Folk Society Misrepresented

To the editors:

We appreciate the Crimson's recent coverage of our fledgling organization, the Harvard-Radcliffe Scandinavian Folk and Culture Society, but would like to address certain misquotes.

We did not state that there is a "conception held by the general public that the Scandinavians were supporters of Hitler." In truth, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden each participated in humanitarian efforts to save the lives of many thousands of Scandinavian Jews in their respective nations. There also were significant resistance movements in each country.

While it is true that Nazi propagandists appropriated Germanic and Norse mythology in their glorification of German nationalism, it is untrue that "Scandinavian literature was influenced by the Nazis." In reality, it was the Nazis who attempted to assimilate this Scandinavian literature in an effort to further strengthen their own 'Aryan' identity. MARCELLINE BLOCK '01   ELIZABETH A. CHIAPPA '01   SARAH B. SCHAUSS '01   JENNIFER K. WESTHAGEN '99   Oct. 30, 1998

The writers are officers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Scandinavian Folk and Culture Society