9 2 D O C U M E N T 8 2 S E P T E M B E R 1 9 2 5 me back into all the wretched misery of debt from which I only managed to pull myself a year ago. (You know that all professors in Holland receive the same salary therefore, no coverage of the losses that I fear but may be overestimating would be possible.—) what is fatal is the fact that Wassik’s care costs between 1500 and 2000 Gulden per year.[6] With all the great differences and divergence of opinions, O. and I can neverthe- less actually UNDERSTAND each other quite easily. We would perhaps have many conflicts with each other—but why? Because we would live in the same space and not in different copies of the world. There is a very active connection among all natural scientists in Utrecht in Ley- den, there is virtually no contact. The fact that Kramers has been overlooked now that a theoretical professorship is finally open, is completely unacceptable.— However, it does not seem likely that anyone in this country will seriously intervene to prevent this scandal. Lorentz, to whom I had sent a copy of my entire correspondence and to whom I immediately recounted the entire O.-Kruyt matter yesterday, spoke very nicely and warmly to me, but what good does that do as long as my departure from Leyden is the only way to bring Kramers to Holland. Franck,[7] who by chance was a guest in my home yesterday and today (What a wonderful dear man!!!), urged that it is my duty to set everything in motion so that Kramers can come to Utrecht.— Since he[8] is going to be with Ornstein and Burger in Oxford in the next few days, he intends to very urgently persuade Orn- stein.— Incidentally, I found out from Franck that O. is to be appointed to a posi- tion in Jerusalem in the near future [9] if he were really likely to leave, then we must absolutely ensure that Kramers obtain the professorship in Utrecht. Any other turn of events would be truly grotesque! My dear, dear Einstein, forgive me for all the stupid things I have done in this matter please consider how dreadfully chaotic this appears to me and how difficult it is for a person who has as little self-confidence as I—how difficult it is for such a person who is determined to fight for a cause. Help me to take the path that will, in the long run, cause me the least self- reproach, even if the path is initially thorny.— Consider how much I am in need of “salvation”—if that is even possible in my case. Pardon the length of the letter— Your response can be very short! Fond regards from your P. Ehrenfest