'The only unshakeable things are the stars and mathematics': confronting the uncertainties of life in exile – and a joke about Hitler.

Since he last wrote, Einstein has fallen under the 'German boycott, which thank God I have honestly earned. In one month we should be off to Princeton. For myself it's actually all the same where I am, because what I am working on, whilst hard, does not make for heavy travelling baggage. My little Mayer [Walther Mayer] is coming too. But the sailing boat and girlfriends stay behind. H. [i.e. Hitler] has only confiscated the former, which is insulting for the latter'.

His most recent work with Mayer has been published by the Dutch academy (the Akademie van wetenschappen, Amsterdam). The future is all uncertain, though: 'What will happen, if we come back from Princeton next year? Will we actually be able to do that? What will it be like there? The only unshakeable things are the stars and mathematics [Das Einzige, was nicht wackelt, sind die Sterne und die Mathematik]'.

Einstein set sail for the United States from Southampton on 7 October 1933. He was never to return to Europe.
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