Bernhard Caesar Einstein
Bernard first met his grandfather Albert when he was two years old. As a boy he travelled alone to spend time with Albert in New Jersey, and at Saranac Lake in upstate New York. Einstein recounted to his son Thomas that he used to irritate his grandfather because he would urinate out the window directly above Albert's study in Princeton. At Saranac Lake he enjoyed sailing with his grandfather. Apparently Albert Einstein's favorite time to sail was when there was very little wind. According to Bernard, his grandfather enjoyed the challenge of harnessing whatever little bit of breeze he could capture. The sailing tradition was carried on by Albert's son, Hans Albert, and Bernard's children on the San Francisco Bay. Albert Einstein died in April 1955. Having shared his love of music with his grandson, he bequeathed Bernard his violin in addition to a modest sum of money.
In 1954, Bernard married Doris Aude Ascher (born c. 1938), with whom he had five children:
Murder of the family of Robert Einstein
On 3 August a group of German soldiers arrived at the villa in search of Einstein. When he was not to be found the soldiers began vandalising the place and interrogated the women individually. The soldiers conducted an ad-hoc tribunal and then shot Einstein's wife and daughters in the garden. His nieces remained locked in the upper part of the house, guarded by a young German soldier who had refused to participate in the murders and was visibly shaken by the events. After the murders the two surviving girls were locked in a shed and the villa itself set on fire.