“On My Participation In The Atomic Bomb Project”: Einstein’s Powerful Letter Goes Up For Auction For $150,000

In early 1939, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann announced a discovery that would change the world. Bombarding uranium with neutrons, the duo found that the nucleus split up into lighter elements such as barium, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process. Now known as fission, it was an unexpected result, prompting Hahn and Strassmann to contact physicist Lise Meitner, who had fled to Sweden, fearing for her safety after the Nazis invaded Austria.

“Perhaps you can suggest some fantastic explanation. We understand that it (uranium) really can’t break up into barium…so try and think of some other possibility,” Hann wrote in late 1938.

“Barium isotopes with much higher atomic weights than 137? If you can think of anything that might be publishable, then the three of us would be together in this work after all. We don’t believe this is foolishness or that contaminations are playing tricks on us.”

At first, Meitner was skeptical, though intrigued enough to encourage the two to continue in their experiments. Following further study, in January 1932 she wrote:

“I am fairly certain now that you really have a splitting towards barium and I consider it a wonderful result for which I congratulate you and Strassmann very warmly…You now have a wide, and beautiful field of work ahead of you.”

Following further independent replication by Otto Frisch, Hahn and Strassman published their results in two papers titled Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction and Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment, labeling the reactions as “fission” for the first time.

While physicists – including Niels Bohr, who remarked, “oh what idiots we have been! Oh but this is wonderful. This is just as it must be” – were excited by the discovery, there was reason to be as nervous as hell. Hungarian-American physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller were largely concerned with what would happen if the Germans were able to get their hands on Belgium’s supply of uranium, which the colonists had mined in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They wished to get a message to the Belgian government, warning them not to sell to Germany.

Einstein happened to be a friend of the Queen of Belgium, and so the three physicists attempted to convince him to send a letter with the warning. While Einstein did not want to write to the Queen, he agreed to write to the ambassador, and following this was convinced to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to warn the US of the danger as well.

“Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future,” that letter, drafted by Szilard and signed by Einstein, reads.

“This phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable – though much less certain – that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.”

In the letter, Einstein urged the president to maintain “permanent contact” with American physicists working on chain reactions, and appoint a physicist in an unofficial capacity to report on developments, and secure uranium ore for the United States. As well as this, the Einstein-Szilard letter suggests speeding up progress in the area by providing funds to universities involved in the research, “and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment”.

The US Government, of course, did go on to develop the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project. Einstein, a pacifist, was not involved in the project directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. However, following the lifting of a ban on showing the destruction caused by the atomic bombs, Japanese magazine Kaizō asked Einstein specifically about his role in it. At the time, Einstein was becoming attached to the bomb in the public imagination, not helped by Time describing him as “the father of the bomb” accompanied by an image of him juxtaposed with a mushroom cloud.

“My participation in the production of the atom bomb consisted in a single act: I signed a letter to President Roosevelt. This letter stressed the necessity of large scale experimentation to ascertain the possibility of producing an atom bomb,” Einstein wrote in his reply, published in 1952. What followed was a strong condemnation of war, and a case for pacifism.

“I was well aware of the dreadful danger for all mankind, if these experiments would succeed. But the probability that the Germans might work on that very problem with good chance of success prompted me to take that step. I did not see any other way out, although I always was a convinced pacifist. To kill in war time, it seems to me, is in no ways better than common murder.

As long however, as nations are not ready to abolish war by common action and to solve their conflicts in a peaceful way on a legal basis, they feel compelled to prepare for war. They feel moreover compelled to prepare the most abominable means, in order not to be left behind in the general armaments race. Such procedure leads inevitably to war, which, in turn, under today’s conditions, spells universal destruction.

Under such circumstances there is no hope in combating the production of specific weapons or means of destruction. Only radical abolition of war and of danger of war can help. Toward this goal one should strive; in fact nobody should allow himself to be forced into actions contrary to this goal. This is a harsh demand for anyone who is aware of his social inter-relatedness; but it can be followed.

Gandhi, the greatest political genius of our time has shown the way and has demonstrated that sacrifices man is willing to bring if only he has found the right way. His work for the liberation of India is a living example that man’s will, sustained by an indomitable conviction is stronger than apparently invincible material power.”

Einstein clearly regretted the Roosevelt letter, writing in his diaries, “I made one great mistake in my life when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made”.

The letter to Kaizō magazine is now being auctioned by Bonhams, with a guide price of $100,000 – $150,000, with bids to close on June 24.