Border chiefs at London’s Heathrow Airport have been left stunned by the discovery of immigration papers belonging to German-born scientist Albert Einstein that go back to the time he escaped dramatically from Nazi Germany almost 80 years ago.
The landing card marks the legendary scientist’s arrival in the United Kingdom.
Einstein was Jewish and escaped to England with a bounty on his head as an enemy of Adolf Hitler’s regime, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the smudged document, the ‘father of modern physics’ arrived at Dover on May 26,1933 from Ostende, Belgium. He describes his occupation as a professor and being of Swiss nationality. On the reverse, Einstein states to immigration officers that he is bound for Oxford.
The major historical find will now go on display at Liverpool’s Merseyside Maritime Museum after curators snapped it up.
Einstein was kept under armed protection while in England after the Nazis wanted him killed. The Nobel Prize winner held the esteemed position of professor at the Prussian Academy of Science in Berlin from 1914.
Einstein sought safety in Britain for several months in 1933, but eventually settled in America.
The immigration papers will be on display from May 10 in the UK Border Agency’s national museum.
(Source: Daily Mail UK)
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4 Responses
It wasn’t quite as dramatic. He was already in the United States when the Nazis came to power, and never attempted to return to Germany. He visited Belgium and Britain before establishing a permanent residence in New Jersey (this was well before the war – nothing dramatic). He hardly escaped to England (or escaped from any place).
There was no such thing as “not quite as dramatic or, – nothing dramatic” about having to leave Germany due to the yemach sh’moes. Period!
#2- He had left several years before. He had already moved to the US, and was visiting Belgium and Britain.
It wasn’t anything exciting. It’s not like he was fleeing the Nazis, he had already fled and was deciding which fancy university in the US or UK to accept a job. He wasn’t a refugee at the time.
Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30th 1933. Albert Einstein was visiting California at the time, but soon realized he could not return to germany, thus becoming a refugee.