A statement clarifying his views on the Nazi regime in Germany, misunderstanding of which has aroused much criticism here, was issued by Dean Henry W. Holmes of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard.
“Partly by my own error and partly by accident, I find myself in a position in which I owe it to my Jewish friends to make quite clear the views I hold on the persecution of Jews under the Hitler regime in Germany. I have been represented as condoning it, at least by implication,” he declared.
“On the contrary, I condemn it completely. The evidence is convincing that what has occurred and what is now occurring in Germany involves racial discrimination and persecution impossible either to condone or to put aside as a merely regrettable incident in a program of national regeneration.
“My personal opinion as to the general character of the Nazi regime merits no particular attention; but since I have been inadvertently drawn into the controversy, I feel that I ought to at least put myself unequivocally on the side of those who oppose the present German policy towards the Jew. The whole policy is wrong. Many of the incidents reported must be met with abhorrence.
“No one,” Dean Holmes declared, “can wonder that the Jews of this country have been aroused to the fiercest and most determined opposition to the Nazis. Under these circumstances, it seems to me noteworthy that among the letters written to me in connection with the alleged interview on Hitlerism, every letter that I received from a person of the Jewish faith was courteous, reasonable and fair.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
