During the War, Albert Einstein Assists an Old Friend and Relative to Get a Visa to Leave Europe and Immigrate to Mexico

Brigitte Kaufmann was born in Germany, but when the Nazis came to power in 1933 she fled to Paris. In France, Kaufmann worked as an actress under the name of Brigitte Châtel, and translated documents. She met her future husband, Alfred Alexander-Katz in Paris, and they married in 1939; the following day, her husband was taken to an internment camp. He was given the choice of being interned in a labor camp or joining the Foreign Legion and chose the latter. Alexander was then sent to Clermont in Vichy France and the family relocated there.

Dr. Walter Rudlin was a social science professor at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and actively involved in anti-fascist activities. He was the author of “The Growth of Fascism in Great Britain”. In September 1942 he left his position and joined the U.S. Board of Economic Welfare, whose chair was Vice President Henry Wallace. His wife Eryl was interested in bringing Jews in Europe out of harm’s way, and she knew the Alexander-Katz family.

So Eryl sought to get Brigitte and her family safely out of Europe to Mexico, and sought Einstein’s help. On March 12, 1941, Einstein responded, noting that Brigitte is his relative. “Thank you very much for your letter of March 11th. I am very gratified indeed to learn that our mutual friends, Fred and Brigitte Alexander-Katz, have some prospect to receive a visa into Mexico. I am certainly willing to vouch for their reliability and integrity, both personal and political. I have known Mrs. Brigitte Alexander-Katz – whose family is related to mine – since she was a little girl. Her husband, a very able engineer, will certainly be useful to any country which receives him. If you will send me the address of the proper Mexican authority, I shall gladly send any letter of recommendation desired.” This was a warm letter indeed, expressing true concern and friendship for the Alexander-Katz family.

On April 3, 1941, Einstein again wrote Rudlin, noting “Enclosed I am sending you the requested letters in the hope that they may be successful.” But there were delays and no visa, so Rudlin wrote Einstein seven months later, asking him to take the matter up with the Mexican government.

Typed letter signed, on his blind-embossed letterhead, Princeton, December 20, 1941, to Mrs. Eryl Rudlin, saying that he expects the visa to be granted, but does not feel he ought to approach the Mexican government directly. “The Mexican authorities know that I am interested in the case of the Alexander-Katz family; they have kept me informed about the whole development of the matter. I have no doubt that admission to Mexico will be granted as it has been granted to hundreds of people in the same situation. I can give Mr. Alexander-Katz a recommendation but it is out of the question that I ask the Minister of Education to send him an official invitation. I have already done what could be done without intrusion.”

Despite what he writes here to calm Mrs. Rudlin, Einstein might have exerted some gentle pressure on Mexico by contacting the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Gilberto Bosques; or the Alexander-Katz visas may have already being granted at that moment. The Einstein Archives is silent on this subject. But soon after Einstein soon wrote this letter, in 1942 a telegram to the young Alexander-Katz family arrived stating that Einstein and Rudolph Uhlman, a lawyer in New York, had secured visas through Ambassador Bosques for them to escape to Veracruz, Mexico aboard the ship San Thomé.

In Mexico Brigitte she became a noted author, actress, director and translator. She became the first woman in Mexico to produce and direct television programs. Speaking five languages, she also worked as a translator for UNESCO and Amnesty International. Her daughter Susana and granddaughter Sophie also became actors.