Bidding Starts At $25,000 For Albert Einstein’s Letters About Nazi Germany
Atomic Man: Ginsberg argues that scientists like Albert Einstein should be considered part of a Jewish war effort. Image by getty images
A four-page letter written by Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa, on the day Einstein renounced his German citizenship, will be auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions on Thursday.
Einstein wrote the letter to his sister Maja Winteler-Einstein on March 28, 1933, aboard the S.S. Belgenland, ignoring pleas from friends and colleagues not to return to Germany with Elsa to stay at their summer cottage. While on the ship, the Einsteins learned their house was raided by the Nazis and turned back. Einstein decided to turn in his German passport when they docked in Brussels.
Elsa began the letter by sharing her concern for Tetel Einstein (Albert’s son from his first marriage), who she assumed was suffering after a vulgar interview her husband gave in New York.
“Maya [sic], life is difficult and horrible,” she wrote. “No matter what, do not write anything related to politics to the children, nothing of Albert’s interview. Oh my God, all of our friends either have fled or they are in jail.”
Einstein ended the letter with a lighter tone.
“Dear Maja, thinking that Tetel was with you was my mistake. It probably happened because you wrote about him in so much detail. Or possibly an unconscious wish [of mine] was behind it. … All the best! We will now look for a hiding place for the summer.”
A separate collection includes a letter from Einstein, in which he discusses helping Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany. Bidding on each letter begins at $25,000.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
