Albert Einstein | Typed letter signed, to Dr. Isidor W. Held, reflecting at the end of the Nazi era, 3 April 1945

Albert Einstein

Typed letter signed, to Dr. Isidor W. Held

thanking him for the gift of a book by "meines Freundes" Upton Sinclair ("...aus dem ich sehe, wie das Räderwerk der Weltpolitik sich in seinem Gehirn spiegelt..." [from which I see how the machinery of world politics is reflected in his brain]) and looking forward with hope and trepidation to what will follow the defeat of Nazi Germany, 1 page, 4to, blindstamped headed stationery of 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, 3 April 1945, light creasing, minor staining, and staple holes along the top edge

"...Ich bin glücklich über die Fortschritte der Deutschen und zittere für das nachate Kapitel..." [I am happy with the progress the Germans have made and tremble at the next chapter.]

Einstein had befriended Dr Isidor Held (1876-1947), an Austrian-born physician settled in New York, through their joint efforts to help scientists and doctors escape Nazi Germany. The two men were by this time watching the collapse of Nazism and hoping that a new peaceful German leadership would emerge from the ashes of war, although Einstein here expresses his fear for the future of Europe.

Held appears to have sent Einstein a copy of the latest Upton Sinclair novel, Dragon Harvest (1945), which was set during the period between the Munich Crisis and the Fall of Paris. It is not clear if Held had realised that Einstein and Sinclair knew each other; Einstein had contributed a preface to Sinclair's Mental Radio (1930), and Sinclair made Einstein a friend of his fictional hero Lanny Budd.

Condition Report:
light creasing, minor staining, and staple holes along the top edge