Associated Press: "Harvard remained largely indifferent to the persecution of Germany’s Jews," said Stephen H. Norwood, a University of Oklahoma history professor who is writing a book about the response of American universities to the Nazi party.

Harvard administrators, alumni and student leaders "remained indifferent to Germany’s terrorist campaign against Jews and indeed on numerous occasions assisted the Nazis in their efforts to gain acceptance in the West," he said.

Years from now we will probably look back and see similar things in Universities today where administrators and leaders are blindly on the wrong side of things. I really don’t understand it, but I am not the only one that sees it. Hindsight is 20/20. We should learn from the past to look critically at the present.

Norwood claimed administrators welcomed one of Adolf Hitler’s closest deputies to a reunion, hosted a reception for German naval officials and sent delegates to a celebration at a German university that had expelled Jews. Harvard administrators, alumni and student leaders "remained indifferent to Germany’s terrorist campaign against Jews and indeed on numerous occasions assisted the Nazis in their efforts to gain acceptance in the West," he said.

Norwood criticized former Harvard President James Bryant Conant for failing to speak against the Nazis despite numerous opportunities between 1933 and 1937.

...(A) campus visit by Ernst Hanfstaengl, the Nazi party’s foreign press chief....sparked protest in the Jewish community.

Hanfstaengl, a Harvard graduate, attended a 25th-year reunion on the campus in 1934 - the year after Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

"Conant could easily have denounced the visit but did not," Norwood said.

Also I checked this bio: Harvard President James Bryant Conant retired from Harvard in 1953 and began a term of service as U.S. High Commissioner to Germany and Ambassador to Germany. Conant returned to Berlin in 1964 and spent 18 months as an education advisor through the Ford Foundation.

Between 1941 and 1946, Conant served as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee. This committee oversaw the technical aspects of military scientific research, including atomic research, which contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Conant served on the Interim Committee that made the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japanese cities without providing warning.

James Bryant Conant Small Bio Link: www.nuclearfiles.org/rebios/conant.htm

Article "Expert: Harvard Aided Nazi Image in 1930s" Link: timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/10181855.htm