| Main Performers | Lord Rutherford (President of the Academic Assistance Council) - Chairman,
Lord Bishop of Exeter,
Sir James Jeans,
Professor Albert Einstein,
Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson,
Rt. Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain,
Sir William Beveridge,
Charles Cooley,
Dr. Maude Royden,
Rt. Hon. Viscount Buckmaster - speakers |
| Set List | Speech (Lord Rutherford),
Speech (Prof. Albert Einstein),
Speech (Lord Bishop of Exeter,),
Speech (Sir James Jeans),
Speech (Rt. Hon. Viscount Buckmaster),
Speech (Dr. Maude Royden),
Speech (Rt. Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain) |
| Performance Notes | Albert Einstein was the principal speaker at this meeting at which between 8,000-10,000 people reportedly attended raising $500,000 for The Refugee Assistance Committee (now the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics). The committee aimed to collect a fund for the relief of students, university teachers and members of professional classes in the sciences and learning of all countries who had been debarred through no fault of their own from carrying on their specialised work.
Albert Einstein was helped to escape from Nazi Germany by a British organisation named the Academic Assistance Council (AAC), created by William Beveridge (architect of the Welfare State) and two Nobel prize winners. Einstein had been a committed pacifist up until this time, but was beginning to realise that perhaps the Nazis could not be defeated by means other than war. Einstein was on his way to a new six month job in America, but he was never to return to his beloved German and this was Einstein's last public speech in Europe.
At the event Einstein gave his first ever public speech in English and expressed his gratitude to the Assistance Committee which had helped innocent scholars who had been persecuted. In his speech at the Royal Albert Hall he declared:
If we want to resist the powers which threaten to supress intellectual and individual freedom we must keep clearly before us what is at stake, and what we owe to that freedom which our ancestors have won for us after hard struggles. Without such freedom there would have been no Shakespeare, no Goethe, no Newton, no Faraday, no Pasteur and no Lister. There would be no comfortable houses for the mass of people, no railway, no wireless, no protection against epidemics, no cheap books, no culture and no enjoyment of art at all. There would be no machines to relieve the people from the arduous labour needed for the production of the essential necessities of life. Most people would lead a dull life of slavery just as under the ancient despotisms of Asia. It is only men who are free, who create the inventions and intellectual works which to us moderns make life worth while.
The Times newspaper reported that Einstein was wildly cheered on rising and during his speech on Science and Civilisation. Other speakers at the meeting were physicist and Nobel Prize winner Lord Ernest Rutherford; leading anti-Nazi politician and Nobel Prize winner Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain; preacher and suffragist Dr Maude Royden and leading economist and social reformer Sir William Beveridge.
Afterwards, on the steps of the Hall, Einstein told a newspaper reporter: I could not believe that it was possible that such spontaneous affection could be extended to one who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. The kindness of your people has touched my heart so deeply that I cannot find words to express in English what I feel. He concluded: I shall leave England for America at the end of the week, but no matter how long I live I shall never forget the kindness which I have received from the people of England.
British Pathe footage of Einstein's speech is available (Film ID VLVA37VZOQMVSPT3SMJMGLB3KDA41, 1min 15sec).
Paramount News filmed from Loggia Box 31.
"POLICE CORDON FOR PROF. EINSTEIN.
Precautions at Albert Hall.
MASS MEETING'S ENTHUSIASM.
Great Response to Funds Appeal.
A cordon of police was flung round the Albert Hall last night to cope with possible disturbances at the mass meeting which Prof. Einstein addressed on behalf of Jews exiled from Germany.
At each entrance uniformed police were on duty, while others patrolled the complete circle of the Albert Hall.
In addition to the stewards in the hall, drawn from among London University students, were uniformed police, but they were not visible, and it was understood would not be called upon unless any serious trouble arose.
A group of Black Shirts [British Union of Fascists / BUF] stood near one of the doors, but they made no demonstration.
NO DISTURBANCE.
By far the greater proportion of those attending the demonstration were Jews, but there were people of all nationalities present, and among them turbaned Indians were particularly noticeable..."
(The Daily Telegraph, 4 October 1933) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1933/45),
Digital Photographs,
Copy of Speech |