Is Putin Being Boxed In by Trump and Zelensky »

Columbia University’s Nazi Tradition

March 15th, 2025

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War

According to Columbia Magazine , published by Columbia University’s Office of Alumni and Development, but ultimately named for a brutal imperialist mercenary, in 1933 while Nazis in Germany were burning books by Jews, Columbia’s president — and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient — Nicholas Murray Butler “welcomed Hans Luther, the German ambassador to the United States, to Morningside Heights, insisting that he be accorded ‘the greatest courtesy and respect.'” Columbia’s Daily Spectator newspaper “denounced what it saw as Butler’s courtship of the German government and its universities.”

Butler — “a longtime admirer of Benito Mussolini” — mocked protests of his relations with Nazi Germany. In 1934, Butler “fired Jerome Klein . . . a promising young member of the fine arts faculty, for signing an appeal against the Luther invitation; and he expelled Robert Burke, a Columbia College student, for participating in a 1936 mock book burning and anti-Nazi picket on campus.”

Or, as a 2006 column by Stephen H. Norwood in the Columbia Spectator tells it, “Butler had Burke expelled for leading pickets protesting the Columbia administration’s insistence on sending a delegate and friendly greetings to a major propaganda festival the Nazi leadership orchestrated in 1936 in Germany, the 550th anniversary celebration of Heidelberg University. Although he was a fine student and had been elected president of his class, Burke was never readmitted. [Columbia provost Alan] Brinkley and former associate dean Michael Rosenthal . . . show little sympathy for Burke and trivialize Columbia administration actions that helped Nazi Germany enhance its standing in the West. Although the Nazis had expelled Jews from university faculties and the professions, and savagely beat Jews in the streets, Butler joined with the presidents of Harvard and Yale to plan how to deflect criticism of their decisions to send university representatives to Heidelberg. No British university would send delegates. Butler selected professor Arthur Remy as Columbia’s representative, who pronounced the reception at which Josef Goebbels presided ‘very enjoyable.’ . . . Butler’s insensitivity to Nazi outrages against Jews was influenced by his own anti-Semitism. Columbia spearheaded universities’ efforts to sharply restrict Jewish admissions. Butler strongly supported Harvard president James Conant, an early supporter of anti-Jewish quotas, when he invited Nazi academics to Harvard’s tercentenary celebration later in 1936.”

Now, in 2025, Columbia is back, for the first time since 1936, to expelling students for nonviolently protesting Columbian support for genocide — and this time not just threatened genocide but a genocide actively happening and available in reports, photographs, and videos in real time, already identified and condemned by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and numerous human rights groups and governments.

Is Columbia bowing to U.S. fascist demands to ban speech and assembly against the genocide in Palestine because a small fraction of its funding comes (or came) from the U.S. government?

Or does Columbia have a strong loyalty to whoever is engaged in mass murder?

Or — and this seems the most likely — is Columbia fiercely committed to whatever powerful people deem proper at the moment, even if at one time it’s anti-Semitism and at another time it is a Palestinian genocide with advocacy of peace denounced as “anti-Semitism”?

It’s rather a shame to have institutions of so-called higher learning be run by people so dedicated to avoiding thought, no matter the cost to humanity.

-###-

Columbia University’s Nazi Tradition
https://worldbeyondwar.org/columbia-universitys-nazi-tradition/

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org. He hosts Talk World Radio.

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War According to Columbia Magazine , published by Columbia University’s Office of Alumni and Development, but ultimately named for a brutal imperialist mercenary, in 1933 while Nazis in Germany were burning books by Jews,…
  • Paul Craig Roberts Trump and Zelensky have agreed on a cease fire, a pause in the conflict. How does this benefit Russia? It doesn’t. The Ukrainian military is collapsing on all fronts. 86% of the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk has been retaken, and the…
  • Tracy Turner Chupacabra America: A nation gripped by greed, excess, and decline. Explore the stark contrast between America's stagnant Trumpcession societal rot and Europe's prosperous sustainable progress in this eye-opening critique by Tracy Turner.…
  • Cathy Smith Explore the decline of modern Christianity from televangelist scandals and prosperity gospel corruption to church schisms and socioeconomic divides, this analysis reveals how materialism and greed have overshadowed the transformative spirit…
  • Chris Spencer Syria's Alawites were seen as favored by the regime of Bashar al Assad, now more than 1,300 Alawites have been murdered in 2025 in Syria. Early 2025 saw Syria's fragile post-Assad situation degenerate into a brutal cycle of sectarian…
  • Fred Gransville There was something unusual on the White House driveway on March 11, 2025. Elon Musk was selling Tesla vehicles in collaboration with Donald Trump, the sitting President of the United States. From conducting business at the White House…
  • By Tracy Turner Uncover the toxic history of U.S. industrial and military pollution, from Hanford to Camp Lejeune. This inquiry exposes how government and corporate inaction have led to cancer clusters, ecological destruction, and human agony. Explore…
  • By Mark Aurelius 70% of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza are women and children This essay contains controversial statements that could alarm people who are not tolerant of contentious assertions or questions, such as regarding religious beliefs,…
  • Tracy Turner The economic crisis of 2025 under the leadership of Donald Trump and Elon Musk draws alarming parallels to the Great Depression of 1929, exacerbated by the dismantling of critical U.S. infrastructure and the breakdown of federal regulatory…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Hamas, or according to its full name, “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is a Palestinian political-national organization with a military wing of a conservative Islamic nature and orientation. Its purpose is to resist the Israeli…
March 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

  XML Feeds

Social CMS engine
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi