“I have noted with great satisfaction that you always stand for the right and humaneness even when it is hard.”
Letter, Albert Einstein to Eleanor Roosevelt, July 26, 1941.
From FDR’s Papers as President: President’s Personal File 7177: Einstein, Albert. FDR Presidential Library.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s efforts to aid Europe’s refugees began before the US entered World War II. She was seen by many as a trusted advocate who could bring their views to President Roosevelt’s attention. In July 1941, acclaimed physicist and German-Jewish immigrant Albert Einstein wrote this letter to Eleanor urging her to tell the President about the State Department’s rigid application of immigration rules and regulations. A “wall of bureaucratic measures” erected by the State Department, Einstein asserts, made it all but impossible to aid the victims of Nazi brutality. At the bottom of the letter in Eleanor Roosevelt’s handwriting are two notes. One says simply “FDR” and is an instruction to her secretary to send Einstein’s letter to the President. The second notation is Eleanor’s reply to Einstein which was later typed into a letter: “Tell Mr. Einstein I will bring his letter at once to the President.” Although Einstein’s letter was given to FDR, there is no evidence that the President responded to him or took any action based upon it.
Confront the Issue: FDR and the Prelude to the Holocaust
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