A typed letter from Albert Einstein to a friend that attacks US appeasement of the Nazis will sell at Profiles in History.
Einstein was a lifelong pacifist and often used his position as a platform for his views.
 Einstein was angered by the tacit support for fascism in certain corners of the US establishment |
However, the rise of Nazism provoked in him an anguished acceptance that a military response was, in this case, justified.
In 1933 he left for America, renouncing his German citizenship in disgust.
He never forgave his former homeland and never returned.
The letter (dated 1942) is addressed to a friend, Dr Frank Kingdon, and relates his frustrations with the policy of appeasement the US adopted against the Nazis.
He writes: "Why did Washington help to strangulate Loyalist Spain? Why has it an official representative in fascist France? Why does it not recognize a French Government in Exile?
"Why does it flirt with Franco-Spain? Why is there no really serious effort to assist Russia in her dire need? Why is Finland treated with kid-gloves? (I know their explanations but do not believe them.)
"Because it is a government controlled to a large degree by financiers the mentality of whom is near to the fascist frame of mind.
"If Hitler were not a lunatic he could easily have avoided the hostility of the Western powers.
"That he is a lunatic is the sole advantage in the present sinister picture of the world."
The letter is valued at $30,000-50,000 ahead of the April 18 auction in LA.
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