December 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, December 12th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2019
Historically important Elsa Einstein autograph letter signed, composed on S.S. Belgenland stationery on 22 March 1933, during Alfred and Elsa Einstein's return to Europe from New York. Dated 22 March 1933, this letter was written just six days before the Einsteins docked in Antwerp, Belgium where Einstein famously renounced his German citizenship. This letter is significant in that it was previously believed that the Einsteins were intending to live at their summer home in Caputh, Germany before discovering on or shortly before 28 March 1933 that Hitler's German government raided that home. As Elsa writes here, they were already intending to live in exile in Belgium as early as 22 March - a day before Germany's Enabling Act was passed, and not intending to go into Germany. The decision was wise as not only had the Nazis raided both the Einsteins Berlin and Caputh homes, but they had even published Einstein's photo with the caption ''not yet hanged'' and purportedly put a 5,000 bounty on his head during his time abroad.
Elsa writes to her cousin Erich, translated from German in part, ''...We are currently en route to Antwerp. New York was an inferno. A few more days there, and I would have gone mad...The people there almost killed us with all of their love. According to those who witnessed it, it seems that we were living an enviable life. The Waldorf Astoria had provided us with a suite of magnificent rooms - that is where we lived. Then they gave a banquet honoring Alfred to the extent that he would have preferred to just go away and hide somewhere. You know how he is...We are now going into exile, to some location on the Belgian coast. We must not go to Berlin under the prevailing circumstances. Alfred cannot risk it...Your cousin Elsa''. Two page letter on a sheet of S.S. Belgenland stationery measures 7.875'' x 9.75''. Folds, else near fine condition. With a full translation.
Historically Important Elsa Einstein Autograph Letter Signed From March 1933 While Traveling Back to Germany -- ''...We are now going into exile...We must not go to Berlin...Alfred cannot risk it...''
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