(Physicist and Noble Prize winner. 1879-1955). Typed letter Signed to Siegfried Hessing in Detention Camp in Famagusta, Cyprus

EINSTEIN, ALBERT

n.p

24th November, 1948

German. Single leaf, typed recto and verso. Signed in pen “A. Einstein.”

IMPORTANT LETTER WHEREIN EINSTEIN PRAISES THOSE WHOSE TENACITY LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. The addressee, his wife and young son, natives of Tchernowitz, survived the Holocaust, boarded a ship bound for Palestine, were intercepted by the British in the Dardanelles, and found themselves interned in a camp in Famagusta, Cyprus. Einstein writes to Hessing: “I empathize with you in all the painful experiences which you have undergone. And I am happy for you that this episode of suffering will surely change into an existence under more normal conditions. We all owe the small heroic group of our brothers in Israel gratitude and admiration because they have achieved on their own that which is theirs by right.” The occasion for the letter was Hessing’s request that Einstein write a preface to his book of memoirs, an offer that Einstein declined. Hessing, a student of philosophy and journalist, authored works on Spinoza