Advertisement

Prophetic Albert Einstein letter sold at auction

Einstein fled Germany after the assassination of friend and fellow Jew Walter Rathenu.

Einstein fled Germany after the assassination of friend and fellow Jew Walter Rathenu. Photo: Getty

A 1922 letter in which Albert Einstein confided his fears of the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany, more than a decade before the Nazis took power, has sold at an Israeli auction for $US32,000 ($44,443).

“Here are brewing economically and politically dark times, so I’m happy to be able to get away from everything,” wrote the 43-year-old physicist to his sister, Maria, after leaving Berlin for a location that goes unmentioned in the letter.

Einstein, who went on to win the Nobel Prize three months later, had departed the German capital after far-rightists assassinated Foreign Minister Walter Rathenu, a friend and fellow Jew, prompting police to warn him that he could be next.

“Nobody knows where I am, and I’m believed to be missing,” Einstein wrote. “I am doing quite well, in spite of all the anti-Semites among my German colleagues.”

The letter refers to a journey Einstein planned to Japan, suggesting that he penned it while waiting to sail out of the northern port of Kiel.

Albert Einstein anti-semitism letter

The letter predicts the worst excess of Nazi Germany. Photo: Kedem Auction House

When the Nazis took over Germany in 1933, launching a campaign of anti-Jewish persecution that would culminate in the Holocaust, Einstein was on a lecture tour abroad. He renounced his citizenship and eventually settled in the United States.

“What is special in this letter that Einstein really forecast – he’s seeing in advance, 10 years in advance – what is going to be in Germany,” said Meron Eren, co-founder of the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem, which sold the artefact to an unidentified bidder.

-Reuters

Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.