Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Autograph letter signed ('A. Einstein') to [Dr Isidore and Mrs Fannie] Held, Princeton, 26 April 1945.

In German, one page, 277 x 215mm.

A remarkable letter of condolence: 'we are like ship-wrecked beings who ... have forgotten where they come from and do not know where they are drifting to'. Einstein declares himself 'deeply shaken by the news of the terrible blow that has so suddenly and unexpectedly broken in upon you. It is the hardest thing that older people can encounter, and it is no consolation that such countless thousands are afflicted by similar fates. I dare not try to comfort you...'. He goes on with a remarkable image of human life: 'We human beings habitually live in the illusion of safety and being at home in a familiar physical and human environment. But when the path of the everyday and the expected is interrupted, we realise that we are like ship-wrecked beings who balance in the open sea on a wretched plank and have forgotten where they come from and do not know where they are drifting to. But once one has really found one's way into this realisation, one lives more easily, and there can be no further real disappointment'. The letter ends on a tone of melancholic humour, 'in the hope that I will soon meet again the planks on which we are swimming...'.

Dr Isidore Held (1876-1947) was a noted New York doctor and philanthropist: he and Einstein had collaborated in their efforts to assist Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. The Helds' son Captain Abraham Held died whilst serving with US forces in Germany on 8 April, exactly a month before the end of the war in Europe.

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