Lot 77
Signed Albert Einstein Letter and Envelope, 1942
Albert Einstein signed typewritten letter and envelope. A single sheet of folded, off-white, Mutual Bond water-marked notepaper, embossed at top center with “A. Einstein, 112 Mercer Street, Princeton New Jersey, U.S.A.”, bearing typewritten note to Miss Dorothy Greiner, dated May 4, 1944, and signed in black ink “A. Einstein”. Envelope in matching off-white paper, with typewritten addresses, date stamped “Princeton N.J. May 5, 1944, 12 AM”, with a green one-cent stamp and a red two-cent stamp, both franked. Notepaper: 11 x 8.5 inches, envelope: 3.5 x 6.5 inches
Included is a typed letter from the Jewish Council for Russian War Relief, Inc. to Dorothy Greiner, and signed by her and Baron Eduoard de Rothschild, Chairman and Treasurer respectively, dated September 25, 1942; also included is a blank form for a ticket quota commitment for the Einstein dinner; also the invitation to the evening’s program; also a Western Union telegram to Dorothy Greiner from Rothschild with regrets that he can’t attend the function and wishing her good luck.
From the consignor:
“My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Greiner, was a member of the Russian War Relief organization and was the chairman of the dinner committee to a dinner honoring Albert Einstein. The invitation letter was dated September 26, 1942 and signed by my grandmother and Baron Edouard de Rothschild. The dinner was to be held at the Commodore Hotel in New York City on Sunday, October 25, 1942. These dates are unclear because there is also an invitation for a dinner on June 18, 1942, also enclosed.”
“Sometime after the dinner, Albert Einstein invited my grandmother to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey. According to the details my grandmother told me, he prepared lunch for her and also played the violin for her.”
“Later she sent him a note expressing her concerns for him. His response is the original letter to her dated May 4, 1944. It is personally signed by Albert Einstein and is on his embossed letterhead stationery along with the original stamped envelope.”
Here is the text of Albert Einstein’s typed letter to Miss Dorothy Greiner:
May 4th 1944
Miss Dorothy Greiner
25 Central Park West
New York City
My dear Mrs. Greiner:
Do not worry. I am not participating//in any attempt of German groups to influence the// future of Germany. This is a matter for Germans//and I have never considered myself a German since I became a Swiss citizen at the age of 21.
I agree very much with your activities and//I am convinced that public anlightenment [sic] on this//issue is badly needed.
Sincerely yours,
A. Einstein [signature]
Albert Einstein
About Albert Einstein:
At this time, Albert Einstein was living in Princeton and had taken a position at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1933, Einstein had been compelled to immigrate to the United States due to the rise to power of the Nazis. While visiting American universities in April, 1933, he learned that the new German government passed a law barring Jews from holding any official positions, including teaching at universities. A month later, Einstein also learned that his name was on a list of assassination targets, with a "$5,000 bounty on his head". He had traveled to the United States via Albania in 1935. He stayed in Durrës for three days as a guest in the Albanian royal mansion, and was equipped with an Albanian passport; he continued his journey to the United States. The gesture of the Albanian King Zog is said to be part of the traditional Albanian besa (honor), according to which many Jews (including Einstein) were saved from Nazi forces prior to and during World War II. Among other German scientists forced to flee were fourteen Nobel laureates and twenty-six of the sixty professors of theoretical physics in the country.
Just prior to the beginning of World War II in Europe, Einstein was persuaded to lend his enormous prestige by writing a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, alerting him to the possibility that Nazi Germany might be developing an atomic bomb. According to weapons historians, the letter was "arguably the key stimulus for the U.S. adoption of serious investigations into nuclear weapons on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II". As a result of Einstein's letter, the U.S. entered the "race" to develop the bomb first, drawing on its "immense material, financial, and scientific resources". It became the only country to develop an atomic bomb during World War II.
He became an American citizen in 1940. On April 17, 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He refused surgery, and died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author, widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time, and the father of modern physics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, published more than 300 scientific and over 150 non-scientific works, and he additionally wrote and commentated prolifically on various philosophical and political subjects.
The Jewish Council for Russian War Relief, Inc. was one of the many world Jewish organizations that arose to help the Russians as a result of the appeal of The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. That was a group of Jewish public figures and intellectuals in the Soviet Union during World War II, organized to get widespread support from the Jewish people of the world for the anti-Nazi war effort. Spurred by the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in June 1941, it was their call to arms that generated organizations such as the Jewish Council for Russian War Relief, Inc., for which Dorothy Greiner was a member at the time of this Einstein dinner. Along with the Red Cross and the U.S. government’s Lend-Lease Program, all these organizations and others helped aid the Russian government to survive the attacks on them from the German war machine at their darkest hour.
Estimate: $15,000 - $20,000