News Brief

A number of Harvard students have voiced their protest against the invitation of Ernst F. Hanfstaengel, one of Adolf Hitler’s aides and intimate friends, to participate in the Harvard commencement activities next June. Hanfstaengel has accepted the invitation of Dr. Elliott Carr Cutler, chief alumni marshal of the Harvard Commencement exercises, to serve as Dr. Cutler’s aide at the alumni festivities.

This invitation is an indiscretion on the part of Harvard University. Hanfstaengel is’ so closely identified with the Hitler regime and is so enthusiastic a supporter of Nazism that his presence at the Harvard commencement exercises and at the alumni festivities as the alumni marshal’s aide will necessarily be regarded by students and the public as offensive to American institutions, especially to American institutions of learning. There can be no difference of opinion as to the unspeakable treatment accorded by the Hitler regime to the intellectuals of Germany, especially to the professors who were driven out of German universities merely because of their racial origin Hanfstaengel is part and pareel of the system that has discredited itself in the eyes of the whole civilized world. The invitation extended to him by Harvard will be considered by many Americans as an endorsement of the Nazification of German universities. To avert such an impression and to avoid disagreeable demonstrations against Harvard University during Hanfstaengel’s presence as aide of Dr. Cutler at the Harvard commencement exercises, the University authorities would do well to revoke the invitation.