Discussing Nazi ideas in the classroom

Poster of The Eternal Jew (1940)
antisemitic Nazi propaganda film

I would like to contribute from the point of view of my own experience as professor at University of Ottawa to the current debate about academic freedom and racism. I used to do an exercise with students in the master seminar on Public Communication Campaigns that I’ve taught for several years. I proposed the students to read 10 principles of propaganda, drafted by one of the fathers of these persuasion techniques, and translate them into the language of modern advertising and marketing. Before doing the exercise, I did not disclose the name of the author of the 10 principles. After discussing these principles and their connection with advertising and marketing, I disclosed the name of this person: Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi ministry of propaganda, an anti-Semite that contributed with his speech and action to the extermination of Jews, Roma people, gays, human beings with disabilities, political dissidents, among others. 

Some of the students were surprised to discover the connection between Nazi propaganda and modern persuasion techniques. Some others were not as surprised. We discussed the ethical, theoretical and practical implications of this connection. But I never was denounced as a “Nazi” for bringing Goebbels’s principles to the classroom in the context of an analytical and critical exercise. Nobody accused me of being a “traitor to the Jews” (being myself Jewish) or even a “Nazi” for bringing into the classroom the ideas of Goebbels. The discussion was always respectful, rational and constructive. 

Someone would say that I was “allowed” to bring Nazi ideas into debate in the classroom because I am entitled to do so as a Jew. This is nonsense. I don’t have a privilege to talk in exclusivity about Nazism, anti-Semitism or even Judaism or the Jewish experience because my identity (that is actually a little more complex because I was born in Morocco, raised in Venezuela, moved to Canada, speak Spanish, etc.). On the contrary, I would like others (non-Jews) to study and understand the Jewish perspective, and talk about it. I don’t have that privilege, even if I’ve experienced anti-Semitism and fought against discrimination and hate speech all my life as a journalist and professor. 

Reason should prevail in the current debate. The incitation to violence, hate speech, bullying, intimidation should be denounced. Academic freedom should be protected.  Racism and discrimination should always be condemned.