Rare Einstein audio recording of the famed physicist talking about the A-bomb surfaces

A rare audio recording of physicist Albert Einstein has revealed he deeply regretted a letter he sent to a former US president as the country tried to build an atomic bomb.

An incredibly rare audio recording of arguably the world’s most famous theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, has emerged and is for sale online.

Perhaps even more startling are the topics on the recording — Einstein’s love of music, the differences between FDR and Harry Truman and his thoughts on the atomic bomb.

On the 33-minute recording, Einstein, in his thick German accent, can be heard saying it is a good thing the former USSR obtained an atomic bomb. “It is better for world welfare that the Russians have it, too,” Einstein said, adding he knew the former head of the Soviet atomic program. “I gave no secrets to him,” he humorously quipped.

Einstein also said he regretted his famous letter to former president Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possible development of an atomic bomb.

“I repent it very much … I believe it was a great misfortune,” he says, while downplaying any kind of notion he helped develop the bomb.

Einstein changed our notions of space, time and matter — launched modern physics — and became a household name.

The world-renowned scientist believed FDR and former president Harry Truman were very different men, saying FDR would not have dropped atomic bombs had he been alive.

“[FDR] … would not have used it had he lived … this I am convinced,” Einstein said.

In August 1945, Truman dropped two atomic bombs towards the end of World War II, one over Hiroshima and the other over Nagasaki.

According to 2007 research from UCLA, it’s estimated 150,000 people were killed as a result of the Hiroshima bomb, and 75,000 are believed to have died from the bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki, though the results were deemed “conservative”, citing the “destruction and overwhelming chaos”.

These shacks from September 14, 1945, were made from scraps of debris from buildings that were levelled by a US nuclear bomb in Nagasaki, Japan.

A Japanese man pushes his loaded bicycle down a path in September 1945 that had been cleared of rubble after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.

Einstein also discussed his acquaintance with various European and Soviet scientists, as well as his love of music, including his preference for classical music such as Schubert, Beethoven and Brahams.

“I did very much like Wagner … In my youth, I had heard nothing better than Ionescu’s Violin Concerto,” Einstein can be heard saying.

Heritage Auctions, the auction house selling the rare find where interested bidders can make an offer online, said it had “personally … never even heard recordings of his voice” despite Einstein being known throughout the globe during his lifetime. A three-minute preview of the clip can be heard on the auction house’s website.

Heritage added the recording was from 1951 when Einstein “sat down for a meal with Jack and Frances Rosenburg at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton”.

“Their 1951 casual conversation was recorded on long-playing discs,” Heritage wrote in a description on its website. “It was subsequently transferred to magnetic tape and given to the present consignor close to 30 years ago.”

It’s unclear where the original discs are, but when the conversation was transferred, music was spliced in as well.

“The initial volume level is fairly low but reaches a normal level after a brief period. There is some background noise and surface ‘scratches’ and popping,” the description continues. “Einstein, as expected, speaks in a thick German accent. The three-way conversation is punctuated with joking and laughter, indicative of Einstein’s sense of humour.”

Bidding for the tape starts at $US3500 ($A5000) the auction house says, adding the successful bidder will also receive a CD containing the recording.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission