One of our state’s greatest
treasures can be found in its academic institutions, particularly in the two
largest ones, Rutgers and Princeton. It’s a shame that more people in New
Jersey do not take advantage of the numerous free lectures, seminars, exhibits
and presentations that occur at these institutions on a frequent basis. Just a
glance at their well-publicized calendars shows a wide variety of speakers,
many authorities and trendsetters in their industries and disciplines. Every
year, present and former governors, senators, scholars, teachers, businessmen
and witnesses take to the lecterns of these schools to tell riveting stories,
propose innovative ideas and sometimes, to
warn.
This is where it gets
interesting. Many of the greatest events in history, both famous and infamous,
have been discussed, dissected, analyzed in our universities. But there have
been times in the past, right here in the storied academic halls of New Jersey,
which witnessed the most prophetic, dire warnings. Like a scene from a
Spielberg movie, there have been times when the halls of Princeton and Rutgers
have invited in voices from the political wilderness, to accurately inform of
great peril.
Through my research, I
found one of those moments. I wish I could have been there. The setting was
right out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The scene was Princeton’s stately,
neo-gothic Mc Cosh Hall. There, inside, in a lecture hall that is perhaps one
of the most architecturally impressive of its kind, a professor took to the
lectern. It was a cold November day in 1931.
 |
| Mc Cosh's famous lecture hall, Princeton University |
First, it should be stated
that it wasn’t the only lecture that day, or week, on campus. According to The Daily Princetonian, other speakers
were discussing the current political issues in the Hoover Administration.
Another, Dean Wycks, gave a talk on “Mystical Appreciation.” Several professors
were also to give a series of short talks on their most recent books. The
Garden Theater was showing a play titled “Traveling Husbands,” which promised,
in its half-page ad, to be told with “Speed and Sparkle…You’ll enjoy every
minute of it!”
But this lecture was
different, though we can only see that from our present point of view. The talk
was given by one Professor William Starr Myers of Princeton’s Politics
Department. The subject was one that was really yet to be addressed in higher
academic circles, but Myers now felt that it deserved much wider attention. The
title: Hitler of Germany As Menace to
the World.
It was, to be honest, a
rather audacious title for a lecture at the time. Germany in 1931 was still a
functioning, troubled democracy and an economic mess. Whether the recently
defeated state would hold together under the then-present circumstances was
debatable. In earlier articles the university paper, when mentioning Hitler at all, described
him inaccurately as a “prank” or a “monarchist” seeking to reestablish the Kaiser to power. But this was one of the first lectures that
I’ve found where a speaker clearly says no,
this man is dangerous, not in some abstract political way, but someone for Americans to
be very, very aware of.
Myers opened his talk by
comparing Hitler to “Scarlet Fever,” then a horrendous contagion universally
feared. Hitler, like a tumor, was taking advantage of Germany’s chaotic
economic situation to gain absolute power:
“Hitler has used many of his own pet prejudices in
outlining his party’s declaration of principles, especially anti-Semitism and
state control of all institutions. These ideas have gone far toward
popularizing National Socialism in Germany…”
The professor went on to
warn his audience that Hitler’s dictatorial aspirations included foreign
conquest, or what Hitler would call "Lebensraum" as well:
“If however Hitler does gain control, he no doubt
will try to expand to Russia…an attempt which might kill him off and bring a
happy ending to National Socialism.”
Myers observations were
dead on. Hitler did certainly come to power as part of a democratic coalition
of right-wing political parties in 1933. And the dictator’s obsession with
destroying Judaism and the Soviet Union would undeniably consume much of Nazi Germany’s
energies. Hitler indeed killed himself in his Berlin bunker in April of 1945 as
Soviet troops closed in.
In the coming months,
Princeton welcomed several other speakers who discussed Nazism and its possible
widespread effects on Europe and the rest of the world. But from my research it
was only Myers' prophetical voice, speaking in the earliest
days of the fascist crisis, who got it right. And it happened right here, in New
Jersey.
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