Horkheimer declined to testify in denazification for largely self-interested reasons

Evidence

Denazification proceedings are going on at the moment against Rector Platzhoff. The chairman of the court has written to tell me that he had heard I was here, and asks me to come and see him and assist him with the matter. But I shall have to give serious consideration to the question whether I should appear as the only real prosecution witness and make an enemy of the university. There is honour but no advantage in such affairs. There is no shortage of people who were pigs just as much as Herr Platzhoff was, and who have long since been allowed to go back to educating German youth. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1713

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: The ‘honour but no advantage’ logic connects to the chapter on Horkheimer’s German-tradition belief that truth stands independent of governmental authority, yet he avoids opposing the university.

Related

• Jewish émigrés faced pressure not to testify against Nazi-era academics (similarity 0.81)