Union Jack and Tricolore was wishful thinking since all the British and French universities had refused to send delegates. Their boycott was in protest against the sacking – purely on grounds of race, religion or politics – of forty-four Heidelberg professors; and because by destroying the university’s academic freedom, the Nazis had destroyed its very credibility. This blatant denial of the Enlightenment did not deter everyone. No fewer than twenty American colleges and universities sent representatives, among them Harvard and Columbia.
