Posted on 03/03/2006 6:48:57 PM PST by nuconvert
Dutch Schools Strip Nobel Laureate's Name
By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 3, 2006
Two Dutch universities have stripped a late Nobel chemistry laureate of honors, citing new evidence that he collaborated with the Nazis to oust Jews from academic positions.
The information about Dutch-born Peter Debye, who won the Nobel in 1936, emerged a month ago in a book, "Albert Einstein in the Netherlands."
The book, by Berlin-based author Sybe I. Rispens, cited letters Einstein wrote to colleagues about his suspicions of Debye when the Dutchman moved to the United States in 1940, where he lived until his death in 1966.
The book reproduced a 1938 note by Debye, then director of the prestigious Max Planck Institute in Berlin, instructing Jewish members of the institute to quit.
It said: "In light of the current situation, membership by German Jews as stipulated by the Nuremberg laws, of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft cannot be continued. According to the wishes of the board, I ask of all members to whom these definitions apply to report to me their resignation. Heil Hitler."
Debye won the Nobel prize for his studies on the structure of molecules. His name has been adopted as a unit of measurement for an interaction of electrons called a dipole moment.
Utrecht University, where Debye was a professor of theoretical physics in 1912, said it decided to change the name of the university's Debye Institute for physics and chemistry after learning of Debye's actions against German Jews.
"Maybe he was forced to do it, but he did it anyway," said Ludo Koks, a university spokesman.
The University of Maastricht, in the town where Debye was born in 1884, said it has severed ties to an international prize named for Debye, which is awarded by an independent foundation for original research in chemistry or physics.
The Edmond Hustinx Foundation has yet to decide whether to change the name of the prize, awarded every two or three years on the recommendation of a jury selected by the university.
Both universities acknowledge the evidence about Debye's pro-Nazi actions is inconclusive.
But it was clear "he did not act fiercely enough to defend academic freedom," said Maastricht University spokeswoman Jeanine Hermans. "A university should be an example."
The two universities jointly turned to the authoritative Netherlands Institute for War Documentation for an opinion about Rispens' documents before taking action. The historical institute responded that the sources cited in the book were reliable, but passed no judgment on Debye.
Nazi Germany invited Debye to return in 1941 but he remained at Cornell University in New York and became a U.S. citizen in 1946.
it's interesting that he moved to the US in 1940, and declined a nazi offer for him to return in 1941.
in 1940, nazi germany was still looking strong, so i suspect that debye wasn't really pro-nazi at that point.
maybe they will unearth some letters about his choice to emmigrate.
Seems a little late for this.
What about Duranty's Pulitzer?
"But it was clear "he did not act fiercely enough to defend academic freedom," said Maastricht University spokeswoman Jeanine Hermans. "
These are the same people who bend over for the Muslims over press freedom, but expected this guy to deliver himself to a Nazi concentration camp...I detect a logical disconnect here.
Hey--nobody ever claimed that the Euroweenie surrender monkeys were logical.
His fine work as a scientist should be separated from any political actions, short of advocating murder or torture. If every university faculty member who conspired to have colleagues removed was dishonored, then who would teach at the colleges? OTOH, maybe it's not a bad idea......
As a Cold War warrior, I wish this perfection of eternal hatred could be applied to the Communists.
"What about Duranty's Pulitzer?"
That IS the question.
i share your hatred of communism. it is an evil ideology, just as nazism was.
back in the 1960's, i was a communist, but i gradually learned about the awfulness of their program and history.
many individual communists become aware of the true nature of the system, and end up abandoning it.
almost everyone i knew who was a communist in the 1960's has left communism far behind. (think of david horowitz.)
i think even molotov, who was stalin's henchman, turned to
Christianity before he died.
of course there are people who stick with it, or turn to some other evil doctrine. these people are probably sociopaths, and resemble the hard-core nazis.
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