University to Erase Name of German from Memorial

The name of a German casualty listed on the World War II memorial plaque will be removed, the University announced yesterday.

In a brief statement, the University said: "The President and Fellows of Harvard College in May 1944 'voted to establish a Roll for Harvard men who give their lives in the armed services of this country or of the United Nations during the present World War.'

"This vote was a directive to those who prepared the list of names to be placed on the war memorial tablets. The inclusion of the name of one alumnus who served in the German army was an error and will be corrected."

The man in question, Adolf Sannwald, attended the Divinity School in 1924 and 1925. Taken into the Nazi army as a chaplain in January 1942. Sannwald was killed June 3, 1943 on the Russian front. His name has been included in all University casualty lists since 1946, when Harvard learned of his death.

Perhaps the most eminent enemy alumnus whose name did not appear in the plaque was Iseruku Yamamoto. A special student at the University in 1919-20, Yamamoto was commander-in-chief of the Japanese navy and was reported killed in naval action in the Pacific during May, 1943.

Apparently there was never any discussion of the inclusion of Sannwald's name, although this action was in contradiction to the University's policy in the World War I memorial plaque.

In 1931, when the University built Memorial Church for its first war dead, the names of the three alumni who had died on the German side of the war were omitted. The CRIMSON, in an editorial campaign, led the fight to put their names back on the plaque. A compromise was finally reached; although no German names appeared on the main World War I plaque, a small tablet elsewhere in the chapel commemorated Harvard's German lead.