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When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
in 1933, the full force of the Nazi terror was unleashed.
Anti-German books were burnt, Jews were persecuted and for scientists
like Albert Einstein, who was also Jewish, life became unbearable.
Professor Neil Turok, Cambridge
Centre for Mathematical Studies |
"It's hard to imagine the circumstances under
which Einstein was working, under this terrible threat to his life
and to his friends' lives in Germany," says Professor Neil
Turok, a leading mathematician from Cambridge University.
"Every scientific equation we use today has its origin with
Einstein."
Einstein the Pacifist
Einstein was strongly opposed to war.
He said he would rather be ‘hacked to pieces than fight’.
But events in his homeland were having a profound effect on his
conscience.
So something had to be done to rescue the world’s
cleverest man. Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson, an eccentric MP
with business interests in Cromer, offered Einstein refuge in the
Norfolk countryside.
Writer, Stuart McClaren |
According to the writer Stuart McClaren, Locker-Lampson
was the kind of man who couldn't stand anti-Semitism.
"It seems some sort of scheme was concocted between the King
of Belgium and Locker-Lampson and possibly Winston Churchill to
get Einstein to safety," said Stuart McClaren.
"They sent a man over to Ostend. He went and brought Einstein
back."
He was brought to live in a small hut on Roughton Heath in Cromer.
Price on Einstein's head
There was a bounty of a thousand guineas on Einstein’s
head. Security was tight at the camp, much to the bemusement of
some of the locals.
Even though Einstein was in exile, he still used
the time to gain a deeper understanding of what made the universe
tick.
The work he was doing in a hut, isolated in Norfolk, was to become
the cornerstone of science today.
While Einstein was preoccupied with his theories,
the situation beyond Cromer was worsening.
The world waited for the great man to make a move against fascism.
Nuclear decision
Eventually, prompted by an artist who came to Roughton to make a
bust of Einstein's head, the great thinker spoke out against Hitler
and urged the world to take up arms against the dictator.
This decision was to alter
the course of history: Einstein left Norfolk and sailed to America
never to return to Europe.
The science he was working on in a hut near Cromer,
would be put to use on the world’s first nuclear bomb.
"This was a tremendously difficult thing for Einstein to do
as a pacifist, but he knew that if the Americans did not get a nuclear
bomb the Nazis may very well get it first, and that would be the
end of the world," said Stuart
McClaren.
"So really the few weeks that he spent on a heath in Norfolk
had tremendous repercussions for the future of the world,"
he added.
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