News Brief

Special Correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Copyright, 1933

The Jewish defensive campaign against the anti-Semitic regime in Germany owes a great deal of its value to the courageous stand taken by the most representative Jew of our time— Professor Albert Einstein.

Not Karl Marx, not the Rothschilds, but Einstein is now the symbol of those Jews who have contributed to the common wealth of the world, to humanity at large. It was not surprising therefore that the news that Einstein was coming to settle in Belgium should cause interest in that country. Einstein came to Belgium to rest and he wanted to go to some quiet spot. But that was not so easy. First of all, he had to yield to the importunity of the Mayor of Antwerp, M. Camille Huysman, former Minister of Education, who persuaded him to receive the Belgian Press the moment he landed. What Einstein said to the press representatives was transmitted to Germany in a garbled form, with the result that there was a sharp exchange of correspondence between Einstein and the Prussian Academy of Sciences, from which he had previously resigned.

THE SIEGE BY TELEPHONE

It was my privilege to be Einstein’s first visitor in his Belgian home, placed at his disposal by an unknown admirer. It is a fourteenth century castle, built in Flemish style, on the banks of a river; a beautiful secluded place where a weary scholar may rest. But it is too near Antwerp and it has a telephone. Einstein’s host complained to me that in the two days of Einstein’s visit the telephone rang incessantly. All day long diplomats, journalists and scholars kept calling. But Einstein resolutely refused either to speak to or receive anyone. Things came to such a pass that on the third day Einstein found himself compelled to leave the place; he went away to the sea, to a tiny resort named Le Coq. There he lives with his wife in a small villa, without servants, without a secretary, without a telephone, cut off from the rest of the world.

When I visited him for the first time in his new village home, I was impressed by the simple way in which one of the greatest men of our times lives. In answer to my knock at the door, Einstein himself came out. This was after the German Government had decided to confiscate Einstein’s bank account in Germany. Madame Einstein told me with tears in her voice that her two daughters had run away from Germany because they were being persecuted on account of the manner in which Einstein’s views had been misrepresented in Germany.

HE HAS NO REGRETS

Einstein has no intention of toning down what he said. The abolition of freedom of speech and of the equal rights of all citizens are things which cannot be denied, he said, and therefore he did not regret anything he had said. He was proud that he had said them.

I asked him whether he agreed that Jews wielded excessive influence in German life. In times of distress, Einstein answered, the majority always blames the minority.

What is the outlook for German Jewry? I asked. Deplorable, he answered. Do you think emigration to Palestine can save German Jewry? Alas, he replied, Palestine’s absorptive capacity cannot satisfy the needs of German Jewry.

Einstein thinks that it was not the statements that he made abroad that annoyed the rulers of Germany so much as his resignation from the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the surrender of his German citizenship.

I had questioned him about the newspaper reports that there was some association between Professor Picard’s stratosphere ascents and Einstein’s theory of relativity. There is some truth in it, Einstein answered. Every newspaper report contains a little of the truth which goes to show that journalists are not imaginative enough to invent everything.

THE SIEGE IS RENEWED

As soon as people found out where Einstein was staying he was flooded with letters and telegrams from all sides. Belgian journalists, foreign journalists, besieged him with requests for interviews. Not a day passes without something appearing in the Belgian papers about Professor Einstein. Every article about conditions in Germany, every speech in the Belgian Parliament, or at a public meeting, contains mention of Einstein.

Einstein’s vast daily correspondence falls into two categories. In the first are letters from German Jews appealing to him to stop the anti-German agitation abroad. For the most part they are not particularly courteous in tone. They are full of reproaches, even threats. He is particularly accused of being responsible for the persecution of the German Jews. Others are much more restrained in their language; they have faith in him. They believe he is well intentioned, but that he failed to realize that every word he utters against Germany makes maters worse for the Jews there.

The second class of correspondence consists of letters from admirers outside Germany, men of science, authors, ordinary people, who are indignant that an Einstein should be compelled to live in exile because he is a Jew.

All the invitations which he has received from foreign universities, Einstein tells me, are really symbols, extended to him not as to Einstein, but as to the son of a persecuted people, and thus they are not merely pro-Einstein but pro-Jewish.

SPURNED BY THEIR OWN

But there are German Jews who insist that Einstein’s activity abroad is bad for them. One of Einstein’s friends tells me that the assimilated German Jews are so infuriated with Einstein, that recently, when Madame Einstein sent her annual subscription to a well-known Jewish charitable institution in Berlin, the money was returned to her. They would not take an Einstein subscription.

PERSISTENT OPTIMISM

Of course it has hurt Einstein very much, but he does not intend on that account to change his attitude towards the present German Government. He is more convinced than ever that the stand he has taken has made people regard the Jewish aspect of the German situation with more respect. He finds proof of this in the fact that the Prussian Academy of Sciences ultimately had to publish the letter which he had addressed to it, and had no greater reproach to make against it than he did not deny the atrocity reports. He was not in Germany when the atrocity reports were going about, he points out, so how could he say whether or not they were true?

Einstein’s persistent optimism gives him strength and courage to maintain his stand. He answers a great many of the letters he receives, and when he writes to his Jewish correspondents in Germany, he tells them that they are wrong if they think that if they bow their heads there will be an end to persecution.

These are the concerns that engage Einstein here, in this little out-of-the-way place by the sea in Belgium. But that does not mean that he is neglecting the problems of time and space that have made him the world figure that he is and have given him a niche in the temple of immortality. Every day he works at his subject, giving up many hours to his scientific research with the able assistance of his friend, Dr. Mayer.