3 CONFERENCES AT PRAGUE AND BERGEN AND THE LOOMING WAR 255Gross’s response to Voegelin was that in the absence of a visa for the
United States, a transit visa for France could not be obtained.^51 Exactly
a week after Kittredge’s letter to Bonnet, Voegelin, having found himself
the subject of investigations by the Gestapo who were attempting to seize
his passport, fled to Switzerland where he was joined by his wife a week
later.^52 Initially Voegelin had difficulties obtaining a visa for the United
States because being ‘neither a Communist, a Catholic, nor a Jew,...[he]...
had no apparent reason to be fleeing Austria unless he was a criminal.’^53 It
was only after he received a letter at some point in August from the chair
of Harvard University’s Department of Government, that is, from Arthur
N. Holcombe, confirming that he would serve as an instructor and tutor
at Harvard for one year dating from September 1, 1938, that the American
consulate resolved to give Voegelin and his wife a non-quota visa.^54 A
change in French regulations saw Voegelin and his wife receive permis-
sion to come to Paris for one night. Safely aboard the SS Washington, the
Voegelins sailed from Le Havre for the United States on September 8.^55
There was at least one other service that Kittredge performed in order
to assist Voegelin’s passage. In his letter to Bonnet of July 7, Kittredge
noted that when Voegelin had been appointed secretary of the Austrian
Coordinating Committee, it was on the clear understanding that he
would serve in that position until the ISC’s next study conference which
was scheduled for 1939. Kittredge noted that accepting this position
had involved ‘considerable financial sacrifice’ on the part of Voegelin: he
had been ‘obliged to give up better-paid work’ in exchange for a ‘mod-
est’ stipend of two hundred Austrian schillings per month. Pointing
out that Voegelin had been paid for the period between October 1 and
March 30, Kittredge stated that it seemed ‘appropriate in cases of this
kind to allow approximately six months’ indemnity to personnel like
(^51) Cooper, Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science, 18.
(^52) Ibid., 16. See also Eric Voegelin to W. Y. Elliot, n.d., August 1938, in Gebhardt, ed.,
The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, vol. 29, Selected Correspondence 1924–1949, 181–82.
(^53) Cooper, Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science, 18.
(^54) Eric Voegelin to Arthur N. Holcombe, n.d., August 1938, in Gebhardt, ed., The
Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, vol. 29, Selected Correspondence 1924–1949, 179.
(^55) Cooper, Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science, 18. See also
Voegelin to Gottfried Bermann-Fischer, August 22, 1938, and Voegelin to Elliot, n.d.,
August 1938, in Gebhardt, ed., The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, vol. 29, Selected
Correspondence 1924–1949, 180, 182.