By Slobodan Bubnjevic/Photo: Southold Historical Society
The famous summer photograph from the family archives of a certain David Rothman, who is shown in it with casually dressed Albert Einstein, was taken on a rock at Horseshoe Cove on Long Island in 1939, the time when World War II was just starting in Europe. According to an investigative article from local papers, in the photo Einstein wears sandals that he had previously bought in Rothman’s store for $1.35. At that time the already best known living scientist settled on Long Island after he had fled Nazi Germany. A month before the photo was taken, Einstein sent a letter to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of the horrifying possibility that the Nazis were making an atom bomb, which led to the formation of the secret Manhattan Project and the development of first nuclear weapons.