Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein left Nazi Germany for the United States on October 17, 1933.
Imagine if he hadn’t.
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. He used his political skills to get the Enabling Act passed two months later, essentially becoming dictator. All non-Nazi parties were outlawed in July 1933. I don’t know exactly when Einstein made up his mind to leave Germany for the United States, but he did on October 17, 1933.
What would the world be like today if Einstein hadn’t left. Would he have been forced to work for Hitler? Would he have died in a concentration camp?
You never know what one decision can mean to you, or to the world.
That reminds me of the DVD “Prisoner of Paradise ,” about Kurt Gerron, a pretty big actor at the time Hitler came to power, and Jewish. (He was in “The Blue Angel,” with marlene Dietrich, for instance.) He hesitated and delayed getting out of Germany, and the results were really heartbreaking.