NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A book being written by an Oklahoma historian accuses New York's Columbia University of maintaining cozy relations with the Nazi's during the 1930s.
Stephen Norwood, who holds a doctorate from Columbia, says his research indicates the school failed to sever ties with Germany even after the Third Reich purged German universities of Jewish professors, burned books by Jewish authors and stripped Jews of citizenship, The New York Post reported.
Norwood said that shortly after the Nazis took over, Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler had a campus reception for the German ambassador.
Through his research Norwood also discovered that Butler "helped legitimize the Nazi regime" by sending a Columbia professor to Germany in 1936 to celebrate Heidelberg University's 550th anniversary.
A professor at the University of Oklahoma, Norwood is an expert on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
A spokesman for Columbia told the Post the administration hasn't decided whether to investigate the accusations.
