Harvard Nazis

BOSTON - Collegial relations between Harvard University and the Nazis in the 1930s were a "shameful" episode that helped give a favourable picture of the regime in the United States, according to a report released on Sunday.

"As the Nazi menace steadily increased ... (President James Bryant) Conant's administration at Harvard was complicit in increasing the prestige of Nazi regime by seeking and maintaining friendly and respectful relations with Nazi universities and officials," the report said.

The findings were presented by Stephen Norwood, professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Oklahoma, from a paper presented at a Boston conference sponsored by the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

"It is truly shameful that the administrative, alumni and student leaders of America's most prominent university ...remained indifferent to Germany's perilous campaign against Jews and indeed on numerous occasions assisted the Nazis in their efforts to gain acceptance in the West," the paper said.

Norwood's probe examined the period 1933 to 1937, when America's awareness of Adolf Hitler's persecution of Jews was growing, but the US government equivocated as war clouds gathered in Europe.

According to Norwood, Hitler's foreign press secretary, Ernst Hanfstaengl, was given a warm welcome at his 25th Harvard reunion in 1934. Hanfstaengl led the Nazi efforts to win over world opinion, and is reported to have introduced their trademark stiff-armed salute and "Zeig Heil" chant, basing both on Harvard football cheers, Norwood said.

Hanfstaengl attended a tea at the home of Conant, then Harvard's president, who went on to become US ambassador to Germany in the 1950s.

Harvard issued a statement denying that Conant had feted the German official and said the university "did not support the Nazis by holding its traditional reunion."

"The specter of Nazism rightly inspires horror and revulsion to this day," the University said in a statement.

Norwood said Harvard's stance mirrored that of other US universities -- with exceptions like Williams College, which halted academic exchanges with Nazi universities in 1936 -- but that Harvard's pre-eminence gave it special responsibility.

He had particularly withering criticism for The Harvard Crimson, the university newspaper, which suggested that Hanfstaengl receive an honorary degree and criticised Conant for turning down a Nazi-funded student exchange.

Harvard's president, Larry Summers, declined an invitation to speak at Sunday's conference, the Wyman Institute said.

- REUTERS

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