Harvard's Sad Past and Sorry Present

During the 1930s, Harvard University was politically filthy. The administration, faculty, and alumni were prominently pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish. Harvard officials rubbed elbows with Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and the murderous Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler. At the forefront in praising Hitler and his Nazis was The Crimson, Harvard's newspaper of record. The Crimson called pre-war Germany a "great and proud nation" and "lauded the Third Reich as a force for good in the world." For all practical purposes, Harvard University, in general, and The Crimson, specifically, functioned as an American branch of the Nazi Party propaganda network.

At a recent academic conference hosted by Boston University, Oklahoma University Professor of Judaic Studies, Stephen H. Norwood, presented a paper which revisited the sad and uncomfortable episode in Harvard's history. In response, The Crimson has adopted an aggressive defensive posture by obfuscating what really happened and attempting to explain it away by contending that "Everyone else did it." They have also attacked Professor Norwood personally by impugning his motives and accusing him of opportunism.

Interestingly, while Harvard University wants to sweep the 1930s under the carpet, deflecting any historical responsibility by essentially claiming, "Everyone else did it," there's been a clarion call by senior faculty members for reparations to be paid for slavery. Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. has urged UN involvement in calling for reparations for one of "history's worst injustices." The Crimson rejected a paid anti-reparations ad because it dismissed historical responsibility for centuries of slavery. Despite which side of either issue one supports, it's impossible not to see that Harvard is at the forefront of making everyone remember slavery from 150 years ago while demanding that everyone forget what happened on its campus 70 years ago.

As a world renowned nursery for the marketplace of ideas, Harvard and The Crimson haven't completed all the baby steps toward truth.