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225

Albert Einstein

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:16,000.00 - 18,000.00 USD
Albert Einstein

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Auction Date:2012 Oct 17 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “A. Einstein,” one page, 8.5 x 11, blind-stamped personal letterhead, November 17, 1953. Letter to Peter G. Stanlis, University of Detroit, Dept. of English. In full: “I received your letter of November 15th. In 1933 or 34, at the beginning of the Hitler regime, I said to a reporter something about the courageous attitude of a part of the German Churches towards Nazism. I do not remember the precise text of this oral conversation but with time it became vastly exaggerated and elaborated on to such a degree that I could hardly recognize it myself. If you will do me a favor, please be so kind not to mention it at all.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, scattered creases and wrinkles, and some mild toning. Accompanied by a photocopy of Stanlis’s letter to Einstein.

In regard to Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church’s actions towards the Nazis, Einstein has been frequently quoted as saying, ‘Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.’ Since it appeared in the December 1940 issue of Time Magazine, Einstein was repeatedly asked to comment on the claim. In this letter to a well-known writer and professor in Michigan, he reveals that it is vaguely familiar as something he said in 1933-34 (years before Pius’s papacy even began) and that it was in regard to “a part of the German Churches,” not the Catholic Church. Requesting that the author “please be so kind not to mention it at all,” Einstein ends the speculation unequivocally, wanting nothing to do with the misquote that haunted him for years. This letter, with its incredibly rare direct address of Nazism and Hitler’s regime along with the discrediting of one of the most famous and controversial Einstein ‘quotes’ ever printed, is one of the most astounding letters from the legendary scientist that we have ever offered: a highly important and rare item!
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