Some reminiscences of Albert Einstein

Abstract

My last encounter with Einstein on 13th and 14th April 1955 by Janos Plesch (translated, with notes, by Peter H. Plesch) Monday 18th April 1955 My beloved Peter, A few hours ago the radio announced that Einstein had died in his sleep during the night at 1.20 a.m. You can imagine how I feel. I wanted to telephone his step-daughter Margot and his secretary Helene Dukas, but all the lines, even the secret number in Princeton, had been disconnected, and so I sent a telegram just saying, ‘Feel with you, am with you, Janos’. I do not yet know much about the actual death, but one day before Einstein died Miss Dukas told me on the telephone that shortly after the Israeli consul Reuven Dafni and I had left him about one o’clock in the afternoon, Einstein suffered an attack of sickness, and he could not even keep down his midday meal. He fought this sickness all night, but it did not diminish despite the narcotic injections, so that he had to be taken to hospital. On Friday, 15 April there was a slight improvement. Two further New York specialists were called in, and when it was manifest that there was internal bleeding, Dr Glenn, a specialist in arterial surgery, was asked whether he had any hope that an operation on the aorta might be useful. However, his opinion was not at all encouraging. Thereupon Einstein asked him whether death on the operating table would be rapid. Since this could not be said with certainty, Einstein answered, ‘I definitely refuse an operation’.