By Ignacio Rodriguez

Early Life  Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14,  Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics.  He is Jewish and his parents are Hermann and Pauline Einstein.  He had a sister in which he called Maja.

Education  Beginning in 1884 he received private education to get prepared for school.  In 1885 he received his primary education at a Catholic school in Munich (Petersschule)  He did not get along with his form-master he left this school in 1894 without a degree and joined his family in Italy where they had settled meanwhile.  He enrolled at the Eidgenoessische Polytechnische Schule with the goal of becoming a teacher in Mathematics and Physics.

As a Student  Einstein knew, from then on, that he wanted to teach math and Science at a University someday.  The problem was, he wasn’t a very good test-taker and could not get a job at a University because of it.  Rumor has it that he had even failed a Math test, but some people question that because of the way grades were assigned back then.

The Holocaust Einstein’s prominence as an intellectual Jew and international celebrity placed a heavy price on his head. In 1932, German antisemitism was close to the boiling point. When Nazis posted Einstein’s picture in a magazine with the subscript “Not yet hanged,” Einstein realized his safety was compromised. He left Germany for America, where he settled in Princeton, New Jersey. He said he was a pacifist and he will not participate in any war, direct or indirect.

All the pacifist talk changed when Hitler began doing the things he did in Germany. Einstein's greatest role in the invention of the atomic bomb was signing a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging that the bomb be built. Americans feared that German scientist were working on the bomb also. Einstein didn’t like the idea that he created a weapon that can be used for war and he regretted sending the letter to president Roosevelt. Alittle after the atomic bombings of Japan in Hiroshima, he stated “I have always condemned the use of the atomic bomb against Japan.” And 5 months before he died he wrote about his feelings towards the bombs. “I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them.”

Theory of Relativity  Relative to who is watching, space and time are transformed near the speed of light: distances appear to stretch; and clocks tick more slowly.

His Contribution to Science  Einstein continued to his dying days, trying to figure out a single central theory that explained everything in the universe.  An extension of his work has become known as String Theory, which says that everything in the universe is made up of tiny strings of energy

Good Bye Albert  April 19, Albert Einstein dies of Heart Failure.  This is a picture of his last blackboard

Resources    bio.html bio.html  holocaust.html holocaust.html 