Staff's defense of Harvard's Nazi sympathies offensive

Today’s staff editorial (“Singling Out Harvard,” Nov. 18) attacking Professor Stephen Norwood was profoundly disappointing.

The Staff argues Harvard should not be singled out because its flirtations with Hitler were “not uncommon to the interwar period.” We’re not sure what is more appalling about this contention—the unconscionable attempt to deflect responsibility or the reasonings’ laughable intellectual laziness. “Everyone was doing it” did not work on the playground and it certainly isn’t effective when confronted with proof that this newspaper and this University openly espoused the twentieth century’s most pernicious ideas and coddled its greatest villains.

There are occasions when a simple apology and unadulterated remorse are appropriate. This was one such occasion.

NOAH D. OPPENHEIM ’00

JOSH H. SIMON ’00

Nov. 18, 2004

The writers were Editorial Chair and President of the Crimson, respectively.