies is based on one man,
Albert Einstein. 50 years after his
death, his face sells coffee mugs,
calendars, and t-shirts. He was the first celebrity
superstar of modern science. But behind the iconic image,
Einstein was as enigmatic as his famous equation,
E equals mc, squared. His unrivaled genius
master man who betrayed many of those closest to him. He is not some sterile saint. I mean, he likes women,
but it's the liking of it that he really hates and fight
against because it's drawing him away from what he
thinks his mission is. And find out the
secrets of the universe. NARRATOR: Einstein
was single-minded in his pursuit of
scientific knowledge from his earliest years. The passion, the enthusiasm
is nevertheless always coupled with a great sense of purpose. And he stays
focused on his work. NARRATOR: Einstein's
dedication to his work one in sciences equivalent
of an Oscar, the Nobel Prize for physics. But he paid a high
price for his success, especially in his
personal relationships. Einstein viewed women
as people to be used, in the sense that women
could be inspiring. But he would have
to hurt them also. NARRATOR: Einstein's first love
was a fellow student at physics Mileva Maric. Four years his senior, Einstein
admired her independence and ambition. MICHAEL SHARA: When he
met Mileva her there was a passion of fire that he
himself was a little frightened of, something that
he couldn't control. NARRATOR: When the unmarried,
Mileva, fell pregnant, it put Einstein scientific
career in jeopardy. Einstein was attempting to get
a job in northern Switzerland, which was a very, very
conservative area. And if he showed up with a
child born out of wedlock, that could be enormous
difficulties for him. NARRATOR: Einstein wasn't
going to jeopardize his career for a child. The young couple gave up
their firstborn, a girl, for adoption. Einstein never saw
his baby daughter. When later, he married Mileva,
they had two more children, Hans Albert and Eduard. But Einstein's
obsession with work meant family life would
always come second. He traveled frequently
and worked late. He was rarely at home to see
his children or his wife. Unhappy, Mileva wrote to a
friend, I am starved of love. I believe wicked
science is to blame. As Mileva became less
trusting and more jealous, he began to draw away
from her and began to become angrier
and angrier, and seek the comfort of other women. NARRATOR: Elsa, Einstein's
cousin was one of them. In 1912, they became lovers. Einstein wrote to
Elsa, I would be so happy to walk a
few steps at your side without my wife who
is very jealous. I treat her as an employee,
whom I cannot sack. In 1919, four months
after divorcing Mileva, Einstein married his cousin. In Elsa, he had found
the perfect partner. A woman prepared to care
for him and to put herself second to his quest for
scientific knowledge. She was like a traditional
wife was supposed to be. Something that Mileva
could never succeed at. As Einstein put it
once he needed somebody to iron his shirts. NARRATOR: From the
moment of his divorce, Einstein rarely
saw his two sons. The eldest later wrote, the
only project he ever gave up on was me. His youngest son
is schizophrenic. He was to spend years in
psychiatric hospitals. MICHAEL SHARA: I don't
think that he was a terribly successful father. He didn't connect
terribly well with them. And he saw both boys rather more
sporadically after the divorce. So I think, that one can say
that while he may have been the A plus, plus,
plus physicist. As a father, somewhere in
the C minus to D range. NARRATOR: In 1919, the same year
that Einstein had married Elsa, his theory of relativity
was proved correct. Aged 40, Einstein was
suddenly a celebrity, science's first superstar. He really became, in many
ways, the most famous scientist and one of the dozen most famous
people in the world literally, overnight. NARRATOR: Three years later,
Einstein was awarded science's highest honor, The Nobel Prize. But while the world
believed Einstein a genius, he considered himself
an emotional failure. His constant drive for
professional success was to bring tragedy
in the years ahead. Albert Einstein
was born at a time of enormous
scientific innovation. From his earliest days,
he was driven by a passion to understand the
world around him. As a young boy, one of the
first things his father gave him was a magnetic compass. He was fascinated by the
movement of a little piece of metal always swinging around
and finding magnetic north. Why was that true? There was something
deeper there. There was something
within him that had to get to the bottom of things. NARRATOR: The compass marked the
beginning of Einstein's quest for knowledge. It was a quest that was to
dominate the rest of his life. Albert Einstein was born in
1879 in northern Germany. The eldest child
of a middle-class irreligious Jewish couple,
Herman and Pauline. Herman was an engineer,
and he owned a factory producing dynamos. DIANA KORMOS BUCHWALD: The
electrification of Germany was taking place at a huge rate. His family was engaged in the
equivalent of the computer nanotechnology revolution
of that period. And it was also a time, of
course, of great revolution. Because you have this
tremendous process, there were new industries
that suddenly became possible, more wealth that
became possible. And a view of the world
that started to change also. We were actually stepping
into a new century where almost anything
became possible. NARRATOR: His mother, Pauline,
was a domineering woman. She encouraged her young
son to play the violin and instilled in him the
drive and the determination to succeed. DENNIS OVERBYE: Einstein's
mother was definitely the dominant person
in the family. She really ruled the
roost in his father. And this is-- I've seen
this in many scientists, they come from backgrounds
in which the father was sort of a little more dreamy
and other worldly. And the mothers were more
dominant running the family, and this is Einstein's case. MICHAEL SHARA: Pauline inspired
in him the need to focus. The need to really work at
something until you got it done. And never, never put something
down, just walk away from it. That was something that
would have been completely unacceptable in his family. NARRATOR: The young Einstein was
self-sufficient and thoughtful. A loner by choice, he
enjoyed spending hours building houses
from playing cards and solving intricate
mathematical puzzles. He disliked school. At first, his teachers
thought him stupid. ARTHUR I MILLER: He took a long
time in solving mathematics problems for a while. So his teachers thought
he was rather slow, but he was actually
thinking about how to do it, thinking about better
ways of doing it. One of the myths
about Einstein is that he was a poor student. In fact, he was an excellent
student in algebra, geometry, physics, mathematics,
trigonometry, differential geometry, all of the subjects
to do with the sciences. He was a straight A student. NARRATOR: And once
young Einstein got the measure of his teachers,
they didn't stand a chance. ARTHUR I MILLER: He
would ask the teacher a question and the teacher
would try to figure it out. I realized, he couldn't,
and the teacher would try again and
again at the blackboard, get more and more befuddled. And the story goes
young Einstein would sit-in the
back of the room with an ever widening grin. NARRATOR: In 1896, Einstein left
home and enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich,
where he trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. Here, he discovered a world
of intellectual freedom. He also discovered women. ARTHUR I MILLER:
Women flocked to him. He was a very good looking man. He had the air about him
of being a poet or musician or writer, rather than
being a scientist. NARRATOR: At his Polytechnic,
the 17-year-old Einstein fell in love with
a fellow student. Mileva Maric was a graduate
physicist from Serbia. Four years in senior. ARTHUR I MILLER:
She was very pretty, as Einstein said later on. It was the eyes
that attracted him. And they, very quickly,
developed a very passionate relationship. Although Einstein kept his
own flat for appearances sake. They generally lived
with each other. They were soulmates. MICHAEL SHARA: Mileva was
an extraordinary woman. Very, very bright,
articulate, and a woman studying to do a Ph.D. at
the turn of the century, a hundred years ago. This was extremely unusual
anywhere in the world. And Mileva, apparently,
was a very good physicist. DENNIS OVERBYE: They became
an item, Johnny and Dawley, they call on each other. And their life, for
the next three years, was sort of like
one long study date. NARRATOR: The two lovers
would exchange love letters. And Einstein even tried
his hand at poetry. Oh, that Johnny boy
so crazy with desire. While thinking of his Dawley,
his pillow catches fire. It was not your typical
love relationship, lovey-dovey between
man and a woman. These were two people who were
passionate about each other, but also, very
passionate about physics. ARTHUR I MILLER: There's a
lot of playfulness in there. Einstein would swing from
comments about how beautiful she is, how voluptuous she is,
how he remembers her warm body. And then, he would swing
in to, I just read a book on electromagnetic waves. NARRATOR: But their
relationship sparked a storm. Neither of the families
thought the other one was good for their daughter
or for their son. Einstein's middle-class
Jewish mother was horrified by her
son's choice of partner. She considered Mileva, who was
from Serbia, a foreigner who was socially
inferior to her son. DENNIS OVERBYE: Einstein's
family, especially his mother hated Mileva. Then on Einstein said
after he graduated that he wanted to marry her. His mother broke down on-- started sobbing on the bed. NARRATOR: Einstein's mother told
him, you're ruining your future and destroying
your opportunities. If she gets pregnant, you'll
really be in a fine mess. Within months,
Mileva was pregnant. At that time, having a
child born out of wedlock could have destroyed, not
only Einstein social standing, but his career prospects. Einstein had a choice, what
would come first, his child or his work? NARRATOR: In 1901, 22-year-old
physicist, Albert Einstein's life was in tatters. He had a degree but no job. And his girlfriend,
Mileva Maric was pregnant. At that time, an illegitimate
child was a huge social stigma. Einstein insisted, Mileva
give birth hundreds of miles away, at her parents'
home in Serbia. The child, a daughter,
named Lieserl, was probably given
up for adoption. Einstein never sought
his first born. To this day, Lieserl's
fate remains a mystery. MICHAEL SHARA: Lieserl
vanished from the public record and from the Einstein's
life when she was about 2. We think that she may
have had scarlet fever. She may have died. She may have been
given up for adoption. We simply don't know
what happened to her. [birds chirping] There must have been
great pain on both sides. The loss of a child, of
course, a terrible thing for any parents. But like everyone,
I guess, faced with such a terrible tragedy,
they went on, they moved on. NARRATOR: In June 1902, Einstein
finally got the job he wanted. He was appointed Technical
Expert, third-class, at the Swiss patent office,
in Bern, a secure government job with set hours. It allowed him time to
work on his own theories in the evenings and in weekends. It also gave him the
financial security to allow him to marry Mileva. But first, he still had
to win around his parents. ARTHUR I MILLER: He finally
got permission from his father. On his father's deathbed,
his father's at all, go Mario, that was it. NARRATOR: Shortly after
the death of his father, Einstein and Mileva married. She was 28, he was 24. Einstein was now working eight
hours a day, six days a week at the patent office. And when he returned
home, he continued to work on his scientific
theories, and every minute of his spare time. Einstein was a young
man in a hurry. Nothing, not even his
family would get in the way of his ideas and ambitions. ARTHUR I MILLER: Einstein did
his work, his physics work on the kitchen table. Apparently, there was
never enough money, Mileva was always complaining. NARRATOR: In May 1904, Mileva
gave birth to their first son Hans Albert. But even with a new
child in the house, Einstein remained
preoccupied with his work. Increasingly, he neglected
the needs of his wife. Her intellectual
dreams were shattered. She became a mother,
full-time mother, taking care of her children. She essentially lived in
the shadow of her husband. NARRATOR: Less than a year,
after the birth of Hans Albert, there were strains within
Einstein's marriage. He and Mileva rarely
discussed physics together, as they once did. Instead, he chose to
work late at his office. He called it a secular cloister,
where he could go and develop his scientific
theories in peace. Einstein believed his ideas
were now beginning to gel. He worked on paper after paper. Convinced that his single-minded
devotion to his work would soon pay off. ARTHUR I MILLER: In 1905, was
Einstien's Anna's miraculous. Out of nowhere, he
produced four papers that changed the
course of science and the course of
human events as well. There produced that eight
week intervals and white heat. NARRATOR: The most
famous of these papers was his Theory of Relativity
and the iconic equation that explained it, E
equals mc, squared. ARTHUR I MILLER: Einstein
is the sort of genius, who when they had
their great idea, would shut down emotionally. Move all emotions
outside of himself. And Mileva just kind
of, was pushed further and further into the shadows. NARRATOR: The birth of
a second son, Eduard, did little to help Einstein
and Mileva's marriage. Mileva resented her husband's
obsession with his work, while she had to stay at
home with the children. She also resented his
growing reputation in the scientific community,
while her career was over. She saw, too, that his
passion for her was fading. They slept in separate bedrooms. And Einstein avoided any
physical contact with her. Then Mileva discovered that
Einstein had friendships with other women. Girlfriend of his
writes him some letters, Sounds like they're
arranging to meet, but the letters are
intercepted by Mieva who throws a jealous fit and
writes to this woman's husband. And Einstein was very
offended by this outburst, and says that Mileva
was ugly and jealous. NARRATOR: On a business
trip to Berlin, in 1912, Einstein met his cousin
and childhood friend, Elsa. Three years older
than Einstein, Elsa was a wealthy divorcee with two
daughters from her marriage. After the turmoil and
jealousies in his marriage, Einstein found Elsa,
breath of fresh air. They soon began an affair. Einstein and
Mileva's relationship was now so bad that he
avoided being alone with her. Finally, he gave her
a list of conditions that she had to meet in
order to stay married to him. The terms of engagement, so
to speak, were quite harsh. For example, Einstein demanded
that when I speak to you-- as he put it, you must
answer me immediately. And when I ask you
to leave my study, you must leave my
story, immediately. Ultimately, there
were certain things he wasn't willing to sacrifice. Had he spent much more
time with his family, had he frankly had less
of an eye for the ladies, perhaps his marriage
might have been saved. NARRATOR: When in 1914, Einstein
accepted a professorship at the University of Berlin. Mielva and their
children followed him to the German capital. But the strings were too
great for both of them. And three months later, Mileva
returned with their children to Switzerland. She would not come back. One month later, the
First World War broke out. And Einstein, a committed
and outspoken pacifist, retreated to his study to
continue his scientific work. His private life was in ruins. And so far, his
groundbreaking theories remained unproven, nearly 10
years after he published them. First World War in 1914, oue Albert Einstein's private
life was in ruins. He was separated
from his wife, Mileva who was living in Switzerland
with their two sons, whom he rarely saw. As Europe disintegrates
into the chaos of war, Einstein a committed
pacifist, locked himself away in his study in Berlin. The war fever that gripped his
fellow Germans disgusted him. MICHAEL SHARA: He
said, this is crazy, we shouldn't be doing this. There was no point to it. Millions are going
to die for no reason. Let's stop, let's
get out of this. This was an extremely
unpopular stand to take with Germany at the
time, and Einstein didn't care. NARRATOR: That year, 93
leading German academics published a manifesto in
defense of Germany's aggression. Einstein launched a
petition urging peace. It received just
three signatures. Einstein was
always a pacifist. He hated militarism, he was
terrified as a child when he saw soldiers marching
in rigid fashion through the streets in Germany. Begged his parents
never to allow him, under any circumstances,
to be inducted or drafted into any kind of
military service. It was something
that was completely against his inner spirit. NARRATOR: Einstein
withdrew into the world of theoretical physics. DENNIS OVERBYE: Einstein
has thrown himself into his great work
at that point, which is general relativity,
his theory of gravity, which kind of portrays spacetime
is kind of elastic and bending, warping, predicted the
expansion of the universe. NARRATOR: After years
of intensive work developing his
scientific theories, Einstein was physically
and mentally exhausted. In 1916, he collapsed. It was Elsa, his
cousin, with whom he'd started an affair four
years earlier who nurse him back to health. DENNIS OVERBYE: It is less
romantic and more motherly, the feeling you get
about their relationship. And there's a certain element
of nurturing that he wants. Elsa had no pretensions towards
intellectual achievement. And he found out as a
relief after Mileva. NARRATOR: Their
relationship deepened. But before they could marry,
Einstein had to divorce Mileva. MICHAEL SHARA: The divorce was
extremely painful for Mileva and for the boys
and for Einstein. The family, really,
was torn apart. In his trips from
Berlin where he was now an eminent professor. He would visit the
boys on occasion. He said he cried all the way
home after seeing his sons. NARRATOR: 1919, was the
turning point in Einstein's private and professional life. That year, he finally
divorced Mileva. Now, he was free to marry Elsa. Elsa was not nearly as
good looking as Mileva. Elsa succeeded with him
because she took care of him. She was like a traditional
wife was supposed to be. Something that Mileva
could never succeed of. They also took care of him. She cooked dinners, entertain
friends, and also stepped aside when Einstein had girlfriend. 1919 was also the year an
unusual natural phenomenon occurred, a solar eclipse. But it was this event that
proved Einstein's theory of relativity to be correct. It was the moment he
worked for and dreamed of. His place in history
was a assured. One of the first people he told
was probably the most important woman in his life, to
whom he wrote a postcard. The person that he finds
it most important to tell. And that he's happiest
to tell ultimately that he has succeeded
so smashingly and really overturned
all of physics, is his mother, on a
modest little postcard. In it, he says, and
by the way, I've just heard that star light is
bent as it moves by the sun. It's really quite a triumph,
and things are wonderful professionally. And I'm very, very happy
to let you know this. Suddenly, out of a country
that has been obliterated. And one has a scientist
sitting at his desk dividing the laws of the cosmos,
making predictions, and having those predictions verified. And this gave a great
deal of hope to the world. NARRATOR: Overnight,
Einstein became a celebrity. Within a year over
a hundred books were published on relativity. Though few understood his
theory, or even what it meant, Einstein explained it in a
way that all could appreciate. Well, You know if you sit
on a hot plate for a second, it seems like an hour. If a pretty girl sits
on your lap for an hour, it seems like a second,
that's relativity. NARRATOR: In 1921,
Einstein and Elsa embarked on a whirlwind
tour of America. Here, he received the kind
of welcome usually reserved for movie stars and royalty. Wherever he went,
crowds followed him. Elsa, adored the attention. Einstein, did not. He was really stunned at the
reaction that he evoked people. Looked at him almost as a
god he was an iconic figure. One of the first
real media superstars tracked the tremendous numbers
of press wherever he went. And he was shocked by it. He was complaining
about journalists camping outside his door. There was too much
traffic in the house. There were too many
telegrams coming and going, too many requests for
interviews and so on. NARRATOR: In 1922, Einstein
was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. For the next 10 years,
he toured the world, lecturing on his new discoveries
to thousands of devoted fans. He became one of the icons
of this generation, one of the people who represented
all the promise that could be had from science. NARRATOR: But in his
home country of Germany, Einstein was not seen as a
genius, but simply as a Jew. By 1932, with Hitler on the
verge of becoming Germany's dictator, no Jew was safe. Especially, the most
famous Jew in the world. Einstein, the Jew,
was a phrase often used. The rising Nazi party
would sponsor rallies whenever Einstein was speaking. It was beginning to cross
his mind that perhaps he should leave. There was a price
put on Einstein's head. Rumors have it $5,000 or more. And the stories
of Einstein, when you heard about it quip
that he didn't say, I didn't think I
was worth that much. NARRATOR: Europe was
becoming a dangerous place. Einstein realized he
had no future there. He tells his wife, famous,
look at your little house here in kaput, because
you'll never see it again. NARRATOR: In 1932,
the Einstein's set sail for America. They would never
return to Europe again. It was clear to him that
he would be arrested, almost certainly, killed or thrown
into a concentration camp. NARRATOR: Einstein, Elsa
and her two daughters settled in America. Soon Einstein was
hard at work again. Ironically, it was the
very laws of nature that Einstein, a
committed pacifist, had discovered that we're about
to be used to help produce the greatest weapon of mass
destruction known to mankind. [explosion] [music playing] After fleeing Nazi
Germany in 1932, Nobel Prize winning scientist,
Albert Einstein and his family, had settled in America. At the age of 56, he accepted
a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, in
Princeton, New Jersey. He and his wife Elsa, moved
into a wooden clapboard house on Mercer Street together
with her two daughters whom he adopted. His own sons, whom he
rarely saw or spoke to, remained in Europe
with their mother. MICHAEL SHARA: Albert
Einstein enjoyed America. He became an American citizen. And he really felt
comfortable with in America, in the sense that he had
peace and tranquility. Princeton was a
fabulous place for him. He had no teaching
responsibilities, no administrative
responsibilities, he could basically
do as he pleased. NARRATOR: At the
Institute, Einstein set to work on his
unified field theory, an attempt to explain
all the forces of nature in one equation. ARTHUR I MILLER: He furthered
his search for absolute truth, for objective truth, for a
reality behind the appearances, which he believed he could
reach through mathematics alone. NARRATOR: But Einstein
didn't live by science alone. He'd always been
attracted to women. And as a famous figure,
there were plenty who were attracted to him. ARTHUR I MILLER: He never did
have any personal boundaries. That's the way he ran his life. And he was reputed to be the
smartest person in the world. He had lots of money. He took care of
himself physically. He was well conditioned. And he had groupies
around them everywhere. People were always
introducing him to women. He would invite a
woman to his house. And he would appear
in his silk bathrobe. He would talk to her, bathrobe
would accidentally pop open, if you went for it, fine. If not, not. DENNIS OVERBYE: There
were several younger women that he got involved with. And I suppose, that kind of
a common description of them all is that they
weren't intellectuals. That they were sort of
happy people who liked him. They were fun to be
around, they, you know, girls just want to have fun. NARRATOR: Elsa puts up with
it, she had little choice. As with his first
marriage, Einstein had laid down ground rules
for their life together. They slept in separate rooms. And she was not permitted
to enter his study while he continued to see
whomever he pleased. Women would come by
and chauffeur driven cars to go through the opera
with him and he'd come back a couple of days later. The condition was, was
that the woman would bring a box of candy for Elsa. Elsa was very upset
about this, but there was nothing she could do. DENNIS OVERBYE: Elsa
accepted certain things about being Einstein's wife. He did run around a
lot with other women, and she wasn't happy about it. But she sort of put
up with it in a sort of resigned, sort of way. NARRATOR: Then, in the autumn
of 1935, Elsa fell gravely ill. 20 years earlier, when
Einstein suffered a breakdown, she'd nurse him back to health. Now, the roles were reversed. Einstein cared for
her in her final days. She was amazed
at the affection that Einstein showed
her on her deathbed. NARRATOR: Elsa Einstein
died on December 20, 1936. She was 60. They had been married
almost 17 years. ARTHUR I MILLER: But
then, after she died, Einstein immediately
went back up to a study to continue working. And he said that
was the best way he could deal with the situation. NARRATOR: But Einstein's
work was interrupted when a team of emigre scientists
confided to him that the Nazis might be developing a
terrifying new weapon. Realized that if a weapon
of this terrible power of the atomic bomb might fall
into the hands of the Nazis, that could spell the
end of civilization. It could set humanity
back many, many centuries, [trumpets] NARRATOR: Europe was
on the brink of war. Einstein was appalled by
Hitler's ascendancy in Europe. FRED JEROME: Einstein
immediately saw the picture and if the US does
nothing, and the Germans make an atomic bomb. Hitler will be able
to say, do what I want or bomb your whole country
or your biggest cities out of existence. He realized that Nazism
was the embodiment of evil. And he understood
that, occasionally, under very special
circumstances, with the utmost evil,
you do have to use force. NARRATOR: Einstein was forced
to abandon his pacifism. On August 2, 1939,
Einstein cosigned a letter to President
Roosevelt, alerting him to a new phenomenon
that would lead to the construction of bombs. This letter helped trigger the
Manhattan Project, America's race to build an atom bomb. DIANA KORMOS BUCHWALD:
He was criticized as being inconsistent that
Einstein changed his mind. And he explained to students,
yes, I'm disappointing you, but there are-- in order to guarantee the
freedom to be a pacifist and to work for peace
in future generations. This man, this force, this
ideology, have to be stopped, referring to Hitler. [explosion] NARRATOR: The Americans won
the race for the atomic bomb. And in August 1945,
they dropped two bombs on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 200,000
people were killed. When Einstein heard the news,
he put his head in his hands and said, I could
burn my fingers that I wrote that letter
to President Roosevelt. And there must have been
some guilt attached to that. I think if he had to do it
over again, knowing everything he knew, he probably would
have signed the letter again. Had he known that the Nazis
would not succeed, of course, he would not have. And he said that explicitly. [explosion] NARRATOR: To the wider
world though, Einstein had become known as the
father of the atomic bomb. Energy equals mass, is
the theoretical basis of the atomic bomb. But to go from the understanding
that you could convert a little bit of mass into
a huge amount of energy, and thereby flatten
the city, was something that Einstein never worked on. The irony is, of course,
that Einstein never worked on the
atomic bomb project because he couldn't be trusted
to keep his mouth shut, so to speak. Although, he's considered to be
the father of the atomic bomb, he never did any work on it. [music playing] NARRATOR: Haunted by the horrors
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein set out to use
his celebrity status to fight against weapons
of mass destruction. But his outspoken views
brought in powerful enemies. Soon, he was the target of a
sustained campaign against him by one of the most
powerful men in America. now, a US citizen, was living
in Princeton, New Jersey when the Russians exploded
their first nuclear weapon. It signaled the start of the
arms race between the West and the Soviet Union. America was soon gripped
by the fear of communism. The Private Supreme
Communist Government, being an enemy of the
state, must be liquidated. Believe me, you
communists can't keep fooling the entire world. You can't even keep
fooling your own people because they knew about
communism is getting around. That it's only another
word, slave me. [gunshot] NARRATOR: Spearheading the
anti-communist crusade, was one of America's most
powerful and feared men FBI boss, J. Edgar Hoover. The Communist Party
of the United States is a fifth column, if
there ever was one. They are seeking
to weaken America. [interposing voices] NARRATOR: One man
Hoover suspected of being a communist and a
subversive was Albert Einstein. Now in his 70s, the
FBI had been gathering information on Einstein and his
political views for decades. In 1932, they had even tried
to block his entry to America on the grounds that he
had supported left wing organizations in
pre Nazi, Germany. [audio playback] In SPEAKER 1: Berlin, too the red
flag is carried in the streets. [end playback] This was a tirade
against Einstein. Why the State Department
should not allow him to come into this country? And they accused
him of everything. From, you know, plotting
to shoot American officers in the army. They said he belonged to
more communist organizations than Joe Stalin himself. NARRATOR: With the
onset of the Cold War, their campaign to gather yet
more information on Einstein stepped up. MICHAEL SHARA: Einstein was
under constant surveillance by the FBI. There was a strong
movement afoot that had it been
possible to do so. He would've been stripped
of his citizenship and thrown out of
the United States. NARRATOR: Hoover's FBI agents
monitored Einstein's mail and tapped his phone. The whole operation
was kept top secret. [audio playback] J. EDGAR HOOVER: The Communist
Party of the United States is a fifth column,
if they ever was one. They are seeking
to weaken America. [end playback] Hoover was smart enough
to know that if it got out that the FBI was
investigating Albert Einstein, the whole world would,
would laugh at him. And he would look bad,
the FBI would look bad. So he bent over backwards
to keep this investigation a secret. And including to keep
it secret from Einstein. NARRATOR: In 2000, investigative
reporter Fred Jerome, used the Freedom
of Information Act to gain complete access to the
FBI's secret file on Einstein. The documents revealed
startling facts about the scale of
the FBI operation. It boggles the mind,
that they actually have deported Einstein. It's-- I-- it's hard to believe. But the fact is they
went as far as they did. And even did one
thing which is funny, they issue a book every
five years for new citizens, it's called Bridge To Democracy. And this book includes
quotes from famous people about democracy
and how wonderful it is and freedom of speech. In a section called
freedom of speech, Einstein has a quote, saying,
one of the wonderful things about America is that you're
allowed to speak your mind and criticize the government,
and so on and so forth. And that was in the 1942
version of the book. It was in the 1947
version of the book. And the 1952 version
of the book came out, it's exactly the same
as the other thing, except that quote from
my son is missing. It's just not there. NARRATOR: Another man who
had Einstein in his sights was Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was the chairman of the US
Congress house, Un-American Activities Committee. That crusade was to expose, and
then incarcerate communists-- it was a witch hunt. Clearly, McCarthy
hated Einstein. Clearly wanting to
get something that he could use against Einstein. McCarthy called him
an enemy of America. NARRATOR: Those accused by
McCarthy had few options. They could refuse to testify
and risk losing everything. Or they could cooperate
with McCarthy's committee, and accuse friends and
colleagues of being communists. What I said
actually did was to, publicly, advise witnesses to
refuse to answer questions. He said if enough people
refuse to answer questions, they'll be out of business. NARRATOR: As he had
done in the past, Einstein once again
risked his reputation and stood up for his
political beliefs. Einstein was great enough and
his reputation was great enough that he really didn't much
care what other people thought of him. He would hear echoes and he
would refer to similarities between McCarthy period and
the rise of fascism in Germany. MICHAEL SHARA: He was a man of
enormous personal conviction and personal courage. And he said that, he himself,
would be willing to go to jail to stand up for these freedoms. NARRATOR: Hoover was never
able to build a credible case against Einstein. Who continued to speak out
against the horrors of war and his greatest fear,
nuclear annihilation. He was once asked, what
would be the main weapon of the third World War? And he said, I have no idea,
but I can guarantee you that the main weapon
of the fourth World War will be the club. There'll be nothing left or a
civilization will be destroyed. NARRATOR: In 1955,
Einstein signed a petition demanding the abolition
not only of atomic weapons but of war itself. He said, and now, we have to
work towards civilian control of nuclear weapons, towards an
international government giving powers to the United Nations. That governments
should cooperate and should work toward peace
rather than towards war. NARRATOR: Einstein
scientific stature and just outspoken
pacifism made him an icon of the 20th century. But as a man, he
let his family down. His first wife Mileva
Maric died in 1948, after many years of illness. He had a complicated
relationship with his two sons. His eldest son, Hans Albert
moved to the United States. And like his father, devoted
himself to an academic career, lecturing and engineering,
but they rarely spoke. Einstein's youngest son, Edward,
suffered a psychotic breakdown and spent much of his life in
and out of mental institutions. Einstein's love of
science never diminished. He continued to work
daily on his theories until April 18, 1955, when
he was admitted to hospital complaining of chest pains. It was a serious problem
which could have been treated. He declined surgery. With surgery, he might
actually have been saved. But he basically
said, it's enough, I've made my contribution,
it's time to go elegantly. NARRATOR: Einstein died
later that day, he was 76. The greatest scientist
of modern times, he wanted no physical memorial. In accordance with his wishes,
Einstein's body was cremated and his ashes scattered
as an unknown location. Einstein's legacy is
that of inspiration. It's of someone who succeeded
in situations that would have deterred most others. DIANA KORMOS BUCHWALD:
He intervened on behalf of the less fortunate
even though he did have queens and kings and presidents and
prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners among his friends. He tried to lift the ones around
him up, rather than himself. And I think, even today,
young people see that. NARRATOR: Albert Einstein
rewrote the laws of physics, and changed mankind's
understanding of the world. MICHAEL SHARA: There was nobody
like him before and probably hasn't been anybody
like him since. That's why he remains probably
the best known scientist of all time. If we think of
Einstein in the future, it should be as this
extraordinary scientist and extraordinary human
being who also had failures. Who also was a human being,
not a God, not a demigod.
