Princeton, 14 December 1938

Making arrangements for Maja to come to America, and his efforts as a 'walking relief-committee'.

Maja will need a visitor's visa to come to the US, and Einstein advises her to get it at the American consulate either in Naples or in Zurich: 'Once you have the visa, or at least know that you will receive it soon, let me know when you can travel. I will then look after everything and send you everything to a Swiss address...'.

The political conditions leave him with many such calls on his energy: 'As a sideline I have become a sort of walking relief-committee and it is hailing letters, stuffed full of persecuted and desperate victims of the circumstances ... It is easy for the young, hard for the old ... I shall have to use a large part of my income for such permanent services'. He mentions a number of friends and relatives who will need help or whom he is already helping, including the once-wealthy Gompertz family, with the aside 'sic transit gloria mundi'. The hardest thing is to find a country ready to take the older refugees, even when they have the means to maintain themselves. His characteristic conclusion is that 'You are only safe when you are dead'. Maja's husband Paul will not be able to come with her, and Einstein remarks 'Pauli too will now have to get to know the bachelor life'.
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