May 05, 2016 - Sale 2413

Sale 2413 - Lot 74

Price Realized: $ 10,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
EINSTEIN HELPS A YOUNG PHYSICIST COME TO AMERICA (SCIENTISTS.) EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Group of 4 letters Signed, "A. Einstein," each to Helmut L. Bradt, in German, including an Autograph Letter Signed, in green ink, and 3 Typed Letters Signed, concerning his emigration from Switzerland to the United States, mostly brief and enclosing copies of letters he has sent on his behalf [present]. Each 1/2 page, 4to, personal stationery except one on onion skin paper; folds. Most with the original envelope, including one bearing Nazi censor ink stamps and cancelled on 21 November 1941. Princeton or Saranac Lake, 1939-40

Additional Details

ALS, [1939]: "I see from your letter that you are a worthy son of your unforgettable father. Your letters reveal a genuine love for research and at the same time a sensible attitude toward life, in that you are preparing yourself for a practical vocation without in the least forsaking your primary interests. So feel free to turn to me whenever you think that I can do something for you."
25 March 1939: "Prompted by a letter from your sister in Haifa, I am enclosing a letter to the Swiss immigration authorities that will hopefully enable you to finish your studies in Switzerland. I am also sending you my affidavit, so that you can emigrate to America later, when your turn comes. In the meantime, learn a practical trade if possible, because it can be very hard . . . to find a teaching job here."
with--Three retained or photostatic copies of letters from Einstein, unsigned, in German, two to the American Consulate in Zürich, urging permission to allow Bradt to emigrate or sending an affidavit on Bradt's behalf; another to Dr. Albert Ehrenstein in New York explaining that his request was denied by the Swiss police to permit Bradt's mother to enter Switzerland from Germany. Princeton or Saranac Lake, 25 May; 26 July 1940; 19 February 1942 Typed letter from the American Consulate General to Bradt, in German, denying him a visa. Zürich, 9 September 1940.
Helmut L. Bradt (1917-1950), born a Jewish German, managed to escape Nazi Germany in 1934 by enrolling at E.T.H. Zürich, where he obtained a doctorate in physics in 1939; he remained at E.T.H. until 1946, when he took up a position at Purdue University in Indiana. In 1947, he secured a visiting professorship of physics at the University of Rochester where he, with Morton F. Kaplan, recorded photographic evidence of a new atomic particle: the neutral meson. His father, Gustav Bradt, was a friend of Albert Einstein.