Free Republic

He was the toast of Cambridge, a shining example of erudite, literary culture. There was just one problem. He was an alumnus to make Harvard proud. The son of a renowned Munich art dealer and a blueblooded Boston mother, Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl, who graduated in 1909 with a degree in history, spoke four languages and moved easily in international circles. As a student he had thrown himself into campus life, rowing with the varsity crew, cheerleading at football games, and performing at the Hasty Pudding Club -- where he was in demand, The Boston Globe noted, "for theatricals, musical...

Why would Harvard have embraced such a man? With everything that was known about the Nazis in 1934 -- their violent anti-Semitism, their book-burning, the concentration camps into which they were herding their enemies -- why would Harvard have treated a Nazi functionary like Hanfstaengl with such courtesy? Why would it let itself be used, in the words of historian Stephen Norwood, "to help cloak the Nazi cause with a layer of legitimacy?" In time, of course, Harvard became staunchly anti-Nazi. (Conant would go on to play a key national defense role during World War II.) But where was its...