The Nazis launched their purge of German universities in April 1933, and the exodus of mathematicians from Europe—with Einstein leading the way to America—began just as the Institute for Advanced Study opened its doors. “The German developments are going bad and worse, the papers today wrote of the expulsion of 36 university professors, ½ of the Göttingen mathematics and physics faculty,” von Neumann reported to Flexner on April 26. “Where will this lead, if not to the ruin of science in Germany?”
