Former Rep. Steve Israel Releases Book 'The Einstein Conspiracy'

Sprinkling in some fiction is a great way to get people to learn history – at least according to former Rep. Steve Israel, upon release of his book The Einstein Conspiracy.

Israel, who represented New York’s 2nd and 3rd congressional districts in Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2017 released the book which tells a fictional narrative blended with some real history, telling a story of Albert Einstein circa 1939, when he was on vacation at his cottage in Nassau Point on the North Fork.

“I was driving around the North Fork of Long Island and found the cottage that Albert Einstein lived in in 1939,” Israel said. “It was in that very cottage that he wrote a letter to FDR, warning the president that the Nazis were developing an atom bomb. And just sitting in my car gazing at this cottage, which survived after all these years, got my imagination firing about the intrigue behind that letter and various operations by the Nazis to hunt Einstein down.

The Einstein Conspiracy tells the story of two FBI agents racing to stop an undercover German operative sent to abduct Albert Einstein, whom Adolf Hitler believed could unlock the secret to building the atomic bomb. The novel tracks Agents James Amos and Harry Weiss through a shadowed, unsettling America marked by pro-Nazi rallies at Madison Square Garden and rural towns warped into miniature fascist enclaves. Israel’s book blends suspense with meticulously rendered period detail, revisiting a moment when the boundary between foreign adversaries and domestic extremists was dangerously fragile.

“To have a good historical thriller, you sometimes inflate a few realities and build a suspenseful plot, which is why I thought it was so important in my epilogue to actually distinguish fact from fiction,” Israel said. “I wanted people to be so interested in the story that they want to explore more about these hidden mysteries and places of intrigue on Long Island.”

What’s not fictional in the story, of course, is Einstein’s presence on Long Island – like many today, the man most commonly associated with the phrase “genius” vacationed on the East End, and according to Israel, loved sailing in the Sound and Peconic Bays.

Also not fictional is the Nazi presence on Long Island; In the 1930s, Yaphank became a prominent hub of American Nazism through Camp Siegfried, a summer retreat operated by the German American Bund that blended family-oriented activities with overt Nazi indoctrination. Thousands of visitors, many arriving on Long Island Rail Road “Camp Siegfried Specials” from Manhattan’s German American enclave, attended pro-Nazi rallies and festivals where swastika banners, Hitler portraits and fascist-style uniforms were openly displayed. Children as young as 6 were immersed in German literature, films and youth programming modeled on the Hitler Youth, while adults participated in events designed to promote allegiance to Nazi ideology.

A 1938 court case revealed that prospective members of the camp’s governing organization, the German American Settlement League, were required to swear loyalty to Adolf Hitler.

“A good part of the book takes place in Yaphank, at Camp Siegfried,” Israel said. “Yaphank had a Hitler Street, a Goebbels Street

In 1940, the U.S. government shut the camp down after Germany declared war on the United States. The surrounding area later became a residential community known as German Gardens, where restrictive housing covenants favoring buyers “of German extraction” persisted until they were struck down by a federal judge in 2016 and formally ended through a state settlement the following year.

“I certainly think the book has relevance today to the rise of antisemitism from both the right and the left,” Israel said. “Somehow, swastikas have found their way back into protests.”

Other real world events Israel draws inspiration from in the book is the infamous Nazi landing in Amagansett, where saboteurs landed in the Hamptons with the intent to blow up buildings in New York City, and were foiled when a Coast Guardsman – whom they tried to bribe – caught them.

“They were an incompetent operation,” Israel said.

The suspense of the book, Israel says, comes from Einstein’s complete isolation on the North Fork, as the FBI agents try to get to him before the Nazis do.

“There’s an ocean separating Einstein from Hitler, but the shadow of Nazi Germany has found its way into America,” Israel said. “And in 1939, there was an isolationist attitude in the United States. It took Pearl Harbor for us to get involved in the war. American public opinion was quite mixed on whether the U.S. should go to war against Hitler as the Holocaust expanded. Once Germany began invading other countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland. The American public grew more concerned when war broke out between England, France and Germany. Americans were more accepting of the possibility of joining that war, but there was no consensus.”

Israel told Dan’s Papers he has a sequel in mind, pending the success of The Einstein Conspiracy, and he also has an interest in researching and writing about Nazis in America after World War II as well.

To find out where to buy a copy of The Einstein Conspiracy or to see former Rep. Steve Israel on one of his many book tour stops, visit einsteinconspiracy.com. Additionally, Israel owns a book store in Oyster Bay; Theodore’s Books, 17 Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay, 516-636-5550 or online at theodoresbooks.com.