The Nazis murdered all kinds of minorities, including gypsies, people with
disabilities, political opponents and resistance fighters, but their main enemy
has been the group of Jewish people. Nazism was based on two pillars: the first
was nationalism ("make Germany great again") and the second was
antisemitism.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_Nazi_GermanyTherefore I
would say most academics who left Nazi Germany were Jewish, because a) they
were the most persecuted group and because b) Jewish professors were not
uncommon at universities during the time of the Weimar Republic between the two
world wars. In Judaism people worship literally a book, therefore there were a
large number of doctors, intellectuals and academics among the Jewish
population.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_cultureOverall I don't believe
there was a significant outflow of non-Jewish academics, scientists, writers,
etc. but I don't have exact numbers to support this assumption. Some non-Jewish
writers like Thomas Mann emigrated, while others stayed (and were criticized
for it after the war). Some Jewish professors like Victor Klemperer stayed and
described their horrible experience in haunting words in their diaries. The
books from Victor Klemperer have become bestsellers in
Germany.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Klemperer-J.
-------- Original message --------From: Barry MacKichan
<[email protected]> Date: 4/21/25 11:17 PM (GMT+01:00) To: The
Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re:
[FRIAM] Academic Freedom
You’ve raised a point I’ve wondered about. I could ask ChatGPT4, but I trust
you more. 😉
Most of the emigrés I met in mathematics (and there were a lot when I was
young) were Jewish. Was there a significant outflow of non-Jewish academics,
scientists, writers, etc.? The exodus from the US is potentially greater since
the number dependent on a paycheck exceeds the numbers of any one religion. I
now live near several universities and I know graduate students moving to
Canada; the faculty are watching their grants go and come back from court
actions, but none of the younger ones seem to know where they will be in a few
years.
— Barry
On 21 Apr 2025, at 14:22, Jochen Fromm wrote:
Good point. Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, Albert Einstein, Erich Fromm and
Hannah Arendt went to the US because they were Jewish. Enrico Fermi emmigrated
to the US because his wife was Jewish. Just read his biography "Enrico Fermi:
The Last Man Who Knew Everything" which says he stayed in Italy even under
Mussolini until Mussolini started to implement Hitler's antisemitic laws.
Maybe one could say academic freedom is one of the highest freedoms because it
depends on freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
-J.
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