July
09, 2017 Sunday
Bedtime
Story
The Nazification of Gentzen
Gentzen
was Paul Bernays’ most brilliant and successful student even though he did not
live long.
Perhaps
fearing that not towing the line of the high command would get him into serious
trouble, or perhaps he was actually brainwashed by the Nazi propaganda of Aryan
supremacy, Gentzen joined that paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party that went by
the name of Sturmabteilung or the Storm Detachment.
This
was in 1933.
In
1937 he went further and joined the Nazi party.
Then
in April 1939, leaving no stone unturned, Gentzen swore oath of loyalty to
Adolf Hitler.
The
fact that he went so far probably indicts him, that in spite of being an ape of
such high intellect, he fell in for the Nazi propaganda; or maybe not as later
in the story we shall find out.
Yet,
and yet, all this while from 1933 on wards he corresponded and stayed in touch with
his former dismissed Swiss “non-Aryan” mentor Paul Bernays and even with
Abraham Fraenkel.
Yes,
this Fraenkel is the same Fraenkel of the Zermelo-Fraenkel axiom fame.
Fraenkel
besides being a passionate mathematician was also a fervent Zionist who later
went on to become the first dean of mathematics at the newly established Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
And
this got him into serious trouble.
How
could a fervent and a loyal Nazi choose to communicate with the Chosen People?
Just
as an aside, there are many hundreds of groups of religious sects who consider them
self to be chosen by some deity for some purpose.
Among
these groups the most prominent sects are different sects of Judaism, Seventh
Day Adventists, Mormons and many more.
Such
kind of behavior is termed as ethnocentrism wherein people who are born and
raised in specific type of culture will almost by default develop a world view
wherein they would consider their own lifestyle to be norm and even superior to
the rest.
Any
other way of life (and gods) different from theirs will be treated with
suspicion or disdain.
Richard
Dawkins in his now legendary book The Selfish Gene writes that such kind of
behavior including blood feuds and inter-clan warfare can easily be explained using
Hamilton’s genetic theory.
Such
was the case with the Nazis as well who had developed their own “Aryan” ethnocentricity
and considered the so called chosen people as sworn enemies.
In
1935, due to his correspondences with mathematicians like Abraham Fraenkel and
Paul Bernays, this loyal Nazi was declared a colluder by the teachers’ union of
Göttingen.
Perhaps
to escape the persecution from the top brass, he did what he did and swore
complete allegiance to Hitler in 1939.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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