During Europe's greatest trial Albert Einstein discovered who his real friends were. Indeed, as the holocaust was getting underway the real champion of freedom and guarantor of human rights came from an unexpected source. To Einstein's dismay and disbelief, Hitler and his Third Reich mowed down every opponent who had a public voice...except one!
This quote was originally provided in the New Haven Courier in August of 1939. It was later published in the December, 1940 edition of Time magazine.
"Being a lover of freedom, when revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to the individual writers, who, as literary guides of Germany, had written much and often concerning the place of freedom in modern life; but they, too, were mute.
Only the [Catholic] Church stood across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."
