44. Einstein, Albert. Autograph letter signed (“Papa”), 2 pages (5 x 7.75 in.; 127 x 197 mm.), front and back, in German, “On Board S.S. Belgenland”, 28 March 1933, written to his son Eduard (nicknamed “Tetel” for petit). Usual folds with minor ink bleeding.

Just prior to renouncing his German citizenship, Einstein writes his son, I will not be returning to Germany, perhaps never again.

Einstein writes in part:
I am glad to hear that you are better and particularly that you are enjoying art again and that you are playing Mozart. I had a strenuous time in America and will stay in Belgium during the summer, except in June, which I have to spend in Oxford. For the time being, I will not be returning to Germany, perhaps never again. I think of you very often: maybe I can visit you in person soon; I haven’t seen you for a long time now. I am stepping into your footsteps and have started composing poetry from time to time…I put a particularly poor example under a picture for Upton Sinclair who was miffed about it. It goes like this:

Who doesn’t care about the dirtiest pot?
Who touches the world on its raw nerve?
Who despises the now and swears by tomorrow?
Who’s never concerned about being “undignified”?
The (illegible word) is the brave man
If anyone can attest to that, I can

In America, everything is undignified What you’re not supposed to do is dictated by whatever the people with the big wallets dislike…Enjoy a quiet, problem-free life where people are allowed to just be a spectators and not actors…Love, Papa.

Hitler didn’t waste an extra moment, when he came to power on 30 January 1933, to go after the Jews, in general, and Einstein in particular. It didn’t matter that Einstein was in Pasadena, California teaching – the Gestapo repeatedly ransacked his Berlin apartment. Einstein, however, started for home in March, traveling across the United States by train and the Atlantic on the Belgenland. A German consul who had been a friend warned him not to go back: “They’ll drag you through the streets by the hair,” he said. But it wasn’t until Einstein received word at sea that even his beloved little summer house in Caputh had been raided, that he decided he dare not enter Germany.

On 28 March, just before docking at Antwerp, Einstein wrote to his schizophrenic son, Tetel. This letter wasn’t the only letter Einstein would write before disembarking. In one to the Prussian Academy, where he was a professor, he submitted his resignation. Then, when docked, he had a car drive him to the German Consulate in Brussels. There he turned in his German passport and so renounced, forever, his German citizenship. Hitler responded immediately: he confiscated Einstein’s property and his money and issued a photograph of Einstein, as a leading opponent of Nazism, beneath which were printed the words: “Not yet hanged.”
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