D O C U M E N T 6 3 J U N E 1 9 2 3 6 1
how very attached the children are to you and what a celebration it is for them every
time they could be with you for that short while. You may kindly just as well book
it to my credit that it is this way; not every “divorced wife,” as you always
stress,[4]
would have influenced the children thus, after all that we’ve gone through. Our last
two letters did not arise from any presumptuousness, just from
worry.[5]
Consider
what infinitely difficult years I have already lived through; the children also, espe-
cially Albert as the eldest, naturally did not remain unaffected by it. We were happy
that now, with the N[obel]
P[rize],[6]
at least material matters could be arranged to
relieve me of these worries. Your instructions, so entirely contrary to all the agree-
ments and also your words when you were last here, startled us and caused us new
worries. Think of it that I’m not getting younger each day, that my health is very
unstable, and that it suffers increasingly from the constant upsets; Tete is still
small,[7]
and it will still be a very long time before he can stand on his own two feet
one day. All this makes me worry, when I think that a security that we could have
could possibly be withheld from us. Put yourself into our position, and at least
don’t be angry at the children; Albert didn’t deserve it under any condition; he
thought he was doing his duty and evidently was also counting on your love; you
mustn’t reward him in this way.
Don’t think that we are money-grubbing, either, and that we would prefer to take
all that you have away from you. You know that Albert earns his own money for all
his supplementary expenses. I do likewise, and this in addition to all the household
chores; you surely don’t want to hold that against us. So, please do write Albert a
couple of kind words and don’t make the boy sad and miserable.
If you don’t want to have the children over, they naturally won’t come; I sent
them to see you each time to please not just them but also you.
So I beg you once again for a couple of friendly words for Albert. With kind
greetings,
Mileva.
63. From Heinrich Zangger
[Canton of Thurgau, after 9 June
1923][1]
Dear friend Einstein,
I just got here; I read the letter on the train.
Your
letter[2]
liberates me in many respects. Rarely have I answered you more
joyfully. For one, I had something of a bad conscience that I was seeing your family