Princeton, 17 July 1952

'It is a fine thing that this individual life has an end, with all its stresses and problems': a meditation on mortality after the death of his brother-in-law.

Besso has sent news of the death of their shared brother-in-law, Paul Winteler (the brother of Besso's wife, Anna, and husband of Einstein's sister, Maja): he pays tribute to Winteler's originality, to his paintings and his historical studies. 'I was very grateful to him for the devoted persistence with which he corresponded with my sister during the years of her illness, knowing that he would never see her again. It was no easy task, especially as my sister in her last years was no longer in a condition to reply to him'. This moves Einstein to a reflection on mortality: 'It is after all a fine thing that this individual life has an end, with all its stresses and problems. Our instinct rejects this solution and our reason approves it. Those who invented the belief in an individual survival after death must have been wretched people!'. Nevertheless, it was good that Winteler could spend his last years with the Bessos: 'thus you could ease that hard road'.

Maja Winteler-Einstein had moved to join her brother in Princeton in 1939, in order to escape the increased anti-Semitism of the Fascist regime in Italy: her husband however was refused a visa because of his ill-health. Although the move was not intended to be permanent, the break-down of Maja's own health after the war prevented her return to Europe, and she lived out her last years with Einstein in Princeton, whilst her husband spent his with the Bessos in Geneva.