Nathan Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law School, 1916-1936.
Nathan Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936 and one of America’s brightest legal minds of the 20th century, had closer links to National Socialism than was previously understood. When he accepted an honorary degree from a leading German university in 1934, it was interpreted as a gesture of support for the Nazi Party. Was this a naïve misstep, or something more sinister?
In 2019, the Boston College Law Review published an article that addressed that question. It highlighted previously unknown encounters between Pound and senior Nazi figures at the time, and documented the subtle coercion Pound exercised to pressure Harvard faculty to attend the event. These revelations necessarily bring into question Pound’s personal ethics and his professional responsibilities as a lawyer.
Use the tabs to explore Pound's connections with the Nazi Party, or click the button below to read the full article.
From the Diary of Nathan Roscoe Pound
“ At 12 noon, Dr. Hans Luther, German Ambassador comes to the school and presents me the diploma of an honorary Doctor of Laws (J.U.D.) of Berlin, and 1:30 the ambassador gives a luncheon at the Ritz . . . . ”
The files of the German Foreign Office make clear that the German government deliberately flattered Pound. A German report dating from June 1934 describes Pound as someone who had long been favorable toward Germany. For example, the report describes him as having publicly supported the German boycott of Jewish goods. The report recommended that, to strengthen Pound’s favor toward Germany, he should be awarded an honorary degree upon his return to Cambridge. The report made clear this honor was to serve as useful propaganda: Harvard Law School alumni, many in leading positions in the U.S. government, could be favorably influenced by the dean of their alma mater.
In September 1934, Pound received an honorary degree from the University of Berlin. There was a mixed reaction among Pound’s colleagues at the law school. James Bryant Conant, the President of Harvard University, was anxious not to be publicly associated with the event. He declined to be photographed at the ceremony. Judging by the Boston Evening Transcript, however, Conant’s efforts to distance himself appear to have been in vain.
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Pound’s papers reveal Germany’s micromanagement of the event’s staging. On September 12, 1934, Pound received a lengthy letter from Baron Kurt von Tippelskirch, the German Consul in Boston, stating “[i]t would, of course, be important that the presence of President Conant . . . be secured.” 1
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Pound had compiled a list of Harvard fellows, faculty members, and senior staff he wanted to attend, asked those individuals in advance to keep the date free, and provided the German Consulate with a list of those to whom invitations should be sent.
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Publicly accepting an honorary degree from a German university in 1934, particularly if presented by the German Ambassador to the United States, must have been seen as a statement of support for the German government. Coverage in the Boston Evening Transcript left readers with little doubt as to whose interests were ultimately being served, running the front-page headline, Hitler Envoy Presents Law Degree to Dean Pound at Harvard Ceremony.
That Pound understood the relevance of the award is evidenced both by his active role in organizing the event, and by conversations he had with his colleague Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter immediately suspected that the event “impliedly would mean prestige for Hitlerism.” He reported that he and others were well aware of Pound’s Nazi sympathies. According to a Harvard Law School colleague, Professor Calvert Magruder, Pound had told him about a “wonderful speech he had heard Hitler make”; that there was no persecution of Jewish scholars or of Jews generally; and that only very recent Polish Jewish immigrants had been “expelled.” Pound almost certainly knew these statements were incorrect.
Frankfurter's diaries make clear that Pound's Nazi sympathies were common knowledge.
Pound's colleague Felix Frankfurter was Jewish, German born, and a future Justice of the Supreme Court.
Ultimately, Frankfurter declined Pound’s invitation, writing that he could not “attend any function in honor of a representative of a government which Mr. Justice Holmes has accurately characterized as ‘a challenge to civilization.’” A disappointed Pound replied he was surprised that Frankfurter “could not take the trouble to find out the facts.” From documentary evidence we know that Frankfurter maintained his principles and is not among the event’s listed attendees.
From the Diary of Nathan Roscoe Pound
“ At one thirty L and I entertained at lunch by the Minister of Justice (Frank), the Dean of the Law Faculty (Mezger), and the Vice President of the Academy of Law (Luetgebrune). At 5 we are the guests of the Minister of Justice in his box at the Staatstheater at Parsifal. Dr. Chroust and the Staatsanwalt (Bühler) take us over and Chroust and a lieutenant take us back. Great Day. ”
From June 30 to July 2 of 1934, the Schutzstaffel (the “SS”), carried out a series of executions in more than twenty cities across Germany. Known as the Blood Purge, victims included opponents of Adolph Hitler’s consolidation of political power. Ten days after the Blood Purge, on July 12, 1934, Nathan Roscoe Pound arrived in Munich with his wife, Lucy Miller. A diary entry made at the time, reveals that Pound was entertained by established figures within the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the NSDAP or Nazi Party).
The entry in Pound’s diary from July 12 appears unremarkable. On closer inspection, however, it is anything but. The individuals Pound met were not simply lawyers and academics. They were senior legal advisors within the NSDAP who played prominent roles in the Third Reich, in particular in Germany’s occupation of Poland and the atrocities committed against the Jews of Europe.
Who were the Nazi Party officials mentioned in Pound's diary?
2. Anthony Read, The Devil’s Disciples: Hitler’s Inner Circle 3 (2004).
3. Edmund Mezger, Kriminalpolitik und ihre Kriminologischen Grundlagen 146 (3d ed. 1944) (“Gerade bei der besonderen Kriminalität der Juden leiden die älteren Untersuchungen vielfach an einer ungenügenden Unterscheidung zwischen Rasse und Konfession . . . . In der Rassengesetzgebung des neuen Staates findet die Rasse selbst nunmehr ihre gebührende Berücksichtigung.”) (translation by author).
Who was Anton-Herman Chroust?
The “Dr. Chroust” alluded to at the end of Pound's diary entry was Anton-Herman Chroust. He was an exchange student at Harvard from 1932 to 1934. In the 1930s, Chroust also allegedly worked as an agent for the National Socialists while in the United States. These charges led in 1941 to his detention as an enemy alien. Pound worked aggressively to clear Chroust's name and, from FBI files, it appears Pound committed perjury to do so.
When Chroust was accused of participating in the Blood Purge, Pound provided him with a seemingly false alibi. Pound claimed that Chroust was with him when the Blood Purge took place (on July 2, 1934). But according to Pound's diary, he didn't arrive in Munich until 10 days later (on July 12, 1934), so he and Chroust could not have been together when the Blood Purge occurred.
Nathan Roscoe Pound may have provided Anton-Herman Chroust with a false alibi for his participation in the Blood Purge of 1934.
Prior to his arrival in the United States, Chroust was a member of the Nazi Party. His membership card is pictured here.