auf Deutsch

McCarthy Era: Einstein's Advice to Frauenglass:

In answer to a request for advice from William Frauenglass, a Brooklyn high school teacher under investigation by the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, Einstein wrote a letter which was published in The New York Times on June 12, 1953. It read, in part:

"The problem with which the intellectuals of this country are confronted is very serious," wrote Einstein. "The reactionary politicians have managed to instill suspicion of all intellectual efforts into the public by dangling before their eyes a danger from without . . . They are now proceeding to suppress the freedom of teaching and to deprive of their positions all those who do not prove submissive . . .

What ought the minority of intellectuals to do against this evil? I can only see the revolutionary way of non-co-operation, in Gandhi's sense. Every intellectual who is called before one of the committees ought to refuse to testify, i.e. he must be prepared for jail and economic ruin, in short, for the sacrifice of his personal welfare in the interest of the cultural welfare of his country....based on the assertion that it is shameful for a blameless citizen to submit to such an inquisition .... If enough people are ready to take this grave step they will be successful. If not, then the intellectuals of this country deserve nothing better than the slavery which is intended for them."

Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935979,00.html

PS: Al Shadowitz, 88: Physicist stood tall at McCarthy hearings

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