History News Network just posted an explanation from former Professor Jacques Pluss which purports to explain his membership in a Neo-Nazi organization. Here is a summary from HNN:
Editor’s Note: A year ago, in a controversial decision, Fairleigh Dickinson University fired historian Jacques Pluss after it was revealed that he was a member of the National Socialist Movement. (The school insisted he was fired for missing classes.) The decision drew national headlines. A Neo-Nazi on the faculty of a bona fide university? News accounts indicated that Pluss, an adjunct for several years at the school, was a popular teacher. Students said he didn’t bring his politics into the classroom. It didn’t seem to add up. It didn’t for a reason, says Mr. Pluss.
So why this post? Turns out that as an undergraduate at William Paterson College I worked as a T. A. for Professor Pluss. I remember him as a passionate teacher who cared deeply about his students. He gave me my first teaching experience by allowing me to lecture on Aristotle’s Ethics. I’ve read Pluss’s explanation, but to be honest I don’t have the faintest clue as to what to make of it.