Hitler was rising to power as the head of the Nazi Party, which was founded in 1919. The party’s goal was to attain German superiority over the supposedly “inferior” races including Jews, Slavs, and other non-German peoples. Once Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, the persecution of Jews was set into motion. This eventually culminated in the Holocaust where over six million jews were massacred.
Prominent Jews were criticized by Nazi officials and the media. They were attacked and arrested by Nazis and their collaborators. As an opponent of Nazism and an advocate of peace, Albert Einstein was an obvious target.
The Nazis began a campaign to slander Einstein’s reputation. He was pictured as a symbol of “Jewish degeneracy” and accused him of spreading “atrocity propaganda.” The Gestapo (official secret police of Nazi Germany) repeatedly raided Einstein’s Berlin apartment in February and March 1933. He had been a teacher at the California Institute of Technology in the United States during that time. Einstein understood that his chances of survival in Nazi Germany were very dim.
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