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Albert Einstein ALS 1949

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:0.00 USD
Albert Einstein ALS 1949
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Superb Albert Einstein autograph letter signed. Single page, quarto, written in German, dated 27 December [1949]. Written to “Frau Ehrman,” wife of Dr. Ehrman, Einstein’s Berlin doctor who emigrated to New York before World War II. Einstein pens in part: “Dear Mrs. Ehrman, / I was completely filled with consternation yesterday when I heard what you went through. Helplessly lying in the cold snow with a broken leg for who knows how long, minutes passing like hours. You will continue to have pain, and the enforced immobility is certainly cruel. The devil is creative, as the Nazis were when it was finally decided to round us up. But we hold together and take pleasure with each other and with everyone in that which is beyond the fickleness of fate and remains forever present for those who have the eyes and the ears for it and a warm human sensibility. You and your husband have given me so much friendship over the course of many years that I experience your fate as my own. It was particularly painful that I was the reason that your husband couldn’t be at your side at the critical hour. It was truly surprising the way the five medicine men appeared in my room totally unexpectedly…Otherwise I would have let the matter take its own course. Now I wish from my heart that you can enjoy your enforced peace and quiet with good radio music and books. / Best wishes, / A. Einstein.” Albert Einstein maintained lifelong friendships with his old acquaintances and kept them near to him throughout his tumultuous life. Of particular interest is the fact that this letter is in his own hand, not written by a secretary. He wished to personally comfort his friend and acknowledge his feelings of responsibility for keeping her husband from her during a time of need. This is not the first time that Einstein used the Devil metaphorically. On declining a piece of chocolate at dinner one night [on the advice of Dr. Ehrman], Einstein was heard to say “The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in our health, or we suffer in our soul, or we get fat.” Wonderful content. Fine condition.