The early 1930s, when Adolf Hitler rose in Germany. He gradually became more politically aware. Because of Hitler’s tyranny, many German scientists were fleeing from Germany to America. There were many big names on this list. Like Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, who pioneered modern computers. Leo Szilard, Hans Bethe, who discovered fusion in stars. Edward Teller, who is called the father of the hydrogen bomb and Enrico Fermi.
All these scientists mainly were German-Jewish and because Oppenheimer himself came from a German-Jewish family, when he started paying attention to the atrocities on Jews, his interest in politics started developing. This is his quote from 1936.
“I started to understand how deeply political and economic events affect people’s lives. I felt the need to participate in this community.”
Influenced by the left-wing ideology he went to many political meetings. And donated money to many labour unions and striking farm workers.
In September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, which was the beginning of World War 2. America was not interested in getting involved in this war. But still, America was preparing for the worst. Actually, what happened was that a month before the war started, in August 1939, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard wrote a letter to American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
