CORRECTION APPENDED

Anti-Semitic leaflets appeared in publicly-accessible locations outside at least one upperclass House and several Yard dorms yesterday, prompting startled undergraduates to tear down the fliers.

One of the fliers carries the name of National Vanguard, a Charlottesville, Va.-based organization that, in its own words, “stands up for the interests of White people.” The flier claims that “Jewish interest groups have been at the forefront of nearly all the negative changes which have taken place in the White world during the last 100 years.”

It also warns that “interracial sex is unsafe.”

A second flier charges that the invasion of Iraq was “a war for Israel,” and it claims that U.S. policy toward Israel “is an expression of the Jewish-Zionist grip on America’s political and cultural life.” That pamphlet lists Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review in Newport Beach, Calif., as its author.

Weber’s website alleges that the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust is just a fraction of the widely accepted 6 million death toll. It also features the work of Holocaust deniers David Irving and Ernst Zundel. Interviews with Weber are posted on the National Vanguard website, and the Toronto Star reported in 1988 that he was a former news editor of the Vanguard’s periodical.

Benjamin B. Collins ’06 said last night that he found fliers taped to the doorframes of the M, N, and O entryways of Eliot House. Since non-Harvard affiliates can walk up to those doors, Collins said, “whoever put these up probably couldn’t swipe in.”

“It sounded like pretty standard white supremacist stuff,” Collins said. “I took them down and passed them on to tutors.”

Ariadne C. Medler ’09 said she first saw the fliers outside her Straus A entryway yesterday at 3 p.m., but she passed by them quickly. Around 5 p.m., she looked at the fliers more closely and decided to tear them down. “Because it was outside the door instead of inside the entryway, I figured it wasn’t a Harvard-sanctioned poster,” Medler said.

Lindsay A. Maizel ’09 said she found fliers taped to the front doors on the north and south sides of Matthews Hall.

“I think everyone has the right to free speech. But it just seemed absolutely out of line,” Maizel, who is also a Crimson arts editor, said. “If someone were going to read the pamphlet, they’d have to take it off of the door anyway, so I figured I might as well read the pamphlet and remove them.”

“It didn’t take much to realize that it was kind of a lot of trash,” Maizel said.

Fliers also appeared in the Eliot House breezeway, but by early this morning, the fliers had been torn down and replaced with a sign that read: “Stop the hate."

While it is unclear why anti-Semitic activists chose to target the Yard and Eliot, the National Vanguard and Weber’s institute have both turned their attention to Harvard in recent days. Both groups' sites feature links to an article co-authored by Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt claiming that "the Israel Lobby"—a loose coalition of journalists, politicians, think tanks, and Jewish leaders—steers U.S. policy in the Middle East.

—Laura C. McKiernan contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The April 10 news article "Anti-Semitic Fliers Appear in Eliot, Yard" misstated the name of a British historian and Holocaust denier. It is David Irving.