Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

eturn home. F? made no secret of his changed plans, which took them
to Belgiun; while he was en route, his h e , possessions, and hank
account were confiscated by the Kazls. To spare his friends at the
Berlin Academy he resfgned from it, only to becwle involved In an acrl-
monious exchange. He was expelled by the Bavarian- Academy. The couple
rented a house in the sand dunes of Coq-sur-Mer where they lived for 6
while under guards which Queen ELizzberh insisted were necessazg far
their protection. It was xumored there was a price on Einstein's head
in Gemany, and the presence of a group of Kazfs at a.resort ten miles
up the coast was considered a real danger,
Kews of Einstein's persecution brought proqt responses frm
all over free Europe. The Professor wrote Flexner on the 26th of March
in an effort to explain his situstion,
f have been thinking hcu astonished you will be when you read
what is hzppening to me in Europe. You will, hwever, see '
that f hvemade no cmitmnt whichvill interferewithmy .
undesteking at Princeton. In these tires of dire threats to
Jews and liberals, one is morally obligated to undertake what
in normal times one would avoid,
When it became known that the Germans, and partieularlp the
Prussian Acadmy, took hostile action against my position
and q civil rights, people in France and Spain felt it mc-
essary to rally to try suppart in the noblest way, TQ accept
the obligatfons was to me not only the derand of enlighten-
ment; it vzs also an opportunity to aid the fnteresta of
oppressed Jews and liberals.
First of all cam the Spenfsh Erhassy end offered me a p m
fessorship, without exacting f rou me any comnitment as to
when and for hw long I would be in SpaZn,.,.L sccepted tbt
offer in principle znd promised t o e m
next April for four
to six weeks. I could make this promise the nore easily
since f appear t o be foreclosed from returning to Germaay in
the farso,eable future, That this c-itment conflicts In the
slightest way with our arrangerrents seem& to me to be out of
the question, since we had firmly in mind that we were to have
our half-year in Berlin, which was a more binding undertaking
than I am =king to Spain.