Einstein, 1953. One of the most important scientists of all time wrote a letter. And it seems that, even though more than 70 years have passed, he could have written it yesterday, but we’ll talk about that later. Now, this past June 24, New York put it up for auction. With an estimated price of 140,000, this letter is the scientist’s most direct statement on atomic bombs: he rejects them. Completely, he does not want them.
Far from claiming a leading role, Einstein distances himself from the Manhattan Project and states that his only involvement was signing a warning letter to President Roosevelt. He did it out of fear that Nazi Germany would get ahead. Want to know more?
The origin of the document: a Japanese editor, a question, and an uncomfortable truth
To understand the origin of this letter, we need to go back to 1952, when the Japanese editor Katshu Hara, from the magazine Kaizō, asked Einstein a very direct and personal question:
“Why did you participate in the creation of the atomic bomb, knowing its destructive power?”
Wow. What a question. But Einstein did not stay silent and decided to answer with a brief and blunt essay titled “On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project”. It is the original text in which he responds to Kaizō’s questions.
The original text was written in German and was published in Japan as a public response (not as a private letter). The version now being auctioned is the only English translation reviewed and approved by Einstein, with his handwritten word “Einverstanden” (“agreed”) as a sign of conformity with the final translation, and it was eventually published in the Bulletin of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science (SSRS).
And now it’s up for auction?
That’s right, it has now reached one of the country’s most important auction houses, Bonhams, and they estimate the bidder will pay between $100,000 and $150,000 if they want to own it.
“My only act was signing a letter” said Einstein
And the truth is, knowing what we know now about atomic bombs and how many countries (especially in the last month) are making direct threats to use them against civilians, it’s hard to understand that Einstein, one of the most brilliant and incredible minds of the last century, had any part in the creation of such weapons.
In the text, Einstein states that he only participated by signing a letter addressed to Roosevelt, and that he did it because he feared Nazi Germany would develop the bomb first, not because he wanted to take part in its production.
What did Einstein think about war?
There is little we can know, but the scientist did specify that “killing in times of war is no better than ordinary murder”, making it clear that he rejected violence under any circumstance.
“Only the radical abolition of war can help us”, was another one of his statements that, even today, is an urgent call to collective conscience.
What is the Manhattan Project?
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program carried out in the US during World War II, and yes, the goal was as clear as building the first atomic bomb before the Nazis did.
This project began in 1942 and involved several allied countries, bringing together the most qualified scientists and engineers of the time. As you can imagine… the project ended with the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki…
Einstein and the bomb: a moral evolution
Einstein was never part of the Manhattan Project. His famous warning in 1939 was written along with physicist Leo Szilárd, and years later Einstein himself would say it was “the greatest mistake of his life”. In the following decades, he decided to advocate for nuclear disarmament, participated in pacifist campaigns, and even rejected attempts to define him as “the father of the bomb” and signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955.
This shift in stance was not improvised, of course. It was the result of a deep ethical evolution, from fear of Hitler to the clear denunciation of the moral consequences of war.
An auction with immeasurable historical value
The auction also includes original photographs of Einstein in his daily life and portraits of his intellectual circle in Princeton, with names like Niels Bohr, Kurt Gödel, and Wolfgang Pauli. It’s not just a document for sale: it revives the conscience of a man who changed the world and then tried to save it from his worst creation. Do you have $150,000? The testimony of the greatest genius of our recent history is worth at least that.