FRIEND IS
NOT COMING
Hanfstaengl Unable to
Be at Harvard
Alumni Gathering
liott C. Cutler, chief marshall to
lead Harvard alumni in this year’s
commencement, today announced
that Ernst F. Hanfstaengl, intimate
friend of Adolph Hitler and one of
the aids selected by Dr. Cutler,
would be unable to attend the ex-
ercises.
A protest against special honors
to Hanfstaengl at the 25th annual
reunion of his class at harvard in
June was registered last week by
Benjamin Halpern, graduate stu-
dent at the University and a Jew.
In a letter to the Harvard Crim-
son, undergraduate newspaper,
Halpern, who was graduated from
the college in 1932 and now is a
student in the graduate school of
Arts and Sciences, said of Hanf-
staengl’s selection:
“There unfortunately will be a
number of groups of thick-headed
alumni too obtuse to appreciate
the tender sentiment of this ges-
ture.”
“In his announcement Dr. Cutler
said he had asked Hanfstaengl to
be one of the fifty or more aids
“who assist me at the alumni ex-
ercises on commencement after
noon, and in his communication to
me he regrets being unable to fill
the post.
Not Coming
“There has been considerable
publicity given to the invitation ex-
tended to Hanfstaengl.” Dr. Cut-
ler said, “some of it unfortunately
criticizing Harvard University au-
thorities. I wish to make it clear
that the appointment of aids at the
alumni exercises during the Har-
vard commencement is made by the
chief marshal who is elected by the
directors of the Alumni associa-
tion and not by the university au-
thorities.
“In selecting Hanfstaengl for the
post of aid it seemed to me that
Harvard alumni who have always
stood for the fundamental princi-
ples of a university, the right of
free speech, and the toleration of
all beliefs, might properly welcome
this graduate back to his twenty-
fifth reunion.”