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1945:“SECURITY ISTHE MOST IMPORTANTTASK FOR OURTIME”
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EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Typed Letter Signed, “A. Einstein,” to André Bly (“Dear
Commandant Bly”), in English, expressing happiness that he has survived, hoping that
humanity has learned the importance of security, recalling their time together aboard a ship
and contrasting it to his life since, noting that much of what was destroyed cannot be
rebuilt, and preferring the awareness of the horrors of the past to the uncertainty felt at the
time. 1 page, 4to, personal stationery; marginal discoloration from prior matting, folds.
Princeton, 31 January 1945
[6,000/9,000]
“
I was really happy . . . to know that you have survived all dangers and are ready to return to your
dear country.We can both hope that from this second lesson humanity has learned that an effective
organization for security is the most important task for our time.
“
I remember with pleasure the hours we spent together when you invited me for a trip aboard the
‘Zinnia’. I have not seen any ship from inside since over ten years; I am always sitting and working
in my little house where the outside world enters only in the form of newspapers and radio.
“
I was very much impressed by the photographs you have sen[t] me. A good deal of this destruction
can never be repaired for the art of past centuries can never be revived. I think that the consciousness of
the horrible happenings of those years is still better than the feeling of threat and uncertainty which
dominated all minds at the time when we last met!”