Utopia Talk / Politics / OT - Do You Like Root Beer?

Liberal Member	Tue Oct 27 20:30:48 When I was a kid 'DAD'S Root Beer' was the best root beer on the market. Well, it is back in it's original recepie and today, it is the best root beer on the market. If you like root beer and you get a chance, check it out. You will be glad you did.
Liberal Member	Tue Oct 27 20:33:23 *-recipe
roland Member	Tue Oct 27 20:35:15 No, not really.
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 27 20:39:15 I just love drinks specially designed to give us diabetes in as efficient a manner as possible! Yay!
mexicantornado Member	Tue Oct 27 20:40:22 dr pepper is the best soft drink imaginable.
Liberal Member	Tue Oct 27 20:41:09 Then load up on regular beer.
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 27 20:41:29 ^if Obama gets his way I'm gonna have to be paying for this sugar-saturated wetback's health insurance. Oh goody.
Liberal Member	Tue Oct 27 20:43:46 mt, back when I had season tickets to The Chiefs games my buddy and me used to warm up Dr Pepper, lace it with Jack Daniels and some lemon juice. It sure kept us warm.
eds Member	Tue Oct 27 21:04:09 dr pepper + sour watermelon candies = YUMMY
MrPresident07 Member	Tue Oct 27 21:31:57 Mt. Dew, Cream Soda, Mr. Pibb In that order.
kargen Member	Tue Oct 27 22:43:28 sasparilla is the way to go if you can find it. A&W Cream Soda is good also. If you have a brew store near you can also get supplies to brew your own rootbeer. pretty good stuff.
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:46:18 Social Security (United States) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Social Security Act) Jump to: navigation, search Ambox style.png This article may be too long to comfortably read and navigate. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles and using this article for a summary of the key points of the subject. (March 2009) A Social Security card issued in Florida in 1982 Social Security in the United States currently refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. The original Social Security Act[1] (1935) and the current version of the Act, as amended[2] encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs. The larger and better known programs are: * Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance * Unemployment benefits * Temporary Assistance for Needy Families * Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare) * Grants to States for Medical Assistance Programs (Medicaid) * State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) * Supplemental Security Income (SSI) U.S. Social Security is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Tax deposits are formally entrusted to[3] Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) or RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of his New Deal, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used to refer only to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans. In 2004 the U.S. Social Security system paid out almost $500 billion in benefits.[4] By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world and the single greatest expenditure in the federal budget, with 20.8% for social security, compared to 20.5% for discretionary defense and 20.1% for Medicare/Medicaid.[5] Social Security is currently the largest social insurance program in the U.S., constituting 37% of government expenditure and 7% of the gross domestic product[6] and is currently estimated to keep roughly 40% of all Americans age 65 or older out of poverty.[7] The Social Security Administration is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland, just to the west of Baltimore. Social Security privatization became a major political issue for more than three decades during the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Contents [hide] * 1 History o 1.1 Creation: The Social Security Act o 1.2 Provisions of the Act o 1.3 Controversy o 1.4 Debates on the constitutionality of the Act o 1.5 Implementation o 1.6 Expansion and evolution + 1.6.1 1939 Amendments + 1.6.2 Amendments of the 1950s + 1.6.3 Amendments of the 1960s + 1.6.4 Amendments of the 1970s + 1.6.5 Amendments of the 1980s + 1.6.6 The Supreme Court and the evolution of Social Security + 1.6.7 Dates of coverage for various workers * 2 Retirement, auxiliary, survivors, and disability benefits o 2.1 Primary Insurance Amount o 2.2 Normal retirement age o 2.3 Spouse's benefit o 2.4 Widow's benefits o 2.5 Children's benefits o 2.6 Disability o 2.7 Estimated net Social Security benefits under differing circumstances * 3 Current operation o 3.1 Joining and quitting o 3.2 Trust fund o 3.3 OHA and ODAR o 3.4 Benefit payout comparisons o 3.5 International agreements o 3.6 Social Security number o 3.7 Demographic and revenue projections o 3.8 Online benefits estimate * 4 Taxation o 4.1 Tax on wages and self-employment income + 4.1.1 Wages not subject to tax o 4.2 Federal income taxation of benefits * 5 Criticism of the program o 5.1 Claim that it discriminates against the poor and middle-class o 5.2 Claim that politicians exempted themselves from the tax o 5.3 Claim that the government lied about the maximum tax o 5.4 Claim that it gives a low rate of return o 5.5 Claim that it is a pyramid or Ponzi scheme * 6 Current controversies o 6.1 Contrast with private pensions o 6.2 Court interpretation of the Act to provide benefits o 6.3 Constitutionality * 7 Fraud and abuse o 7.1 Social security number theft o 7.2 Fraud in the acquisition and use of benefits o 7.3 Restrictions on potentially deceptive communications o 7.4 Abuse of Social Security by Texas School districts * 8 See also * 9 References * 10 Literature o 10.1 Reading notes * 11 External links [edit] History A limited form of the Social Security program began as a measure to implement "social insurance" during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when poverty rates among senior citizens exceeded 50%.[8] [edit] Creation: The Social Security Act President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, at approximately 3:30 pm EST on August 14, 1935.[9] Standing with Roosevelt are Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); unknown person in shadow; Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); unknown man in bowtie; the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD). The Social Security Act was drafted by President Roosevelt's committee on economic security, under Edwin Witte, and passed by Congress as part of the New Deal. The act was an attempt to limit what were seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children. By signing this act on August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt became the first president to advocate the protection of the elderly.[10] [edit] Provisions of the Act The Act is formally cited as the Social Security Act, ch. 531, 49 Stat. 620, now codified as 42 U.S.C. ch.7. The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death. Payments to current retirees were (and continue to be) financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer. The act also allocated money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Title III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X).[10] [edit] Controversy Social Security was controversial when originally proposed, with one point of opposition being that it would cause a loss of jobs. However, proponents argued that there was in fact an advantage: it would encourage older workers to retire, thereby creating opportunities for younger people to find jobs, which would lower the unemployment rate. Historian Edward Berkowitz subsequently contended that the Act was a cause of the "Roosevelt Recession" in 1937 and 1938. Most women and minorities were excluded from the benefits of unemployment insurance and old age pensions. Employment definitions reflected typical white male categories and patterns.[11] Job categories that were not covered by the act included workers in agricultural labor, domestic service, government employees, and many teachers, nurses, hospital employees, librarians, and social workers.[12] The act also denied coverage to individuals who worked intermittently.[13] These jobs were dominated by women and minorities. For example, women made up 90% of domestic labor in 1940 and two-thirds of all employed black women were in domestic service.[14] Exclusions exempted nearly half the working population.[13] Nearly two-thirds of all African Americans in the labor force, 70 to 80% in some areas in the South, and just over half of all women employed were not covered by Social Security.[15][16] At the time, the NAACP protested the Social Security Act, describing it as â??a sieve with holes just big enough for the majority of Negroes to fall through.â??[16] Some have suggested that this discrimination resulted from the powerful position of Southern Democrats on two of the committees pivotal for the Actâ??s creation, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.[citation needed] Southern congressmen supported Social Security as a means to bring needed relief to areas in the South that were especially hurt by the Great Depression but wished to avoid legislation which might interfere with the racial status quo in the South. The solution to this dilemma was to pass a bill that both included exclusions and granted authority to the states rather than the national government (such as the states' power in Aid to Dependent Children). Others have argued that exclusions of job categories such as agriculture were frequently left out of new social security systems worldwide because of the administrative difficulties in covering these workers.[16] Social Security reinforced traditional views of family life.[17] Women generally qualified for insurance only through their husband or their children.[17] Mothersâ?? pensions (Title IV) based entitlements on the idea that mothers would be unemployed.[17] Historical discrimination in the system can also be seen with regard to Aid to Dependent Children. Since this money was allocated to the states to distribute, some localities assessed black families as needing less money than white families. These low grant levels made it impossible for African American mothers to not work: one requirement of the program.[18] Some states also excluded children born out of wedlock, an exclusion which affected African American women more than white women.[19] One study determined that 14.4% of eligible white individuals received funding, but only 1.5% of eligible black individuals received these benefits.[16] [edit] Debates on the constitutionality of the Act In the 1930s, the Supreme Court struck down many pieces of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, including the Railroad Retirement Act. In May, the Court threw out a centerpiece of the New Deal, the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and New York State's minimum-wage law. President Roosevelt responded with an attempt to pack the court via the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. On February 5, 1937, he sent a special message to Congress proposing legislation granting the President new powers to add additional judges to all federal courts whenever there were sitting judges age 70 or older who refused to retire.[20] The practical effect of this proposal was that the President would get to appoint six new Justices to the Supreme Court (and 44 judges to lower federal courts), thus instantly tipping the political balance on the Court dramatically in his favor. The debate on this proposal was heated and widespread, and lasted over six months. Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April, and May, 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases), the Court would sustain a series of New Deal legislation.[21] Two Supreme Court rulings affirmed the constitutionality of the Social Security Act. * Steward Machine Company v. Davis, 301 U.S, 548[22] (1937) held, in a 5â??4 decision, that, given the exigencies of the Great Depression, "[It] is too late today for the argument to be heard with tolerance that in a crisis so extreme the use of the moneys of the nation to relieve the unemployed and their dependents is a use for any purpose narrower than the promotion of the general welfare". The arguments opposed to the Social Security Act (articulated by justices Butler, McReynolds, and Sutherland in their opinions) were that the social security act went beyond the powers that were granted to the federal government in the Constitution. They argued that, by imposing a tax on employers that could be avoided only by contributing to a state unemployment-compensation fund, the federal government was essentially forcing each state to establish an unemployment-compensation fund that would meet its criteria, and that the federal government had no power to enact such a program. * Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619 (1937), decided on the same day as Steward, upheld the program because "The proceeds of both [employee and employer] taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal-revenue taxes generally, and are not earmarked in any way". That is, the Social Security Tax was constitutional as a mere exercise of Congress's general taxation powers. Ida May Fuller, the first recipient [edit] Implementation Payroll taxes were first collected in 1937, also the year in which the first benefits were paid, namely the lump-sum death benefit paid to 53,236 beneficiaries.[citation needed] The first reported Social Security payment was to Ernest Ackerman, who retired only one day after Social Security began. Five cents were withheld from his pay during that period, and he received a lump-sum payout of seventeen cents from Social Security.[23] The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.[24] [edit] Expansion and evolution Further information: List of Social Security legislation (United States) The provisions of Social Security have been changing since the 1930s, shifting in response to economic worries as well as concerns over changing gender roles and the position of minorities. Officials have responded more to the concerns of women than those of minority groups.[25] Social Security gradually moved toward universal coverage. By 1950, debates moved away from which occupational groups should be included to how to provide more adequate coverage.[26] Changes in Social Security have reflected a balance between promoting equality and efforts to provide adequate protection.[27] In 1940, benefits paid totaled $35 million. These rose to $961 million in 1950, $11.2 billion in 1960, $31.9 billion in 1970, $120.5 billion in 1980, and $247.8 billion in 1990 (all figures in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation). In 2004, $492 billion of benefits were paid to 47.5 million beneficiaries.[citation needed] In 2009, nearly 51 million Americans will receive $650 billion in Social Security benefits. [edit] 1939 Amendments Economic concerns One reason for the proposed changes in 1939 was a growing concern over the impact that the reserves created by the 1935 act were having on the economy. The Recession of 1937 was blamed on the government, tied to the abrupt decrease in government spending and the $2 billion that had been collected in Social Security taxes.[28] Benefits became available in 1940 instead of 1942 and changes to the benefit formula increased the amount of benefits available to all recipients in the early years of Social Security.[29] These two policies combined to shrink the size of the reserves. The original Act had conceived of the program as paying benefits out of a large reserve. This Act shifted the conception of Social Security into the pay-as-you-go system.[30] Creation of the Social Security Trust Fund The amendments established a trust fund for any surplus funds. The managing trustee of this fund is the Secretary of the Treasury. The money could be invested in both non-marketable and marketable securities.[31] The move toward family protection Calls for reform of Social Security emerged within a few years of the 1935 Act. Even as early as 1936, some believed that women were not getting enough support. Worried that a lack of assistance might push women back into the work force, these individuals wanted Social Security changes that would prevent this. In an effort to protect the family, therefore, some called for reform which tied women's aid more concretely to their dependency on their husbands.[32] Others expressed apprehension about the complicated administrative practices of Social Security.[33] Concerns about the size of the reserve fund of the retirement program, emphasized by a recession in 1937 led to further calls for change.[34] These amendments, however, avoided the question of the large numbers of workers in excluded categories.[35] Instead, the amendments of 1939 made family protection a part of Social Security. This included increased federal funding for the Aid to Dependent Children and raised the maximum age of children eligible to receive money under the Aid to Dependent Children to 18. The amendment added wives, elderly widows, and dependent survivors of covered male workers to those who could receive old age pensions. These individuals had previously been granted lump sum payments upon only death or coverage through the Aid to Dependent Children program. If a married wage-earning womanâ??s own benefit was worth less than 50% of her husbandâ??s benefit, she was treated as a wife, not a worker.[36] If a woman who was covered by Social Security died, however, her dependents were ineligible for her benefits.[37] Since support for widows was dependent on the husband being a covered worker, African American widows were severely underrepresented and unaided by these changes.[38] In order to assure fiscal conservatives who worried about the costs of adding family protection policies, the benefits for single workers were decreased and lump-sum death payments were abolished.[39] FICA A poster for the expansion of the Social Security Act Social Security payroll taxes are collected under authority of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), and are sometimes referred to as "FICA taxes." In the original 1935 law the benefit provisions were in Title II of the Act (which is why Social Security is sometimes referred to as the "Title II" program.) The taxing provisions were in a separate title, Title VIII. There is a deep reason for this, having to do with the constitutionality of the law (see discussion of the Constitutionality of the 1935 Act). As part of the 1939 Amendments, the Title VIII taxing provisions were taken out of the Social Security Act and placed in the Internal Revenue Code. Since it wouldn't make any sense to call this new section of the Internal Revenue Code "Title VIII," it was renamed the "Federal Insurance Contributions Act." The payroll taxes collected for Social Security are of course taxes, but they can also be described as contributions to the social insurance system that is Social Security. Hence the name "Federal Insurance Contributions Act." FICA refers to the tax provisions of the Social Security Act, as they appear in the Internal Revenue Code. [edit] Amendments of the 1950s After years of debates about the inclusion of domestic labor, household employees working at least two days a week for the same person were added in 1950, along with nonprofit workers and the self-employed. Hotel workers, laundry workers, all agricultural workers, and state and local government employees were added in 1954.[40] In 1956, the tax rate was raised to 4.0% (2.0% for the employer, 2.0% for the employee) and disability benefits were added. Also in 1956, women were allowed to retire at 62 with benefits reduced by 25%. Widows of covered workers were allowed to retire at 62 without the reduction in benefits.[41] [edit] Amendments of the 1960s In 1961, retirement at age 62 was extended to men, and the tax rate was increased to 6.0%. In 1962, the changing role of the female worker was acknowledged when benefits of covered women could be collected by dependent husbands, widowers, and children. These individuals, however, had to be able to prove their dependency.[42] Medicare was added in 1965 by the Social Security Act of 1965, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" program. Social Security was changed to withdraw funds from the independent "Trust Fund" and put it into the General Fund for additional congressional revenue. In 1965, the age at which widows could begin collecting benefits was reduced to 60. Widowers were not included in this change. When divorce, rather than death, became the major cause of marriages ending, divorcées were added to the list of recipients. Divorcées over the age of 65 who had been married for at least 20 years, remained unmarried, and could demonstrate dependency on their ex-husbands received benefits.[43] The government adopted a unified budget in the Johnson administration in 1968. This change resulted in a single measure of the fiscal status of the government, based on the sum of all government activity.[44] The surplus in Social Security trust funds offsets the total debt, making it appear much smaller than it otherwise would. [edit] Amendments of the 1970s 1972 Amendments In June 1972, both houses of the United States Congress approved by overwhelming majorities 20% increases in benefits for 27.8 million Americans. The average payment per month rose from $133 to $166. The bill also set up a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to take effect in 1975. This adjustment would be made on a yearly basis if the Consumer Price Index increased by 3% or more.[45] This addition was an attempt to index benefits to inflation so that benefits would rise automatically. If inflation was 5%, the goal was to automatically increase benefits by 5% so their real value didn't decline. A technical error in the formula caused these adjustments to overcompensate for inflation, a technical mistake which has been called double-indexing. The COLAs actually caused benefits to increase at twice the rate of inflation. In October 1972, a $5 billion piece of Social Security legislation was enacted which expanded the Social Security program. For example, minimum monthly benefits of individuals employed in low income positions for at least 30 years were raised. Increases were also made to the pensions of 3.8 million widows and dependent widowers.[45] These amendments also established the Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Immigrants who had never paid into the system became eligible for SSI benefits when they reached age 65. SSI is not a Social Security benefit, but a welfare program, because the elderly and disabled poor are entitled to SSI regardless of work history. Likewise, SSI is not an entitlement, because there is no right to SSI payments. The negative financial outlook Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, during the phase-in period of Social Security, Congress was able to grant generous benefit increases because the system had perpetual short-run surpluses. Congressional amendments to Social Security took place in even numbered years (election years) because the bills were politically popular, but by the late 1970s, this era was over. For the next three decades, projections of Social Security's finances would show large, long-term deficits, and in the early 1980s, the program flirted with immediate insolvency. From this point on, amendments to Social Security would take place in odd numbered years (years that were not election years) because Social Security reform now meant tax increases and benefit reductions. Social Security became known as the "Third Rail of American Politics." Touching it meant political death. Several effects came together in the years following the 1972 amendments which rapidly changed the outlook on Social Security's long-term financial picture from positive to problematic. By the 1970s, the phase-in period, during which workers were paying taxes but few were collecting benefits, was largely over, and the ratio of elderly population to the working population was increasing. These developments brought questions about the capacity of the long term financial structure based on a pay-as-you-go program. During the Carter administration, the economy suffered double-digit inflation, coupled with very high interest rates, oil and energy crises, high unemployment and slow economic growth. Productivity growth in the United States had declined to an average annual rate of 1%, compared to 3.2% during the 1960s. There was also a growing federal budget deficit which increased to $66 billion. The 1970s are described as a period of stagflation, meaning economic stagnation coupled with price inflation, as well as higher interest rates. Price inflation (a rise in the general level of prices) creates uncertainty in budgeting and planning and makes labor strikes for pay raises more likely. These underlying negative trends were exacerbated by a colossal mathematical error made in the 1972 amendments establishing the COLAs. The mathematical error which overcompensated for inflation was particularly detrimental given the double-digit inflation of this period, and the error led to benefit increases that were nowhere near financially sustainable. The high inflation, double-indexing, and lower than expected wage growth was financial disaster for Social Security. 1977 Amendments To combat the declining financial outlook, in 1977 Congress passed and Carter signed legislation fixing the double-indexing mistake. This amendment also altered the tax formulas to raise more money,[46] increasing withholding from 2% to 6.15%.[47] With these changes, President Carter remarked, "Now this legislation will guarantee that from 1980 to the year 2030, the Social Security funds will be sound."[48] This turned out not to be the case. The financial picture declined almost immediately and by the early 1980s, the system was again in crisis. [edit] Amendments of the 1980s After the 1977 amendments, the economic assumptions surrounding Social Security projections continued to be overly optimistic as the program moved toward a crisis. For example, COLAs were attached to increases in the CPI. This meant that they changed with prices, instead of wages. Before the 1970s, wage measurements exceeded changes in price. In the 1970s, however, this reversed and real wages decreased. This meant that FICA revenues could not keep up with the increasing benefits that were being given out. Continued high unemployment levels also lowered the amount of Social Security tax that could be collected. These two developments were decreasing the Social Security Trust Fund reserves.[49] In 1982, projections indicated that the Social Security Trust Fund would run out of money by 1983, and there was talk of the system being unable to pay benefits.[50] The National Commission on Social Security Reform, chaired by Alan Greenspan, was created to address the crisis. The 1983 Amendments The National Commission on Social Security Reform (NCSSR), chaired by Alan Greenspan, was empaneled to investigate the long-run solvency of Social Security. The 1983 Amendments to the SSA were based on the NCSSR's Final Report."Report of the National Commission on Social Security Reform". http://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/gspan.html. Retrieved 2008-03-15. The NCSSR recommended enacting a six-month delay in the COLA and changing the tax-rate schedules for the years between 1984 and 1990.[51] It also proposed an income tax on the Social Security benefits of higher-income individuals. This meant that benefits in excess of a household income threshold, generally $25,000 for singles and $32,000 for couples (the precise formula computes and compares three different measures) became taxable. These changes were important for generating revenue in the short term. Also of concern was the long-term prospect for Social Security because of demographic considerations. Of particular concern was the issue of what would happen when people born during the post-World War II baby boom retired. The NCSSR made several recommendations for addressing the issue.[52] Under the 1983 amendments to Social Security, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, a previously-enacted increase in the payroll tax rate was accelerated, additional employees were added to the system, the full-benefit retirement age was slowly increased, and up to one-half of the value of the Social Security benefit was made potentially taxable income.[53][54] The 1983 Amendments and the Social Security Trust Fund The 1983 Amendments also included a provision to exclude the Social Security Trust Fund from the unified budget (In political jargon, it was proposed to be taken â??off-budget.â??[citation needed] Yet today Social Security is treated like all the other trust funds of the Unified Budget.[citation needed] It is a political way[citation needed] of using a cash budget instead of the more appropriate[citation needed] accrual budget, for all the budgets in the U.S. government. It is a way of disguising total debt.[citation needed](Source: Webb, Roy, (1991). â??The Stealth Budget: Unfunded Liabilities of the Federal Government,â?? Economic Review (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond), 77,2 May/June.) This provision also provided for the exemption of Social Security and portions of the Medicare trust funds from any general budget cuts beginning in 1993.[44] This change was one way of trying to protect Social Security funds for the future. As a result of these changes, particularly the tax increases, the Social Security system began to generate a large short-term surplus of funds, intended to cover the added retirement costs of the "baby boomers." Congress invested these surpluses into special series, non-marketable U.S. Treasury securities held by the Social Security Trust Fund. Under the law, the government bonds held by Social Security are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Because the government had adopted the unified budget during the Johnson administration, this surplus offsets the total fiscal debt, making it look much smaller[citation needed]. There has been significant disagreement over whether the Social Security Trust Fund has been saved, or has been used to finance other government programs and other tax cuts. [edit] The Supreme Court and the evolution of Social Security The Supreme Court has established that no one has any legal right to Social Security benefits. The Court decided, in Flemming v. Nestor (1960), that "entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractual right". In that case, Ephram Nestor, a Bulgarian immigrant to the United States who made contributions for covered wages for the statutorily required "quarters of coverage" was nonetheless denied benefits after being deported in 1956 for being a member of the Communist party. The case specifically held: 2. A person covered by the Social Security Act has not such a right in old-age benefit payments as would make every defeasance of "accrued" interests violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 608-611. (a) The noncontractual interest of an employee covered by the Act cannot be soundly analogized to that of the holder of an annuity, whose right to benefits are based on his contractual premium payments. Pp. 608-610. (b) To engraft upon the Social Security System a concept of "accrued property rights" would deprive it of the flexibility and [363 U.S. 603, 604] boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands and which Congress probably had in mind when it expressly reserved the right to alter, amend or repeal any provision of the Act. Pp. 610-611. 3. Section 202 (n) of the Act cannot be condemned as so lacking in rational justification as to offend due process. Pp. 611-612. 4. Termination of appellee's benefits under 202 (n) does not amount to punishing him without a trial, in violation of Art. III, 2, cl. 3, of the Constitution or the Sixth Amendment; nor is 202 (n) a bill of attainder or ex post facto law, since its purpose is not punitive. Pp. 612-621.[65] The Supreme Court was also responsible for major changes in Social Security. Many of these cases were pivotal in changing the assumptions about differences in wage earning among men and women in the Social Security system.[55] * Goldberg v. Kelly (1970): The Supreme Court ruled that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required there to be an evidentiary hearing before a recipient can be deprived of government benefits.[27] * Weinburger v. Wiesenfeld (1975): A widower claimed that he was entitled to his deceased wifeâ??s benefit, even though he had not been dependent on his wife. The court upheld his claims, stating that automatically granting widows the benefits and denying them to widowers violated equal protection in the Fourteenth Amendment.[56] [edit] Dates of coverage for various workers * 1935 All workers in commerce and industry (except railroads) under age 65. * 1939 Age restriction eliminated; seamen, bank employees added; additional domestic workers and food-processing workers removed * 1946 Railroad and Social Security earnings combined to determine eligibility for and amount of survivor benefits. * 1950 Regularly employed farm and domestic workers. Nonfarm self-employed (except professional groups). Federal civilian employees not under retirement system. Americans employed outside United States by American employer. Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. At the option of the State, State and local government employees not under retirement system. Nonprofit organizations could elect coverage for their employees (other than ministers). * 1951 Railroad workers with less than 10 years of service, for all benefits. (After October 1951, coverage is retroactive to 1937.) * 1954 Farm self-employed. Professional self-employed except lawyers, dentists, doctors, and other medical groups. Additional regularly employed farm and domestic workers. Homeworkers. State and local government employees (except firemen and policemen) under retirement system if agreed to by referendum. Ministers could elect coverage as self-employed. * 1956 Members of the uniformed services. Remainder of professional self-employed except doctors. By referendum, firemen and policemen in designated States. * 1965 Interns. Self-employed doctors. Tips. * 1967 Ministers (unless exemption is claimed on grounds of conscience or religious principles). Firemen under retirement system in all States. * 1972 Members of a religious order subject to a vow of poverty. * 1983 All federal civilian employees hired after 1983; members of Congress, the President and Vice-President and federal judges; all employees of nonprofit organizations. Covered state and local government employees prohibited from opting out of Social Security. * 1990 Employees of state and local governments not covered under a retirement plan.[57] [edit] Retirement, auxiliary, survivors, and disability benefits The largest component of OASDI is the payment of retirement benefits. Throughout a worker's career, the Social Security Administration keeps track of his or her earnings. The amount of the monthly benefit to which the worker is entitled depends upon that earnings record and upon the age at which the retiree chooses to begin receiving benefits. For the entire history of Social Security, benefits have been paid almost entirely by using revenue from payroll taxes. This is why Social Security is referred to as a pay-as-you-go system. Around 2017, payroll tax revenue is projected to be insufficient to cover Social Security benefits[citation needed] and the system will begin to withdraw money from the Social Security Trust Fund. The existence and economic significance of the Social Security Trust Fund is a subject of considerable dispute because its assets are special Treasury bonds; i.e., the money in the trust fund have been loaned back to the federal government to pay for other expenses (hence it is said that the fund consists of nothing but "IOUs"). [edit] Primary Insurance Amount A worker's retirement income benefit is based on his Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA. The PIA is the average of the highest 35 years of the worker's covered earnings (before deduction for FICA). Covered earnings in any year are limited by that year's Social Security Wage Base, the maximum earnings that could be subject to the OASDI portion of FICA payroll tax ($102,000 in 2008 [58]). If the worker has fewer than 35 years of covered earnings, zeros are used to bring the total number of years of earnings up to 35. Years of covered work more than 2 years before the year the worker turns 62 are indexed upward to reflect the increase in the national wage via the average wage index (AWI) from the time at which the earnings were covered in the past to the value of the AWI two years before the worker turns 62 (which is the most recent year available at the date the worker turns 62). One-twelfth of this 35-year average is the average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). The PIA then is 90% of the AIME up to the first (low) bendpoint, and 32% of the excess of AIME over the first bendpoint but not in excess of the second (high) bendpoint, plus 15% of the AIME in excess of the second bendpoint. Bendpoints designate the point at which the rates of return on a beneficiary's AIME change.[59][60] In 2008, the bendpoints for calculating the PIA are a change from 90% to 32% at $711 and a change to 15% at $4,288.[60][61] This PIA is then adjusted by automatic cost-of-living adjustments annually starting with the year the worker turns 62. Similar computations based on career average earnings determine disability and survivor benefits. These alternate computations average less years of earnings when the worker dies or is disabled before age 62 and use different base years for the inflation adjustments. [edit] Normal retirement age Main article: Retirement Insurance Benefits The earliest age at which (reduced) benefits are payable is 62. Full retirement benefits depend on a retiree's year of birth.[62] Those born before 1938 have a normal retirement age of 65. Normal retirement age increases by two months for each ensuing year of birth until the 1943 year of birth, when it stays at age 66 years until the year of birth 1955. Thereafter the normal retirement age increases again by two months for each year ending in the 1960 year of birth, when normal retirement age stops at age 67 for all born thereafter. A worker who starts benefits before normal retirement age has their benefit reduced based on the number of months before normal retirement age they start benefits. This reduction is 5/9 of 1% for each month up to 36 and then 5/12 of 1% for each additional month. This formula gives an 80% benefit at age 62 for a worker with a normal retirement age of 65, a 75% benefit at age 62 for a worker with a normal retirement age of 66, and a 70% benefit at age 62 for a worker with a normal retirement age of 67. A worker who delays starting retirement benefits past normal retirement age earns delayed retirement credits that increase their benefit until they reach age 70. These credits are also applied to their widow(er)'s benefit. Children and spouse benefits are not affected by these credits. The normal retirement age for widow(er) benefits shifts the year-of-birth schedule upward by two years, so that those widow(er)s born before 1940 have age 65 as their normal retirement age. [edit] Spouse's benefit Any current spouse is eligible, and divorced or former spouses are eligible generally if the marriage lasts for at least 10 years. (Civil marriages of same sex couples are not recognized by OASDI for spousal benefits because the federal DOMA law excludes them for federal recognition.) While it is arithmetically possible for one worker to generate spousal benefits for up to five of his/her spouses that he/she may have, each must be in succession after a proper divorce for each after a marriage of at least ten years. Because age 70 is the latest retirement age, and because no state recognizes marriage before teenage years, there are no more than 5 successive spousal benefits in ten-year intervals. This spousal retirement benefit is half the PIA of the worker; this is different from the spousal survivor benefit, which is the full PIA. The benefit is the product of the PIA, times one half, times the early-retirement factor if the spouse is younger than normal retirement age. There is no increase for starting spousal benefits after normal retirement age. This can occur if there is a married couple in which the younger person is the only worker and is more than 5 years younger. Only after the worker applies for retirement benefits may the non-working spouse apply for spousal retirement benefits. Note that, since the passage of the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act, in 2000, the spouse and children of a worker who has reached normal retirement age can receive benefits on the worker's record whether the worker is receiving benefits or not. Thus a worker can delay retirement without affecting spousal and children's benefits. The worker may have to begin receipt of benefits, to allow the spousal/children's benefits to begin, and then subsequently suspend his/her own benefits in order to continue the postponement of benefits in exchange for an increased benefit amount.[citation needed] [edit] Widow's benefits If a worker covered by Social Security dies, a surviving spouse can receive survivors' benefits. In some instances, survivors' benefits are available even to a divorced spouse. A father or mother with minor or disabled children in his or her care can receive benefits which are not actuarially reduced. The earliest age for a nondisabled widow(er)'s benefit is age 60. The benefit is equal to the worker's full retirement benefit for spouses who are at, or older than, normal retirement age. If the surviving spouse starts benefits before normal retirement age, there is an actuarial reduction. If the worker earned delayed retirement credits by waiting to start benefits after their normal retirement age, the surviving spouse will have those credits applied to their benefit.[63] [edit] Children's benefits Children of a retired, disabled or deceased worker receive benefits as a "dependent" or "survivor" if they are under the age of 18, or between 18 and 19 and have not yet graduated from high school, or are over the age of 18 and were disabled before the age of 22.[63] [edit] Disability Ambox content.png This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007) A worker who has worked long enough and recently enough (based on "quarters of coverage" within the recent past) to be covered can receive disability benefits. These benefits start after five full calendar months of disability, regardless of his or her age. The eligibility formula requires a certain number of credits (based on earnings) to have been earned overall, and a certain number within the ten years immediately preceding the disability, but with more-lenient provisions for younger workers who become disabled before having had a chance to compile a long earnings history. The worker must be unable to continue in his or her previous job and unable to adjust to other work, with age, education, and work experience taken into account; furthermore, the disability must be long-term, lasting 12 months, expected to last 12 months, resulting in death, or expected to result in death.[64] As with the retirement benefit, the amount of the disability benefit payable depends on the worker's age and record of covered earnings. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) uses the same disability criteria as the insured social security disability program, but SSI is not based upon insurance coverage. Instead, a system of means-testing is used to determine whether the claimants' income and net worth fall below certain income and asset thresholds. Severely disabled children may qualify for SSI. Standards for child disability are different from those for adults. Disability determination at the Social Security Administration has created the largest system of administrative courts in the United States. Depending on the state of residence, a claimant whose initial application for benefits is denied can request reconsideration or a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Such hearings sometimes involve participation of a vocational expert (VE) or medical expert (ME), both independent, unbiased witnesses, as called upon by the ALJ. Reconsideration involves a re-examination of the evidence, and the opportunity for a hearing before a (non-Attorney at law) disability hearing officer. The hearing officer then issues a decision in writing, providing justification for his/her finding. If the claimant is denied at the reconsideration stage, (s)he may request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. In some states, SSA has implemented a pilot program that eliminates the reconsideration step and allows claimants to appeal an initial denial directly to an Administrative Law Judge. Because the number of applications for Social Security is very large (approximately 650,000 applications per year), the number of hearings requested by claimants often exceeds the capacity of Administrative Law Judges. The number of hearings requested and availability of Administrative Law Judges varies geographically across the United States. In some areas of the country, it is possible for a claimant to have a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge within 90 days of his/her request. In other areas, waiting times of 18 months are not uncommon. After the hearing, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issues a decision in writing. The decision can be Fully Favorable (the ALJ finds the claimant disabled as of the date that (s) he alleges in the application through the present), Partially Favorable (the ALJ finds the claimant disabled at some point, but not as of the date alleged in the application; OR the ALJ finds that the claimant was disabled but has improved), or Unfavorable (the ALJ finds that the claimant was not disabled at all). Claimants can appeal Partially Favorable and Unfavorable decisions to Social Security's Appeals Council, which is in Virginia. The Appeals Council does not hold hearings; it accepts written briefs. Response time from the Appeals Council can range from 12 weeks to more than 3 years. If the claimant disagrees with the Appeals Council's decision, (s)he can appeal the case in the federal district court for his/her jurisdiction. As in most federal court cases, an unfavorable district court decision can be appealed to the appropriate appellate circuit court, and an unfavorable appellate court decision can be appealed to the United States Supreme Court. [edit] Estimated net Social Security benefits under differing circumstances Single men with different wages and retirement dates In 2004, Urban Institute economists C. Eugene Steuerle and Adam Carasso created a Web-based Social Security benefits calculator.[65] Using this calculator it is possible to estimate net Social Security benefits (i.e., estimated lifetime benefits minus estimated lifetime FICA taxes paid) for different types of recipients. In the book Democrats and Republicans - Rhetoric and Reality Joseph Fried used the calculator to create graphical depictions of the estimated net benefits of men and women who were at different wage levels, single and married (with stay-at-home spouses), and retiring in different years. These graphs vividly show that generalizations about Social Security benefits may be of little predictive value for any given worker, due to the wide disparity of net benefits for people at different income levels and in different demographic groups. For example, the graph below (Figure 168) shows the impact of wage level and retirement date on a male worker. As income goes up, net benefits get smaller - even negative. Impact of gender and wage levels on net SS benefits However, the impact is much greater for the future retiree (in 2045) than for the current retiree (2005). The male earning $95,000 per year and retiring in 2045 is estimated to lose over $200,000 by participating in the Social Security system.[66] In the next graph (Figure 165) the depicted net benefits are averaged for people turning age 65 anytime during the years 2005 through 2045. (In other words, the disparities shown are not related to retirement.) However, we do see the impact of gender and wage level. Because women tend to live longer, they generally collect Social Security benefits for a longer time. As a result, they get a higher net benefit, on average, no matter what the wage level.[67] Net lifetime SS benefits of married men and women where only one person works The next image (Figure 166) shows estimated net benefits for married men and women at different wage levels. In this particular scenario it is assumed that the spouse has little or no earnings and, thus, will be entitled to collect a spousal retirement benefit. According to Fried: "Two significant factors are evident: First, every column in Figure 166 depicts a net benefit that is higher than any column in Figure 165. In other words, the average married person (with a stay-at-home spouse) gets a greater benefit per FICA tax dollar paid than does the average single person - no matter what the gender or wage level. Second, there is only limited progressivity among married workers with stay-at-home spouses. Review Figure 166 carefully: The net benefits drop as the wage levels increase from $50,000 to $95,000; however, they increase as the wage levels grow from $5,000 to $50,000. In fact, net benefits are lowest for those earning just $5,000 per year."[68] The last graph shown (Figure 167) is a combination of Figures 165 and 166. In this graph it is very clear why generalizations about the value of Social Security benefits are meaningless. At the $95,000 wage level a married person could be a big winner - getting net benefits of about $165,000. On the other hand, he could lose an estimated $152,000 in net benefits if he remains single. Altogether, there is a "swing" of over $300,000 based upon the marriage decision (and the division of earnings between the spouses). In addition there is a large disparity between the high net benefits of the married person earning $95,000 ($165,152) versus the relatively low net benefits of the man or woman earning just $5,000 ($30,025 or $41,890, depending on gender). In other words, the high earner, in this scenario, gets a far greater return on his FICA tax investment than does the low earner.[69] Comparison of net SS benefits In the book How Social Security Picks Your Pocket other factors affecting Social Security net benefits are identified: Generally, people who work for more than 35 years get a lower net benefit - all other factors being equal. People who don't live long after retirement age get a much lower net benefit. (These people include men, the obese, and people with health problems related to environment or heredity.) Finally, people who derive a high percentage of income from non-wage sources get high Social Security net benefits because they appear to be "poor," when they are not. The progressive benefit formula for Social Security is blind to the income a worker may have from non-wage sources, such as spousal support, dividends and interest, or rental income.[70] [edit] Current operation [edit] Joining and quitting Obtaining a Social Security number for a child who is not working is voluntary.[71] Further, there is no general legal requirement that individuals join the Social Security program. Although the Social Security Act itself does not require a person to have a Social Security Number (SSN) to live and work in the United States.[72], the Internal Revenue Code does generally require the use of the social security number by individuals for federal tax purposes: The social security account number issued to an individual for purposes of section 205(c)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act shall, except as shall otherwise be specified under regulations of the Secretary [of the Treasury or his delegate], be used as the identifying number for such individual for purposes of this title.[73] Importantly, most parents apply for Social Security numbers for their dependent children in order to [74] include them on their income tax returns as a dependent. Everyone filing a tax return, as taxpayer or spouse, must have a Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) since the IRS is unable to process returns or post payments for anyone without an SSN or TIN. The FICA taxes are imposed on all workers and self-employed persons. Employers are required[75] to report wages for covered employment to Social Security for processing Forms W-2 and W-3. There are some specific wages which are not a part of the Social Security program (discussed below). Internal Revenue Code provisions section 3101 imposes payroll taxes on individuals and employer matching taxes. Section 3102 mandates that employers deduct these payroll taxes from workers' wages, at the worker's request (form W-4), before they are paid. Generally, the payroll tax is imposed on everyone in employment earning "wages" as defined in 3121 of the Internal Revenue Code, and also taxes net earnings from self-employment.
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:46:37 Trust fund Main article: Social Security Trust Fund Social Security taxes are paid into the Social Security Trust Fund maintained by the U.S. Treasury (technically, the "Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund", as established by 42 U.S.C. § 401(a)). Current year expenses are paid from current Social Security tax revenues. When revenues exceed expenditures, as they have in most years, the excess is invested in special series, non-marketable U.S. Government bonds, thus the Social Security Trust Fund indirectly finances the federal government's general purpose deficit spending. In 2007, the cumulative excess of Social Security taxes and interest received over benefits paid out stood at $2.2 trillion.[76] The Trust Fund is regarded by some as an accounting trick which holds no economic significance. Others argue that it has specific legal significance because the Treasury securities it holds are backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government, which has an obligation to repay its debt. It is important to note, however, that while the Treasury guarantees the interest and principal payments it makes to the Social Security Trust Fund, the benefit payments made from the Social Security Trust Fund to American retirees have no guarantee at all. The Social Security Administration's authority to make benefit payments as granted by Congress extends only to its current revenues and existing Trust Fund balance, i.e., redemption of its holdings of Treasury securities. Therefore, Social Security's ability to make full payments once annual benefits exceed revenues depends in part on the federal government's ability to make good on the bonds that it has issued to the Social Security trust funds. The federal government's ability to repay Social Security, in turn, is contingent on fiscal policies taken today (which have tended to increase deficits and the percent of the budget spent on interest and principal payments) and in the future. In July 2008 the Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration calculated an unfunded obligation of $13.6 trillion for the Social Security program. The unfunded obligation is the difference between the present value of the cost of Social Security and the present value of the assets in the Trust Fund and the future scheduled tax income of the program. In the Actuarial Note explaining the calculation, the Office of the Chief Actuary wrote that "The term obligation is used in lieu of the term liability, because liability generally indicates a contractual obligation (as in the case of private pensions and insurance) that cannot be altered by the plan sponsor without the agreement of the plan participants."[citation needed] [edit] OHA and ODAR "The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) administers the hearings and appeals program for the Social Security Administration (SSA). Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) conduct hearings and issue decisions. The Appeals Council considers appeals from hearing decisions, and acts as the final level of administrative review for the Social Security Administration."[77] In 2006, OHA was renamed to ODAR.[78] [edit] Benefit payout comparisons The current formula used in calculating the benefit level (primary insurance amount or PIA) is very progressive so that sizable benefits could be obtained with much less than the forty to thirty five years of covered wages. Workers who spend their entire careers in covered employment would be unfairly treated relative to workers who spend the first half of their careers not covered (as in municipal employment) by OASDI but are covered by an alternative plan. These people who later switch into covered employment would be entitled to both the alternative non OASDI pension (presumably from a state or municipality) and get an Old Age retirement benefit from Social Security. The progressivity of the PIA formula would in effect allow these workers to double dip. Therefore, there are two provisions that mitigate the effect of the double dipping: one for those who obtain OASDI benefits from a spouse who is a covered worker and the other for those who split their careers in covered and noncovered employment. This latter double dip has a claw back factor which starts at maximum at 10 years and grades out to zero at 30 years so that there is no clawback for those with 30 years or more of covered wages. This is to prevent those with abnormally low AIMEs due to few years of covered status from being treated as lifetime (say 44 years) career low wage earners with low AIMEs. [edit] International agreements People sometimes relocate from one country to another, either permanently or on a limited-time basis. This presents challenges to businesses, governments, and individuals seeking to ensure future benefits or having to deal with taxation authorities in multiple countries. To that end, the Social Security Administration has signed treaties, often referred to as Totalization Agreements, with other social insurance programs in various foreign countries.[79] Overall, these agreements serve two main purposes. First, they eliminate dual Social Security taxation, the situation that occurs when a worker from one country works in another country and is required to pay Social Security taxes to both countries on the same earnings. Second, the agreements help fill gaps in benefit protection for workers who have divided their careers between the United States and another country. The following countries have signed totalization agreements with the SSA (and the date the agreement became effective):[80] * Italy (November 1, 1978) * Germany (December 1, 1979) * Switzerland (November 1, 1980) * Belgium (July 1, 1984) * Norway (July 1, 1984) * Canada (August 1, 1984) * United Kingdom (January 1, 1985) * Sweden (January 1, 1987) * Spain (April 1, 1988) * France (July 1, 1988) * Portugal (August 1, 1989) * Netherlands (November 1, 1990) * Austria (November 1, 1991) * Finland (November 1, 1992) * Ireland (September 1, 1993) * Luxembourg (November 1, 1993) * Greece (September 1, 1994) * South Korea (April 1, 2001) * Chile (December 1, 2001) * Australia (October 1, 2002) * Japan (October 1, 2005) * Denmark (October 1, 2008) * Czech Republic (January 1, 2009) * Poland (March 1, 2009) * Mexico (Signed on June 29, 2004, but not yet in effect) [edit] Social Security number Main article: Social Security number A side effect of the Social Security program in the United States has been the near-universal adaptation of the program's identification number, the Social Security number, as the national identification number in the United States. The social security number, or SSN, is issued pursuant to section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 405(c)(2). The government originally stated that the SSN would not be a means of identification, but currently a multitude of U.S. entities use the Social Security number as a personal identifier. These include government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, as well as private agencies such as banks, colleges and universities, health insurance companies, and employers. The Social Security Administration admits that the Social Security Act does not require a person to have a Social Security Number to live and work in the United States, nor does it require an SSN simply for the purpose of having one.[72] The Privacy Act of 1974 was in part intended to limit usage of the Social Security number as a means of identification. Paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of section 7 of the Privacy Act, an uncodified provision, states in part: (1) It shall be unlawful for any Federal, State or local government agency to deny to any individual any right, benefit, or privilege provided by law because of such individual's refusal to disclose his social security account number. However, paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of section 7 of the Privacy Act provides in part: (2) the provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection shall not apply with respect to - (A) any disclosure which is required by Federal statute, or (B) the disclosure of a social security number to any Federal, State, or local agency maintaining a system of records in existence and operating before January 1, 1975, if such disclosure was required under statute or regulation adopted prior to such date to verify the identity of an individual.[81] The exceptions under section 7 of the Privacy Act include the Internal Revenue Code requirement that social security numbers be used as taxpayer identification numbers for individuals.[82] [edit] Demographic and revenue projections In each year since 1982, OASDI tax receipts, interest payments and other income have exceeded benefit payments and other expenditures, most recently (in 2004) by more than $150 billion.[83] As the "baby boomers" move out of the work force and into retirement, however, it is anticipated that expenses will come to exceed Social Security tax revenues in 2010 and 2011, and then briefly regaining some solvency in 2012 until plunging into permanent cash-flow negative operations from 2016 onward. According to most projections, the Social Security trust fund will begin drawing on its Treasury Notes toward the end of the next decade (around 2018 or 2019), at which time the repayment of these notes will have to be financed from the general fund. At some time thereafter, variously estimated as 2041 (by the Social Security Administration[84]) or 2052 (by the Congressional Budget Office[85]), the Social Security Trust Fund will have exhausted the claim on general revenues that had been built up during the years of surplus. At that point, current Social Security tax receipts would be sufficient to fund 74 or 78% of the promised benefits, according to the two respective projections. The Social Security Trustees suggest that either the payroll tax could increase to 16.41 percent in 2041 and steadily increased to 17.60 percent in 2081 or a cut in benefits by 25 percent in 2041 and steadily increased to an overall cut of 30 percent in 2081.[86] The Social Security Administration projects that the demographic situation will stabilize. The cash flow deficit in the Social Security system will have leveled off as a share of the economy. This projection has come into question. Some demographers argue that life expectancy will improve more than projected by the Social Security Trustees, a development that would make solvency worse. Some economists believe future productivity growth will be higher than the current projections by the Social Security Trustees. In this case, the Social Security shortfall would be smaller than currently projected. Tables published by the government's National Center for Health Statistics show that life expectancy at birth was 47.3 years in 1900, rose to 68.2 by 1950 and reached 77.3 in 2002. The latest annual report of the Social Security trustees projects that life expectancy will increase just six years in the next seven decades, to 83 in 2075. A separate set of projections, by the Census Bureau, shows more rapid growth. ("Social Security Underestimates Future Life Spans, Critics Say"[87]) The Census Bureau projection is that the longer life spans projected for 2075 by the Social Security Administration will be reached in 2050. Other experts, however, think that the past gains in life expectancy cannot be repeated, and add that the adverse effect on the system's finances may be partly offset if health improvements induce people to stay in the workforce longer. Actuarial science, of the kind used to project the future solvency of social security, is by nature inexact. The SSA actually makes three predictions: optimistic, midline, and pessimistic (until the late 1980s it made 4 projections). The Social Security crisis that was developing prior to the 1983 reforms resulted from midline projections that turned out to be too optimistic. It has been argued that the overly pessimistic projections of the mid to late 1990s were partly the result of the low economic growth (according actuary David Langer) assumptions which resulted in the projected exhaustion date being pushed back (from 2028 to 2042) with each successive Trustee's report.[citation needed] During the heavy-boom years of the '90s, the midline projections were too pessimistic. Obviously, projecting out 75 years is a significant challenge and, as such, the actual situation might be much better or much worse than predicted. The Social Security Advisory Board has on three occasions since 1999 appointed a Technical Advisory Panel to review the methods and assumptions used in the annual projections for the Social Security trust funds. The most recent report of the Technical Advisory Panel, released in June 2008 with a copyright date of October 2007, includes a number of recommendations for improving the Social Security projections.[88][89] Increased spending for Social Security will occur at the same time as increases in Medicare, as a result of the aging of the baby boomers. One projection illustrates the relationship between the two programs: From 2004 to 2030, the combined spending on Social Security and Medicare is expected to rise from 7% of national income (gross domestic product) to 13%. Two-thirds of the increase occurs in Medicare.[90] [edit] Online benefits estimate On July 22, 2008 the Social Security Administration introduced a new online benefits estimator.[91] A worker who has enough Social Security credits to qualify for benefits, but who is not currently receiving benefits on his or her own Social Security record and who is not a Medicare beneficiary, can obtain an estimate of the retirement benefit that will be provided, for different assumptions about age at retirement. [edit] Taxation [edit] Tax on wages and self-employment income Benefits are funded by taxes imposed on wages of employees and self-employed persons. As explained below, in the case of employment, the employer and employee are each responsible for one half of the Social Security tax, with the employee's half being withheld from the employee's pay check. In the case of self-employed persons (i.e., independent contractors), the self-employed person is responsible for the entire amount of Social Security tax. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) (codified in the Internal Revenue Code) imposes a Social Security withholding tax equal to 6.20% of the gross wage amount, up to but not exceeding the Social Security Wage Base ($97,500 for 2007; $102,000 for 2008; and $106,800 for 2009). The same 6.20% tax is imposed on employers. For each calendar year for which the worker is assessed the FICA contribution, the SSA credits those wages as that year's covered wages. The income cutoff is adjusted yearly for inflation and other factors. A separate payroll tax of 1.45% of an employee's income is paid directly by the employer, and an additional 1.45% deducted from the employee's paycheck, yielding a total tax rate of 2.90%. There is no maximum limit on this portion of the tax. This portion of the tax is used to fund the Medicare program, which is primarily responsible for providing health benefits to retirees. The combined tax rate of these two federal programs is 15.30% (7.65% paid by the employee and 7.65% paid by the employer). For self-employed workers (who technically are not employees and are deemed not to be earning "wages" for Federal tax purposes), the self-employment tax, imposed by the Self-Employment Contributions Act of 1954, codified as Chapter 2 of Subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 1401â??1403, is 15.3% of "net earnings from self-employment."[92] In essence, a self-employed individual pays both the employee and employer share of the tax, although half of the self-employment tax (the "employer share") is deductible when calculating the individual's federal income tax.[93][94] If an employee has overpaid payroll taxes by having more than one job or switching jobs during the year, the excess taxes will be refunded when the employee files his federal income tax return. Any excess taxes paid by employers, however, are not refundable to the employers. [edit] Wages not subject to tax Workers are not required to pay Social Security taxes on wages from certain types of work:[95] * Wages received by certain state or local government workers participating in their employers' alternative retirement system. * Net annual earnings from self-employment of less than $400. * Wages received for service as an election worker, if less than $1,400 a year (in 2008). * Wages received for working as a household employee, if less than $1,700 per year (in 2009). * Wages received by college students working under Federal Work Study programs, graduate students receiving stipends while working as teaching assistants, research assistants, or on fellowships, and most postdoctoral researchers. * Earnings received for serving as a minister (or for similar religious service) if the person has a conscientious objection to public insurance because of personal religious considerations, but only for "qualified services" performed for a religious organization. * Other minor exceptions. [edit] Federal income taxation of benefits The benefits received by retirees were not originally taxed as income in the year of receipt. Beginning in tax year 1984, with the Reagan-era reforms to repair the system's projected insolvency, retirees with incomes over $25,000 (in the case of married persons filing separately who did not live with the spouse at any time during the year, and for persons filing as "single"), or with combined incomes over $32,000 (if married filing jointly) or, in certain cases, any income amount (if married filing separately from the spouse in a year in which the taxpayer lived with the spouse at any time) generally saw part of the retiree benefits subject to Federal income tax. In 1984, the portion of the benefits potentially subject to tax was 50%.[96] Under the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993, the portion of benefits potentially subject to tax was increased to 85% beginning with the 1994 tax year.[97] [edit] Criticism of the program [edit] Claim that it discriminates against the poor and middle-class Critics, such as libertarian Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman, say that Social Security redistributes wealth from the poor to the wealthy.[98][99] Workers must pay 12.4%, including a 6.2% employer contribution, on their wages below the Social Security Wage Base ($102,000 in 2008), but no tax on income in excess of this amount.[100] Therefore, high earners pay a lower percentage of their total income because of the income caps; because of this, payroll taxes are often viewed as being regressive. Furthermore, wealthier individuals generally have higher life expectancies and thus may expect to receive larger benefits for a longer period than poorer taxpayers.[101] A single individual who dies before age 62, who is more likely to be poor, receives no retirement benefits despite his years of paying Social Security tax. On the other hand, an individual who lives to age 100, who is more likely to be wealthy, is guaranteed payments that are more than he paid into the system.[102] Supporters of Social Security say that despite its regressive tax formula, Social Security benefits are calculated using a progressive benefit formula that replaces a much higher percentage of low-income workers' pre-retirement income than that of higher-income workers (although these low-income workers pay a higher percentage of their pre-retirement income).[103] They also point to numerous studies that show that, relative to high-income workers, Social Security disability and survivor benefits paid on behalf of low-income workers more than offset any retirement benefits that may be lost because of shorter life expectancy.[104][105][106] Other research asserts that survivor benefits, allegedly an offset, actually exacerbate the problem because survivor benefits are denied to single individuals, including widow(er)s married less than nine months (except in certain situations),[107] divorced widow(er)s married less than 10 years,[108] and co-habiting or same-sex couples, unless they are legally married in their state of residence.[101][109][110][111][112] Unmarried individuals tend to be less wealthy and minorities.[113] [edit] Claim that politicians exempted themselves from the tax Critics of Social Security have said [114] that the politicians who created Social Security exempted themselves from having to pay the Social Security tax. When the federal government created Social Security, all federal employees, including the President and members of Congress, were exempt from having to pay the Social Security tax, and they received no Social Security benefits. This law was changed by the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which brought within the Social Security system all members of Congress, the President and the Vice President, federal judges, and certain executive-level political appointees, as well as all federal employees hired in any capacity on or after January 1, 1984.[115] [edit] Claim that the government lied about the maximum tax George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams claimed that the federal government has broken its own promise regarding the maximum Social Security tax.[116] Williams used data from the federal government to back up his claim. According to a 1936 pamphlet on the Social Security website, the federal government promised the following maximum level of taxation for Social Security, "... beginning in 1949, twelve years from now, you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. That is the most you will ever pay." [117] However, according to the Social Security website, by the year 2008, the tax rate was 6.2% each for the employer and employee, and the maximum income level that was subject to the tax was $102,000 raising the bar to $6,324 maximum contribution by both employee and employer (total $12,468).[118] In 2005, Williams wrote, "Had Congress lived up to those promises, where $3,000 was the maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax, controlling for inflation, today's $50,000-a-year wage earner would pay about $700 in Social Security taxes, as opposed to the more than $3,000 that he pays today." [116] According to the Social Security website, "The tax rate in the original 1935 law was 1% each on the employer and the employee, on the first $3,000 of earnings. This rate was increased on a regular schedule in four steps so that by 1949 the rate would be 3% each on the first $3,000. The figure was never $1,400, and the rate was never fixed for all time at 1%." [119] [edit] Claim that it gives a low rate of return Critics of Social Security [120] claim that it gives a low rate of return, compared to what is obtained through private retirement accounts. For example, critics point out [120] that under the Social Security laws as they existed at that time, several thousand employees of Galveston County, Texas were allowed to opt out of the Social Security program in the early 1980s, and have their money placed in a private retirement plan instead. While employees who earned $50,000 per year would have collected $1,302 per month in Social Security benefits, the private plan paid them $6,843 per month. While employees who earned $20,000 per year would have collected $775 per month in Social Security benefits, the private plan paid them $2,740 per month, at interest rates prevailing in 1996.[120] While some advocates of privatization of Social Security point to the Galveston pension plan as a model for Social Security reform, critics point to a GAO report to the House Ways and Means Committee, which indicates that, for low and middle income employees, the outcome may be less favorable. [edit] Claim that it is a pyramid or Ponzi scheme Economist Thomas Sowell argues in his books and columns that Social Security is a pyramid scheme. For example, in "Social Security: The Enron That Politicians Have In the Closet", he writes: Social Security has been a pyramid scheme from the beginning. Those who paid in first received money from those who paid in second â?? and so on, generation after generation. This was great so long as the small generation when Social Security began was being supported by larger generations resulting from the baby boom. But, like all pyramid schemes, the whole thing is in big trouble once the pyramid stops growing. When the baby boomers retire, that will be the moment of truth â?? or of more artful lies. Just like Enron. Sowell's critics say his Ponzi metaphor is not literally accurate. A Ponzi structure is inherently unsustainable, whereas Social Security, enacted before the baby boom existed, simply relies like any non-profit endeavour on projections of revenues. When revenues appear set to change, adjustments become necessary. See also Social Security debate (United States)#Criticism of Social Security as a pyramid or Ponzi scheme. [edit] Current controversies Main article: Social Security debate (United States) Proposals to reform of the Social Security system have led to heated debate, centering around funding of the program. In particular, proposals to privatize funding have caused great controversy. [edit] Contrast with private pensions Although Social Security is sometimes compared to private pensions, this is an improper comparison since Social Security is social insurance and not a retirement plan. The payment of disability benefits also distinguishes Social Security from most private pensions. In other ways the two systems are fundamentally different as well. A private pension fund accumulates the money paid into it, eventually using those reserves to pay pensions to the workers who contributed to the fund; and a private system is not universal. Social Security cannot "prefund" by investing in marketable assets such as equities, because federal law prohibits it from investing in assets other than those backed by the U.S. government. As a result, its investments to date have been limited to "special" non-negotiable securities issued by the U.S. Treasury, although some[citation needed] argue that debt issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association and other quasi-governmental organizations could meet legal standards. Social Security cannot by law invest in private equities, although some other countries (such as Canada) and some states permit their pension funds to invest in private equities. As a universal system, Social Security operates as a pipeline, through which current tax receipts from workers are used to pay current benefits to retirees, survivors, and the disabled. There is an excess of taxes withheld over benefits paid, and by law this excess is invested in Treasury securities (not in private equities) as described above. Two broad categories of private pension plans are "defined benefit pension plans" and "defined contribution pension plans." Of these two, Social Security is more similar to a defined benefit pension plan. In a defined benefit pension plan, the benefits ultimately received are based on some sort of pre-determined formula (such as one based on years worked and highest salary earned). Defined benefit pension plans generally do not include separate accounts for each participant. By contrast, in a defined contribution pension plan each participant has a specific account with funds put into that account (by the employer or the participant, or both), and the ultimate benefit is based on the amount in that account at the time of retirement. Some have proposed that the Social Security system be modified to provide for the option of individual accounts (in effect, to make the system, at least in part, more like a defined contribution pension plan). Specifically, on February 2, 2005, President George W. Bush made Social Security a prominent theme of his State of the Union Address.[121] He described the Social Security system as "headed for bankruptcy", and outlined, in general terms, a proposal based on partial privatization. Critics responded that privatization would worsen the program's solvency outlook and would require huge new borrowing. See Social Security debate (United States). Both "defined benefit" and "defined contribution" private pension plans are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which requires employers to provide minimum levels of funding to support "defined benefits" pensions. The purpose is to protect the workers from corporate mismanagement and outright bankruptcy, although in practice many private pension funds have fallen short in recent years. In terms of financial structure, the current Social Security system is analogous to an underfunded "defined benefit" pension ("underfunded" meaning not that it is in trouble, but that its "savings" are not enough to pay future benefits without collecting future tax revenues). [edit] Court interpretation of the Act to provide benefits The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has indicated that the Social Security Act has a moral purpose and should be liberally interpreted in favor of claimants when deciding what counted as covered wages for purposes of meeting the quarters of coverage requirement to make a worker eligible for benefits.[122] That court has also stated: ". . . [T]he regulations should be liberally applied in favor of beneficiaries" when deciding a case in favor of a felon who had his disability payments retroactively terminated upon incarceration.[123] According to the court, that the Social Security Act "should be liberally construed in favor of those seeking its benefits can not be doubted."[124] â??The hope behind this statute is to save men and women from the rigors of the poor house as well as from the haunting fear that such a lot awaits them when journey's end is near.â??[125] [edit] Constitutionality The constitutionality of Social Security is intricately linked to the evolving nature of Supreme Court jurisprudence on federal power (the 20th century saw a dramatic increase in allowed congressional action). When Social Security was first passed, there were significant questions over its constitutionality as the Court had found another pension scheme, the original Railroad Retirement Act, to violate the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Some such as University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein and Robert Nozick, have argued that Social Security should be unconstitutional.[citation needed] In the 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case of Helvering v. Davis[126], the Court examined the constitutionality of Social Security when George Davis of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston sued in connection with the Social Security tax. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts first upheld the tax. The District Court judgment was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. Commissioner Guy Helvering of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service) took the case to the Supreme Court, and the Court upheld the validity of the tax. During the 1930s President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the midst of promoting the passage of a large number of social welfare programs under the New Deal and the High Court struck down many of those programs (such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Recovery Act) as unconstitutional. Modified versions of the affected programs were afterwards approved by the Court, including Social Security. When Helvering v. Davis was argued before the Court, the larger issue of constitutionality of the old-age insurance portion of Social Security was not decided. The case was limited to whether the payroll tax was a suitable use of Congress's taxing power. Despite this, no serious challenges regarding the system's constitutionality are now being litigated, and Congress's spending power may be more coextensive, as shown in cases like South Dakota v. Dole[127] during the Reagan Administration. [edit] Fraud and abuse [edit] Social security number theft Because Social Security Numbers have become useful in identity theft and other forms of crime, various schemes have been perpetrated to acquire valid Social Security Numbers and related identity information. In February 2006, the Social Security Administration received several reports of an email message being circulated addressed to â??Dear Social Security Number And Card ownerâ?? and purporting to be from the Social Security Administration. The message informs the reader â??that someone illegally is using your Social Security number and assuming your identityâ?? and directs the reader to a website designed to look like Social Securityâ??s Internet website. â??I am outraged that someone would target an unsuspecting public in this manner,â?? said Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart. â??I have asked the Inspector General to use all the resources at his command to find and prosecute whoever is perpetrating this fraud.â?? See Press Release. Once directed to the phony website, the individual is reportedly asked to confirm his or her identity with â??Social Security and bank information.â?? Specific information about the individualâ??s credit card number, expiration date and PIN is then requested. â??Whether on our online website or by phone, Social Security will never ask you for your credit card information or your PINâ?? Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart reported. Social Security Administration Inspector General Oâ??Carroll recommended people always take precautions when giving out personal information. â??You should never provide your Social Security number or other personal information over the Internet or by telephone unless you are extremely confident of the source to whom you are providing the information,â?? Oâ??Carroll said. See Press Release. [edit] Fraud in the acquisition and use of benefits Given the vast size of the program, fraud occurs. The Social Security Administration has its own investigatory group, Continuing Disability Investigations (CDI). In addition, the Social Security Administration may request investigatory assistance from other federal law enforcement agencies including the Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.[citation needed] [edit] Restrictions on potentially deceptive communications Because of the importance of Social Security to millions of Americans, many direct-mail marketers packaged their mailings to resemble official communications from the Social Security Administration, hoping that recipients would be more likely to open them. In response, Congress amended the Social Security Act in 1988 to prohibit the private use of the phrase "Social Security" and several related terms in any way that would convey a false impression of approval from the Social Security Administration. The constitutionality of this law (42 U.S.C. § 1140) was upheld in United Seniors Association, Inc. v. Social Security Administration, ___ F.3d ___ (4th Cir. 2005) (text at Findlaw [128]). (Cert. denied US Supreme Court, May 30, 2006). [edit] Abuse of Social Security by Texas School districts In January 2007 the Social Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an Audit Report indicating large-scale abuse of the Social Security program by 7 small school districts in Texas. OIG concluded that the actions of these school districts would ultimately cause the Social Security program to pay ineligible beneficiaries about $2.2 billion. Essentially, the districts hired retiring teachers, normally exempt from Social Security, to work for a single day each in employment covered by Social Security. Most of the one-day workers were hired as "janitors." By withholding $2 or $3 of FICA tax from their paychecks, the retiring teachers became eligible (ostensibly) for benefits that are not normally available to American workers. For more information see Social Security Texas school district controversy. [edit] See also * Social Security debate (United States) * Social security disability * Supplemental Security Income * 401(k) o Health savings account o Individual retirement account * Ownership society * Government operations o Social Security Administration o Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner Social Security Administration * National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR) * Social Security Texas school district controversy * Franco Modigliani * Richardson v. Perales [edit] References 1. ^ Social Security Act of 1935"Social Security Online - History". http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/35actinx.html. Retrieved November 8, 2006. 2. ^ [42 USC 7]"US Code--Title 42--The Public Health and Welfare". http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title42/chapter7_.html. 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Morris (2006) "The Unrecognized Stereotyping and Discrimination Against Singles" Current Directions in Psychological Science 15 (5), 251â??254. 111. ^ C. Eugene Steuerle, Adam Carasso, "Social Security Benefits and the Language of Guarantees," (Urban Research Institute, 2000), [2] 112. ^ Brooke Oberwetter (2005-06-13). "http://www.reason.com/news/show/32932.html". Reason.com. http://www.reason.com/news/show/32932.html. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 113. ^ "http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/18/pf/marriage_wealth/index.htm". Money.cnn.com. 2006-01-18. http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/18/pf/marriage_wealth/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 114. ^ "http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/04/20050415-4.html". Whitehouse.gov. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/04/20050415-4.html. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 115. ^ SSA's Office of Legislation & Congressional Affairs (November 26, 1984). "SUMMARY of P.L. 98-21, (H.R. 1900)Social Security Amendments of 1983-Signed on April 20, 1983". Social Security Administration. http://www.ssa.gov/history/1983amend.html. Retrieved 2009-05-28. 116. ^ a b "http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams022305.asp". Jewishworldreview.com. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams022305.asp. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 117. ^ "http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssb36.html". Ssa.gov. http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssb36.html. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 118. ^ "http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10003.html". Ssa.gov. 2008-11-03. http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10003.html. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 119. ^ "http://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths.html". Ssa.gov. http://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths.html. Retrieved 2009-05-21. 120. ^ a b c http://www.ncpa.org/~ncpa/ba/ba215.html[dead link] 121. ^ Bush, George W. (February 2, 2005). "State of the Union Address". Office of the Press Secretary. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/02/20050202-11.html. Retrieved 2008-07-19. 122. ^ Conklin v. Celebrezze, 319 F.2d 569 (7th Cir. 1963). 123. ^ Dugan v. Sullivan, 957 F.2d 1384, 1389 (7th Cir. 1992) quoting Wyatt v. Barnhart, 349 F.3d 983, 986 (7th Cir. 2003). 124. ^ Carroll v. Social Sec. Bd., 128 F.2d 876 (7th Cir. 1942), citing Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619, 640-645, 57 S.Ct. 904 (1937) (hereinafter Davis). 125. ^ Davis, at 641. 126. ^ 301 U.S. 619 (1937). 127. ^ 483 U.S. 203 (1987). 128. ^ "United Seniors Association vs Social Security Administration" (PDF). http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/4th/041804p.pdf. Retrieved March 17, 2006. Works referenced * Achenbaum, Andrew. Social Security Visions and Revisions, 1986 * Kessler-Harris, Alice. In Pursuit of Equity: women, men, and the quest for economic citizenship in 20th century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. [edit] Literature Basic * â??Reforming European Pension Systemsâ?? (Arun Muralidhar and Serge Allegreza (Eds.)), Amsterdam, NL and West Lafayette, Indiana, USA: Dutch University Press, Rozenberg Publishers and Purdue University Press (essays in memory of Franco Modigliani) Further reading * Modigliani, Franco. Rethinking pension reform / Franco Modigliani, Arun Muralidhar. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004. * Muralidhar, Arun S. Innovations in pension fund management / Arun S. Muralidhar. Stanford, Calif. ; [Great Britain] : Stanford Economics + Finance, c2001. * â??The Three Pillars of Wisdom? A Reader on Globalization, World Bank Pension Models and Welfare Societyâ?? (Arno Tausch, Editor). Nova Science Hauppauge, New York, 2003 * Community of Minds : Working Together - The $44 Trillion Abyss - 2003 Fortune Magazine[1] * Social Security Suicide - AlterNet[2] * "The Fake Crisis"[3]- Rolling Stone * "What Does Price Indexing Mean for Social Security Benefits?"[4]- from Center for Retirement Research, January, 2005 (explanation of wage indexing versus price indexing) * Getting a grip on Social Security: The flaw in the system[5] * Center for American Progress: Social Security by the Numbers (reference guide with stats)[6] * "An ownership society evolves: who says individualized accounts are a better way to solve social problems? The laws of nature"[7] by William Tucker (relates self-organization theory to Social Security) * Edward D. Berkowitz and Eric R. Kingson. Social Security and Medicare: A Policy Primer. Auburn House. 1993 online 214 pp * Shirley Jenkins, et al., eds. Social Security in International Perspective: Essays in Honor of Eveline M. Burns Columbia University Press, 1969 online * Patricia P. Martin and David A. Weaver. "Social Security: A Program and Policy History," Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 66 No. 1, 2005 online version * Myers, Robert J. Social Security. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1993. * Schieber, Sylvester J., and John B. Shoven. The Real Deal. Yale University Press 1999. * Max J. Skidmore; Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America's Most Efficient Insurance Program Westview Press, 1999 online * Michael D. Tanner; Social Security and Its Discontents: Perspectives on Choice Cato Institute, 2004 online libertarian criticism * David Traver Social Security Disability Advocate's Handbook James Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-58012-033-4 * Social Security Handbook, Germania Publishing, 2006. * Social Security Program Operations Manual System. Social Security Administration. https://s044a90.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/partlist!OpenView. * Brown, Jeffrey R., Jeffrey B. Liebman, and David A. Wise (2009). Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226076485. [edit] Reading notes 1. ^ "CommUnity of Minds : Working Together - The $44 Trillion Abyss - 2003 Fortune Magazine". http://solutions.synearth.net/2003/12/17. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 2. ^ "Social Security Suicide - AlterNet". http://www.alternet.org/election04/20746/. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 3. ^ "RollingStone.com: The Fake Crisis : Politics". http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6822964?rnd=1106888734980&has-player=false. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 4. ^ ""What Does Price Indexing Mean for Social Security Benefits?"" (PDF). http://www.bc.edu/centers/crr/facts/jtf_14.pdf. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 5. ^ "Getting a grip on Social Security: The flaw in the system". http://rationalrevolution0.tripod.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=647053. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 6. ^ "Center for American Progress: Social Security by the Numbers (reference guide with stats)". http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=306535. Retrieved December 3, 2005. 7. ^ ""An ownership society evolves: who says individualized accounts are a better way to solve social problems? The laws of nature"". http://www.24hourscholar.com/p/articles/mi_m2185/is_2_16/ai_n11849811. Retrieved December 3, 2005. [edit] External links * OASDI o Social Security Administration o Social Security Internet Myths o Social Security Internet Myths part 2 o Social Security Online - Trust Fund Data - Investment data form - Investment Holdings o Social Security benefit calculators o Social Security Advisory Board o Social Security Retirement Questions FAQ o Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review o Congressional Budget Office: Social Security Primer o US Government Accountability Office, Social Security Reform: Answers to Key Questions * Social Security CALCULATORs o Alternative benefit calculator - from the Cato Institute o CBPP: Rate of Return (June 2005) o Urban Institute's USA TODAY Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Benefits Calculator o Alternative benefit calculator - from Senator Charles Schumer o Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Social Security o Social Security Death Index Information * MORE Social Security Info o AARP - American Association of Retired People o TimeLines of US SSI Numbers (Years Numbers States) o Social Security Disability Advocacy, Debate, and Professional News o Health Hippo: Evaluations of Social Security Disability o Social Security Information Project o Global Action on Aging Warning about the perils of stock-exchange "funded" pension systems o Commission to Strengthen Social Security o Social Security Disability in North Carolina * Social Security WRITINGs o NBER paper, Internal Rate of Return coauthored by Olivia Mitchell, member of President's Commission o Economic Policy Institute: Role of Social Security o Social Security Q & A by economist Doug Orr from Dollars & Sense magazine o Social Security at Wikia o TIME Archives A Collection regarding Social Security's progression and perception over time o Article on impact of raising Social Security tax cap from Dollars & Sense magazine, March/April 2008 o The Social Security Administration's Cracked Crystal Ball from Dollars & Sense magazine, November/December 2004 o FERS information o CSRS information o Social Security, article in Encarta Encyclopedia o Arno Tausch (2005) â??World Bank Pension reforms and development patterns in the world system and in the â??Wider Europeâ??. A 109 country investigation based on 33 indicators of economic growth, and human, social and ecological well-being, and a European regional case studyâ??. A slightly re-worked version of a paper, originally presented to the Conference on â??Reforming European pension systems. In memory of Professor Franco Modigliani. 24 and 25 September 2004â??, Castle of Schengen, Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies [show] v â?¢ d â?¢ e Social Security (United States) Key articles Social Security Administration · Social Security number Assistance Programs Disability Determination Services · Retirement Insurance Benefits · Social Security Disability Insurance · Supplemental Security Income · Temporary Assistance for Needy Families · Ticket to Work · Unemployment benefits Health care Medicaid · Medicare · SCHIP Law Disability fraud · FICA · Revenue Act of 1942 · Social Security Act · Social Security Act of 1965 · Social Security Death Index · Social Security Trust Fund · Windfall Elimination Provision · 7.65% Solution (Social Security) Other Legacy debt · Numident · Office of the Chief Actuary · Primary Insurance Amount · Social Security debate (United States) · Social Security Wage Base · Years of coverage [show] v â?¢ d â?¢ e New Deal Causes and legacy Great Depression · Coalition · Brain Trust · American Liberty League · Criticism New Deal Emergency Banking Act · Economy Act · Civilian Conservation Corps · Agricultural Adjustment Act · Federal Emergency Relief Administration · Tennessee Valley Authority · Executive Order 6102 · Homeowners Refinancing Act · Farm Credit Administration · Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC) · National Industrial Recovery Act · National Recovery Administration · Public Works Administration · Securities Act · Reciprocal Tariff Act · Civil Works Administration · Communications Act · Railroad Retirement Act · National Housing Act Second New Deal Works Progress Administration · Farm Security Administration · Rural Electrification Administration (Act) · National Labor Relations Board (Act) · Social Security · Federal Energy Regulatory Commission · National Bituminous Coal Conservation Act · Judiciary Reorganization Bill · United States Housing Authority Individuals Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harold L. Ickes · Harry Hopkins · Henry Morgenthau, Jr. · Huey Long · Herbert Hoover · Robert F. Wagner Category · Commons Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)#Creation:_The_Social_Security_Act" Categories: Too long article | Social Security (United States)
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:47:10 TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:49:06 The Holocaust From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Holocaust) Jump to: navigation, search "Holocaust" and "Shoah" redirect here. For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). This article is semi-protected due to vandalism. Victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust (from the Greek á½?λÏ?καÏ?Ï?Ï?ον (Holókauston): holos, "whole" and kaustos, "burnt"), also known as The Shoah (Hebrew: ×?ש×?×?×?, Latinized ha'shoah; Yiddish: ×?×?ר×?×?, Latinized churben or hurban[1]) is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, its allies, and collaborators.[2] Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents.[3] By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.[4] The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Romani were confined in overcrowded ghettos before being transported by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Nazi Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal state".[5] The Holocaust Early elements Racial policy · Nazi eugenics · Nuremberg Laws · Euthanasia program · Concentration camps (list) Jews Jews in Nazi Germany (1933â??1939) Pogroms: Kristallnacht · Bucharest · Dorohoi · IaÅ?i · Kaunas · Jedwabne · Lviv Ghettos: Budapest · Lublin · Lviv · Å?ódź · Kraków · Kovno · Minsk · Warsaw · Vilna (list) Einsatzgruppen: Babi Yar · Rumbula · Ponary · Odessa · Erntefest · Ninth Fort Final Solution: Wannsee · Operation Reinhard · Holocaust trains · Extermination camps Concentration and Extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau · BeÅ?żec · Bergen-Belsen · Bogdanovka · Buchenwald · CheÅ?mno · Dachau · Gross-Rosen · Herzogenbusch · Janowska · Jasenovac · Kaiserwald · Majdanek · Maly Trostenets · Mauthausen-Gusen · Neuengamme · Ravensbrück · Sachsenhausen · SajmiÅ¡te · Salaspils · Sobibór · Stutthof · Theresienstadt · Treblinka · Uckermark Resistance: Jewish partisans · Ghetto uprisings (Warsaw · BiaÅ?ystok · Å?achwa) End of World War II: Death marches · Berihah · Surviving Remnant Other victims Romani people · Homosexuals · People with disabilities · Slavs in Eastern Europe · Poles · Soviet POWs · Jehovah's Witnesses Responsible parties Nazi Germany: Adolf Hitler · Heinrich Himmler · Ernst Kaltenbrunner · Reinhard Heydrich · Adolf Eichmann · Rudolf HöÃ? · Nazi Party · Schutzstaffel · Gestapo · Sturmabteilung Collaborators Aftermath: Nuremberg Trials · Denazification · Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany Lists Survivors · Victims · Rescuers Resources The Destruction of the European Jews Functionalism versus intentionalism v â?¢ d â?¢ e Contents [hide] * 1 Etymology and use of the term o 1.1 Historical usage of Holocaust, Shoah, and Final Solution o 1.2 Use of the term Holocaust for Jewish and non-Jewish victims * 2 Distinctive features o 2.1 Compliance of Germany's institutions o 2.2 Dominance of ideology and the scale of the genocide o 2.3 Medical experiments * 3 Development and execution o 3.1 Origins o 3.2 Legal repression and emigration o 3.3 Kristallnacht (1938) o 3.4 Early measures in German occupied Poland o 3.5 Early measures in other occupied countries o 3.6 Resettlement and deportation to colonies and reservations + 3.6.1 Madagascar and similar plans + 3.6.2 General Government and Lublin reservation (Nisko plan) o 3.7 Concentration and labor camps (1933â??1945) o 3.8 Ghettos (1940â??1945) o 3.9 Death squads (1941â??1943) o 3.10 Pogroms (1939â??1942) o 3.11 New methods of mass murder o 3.12 Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution (1942â??1945) o 3.13 Extermination camps + 3.13.1 Gas chambers o 3.14 Jewish resistance o 3.15 Climax o 3.16 Escapes, publication of news of the death camps (Aprilâ??June 1944) o 3.17 Death marches (1944â??1945) o 3.18 Liberation * 4 Victims and death toll o 4.1 Jews + 4.1.1 By country o 4.2 Non Jewish victims + 4.2.1 Slavs # 4.2.1.1 Ethnic Poles # 4.2.1.2 Ethnic Yugoslavs # 4.2.1.3 East Slavs # 4.2.1.4 Soviet POWs + 4.2.2 Romani people + 4.2.3 Disabled and mentally ill + 4.2.4 Homosexuals + 4.2.5 Freemasons + 4.2.6 Jehovah's Witnesses + 4.2.7 Political activists * 5 See also o 5.1 Involvement of other countries and nationals o 5.2 Aftermath and historiography o 5.3 Miscellaneous * 6 Related links * 7 References * 8 Further reading Etymology and use of the term Main article: Names of the Holocaust The term holocaust originally derived from the Greek word holókauston, meaning a " whole (holos) burnt (kaustos)" sacrificial offering to a god.[6] Its Latin form (holocaustum) was first used with specific reference to a massacre of Jews by the chroniclers Roger of Howden[7] and Richard of Devizes in the 1190s. For hundreds of years, the word holocaust was used in English to denote massive sacrifices and great slaughters or massacres. During World War II, the word was used to describe Nazi atrocities regardless of whether the victims were Jews or non-Jews. Since the 1960s, the term has come to be used by scholars and popular writers to refer exclusively to the genocide of Jews.[2] The biblical word Shoah (ש×?×?×?) (also spelled Sho'ah and Shoa), meaning "calamity," became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust as early as the 1940s.[8] Shoah is preferred by many Jews for a number of reasons, including the theologically offensive nature of the word holocaust, as a Greek pagan custom.[9] Historical usage of Holocaust, Shoah, and Final Solution The word holocaust has been used since the 18th century to refer to the violent deaths of a large number of people.[10] For example, Winston Churchill and other contemporaneous writers used it before World War II to describe the Armenian Genocide of World War I.[11] Since the 1950s its use has increasingly been restricted, with its usage now mainly used as a proper noun to describe the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Holocaust was adopted as a translation of Shoahâ??a Hebrew word connoting catastrophe, calamity, disaster, and destruction[12]â??which was used in 1940 in Jerusalem in a booklet called Sho'at Yehudei Polin, and translated as The Holocaust of the Jews of Poland. Shoah had earlier been used in the context of the Nazis as a translation of catastrophe; for example, in 1934, Chaim Weizmann told the Zionist Action Committee that Hitler's rise to power was an "unvorhergesehene Katastrophe, etwa ein neuer Weltkrieg" ("an unforeseen catastrophe, perhaps even a new world war"); the Hebrew press translated Katastrophe as Shoah.[13] In the spring of 1942, the Jerusalem historian BenZion Dinur (Dinaburg) used Shoah in a book published by the United Aid Committee for the Jews in Poland to describe the extermination of Europe's Jews, calling it a "catastrophe" that symbolized the unique situation of the Jewish people.[12][14] The word Shoah was chosen in Israel to describe the Holocaust, the term institutionalized by the Knesset on April 12, 1951, when it established Yom Ha-Shoah Ve Mered Ha-Getaot, the national day of remembrance. In the 1950s, Yad Vashem was routinely translating this into English as "the Disaster"; at that time, holocaust was often used to mean the conflagration of much of humanity in a nuclear war.[15] Since then, Yad Vashem has changed its practice; the word Holocaust, usually now capitalized, has come to refer principally to the genocide of the European Jews.[8][13] The usual German term for the extermination of the Jews during the Nazi period was the euphemistic phrase Endlösung der Judenfrage (the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"). In both English and German, "Final Solution" is widely used as an alternative to "Holocaust".[16] For a time after World War II, German historians also used the term Völkermord ("genocide"), or in full, der Völkermord an den Juden ("the genocide of the Jewish people"), while the prevalent term in Germany today is either Holocaust or increasingly Shoah. Use of the term Holocaust for Jewish and non-Jewish victims While the terms "Shoah" and "Final Solution" always refer to the fate of the Jews during the Nazi rule, the term "Holocaust" is sometimes used in a wider sense to describe other genocides of the Nazi and other regimes. The Columbia Encyclopedia defines "Holocaust" as "name given to the period of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany".[17] The Compact Oxford English Dictionary[18] and Microsoft Encarta[19] give similar definitions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines "Holocaust" as "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II".[1] Scholars are divided on whether the term Holocaust should be applied to all victims of the Nazi mass murder campaign, with some using it synonymously with "Shoah" or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question", and others including the killing of Romani peoples (Roma and Sinti), Poles, the deaths of Soviet prisoners of war, Slavs, gay men, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled, and political opponents.[20] Yehuda Bauer contends that the Holocaust should include only Jews because it was the intent of the Nazis to exterminate all Jews, while the other groups were not to be totally annihilated.[21] Besides Bauer,[22] scholars Xu Xin,[23] Ben Kiernan,[24] Edward Kissi,[25] Simone Veil,[26] Monika Richarz,[27] and Francis Deng[28] refer solely to the destruction of the European Jewry when using the term "Holocaust". Inclusion of non-Jewish victims of the Nazis in the Holocaust is objected to by many persons including Elie Wiesel, and by organizations such as Yad Vashem established to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.[29] They say that the word was originally meant to describe the extermination of the Jews, and that the Jewish Holocaust was a crime on such a scale, and of such totality and specificity, as the culmination of the long history of European antisemitism, that it should not be subsumed into a general category with the other crimes of the Nazis.[29] Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann maintain that although all Jews were victims, the Holocaust transcended the confines of the Jewish community - other people shared the tragic fate of victimhood.[30] László Teleki applies the term "Holocaust" to both the murder of Jews and Romani peoples by the Nazis.[31] Sometimes, the term "Holocaust" is used to describe events that have no connection with World War II. According to David Stannard, the "American Holocaust" involved killing of an estimated 50-100 million aboriginal people, and continues on a smaller scale throughout the Americas. [32] The "Rwandan Holocaust" refers to the Rwanda genocide of 1994. The "Cambodian Holocaust" comprises the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. "African Holocaust" describes the slave trade and the colonization of Africa, also known as the Maafa.[33] Then there is the prospect of "Nuclear Armageddon", also known as "Nuclear Holocaust". Distinctive features Compliance of Germany's institutions Ghettos were established in Europe in which Jews were confined before being shipped to extermination camps. Michael Berenbaum writes that Germany became a "genocidal state."[5] Every arm of the country's sophisticated bureaucracy was involved in the killing process. Parish churches and the Interior Ministry supplied birth records showing who was Jewish; the Post Office delivered the deportation and denaturalization orders; the Finance Ministry confiscated Jewish property; German firms fired Jewish workers and disenfranchised Jewish stockholders; the universities refused to admit Jews, denied degrees to those already studying, and fired Jewish academics; government transport offices arranged the trains for deportation to the camps; German pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on camp prisoners; companies bid for the contracts to build the crematoria; detailed lists of victims were drawn up using the Dehomag (IBM Germany) company's punch card machines, producing meticulous records of the killings. As prisoners entered the death camps, they were made to surrender all personal property, which was carefully catalogued and tagged before being sent to Germany to be reused or recycled. Berenbaum writes that the Final Solution of the Jewish question was "in the eyes of the perpetrators â?¦ Germany's greatest achievement."[34] Saul Friedländer writes that: "Not one social group, not one religious community, not one scholarly institution or professional association in Germany and throughout Europe declared its solidarity with the Jews."[35] He writes that some Christian churches declared that converted Jews should be regarded as part of the flock, but even then only up to a point. Friedländer argues that this makes the Holocaust distinctive because antisemitic policies were able to unfold without the interference of countervailing forces of the kind normally found in advanced societies, such as industry, small businesses, churches, and other vested interests and lobby groups.[35] Dominance of ideology and the scale of the genocide In other genocides, pragmatic considerations such as control of territory and resources were central to the genocide policy. Yehuda Bauer argues that: The basic motivation [of the Holocaust] was purely ideological, rooted in an illusionary world of Nazi imagination, where an international Jewish conspiracy to control the world was opposed to a parallel Aryan quest. No genocide to date had been based so completely on myths, on hallucinations, on abstract, nonpragmatic ideology â?? which was then executed by very rational, pragmatic means."[36] Responding to the German philosopher Ernst Nolte who claimed that the Holocaust was not unique, the German historian Eberhard Jäckel wrote in 1986 that the Holocaust was unique because: "the National Socialist killing of the Jews was unique in that never before had a state with the authority of its responsible leader decided and announced that a specific human group, including its aged, its women and its children and infants, would be killed as quickly as possible, and then carried through this resolution using every possible means of state power".[37] The slaughter was systematically conducted in virtually all areas of Nazi-occupied territory in what are now 35 separate European countries.[38] It was at its worst in Central and Eastern Europe, which had more than seven million Jews in 1939. About five million Jews were killed there, including three million in occupied Poland and over one million in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands also died in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Greece. The Wannsee Protocol makes clear that the Nazis also intended to carry out their "final solution of the Jewish question" in England and Ireland.[39] Anyone with three or four Jewish grandparents was to be exterminated without exception. In other genocides, people were able to escape death by converting to another religion or in some other way assimilating. This option was not available to the Jews of occupied Europe,[40] unless their grandparents had converted prior to January 18, 1871. All persons of recent Jewish ancestry were to be exterminated in lands controlled by Germany.[41] Medical experiments A cold water immersion experiment at Dachau concentration camp presided over by Professor Holzlohner (left) and Dr. Rascher (right) Further information: Nazi human experimentation Another distinctive feature of the Holocaust was the extensive use of human subjects in medical experiments. German physicians carried out such experiments at Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler concentration camps.[42] The most notorious of these physicians was Dr. Josef Mengele, who worked in Auschwitz. His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes and various amputations and other brutal surgeries.[42] The full extent of his work will never be known because the truckload of records he sent to Dr. Otmar von Verschuer at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute were destroyed by von Verschuer.[43] Subjects who survived Mengele's experiments were almost always killed and dissected shortly afterwards. Romani children in Auschwitz, victims of medical experiments He seemed particularly keen on working with Romani children. He would bring them sweets and toys, and personally take them to the gas chamber. They would call him "Onkel Mengele".[44] Vera Alexander was a Jewish inmate at Auschwitz who looked after 50 sets of Romani twins: â?? I remember one set of twins in particular: Guido and Ina, aged about four. One day, Mengele took them away. When they returned, they were in a terrible state: they had been sewn together, back to back, like Siamese twins. Their wounds were infected and oozing pus. They screamed day and night. Then their parents â?? I remember the mother's name was Stella â?? managed to get some morphine and they killed the children in order to end their suffering.[44] â?? Development and execution Origins See also: Antisemitism, Christianity and antisemitism, Martin Luther and antisemitism, and Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses At 10 a.m. on April 1, 1933, members of the Sturmabteilung moved into place all over Germany, positioning themselves outside Jewish-owned businesses to deter customers. These stormtroopers are outside Israel's Department Store in Berlin. The signs read: "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews." ("Deutsche! Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden!")[45] The store was ransacked during Kristallnacht in 1938, then handed over to a non-Jewish family. Yehuda Bauer, Raul Hilberg and Lucy Dawidowicz maintained that from the Middle Ages onward, German society and culture were suffused with anti-Semitism and there was a direct link from medieval pogroms to the Nazi death camps of the 1940s.[46][47][48] Hans Küng has written that "Nazi anti-Judaism was the work of godless, anti-Christian criminals. But it would not have been possible without the almost two thousand years' pre-history of 'Christian' anti-Judaism..."[49] The Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on January 30, 1933, and the persecution and exodus of Germany's 525,000 Jews began almost immediately. In Mein Kampf (1925), Hitler had been open about his hatred of Jews, and gave ample warning of his intention to drive them from Germany's political, intellectual, and cultural life. He did not write that he would attempt to exterminate them, but he is reported to have been more explicit in private. As early as 1922, he allegedly told Major Joseph Hell, at the time a journalist: â?? Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. As soon as I have the power to do so, I will have gallows built in rows â?? at the Marienplatz in Munich, for example â?? as many as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink; they will hang there as long as the principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.[50] â?? Legal repression and emigration Further information: Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany, Racial policy of Nazi Germany, and Nuremberg Laws Throughout the 1930s, the legal, economic, and social rights of Jews were steadily restricted. In legally defining "who is Jew", the Nazis considered anyone of Jewish descent, even the descendents of converts who converted from Judaism after January 18, 1871, (the founding of the German Empire) were still considered Jews. Friedländer writes that, for the Nazis, Germany drew its strength for its "purity of blood" and its "rootedness in the sacred German earth."[51] In 1933, a series of laws were passed which contained "Aryan paragraphs" to exclude Jews from key areas: the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service; the physicians' law; and the farm law, forbidding Jews from owning farms or taking part in agriculture. Jewish lawyers were disbarred, and in Dresden, Jewish lawyers and judges were dragged out of their offices and courtrooms, and beaten.[52] At the insistence of then president Hindenburg, Hitler added an exemption allowing Jewish civil servants who were veterans of the first world war, or whose fathers or sons had served, to remain in office. (Hindenburg was disturbed that people who had fought and bled for Germany would be forced from their state jobs.) Hitler revoked this exemption in 1937. Jews were excluded from schools and universities, (Law to prevent overcrowding in schools) and from belonging to the Journalists' Association, or from being owners or editors of newspapers .[51] The Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of April 27, 1933 wrote: A self-respecting nation cannot, on a scale accepted up to now, leave its higher activities in the hands of people of racially foreign origin â?¦ Allowing the presence of too high a percentage of people of foreign origin in relation to their percentage in the general population could be interpreted as an acceptance of the superiority of other races, something decidedly to be rejected.[53] 1935: Nazi definition of Jew, Mischling, and German and legal consequences as per the Nuremberg Laws, simplified in a 1935 chart In 1935, Hitler introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which: prohibited Jews from marrying Aryans, annulled existing marriages between Jews and Aryans (the Law for the protection of German blood and German honor,) prohibited Jews from serving as civil servants, stripped German Jews of their citizenship and deprived them of all civil rights. In his speech introducing the laws, Hitler said that if the "Jewish problem" cannot be solved by these laws, it "must then be handed over by law to the National-Socialist Party for a final solution (Endlösung)."[54] The expression "Endlösung" became the standard Nazi euphemism for the extermination of the Jews. In January 1939, he said in a public speech: "If international-finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed once more in plunging the nations into yet another world war, the consequences will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation (vernichtung) of the Jewish race in Europe."[55] Jewish intellectuals were among the first to leave. The philosopher Walter Benjamin left for Paris on March 18, 1933. Novelist Leon Feuchtwanger went to Switzerland. The conductor Bruno Walter fled after being told that the hall of the Berlin Philharmonic would be burned down if he conducted a concert there: the Frankfurter Zeitung explained on April 6 that Walter and fellow conductor Otto Klemperer had been forced to flee because the government was unable to protect them against the "mood" of the German public, which had been provoked by "Jewish artistic liquidators."[56] Albert Einstein was visiting the U.S. on January 30, 1933. He returned to Ostende in Belgium, never to set foot in Germany again, and calling events there a "psychic illness of the masses"; he was expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and his citizenship was rescinded.[57] Saul Friedländer writes that when Max Liebermann, honorary president of the Prussian Academy of Arts, resigned his position, not one of his colleagues expressed a word of sympathy, and he died ostracized two years later. When the police arrived in 1943 with a stretcher to deport his 85-year-old bedridden widow, she committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates rather than be taken.[57] Kristallnacht (1938) Berlin's Fasanenstrasse synagogue after Kristallnacht, November 9â??10, 1938. Main article: Kristallnacht On 7 November 1938, Jewish minor Herschel Grünspan assassinated Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris.[58] This incident was used by the Nazis to initiate the transition from legal repression to large-scale outright violence against Jewish Germans.[58] What the Nazis claimed to be spontaneous "public outrage", was a concerted action of Nazi party and SA members and affiliates, who after a Joseph Goebbels hate speech started mass pogroms throughout Nazi Germany, then consisting of Germany proper, Austria and Sudetenland.[58] The progroms became known as (Reichs-) Kristallnacht ("the Night of Broken Glass", literally "Crystal Night"), or November pogroms.[58] Jews were attacked and Jewish property was vandalized,[58] over 7,000 Jewish shops and 1,668 synagogues (almost every synagogue in Germany) were damaged or destroyed. The death toll is assumed to be much higher than the official number of 91 dead.[58] 30,000[59] were sent to concentration camps, including Dachau, Sachsenhausen,[58] Buchenwald,[58] and Oranienburg concentration camp,[60] were they were kept for several weeks.[60] and released when they could either prove that they were about to emigrate in the near future, or after property transfers to the Nazis.[58] The German Jewry was collectively made responsible for restitution of the material damage of the pogrom, amounting to several hundreds of thousand Reichsmark, and furthermore had to pay collectively an "atonement tax" of more than a billion Reichsmark.[58] After these pogroms, Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany accelerated, while public Jewish life in Germany ceased to exist.[58] Early measures in German occupied Poland Main article: The Holocaust in Poland Further information: Invasion of Poland (1939), Occupation of Poland (1939â??1945), and History of the Jews in Poland Nazi Germany 1941, including areas annexed from Poland and the General Government area. The question of the treatment of the Jews became an urgent one for the Nazis after September 1939, when they invaded the western half of Poland, home to about two million Jews. The pre-war Second Polish Republic had been split between the Nazi German and Soviet dictators, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, in the preceding Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Of the German share of Poland, the northwestern parts were annexed, while the southeastern parts were made the Generalgouvernement led by Hans Frank. The invasion led Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and France to declare war - World War II had started. Himmler's right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich, recommended concentrating all the Polish Jews in ghettos in major cities, where they would be put to work for the German war industry. The ghettos would be in cities located on railway junctions, so that, in Heydrich's words, "future measures can be accomplished more easily."[61] During his interrogation in 1961, Adolf Eichmann testified that the expression "future measures" was understood to mean "physical extermination."[61] â?? I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear. â?? â??Hans Frank, Nazi governor of Poland.[62] German policemen tormenting a Jew in Rzeszów, Poland. In September, Himmler appointed Reinhard Heydrich head of the Reich Security Head Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA, not be to confused with the RuSHA), a body overseeing the work of the SS, the Security Police (SD), and the Gestapo in occupied Poland and charged with carrying out the policy towards the Jews described in Heydrich's report. The first organized murders of Jews by German forces occurred during Operation Tannenberg and through Selbstschutz units. Later, the Jews were herded into ghettos, mostly in the General Government area of central Poland, where they were put to work under the Reich Labor Office headed by Fritz Saukel. Here many thousands were killed in various ways, and many more died of disease, starvation, and exhaustion, but there was still no program of systematic killing. There is no doubt, however, that the Nazis saw forced labor as a form of extermination. The expression Vernichtung durch Arbeit ("destruction through work") was frequently used. Although it was clear by 1941 that the SS hierarchy led by Himmler and Heydrich was determined to embark on a policy of killing all the Jews under German control, there were important centers of opposition to this policy within the Nazi regime. The grounds for the opposition were mainly economic, not humanitarian. Hermann Göring, who had overall control of the German war industry, and the German army's Economics Department, representing the armaments industry, argued that the enormous Jewish labor force assembled in the General Government area (more than a million able-bodied workers) was an asset too valuable to waste while Germany was preparing to invade the Soviet Union. Early measures in other occupied countries When Nazi Germany occupied Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France in 1940, and Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941, anti-Semitic measures were also introduced into these countries, although the pace and severity varied greatly from country to country according to local political circumstances. Jews were removed from economic and cultural life and were subject to various restrictive laws, but physical deportation did not occur in most places before 1942. The Vichy regime in occupied France actively collaborated in persecuting French Jews. Germany's allies Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland were pressured to introduce antisemitic measures, but for the most part they did not comply until compelled to do so. The German puppet regime in Croatia, on the other hand, began actively persecuting Jews on its own initiative.[citation needed] Resettlement and deportation to colonies and reservations Madagascar and similar plans Further information: Madagascar Plan Before the war, the Nazis had thought of mass resettlements of the German (and subsequently the European) Jewry to areas outside Europe. Because Germany had lost her colonies in World War I, diplomatic efforts were undertaken to negotiate arrangements with the colonial powers, primarily the United Kingdom and France.[63] These efforts included plans to resettle Jews to British Palestine,[64] Italian Abessinia,[64] British Guinea,[65] British Rhodesia,[65] French Madagascar,[64] and Australia.[66] Plans to reclaim former German colonies like Tansania and Namibia as a place to resettle Jews were halted by Adolf Hitler, who argued that no place where "so much blood of heroic Germans had been spilled" should be made available as a residence for the "worst enemies of the Germans".[67] Of the envisioned resettlement areas, Madagascar was the most seriously discussed. While Jews had been murdered on mass scale since 1939, in 1940 some Nazis considered eliminating Jews by the unrealistic Madagascar Plan which, however futile, in retrospect did constitute an important psychological step on the path to the Holocaust.[68] The planning was carried out by Eichmann's office; Heydrich called it a "territorial final solution". The plan was to ship all European Jews to Madagascar. In view of the difficulties of supporting more population in the General Gouvernment in July 1940, Hitler, still hoping for success with the Madagascar plan, stopped the deportation of Jews there.[69] This was temporary, however, as the military situation offered no possibility to conquer Britain. The plan may have been foreseen as a remote and slower genocide through the unfavorable conditions on the island.[70] Although the Final Solution was already in place and Jews were being exterminated, the formal declaration of the Plan's end was abandoned on February 10, 1942, when the German Foreign Office was given an official explanation that due to the war with the Soviet Union Jews are going to be "sent to the east".[71] General Government and Lublin reservation (Nisko plan) Main articles: Nisko Plan and General Government On September 28, 1939, Germany gained control over the Lublin area through the German-Soviet agreement in exchange for Lithuania.[72] According to the Nisko Plan, they set up the Lublin-Lipowa Reservation in the area. The reservation was designated by Adolf Eichmann, who was assigned the task of removing all Jews from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[73] They shipped the first Jews to Lublin less than three weeks later on October 18, 1939. The first train loads consisted of Jews deported from Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[74] By January 30, 1940, historians estimate a total of 78,000 Jews had been deported to Lublin from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.[75] On 12 and 13 February 1940, the Pomeranian Jews were deported to the Lublin reservation, resulting in Pomeranian Gauleiter Franz Schwede-Coburg to be the first to declare his Gau "judenrein" ("free of Jews").[76] On March 24, 1940 Hermann Göring put a hold on the Nisko Plan, and by the end of April, abandoned it entirely.[77] By the time the Nisko Plan was stopped, the total number of Jews who had been transported to Nisko had reached 95,000, many of whom had died due to starvation.[78] During 1940 and 1941, the murder of large numbers of Jews in German occupied Poland continued, and the deportation of Jews were deported to the General Gouvernment was undertaken. The deportation of Jews from Germany, particularly Berlin, was not officially completed until 1943. (Many Berlin Jews were able to survive in hiding.) By December 1939, 3.5 million Jews were crowded into the General Government area. Concentration and labor camps (1933â??1945) Main article: Nazi concentration camps Further information: Extermination through labour and List of Nazi German concentration camps Major concentration and extermination camps: Auschwitz, Belzec, Bergen-Belsen, CheÅ?mno, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Grini, Jasenovac, Klooga, Majdanek, Maly Trostinets, Mauthausen-Gusen, Ravensbrück, and Treblinka Nazi concentration camp badges: Black triangle, Pink triangle, Purple triangle, and Yellow badge April 12, 1945: Lager Nordhausen, where 20,000 inmates are believed to have died. Leading up to the 1933 elections, the Nazis began intensifying acts of violence to wreak havoc among the opposition. With the cooperation of local authorities, they set up camps as concentration centers within Germany. One of the first was Dachau, which opened in March 1933. These early camps were meant to hold, torture, or kill only political prisoners, such as Communists and Social Democrats.[79] These early prisons â?? usually basements and storehouses â?? were eventually consolidated into full-blown, centrally run camps outside the cities. By 1942, six large extermination camps had been established in Nazi-occupied Poland.[79] After 1939, the camps increasingly became places where Jews and POWs were either killed or forced to live as slave laborers, undernourished and tortured.[80] It is estimated that the Germans established 15,000 camps in the occupied countries, many of them in Poland.[81][82] New camps were focused on areas with large Jewish, Polish intelligentsia, communist, or Roma and Sinti populations, including inside Germany. The transportation of prisoners was often carried out under horrifying conditions using rail freight cars, in which many died before reaching their destination. Extermination through labour, a means whereby camp inmates would literally be worked to death â?? or frequently worked until they could no longer perform work tasks, followed by their selection for extermination â?? was invoked as a further systematic extermination policy. Furthermore, while not designed as a method for systematic extermination, many camp prisoners died because of harsh overall conditions or from executions carried out on a whim after being allowed to live for days or months. Upon admission, some camps tattooed prisoners with a prisoner ID.[83] Those fit for work were dispatched for 12 to 14 hour shifts. Before and after, there were roll calls that could sometimes last for hours, with prisoners regularly dying of exposure.[84]
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:49:26 Ghettos (1940â??1945) Main articles: Ghettos in occupied Europe 1939-1944 and List of Nazi-era ghettos Main ghettos: Kraków Ghetto, Å?ódź Ghetto, Lwów Ghetto, Warsaw Ghetto, Vilna Ghetto and Riga ghetto A child dying in the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto After the invasion of Poland, the German Nazis established ghettos in which Jews and some Romani were confined, until they were eventually shipped to death camps to be murdered. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest, with 380,000 people, and the Å?ódź Ghetto the second largest, holding 160,000. They were, in effect, immensely crowded prisons, described by Michael Berenbaum as instruments of "slow, passive murder."[85] Though the Warsaw Ghetto contained 400,000 people[86]â??30% of the population of Warsawâ??it occupied only 2.4% of the city's area, averaging 9.2 people per room. From 1940 through 1942, starvation and disease, especially typhoid, killed hundreds of thousands. Over 43,000 residents of the Warsaw ghetto died there in 1941,[86] more than one in ten; in Theresienstadt, more than half the residents died in 1942.[85] â?? The Germans came, the police, and they started banging houses: "Raus, raus, raus, Juden raus." â?¦ [O]ne baby started to cry â?¦ The other baby started crying. So the mother urinated in her hand and gave the baby a drink to keep quiet â?¦ [When the police had gone], I told the mothers to come out. And one baby was dead â?¦ from fear, the mother [had] choked her own baby. â?? â??Abraham Malik, describing his experience in the Kovno ghetto.[87] Each ghetto was run by a Judenrat (Jewish council) of German-appointed Jewish community leaders, who were responsible for the day-to-day running of the ghetto, including the provision of food, water, heat, medicine, and shelter, and who were also expected to make arrangements for deportations to extermination camps. Heinrich Himmler ordered the start of the deportations on July 19, 1942, and three days later, on July 22, the deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto began; over the next 52 days, until September 12, 300,000 people from Warsaw alone were transported in freight trains to the Treblinka extermination camp. Many other ghettos were completely depopulated. Berenbaum writes that the defining moment that tested the courage and character of each Judenrat came when they were asked to provide a list of names of the next group to be deported. The Judenrat members went through the tried and tested methods of delay, bribery, stonewalling, pleading, and argumentation, until finally a decision had to be made. Some argued that their responsibility was to save the Jews who could be saved, and that therefore others had to be sacrificed; others argued, following Maimonides, that not a single individual should be handed over who had not committed a capital crime. Judenrat leaders such as Dr. Joseph Parnas in Lviv, who refused to compile a list, were shot. On October 14, 1942, the entire Judenrat of Byaroza committed suicide rather than cooperate with the deportations.[88] The first ghetto uprising occurred in September 1942 in the small town of Å?achwa in southeast Poland. Though there were armed resistance attempts in the larger ghettos in 1943, such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the BiaÅ?ystok Ghetto Uprising, in every case they failed against the unmatched Nazi military force, and the remaining Jews were either killed or deported to the death camps, which the Germans euphemistically called "resettlement in the East."[89] Death squads (1941â??1943) Main articles: Einsatzgruppen and Mass graves in the Soviet Union See also: Babi Yar, Rumbula massacre, and Ponary massacre A member of Einsatzgruppe D is about to shoot a man sitting by a mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. Present in the background are members of the German Army, the German Labor Service, and the Hitler Youth.[90] The back of the photograph is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa". The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 opened a new phase. The Holocaust intensified after the Nazis occupied Lithuania, where close to 80 percent of Lithuanian Jews were exterminated before the end of the year.[91][92] The Soviet territories occupied by early 1942, including all of Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Moldova and most Russian territory west of the line Leningrad-Moscow-Rostov, contained about three million Jews, including hundreds of thousands who had fled Poland in 1939. Despite the chaos of the Soviet retreat, some effort was made to evacuate Jews, and about a million succeeded in escaping further east.[citation needed] The remaining three million were left at the mercy of the Nazis. Executions of Kiev Jews by German army mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) near Ivangorod in the Ukraine. The photo was mailed from the Eastern Front to Germany and intercepted by a member of the Polish resistance." Members of the local populations in certain occupied Soviet territories participated substantially in the killings of Jews and others.[93] In Lithuania, Latvia and western Ukraine, locals were deeply involved in the murder of Jews from the very beginning of the German occupation.[93] The Latvian Arajs Kommando was an example of such an operation.[93] To the south, Ukrainians killed approximately 24,000 Jews.[93] In addition, Latvian and Lithuanian units left their own countries, and committed murders of Jews in Belarus, and Ukrainians served as concentration and death camp guards in Poland.[93] Many of the mass killings were carried out in public, a change from previous practice.[93] German witnesses to these killings emphasized the participation of the locals.[93] Ultimately it was the Germans who organized and channelled the local participants in The Holocaust.[93] Raul Hilberg writes that the German Einsatzgruppen commanders were ordinary citizens; the great majority were university-educated professionals.[94] They used their skills to become efficient killers, according to Michael Berenbaum.[90] The large-scale killings of Jews in the occupied Soviet territories was assigned to SS formations called Einsatzgruppen ("task groups"), under the overall command of Heydrich. These had been used on a limited scale in Poland in 1939, but were now organized on a much larger scale. Einsatzgruppe A (commanded by SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Franz Stahlecker) was assigned to the Baltic area, Einsatzgruppe B (SS-Brigadeführer Artur Nebe) to Belarus, Einsatzgruppe C (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Rasch) to north and central Ukraine, and Einsatzgruppe D (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Ohlendorf) to Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea, and, during 1942, the north Caucasus. Of the four Einsatzgruppen, three were commanded by holders of doctorate degrees, of whom one (Rasch) held a double doctorate.[95] According to Ohlendorf at his trial, "the Einsatzgruppen had the mission to protect the rear of the troops by killing the Jews, Gypsies, Communist functionaries, active Communists, and all persons who would endanger the security." In practice, their victims were nearly all defenseless Jewish civilians (not a single Einsatzgruppe member was killed in action during these operations). By December 1941, the four Einsatzgruppen listed above had killed, respectively, 125,000, 45,000, 75,000, and 55,000 peopleâ??a total of 300,000 peopleâ??mainly by shooting or with hand grenades at mass killing sites outside the major towns. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tells the story of one survivor of the Einsatzgruppen in Piryatin, Ukraine, when they killed 1,600 Jews on April 6, 1942, the second day of Passover: I saw them do the killing. At 5:00 p.m. they gave the command, "Fill in the pits." Screams and groans were coming from the pits. Suddenly I saw my neighbor Ruderman rise from under the soil â?¦ His eyes were bloody and he was screaming: "Finish me off!" â?¦ A murdered woman lay at my feet. A boy of five years crawled out from under her body and began to scream desperately. "Mommy!" That was all I saw, since I fell unconscious.[90] The most notorious massacre of Jews in the Soviet Union was at a ravine called Babi Yar outside Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on September 29â??30, 1941. The killing of all the Jews in Kiev was decided on by the military governor (Major-General Friedrich Eberhardt), the Police Commander for Army Group South (SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln) and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. It was carried out by a mixture of SS, SD and Security Police, assisted by Ukrainian police. On Monday the Jews of Kiev gathered by the cemetery, expecting to be loaded onto trains. The crowd was large enough that most of the men, women, and children could not have known what was happening until it was too late: by the time they heard the machine-gun fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene: â?? Kikes of the city of Kiev and vicinity! On Monday, September 29, you are to appear by 08:00 a.m. with your possessions, money, documents, valuables, and warm clothing at Dorogozhitskaya Street, next to the Jewish cemetery. Failure to appear is punishable by death. â?? â??Order posted in Kiev in Russian and Ukrainian, on or around September 26, 1941.[96] [O]ne after the other, they had to remove their luggage, then their coats, shoes, and overgarments and also underwear â?¦ Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 meters long and 30 meters wide and a good 15 meters deep â?¦ When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the Schutzpolizei and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot â?¦ The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a submachine gun â?¦ I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other â?¦ The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.[96] From left to right; Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Karl Wolff (second from the right) at the Obersalzberg, May 1939. Wolff wrote in his diary that Himmler had vomited after witnessing the mass shooting of 100 Jews.[97] In August 1941 Himmler travelled to Minsk, where he personally witnessed 100 Jews being shot in a ditch outside the town, an event described by SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff in his diary. "Himmler's face was green. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his cheek where a piece of brain had squirted up on to it. Then he vomited." After recovering his composure, he lectured the SS men on the need to follow the "highest moral law of the Party" in carrying out their tasks. Pogroms (1939â??1942) Main articles: Pogrom, Dorohoi Pogrom, IaÅ?i pogrom, Jedwabne Massacre, Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom, History of Lviv#Lviv pogroms and the Holocaust, and Odessa massacre A number of deadly pogroms by local populations occurred during the Second World War, some with Nazi encouragement, and some spontaneously. This included the IaÅ?i pogrom in Romania on June 30, 1941, in which as many 14,000 Jews were killed by Romanian residents and police, and the Jedwabne pogrom, in which between 380 and 1,600 Jews were killed by local Poles in July 1941.[98] New methods of mass murder Main articles: Gas van and Gas chamber Gas van in CheÅ?mno extermination camp Starting in December 1939, the Nazis introduced new methods of mass murder by using gas.[99] First experimental vans, equipped with gas cylinders and a sealed trunk compartment, were used to kill mental care clients of sanatoria in Pomerania, East Prussia, and occupied Poland since 1939, as part of an operation termed Aktion T4.[99] In the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, larger vans holding up to 100 people were used in a similar way since November 1941, yet the gas did not come from a cylinder but directly from the engine's exhaust.[99] These vans were introduced to the Chelmno concentration camp in December 1941, and another 15 of them were used by the death squads in the occupied Soviet Union.[99] These gas vans were developed and run under supervision of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Bureau), and were used to kill about 500,000 people, primarily Jews, but also Romani and others.[99] The vans were carefully monitored and month later a report stated that 'ninety seven thousand have been processed using three vans, without any defects showing up in the machines'[100]. A need for new mass murder techniques was also expressed by Hans Frank, governor of the General Government, who noted that this many people could not be simply shot. "We shall have to take steps, however, designed in some way to eliminate them." It was this dilemma which led the SS to experiment with large-scale killings using poison gas. Finally, SS Obersturmführer Christian Wirth seems to have been the inventor of the gas chamber. Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution (1942â??1945) Further information: Operation Reinhard and Wannsee Conference The dining room of the Wannsee villa, where the Wannsee conference took place. The 15 men seated at the table on January 20, 1942 to discuss the "final solution of the Jewish question"[101] were considered the best and the brightest in the Reich.[102] Facsimiles of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference. This page lists the number of Jews in every European country. Auschwitz I The railway line leading to the death camp at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). Empty poison gas canisters used to kill inmates and piles of hair shaven from their heads are stored in the museum at Auschwitz II. The ruins of the Crematorium II gas chamber at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). Holocaust scholar Robert Jan van Pelt comments that more people lost their lives in this room than in any other room on Earth: 500,000 people.[103] Those present at the conference: Josef Bühler, Adolf Eichmann, Roland Freisler, Reinhard Heydrich, Otto Hofmann, Gerhard Klopfer, Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger, Rudolf Lange, Georg Leibbrandt, Martin Luther, Heinrich Müller, Erich Neumann, Karl Eberhard Schöngarth, Wilhelm Stuckart By the end of 1941, Himmler and Heydrich were becoming increasingly impatient with the progress of the Final Solution. Their main opponent was Göring, who had succeeded in exempting Jewish industrial workers from the orders to deport all Jews to the General Government and who had allied himself with the Army commanders who were opposing the extermination of the Jews out of mixture of economic calculation, distaste for the SS and (in some cases) humanitarian sentiment. Although Göring's power had declined since the defeat of his Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, he still had privileged access to Hitler. The Nazis methodically tracked the progress of the Holocaust in thousands of reports and documents. Pictured is the Höfle Telegram sent to Adolf Eichmann in January, 1943, that reported that 1,274,166 Jews had been killed in the four Aktion Reinhard camps during 1942. Heydrich therefore convened the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 at a villa, Am GroÃ?en Wannsee No. 56-58, in the suburbs of Berlin to finalize a plan for the extermination of the Jews.[104] The plan became known (after Heydrich) as Aktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhard). Present were Heydrich, Eichmann, Heinrich Müller (head of the Gestapo), and representatives of the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Ministry for the Interior, the Four Year Plan Office, the Ministry of Justice, the General Government in Poland (where over two million Jews still lived), the Foreign Office, the Race and Resettlement Office, and the Nazi Party, and the office responsible for distributing Jewish property.[102] Also present was SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Lange, the SD commander in Riga, who, with Friedrich Jeckeln had recently carried out the liquidation of 24,000 Latvian Jews from the Riga ghetto in the Rumbula massacre.[104] Michael Berenbaum writes that the 15 men seated at the table were considered the best and the brightest; more than half of them held doctorates from German universities.[102] A plan was presented for killing all the Jews in Europe, including 330,000 Jews in England and 4,000 in Ireland,[104] although the minutes taken by Eichmann refer to this only through euphemisms, such as " â?¦ emigration has now been replaced by evacuation to the East. This operation should be regarded only as a provisional option, though in view of the coming final solution of the Jewish question it is already supplying practical experience of vital importance."[104] The officials were told there were 2.3 million Jews in the General Government, 850,000 in Hungary, 1.1 million in the other occupied countries, and up to 5 million in the Soviet Union (although only 3 million of these were in areas under German occupation) â??a total of about 6.5 million. These would all be transported by train to extermination camps (Vernichtungslager) in Poland, where those unfit for work would be gassed at once. In some camps, such as Auschwitz, those fit for work would be kept alive for a while, but eventually all would be killed. Göring's representative, Dr. Erich Neumann, gained a limited exemption for some classes of industrial workers. Extermination camps Approx. number killed at each extermination camp (Source: Yad Vashem[105]); Help improve coordinates: Camp name Killed Coordinates Ref. Auschwitz II 1,400,000 50°2â?²9â?³N 19°10â?²42â?³E / 50.03583°N 19.17833°E / 50.03583; 19.17833 (OÅ?wiÄ?cim (Auschwitz, Poland)) [106][107][108] Belzec 600,000 50°22â?²18â?³N 23°27â?²27â?³E / 50.37167°N 23.4575°E / 50.37167; 23.4575 (Belzec (Poland)) [109][110] Chelmno 320,000 52°9â?²27â?³N 18°43â?²43â?³E / 52.1575°N 18.72861°E / 52.1575; 18.72861 (Chelmno (Poland)) [111][112] Jasenovac 600,000 45°16â?²54â?³N 16°56â?²6â?³E / 45.28167°N 16.935°E / 45.28167; 16.935 (Jasenovac (SisaÄ?ko-MoslavaÄ?ka, Croatia)) [113][114] Majdanek 360,000 51°13â?²13â?³N 22°36â?²0â?³E / 51.22028°N 22.6°E / 51.22028; 22.6 (Majdanek (Poland)) [115][116] Maly Trostinets 65,000 53°51â?²4â?³N 27°42â?²17â?³E / 53.85111°N 27.70472°E / 53.85111; 27.70472 (Malyy Trostenets (Belarus)) [117][118] Sobibór 250,000 51°26â?²50â?³N 23°35â?²37â?³E / 51.44722°N 23.59361°E / 51.44722; 23.59361 (Sobibór (Poland)) [119][120] Treblinka 870,000 52°37â?²35â?³N 22°2â?²49â?³E / 52.62639°N 22.04694°E / 52.62639; 22.04694 (Treblinka (Poland)) [121][122] During 1942, in addition to Auschwitz, five other camps were designated as extermination camps (Vernichtungslager) for the carrying out of the Reinhard plan.[123][124] Two of these, Chelmno (also known as Kulmhof) and Majdanek were already functioning as labor camps: these now had extermination facilities added to them. Three new camps were built for the sole purpose of killing large numbers of Jews as quickly as possible, at Belzec, Sobibór and Treblinka. A seventh camp, at Maly Trostinets in Belarus, was also used for this purpose. Jasenovac was an extermination camp where mostly ethnic Serbs were killed. Extermination camps are frequently confused with concentration camps such as Dachau and Belsen, which were mostly located in Germany and intended as places of incarceration and forced labor for a variety of enemies of the Nazi regime (such as Communists and gays). They should also be distinguished from slave labor camps, which were set up in all German-occupied countries to exploit the labor of prisoners of various kinds, including prisoners of war. In all Nazi camps there were very high death rates as a result of starvation, disease and exhaustion, but only the extermination camps were designed specifically for mass killing. â?? There was a place called the ramp where the trains with the Jews were coming in. They were coming in day and night, and sometimes one per day and sometimes five per day â?¦ Constantly, people from the heart of Europe were disappearing, and they were arriving to the same place with the same ignorance of the fate of the previous transport. And the people in this mass â?¦ I knew that within a couple of hours â?¦ ninety percent would be gassed. â?? â??Rudolf Vrba, who worked on the Judenrampe in Auschwitz from August 18, 1942 to June 7, 1943.[125] The extermination camps were run by SS officers, but most of the guards were Ukrainian or Baltic auxiliaries. Regular German soldiers were kept well away. Gas chambers "Selection" on the Judenrampe, Auschwitz, May/June 1944. To be sent to the right meant slave labor; to the left, the gas chambers. This image shows the arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia, many of them from the Berehov ghetto. It was taken by Ernst Hofmann or Bernhard Walter of the SS. Courtesy of Yad Vashem.[126] At the extermination camps with gas chambers all the prisoners arrived by train. Sometimes entire trainloads were sent straight to the gas chambers, but usually the camp doctor on duty subjected individuals to selections, where a small percentage were deemed fit to work in the slave labor camps; the majority were taken directly from the platforms to a reception area where all their clothes and other possessions were seized by the Nazis to help fund the war. They were then herded naked into the gas chambers. Usually they were told these were showers or delousing chambers, and there were signs outside saying "baths" and "sauna." They were sometimes given a small piece of soap and a towel so as to avoid panic, and were told to remember where they had put their belongings for the same reason. When they asked for water because they were thirsty after the long journey in the cattle trains, they were told to hurry up, because coffee was waiting for them in the camp, and it was getting cold.[127] According to Rudolf HöÃ?, commandant of Auschwitz, bunker 1 held 800 people, and bunker 2 held 1,200.[128] Once the chamber was full, the doors were screwed shut and solid pellets of Zyklon-B were dropped into the chambers through vents in the side walls, releasing toxic HCN, or hydrogen cyanide. Those inside died within 20 minutes; the speed of death depended on how close the inmate was standing to a gas vent, according to HöÃ?, who estimated that about one third of the victims died immediately.[129] Joann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw the gassings, testified that: "Shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives."[130] When they were removed, if the chamber had been very congested, as they often were, the victims were found half-squatting, their skin colored pink with red and green spots, some foaming at the mouth or bleeding from the ears.[129] The gas was then pumped out, the bodies were removed (which would take up to four hours), gold fillings in their teeth were extracted with pliers by dentist prisoners, and women's hair was cut.[131] The floor of the gas chamber was cleaned, and the walls whitewashed.[130] The work was done by the Sonderkommando prisoners, Jews who hoped to buy themselves a few extra months of life. In crematoria 1 and 2, the Sonderkommando lived in an attic above the crematoria; in crematoria 3 and 4, they lived inside the gas chambers.[132] When the Sonderkommando had finished with the bodies, the SS conducted spot checks to make sure all the gold had been removed from the victims' mouths. If a check revealed that gold had been missed, the Sonderkommando prisoner responsible was thrown into the furnace alive as punishment.[133] At first, the bodies were buried in deep pits and covered with lime, but between September and November 1942, on the orders of Himmler, they were dug up and burned. In the spring of 1943, new gas chambers and crematoria were built to accommodate the numbers.[134] Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chambers to accommodate 2,000 people at one time, whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: we had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the Camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated, since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz. â?? Rudolf HöÃ?, Auschwitz camp commandant, Nuremberg testimony.[135] Jewish resistance Jews captured and forcibly pulled out from dug outs by the Germans during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The photo is from Jurgen Stroop's report to Heinrich Himmler Insurgents from Armia Krajowa (the Polish resistance movement) fighting during the Warsaw Uprising Warsaw Ghetto uprising * Further information: Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. * For uprisings: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, BiaÅ?ystok Ghetto Uprising, Marcinkance Ghetto Uprising, Sobibór extermination camp, Å»ydowski ZwiÄ?zek Walki, Å»ydowska Organizacja Bojowa. * For Jewish partisans, volunteers, and escapees: Yitzhak Arad, Bielski partisans, Marek Edelman, Masha Bruskina, Eugenio Calò, Jewish Brigade, Jewish partisans, Abba Kovner, Dov Lopatyn, MoÅ¡e Pijade, Haviva Reik, Special Interrogation Group, Hannah Szenes, Rudolf Vrba, Alfréd Wetzler, Shalom Yoran, Simcha Zorin. * For how stories were preserved in the Warsaw Ghetto: Emanuel Ringelblum, Oyneg Shabbos (group). Yehuda Bauer and other historians argue that resistance consisted not only of physical opposition, but of any activity that gave the Jews dignity and humanity in humiliating and inhumane conditions.[136] In every ghetto, in every deportation train, in every labor camp, even in the death camps, the will to resist was strong, and took many forms. Fighting with the few weapons that would be found, individual acts of defiance and protest, the courage of obtaining food and water under the threat of death, the superiority of refusing to allow the Germans their final wish to gloat over panic and despair. Even passivity was a form of resistance. To die with dignity was a form of resistance. To resist the demoralizing, brutalizing force of evil, to refuse to be reduced to the level of animals, to live through the torment, to outlive the tormentors, these too were acts of resistance. Merely to give a witness of these events in testimony was, in the end, a contribution to victory. Simply to survive was a victory of the human spirit." â?? Martin Gilbert. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy.[137] There are many examples of Jewish resistance, most notably the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of January 1943, when thousands of poorly armed Jewish fighters held the SS at bay for four weeks, and killed several hundred Germans before being crushed by overwhelmingly superior forces. This was followed by the uprising in the Treblinka extermination camp in May 1943, when about 200 inmates escaped from the camp after overpowering the guards. Two weeks later, there was an uprising in the Bialystok ghetto. In September, there was a short-lived uprising in the Vilnius ghetto. In October, 600 Jewish and Russian prisoners attempted an escape at the Sobibór death camp. About 60 survived and joined the Soviet partisans. On October 7, 1944, the Jewish Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz staged an uprising. Female prisoners had smuggled in explosives from a weapons factory, and Crematorium IV was partly destroyed by an explosion. The prisoners then attempted a mass escape, but all 250 were killed soon after. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Jewish partisans (see the list at the top of this section) actively fought the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe.[138] The Jewish Brigade, a unit of 5,000 volunteers from the British Mandate of Palestine fought in the British Army. German-speaking volunteers from the Special Interrogation Group performed commando and sabotage operations against the Nazis behind front lines in the Western Desert Campaign. In occupied Poland and Soviet territories, thousands of Jews fled into the swamps or forests and joined the partisans, although the partisan movements did not always welcome them. In Lithuania and Belarus, an area with a heavy concentration of Jews, and also an area which suited partisan operations, Jewish partisan groups saved thousands of Jewish civilians from extermination. No such opportunities existed for the Jewish populations of cities such as Budapest. However in Amsterdam, and other parts of the Netherlands, many Jews were active in the Dutch Resistance.[139] Joining the partisans was an option only for the young and the fit who were willing to leave their families. Many Jewish families preferred to die together rather than be separated. "Many people think the Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter, and that's not trueâ??it's absolutely not true. I worked closely with many Jewish people in the Resistance, and I can tell you, they took much greater risks than I did." â?? Pieter Meerburg. The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage.[140] For the great majority of Jews resistance could take only the passive forms of delay, evasion, negotiation, bargaining and, where possible, bribery of German officials. The Nazis encouraged this by forcing the Jewish communities to police themselves, through bodies such as the Reich Association of Jews (Reichsvereinigung der Juden) in Germany and the Jewish Councils (Judenrate) in the urban ghettos in occupied Poland. They held out the promise of concessions in exchange for each surrender, enmeshing the Jewish leadership so deeply in well-intentioned compromise that a decision to stand and fight was never possible. Holocaust survivor Alexander Kimel wrote: "The youth in the Ghettos dreamed about fighting. I believe that although there were many factors that inhibited our responses, the most important factors were isolation and historical conditioning to accepting martyrdom."[141] The historical conditioning of the Jewish communities of Europe to accept persecution and avert disaster through compromise and negotiation was the most important factor in the failure to resist until the very end. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising took place only when the Jewish population had been reduced from 500,000 to 100,000, and it was obvious that no further compromise was possible. Paul Johnson writes: "The Jews had been persecuted for a millennium and a half and had learned from long experience that resistance cost lives rather than saved them. Their history, their theology, their folklore, their social structure, even their vocabulary trained them to negotiate, to pay, to plead, to protest, not to fight."[142] The Jewish communities were also systematically deceived about German intentions, and were cut off from most sources of news from the outside world. The Germans told the Jews that they were being deported to work camps â?? euphemistically calling it "resettlement in the East" â?? and maintained this illusion through elaborate deceptions all the way to the gas chamber doors (which were marked with labels stating that the chambers were for removal of lice) to avoid uprisings. As photographs testify, Jews disembarked at the railway stations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps carrying sacks and suitcases, clearly having no idea of the fate that awaited them. Rumours of the reality of the extermination camps filtered back only slowly to the ghettos, and were usually not believed, just as they were not believed when couriers such as Jan Karski, the Polish resistance fighter, conveyed them to the western Allies.[143] Climax Heydrich was assassinated in Prague in June 1942. He was succeeded as head of the RSHA by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Kaltenbrunner and Eichmann, under Himmler's close supervision, oversaw the climax of the Final Solution. During 1943 and 1944, the extermination camps worked at a furious rate to kill the hundreds of thousands of people shipped to them by rail from almost every country within the German sphere of influence. By the spring of 1944, up to 8,000 people were being gassed every day at Auschwitz.[144] Despite the high productivity of the war industries based in the Jewish ghettos in the General Government, during 1943 they were liquidated, and their populations shipped to the camps for extermination. The largest of these operations, the deportation of 100,000 people from the Warsaw Ghetto in early 1943, provoked the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was suppressed with great brutality. At the same time, rail shipments arrived regularly from western and southern Europe. Few Jews were shipped from the occupied Soviet territories to the camps: the killing of Jews in this zone was left in the hands of the SS, aided by locally recruited auxiliaries. In any case, by the end of 1943 the Germans had been driven from most Soviet territory. Shipments of Jews to the camps had priority on the German railways, and continued even in the face of the increasingly dire military situation after the Battle of Stalingrad at the end of 1942 and the escalating Allied air attacks on German industry and transport. Army leaders and economic managers complained at this diversion of resources and at the killing of irreplaceable skilled Jewish workers. By 1944, moreover, it was evident to most Germans not blinded by Nazi fanaticism that Germany was losing the war. Many senior officials began to fear the retribution that might await Germany and them personally for the crimes being committed in their name. But the power of Himmler and the SS within the German Reich was too great to resist, and Himmler could always evoke Hitler's authority for his demands. Budapest, Hungary - Captured Jewish women in Wesselényi Street, 20-22 October 1944 Budapest, Hungary - Hungarian and German soldiers drive arrested Jews into the municipal theatre dated October 1944. In October 1943, Himmler gave a speech to senior Nazi Party officials gathered in Posen (Poznan in western Poland). Here he came closer than ever before to stating explicitly that he was intent on exterminating the Jews of Europe: I may here in this closest of circles allude to a question which you, my party comrades, have all taken for granted, but which has become for me the most difficult question of my life, the Jewish question â?¦ I ask of you that what I say in this circle you really only hear and never speak of â?¦ We come to the question: how is it with the women and children? I have resolved even here on a completely clear solution. I do not consider myself justified in eradicating the menâ??so to speak killing them or ordering them to be killedâ??and allowing the avengers in the shape of the children to grow up â?¦ The difficult decision had to be taken, to cause this people to disappear from the earth. The audience for this speech included Admiral Karl Dönitz and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, both of whom successfully claimed at the Nuremberg trials that they had had no knowledge of the Final Solution. The text of this speech was not known at the time of their trials. The scale of extermination slackened somewhat at the beginning of 1944 once the ghettos in occupied Poland were emptied, but in March 19, 1944, Hitler ordered the military occupation of Hungary, and Eichmann was dispatched to Budapest to supervise the deportation of Hungary's 800,000 Jews. Hitler had personally complained to the Hungarian regent Admiral Miklos Horthy on the previous day, March 18, 1944, that: â?? Hungary did nothing in the matter of the Jewish problem, and was not prepared to settle accounts with the large Jewish population in Hungary.[145] â?? More than half of them were shipped to Auschwitz in the course of the year. The commandant, Rudolf HöÃ?, said at his trial that he killed 400,000 Hungarian Jews in three months. This operation met strong opposition within the Nazi hierarchy, and there were some suggestions that Hitler should offer the Allies a deal under which the Hungarian Jews would be spared in exchange for a favorable peace settlement. There were unofficial negotiations in Istanbul between Himmler's agents, British agents, and representatives of Jewish organizations, and at one point an attempt by Eichmann to exchange one million Jews for 10,000 trucksâ??the so-called "blood for goods" proposalâ??but there was no real possibility of such a deal being struck (see Joel Brand and Rudolf Kastner). Escapes, publication of news of the death camps (Aprilâ??June 1944) Bratislava, Juneâ??July 1944. Rudolf Vrba (right) escaped from Auschwitz on April 7, 1944, bringing the first credible news to the world of the mass murder that was taking place there. Arnost Rosin (left), escaped on May 27, 1944.[146] Auschwitz concentration camp photos of Pilecki (1941) Escapes from the camps were few, but not unknown. The few Auschwitz escapes that succeeded were made possible by the Polish underground inside the camp and local people outside.[147] In 1940, the Auschwitz commandant reported that "the local population is fanatically Polish and â?¦ prepared to take any action against the hated SS camp personnel. Every prisoner who managed to escape can count on help the moment he reaches the wall of a first Polish farmstead."[148] In February 1942, an escaped inmate from the Chelmno extermination camp, Jacob Grojanowski, reached the Warsaw Ghetto, where he gave detailed information about the Chelmno camp to the Oneg Shabbat group. His report, which became known as the Grojanowski Report, was smuggled out of the ghetto through the channels of the Polish underground to the Delegatura, and reached London by June 1942. It is unclear what was done with the report at that point.[111][149][150][151] In the meantime, by the 1st of February, the United States Office of War Information had decided not to release information about the extermination of the Jews because it was felt that it would mislead the public into thinking the war was simply a Jewish problem.[152] In 1943 the news about gassing Jews was at least broadcasted from London to The Netherlands. It was also published in illegal newspapers of Dutch resistance (for example in Het Parool of September 27, 1943). However, the news was so unbelievable that many assumed it was merely war propaganda. The publications were halted because they were counter-productive for the Dutch resistance. Nevertheless, many Jews were warned that they would be murdered, but as escape was impossible for most of them, they preferred to believe that the warnings were false.[153][154] In September 1940, Captain Witold Pilecki, a member of the Polish underground and a soldier of the Home Army, worked out a plan to enter Auschwitz and volunteered to be sent there, the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz. He organized an underground network ZwiÄ?zek Organizacji Wojskowej - (eng.Union of Military Organizations) that was ready to initiate an uprising but it was decided that the probability of success was too low for the uprising to succeed. UMO's numerous and detailed reports became later a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz with information that became the basis of a two-part report in August 1943 that was sent to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in London. The report included details about the gas chambers, about "selection," and about the sterilization experiments. It stated that there were three crematoria in Birkenau able to burn 10,000 people daily, and that 30,000 people had been gassed in one day. The author wrote: "History knows no parallel of such destruction of human life." Raul Hilberg writes that the report was filed away with a note that there was no indication as to the reliability of the source.[155] When Pilecki returned to Poland after the war the communist authorities arrested and accused him of spying for the Polish government in exile. He was sentenced to death in a show trial and was executed on May 25, 1948. Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, Jewish inmates, escaped from Auschwitz in April 1944, eventually reaching Slovakia. The 32-page document they dictated to Jewish officials about the mass murder at Auschwitz became known as the Vrba-Wetzler report. Vrba had an eidetic memory and had worked on the Judenrampe, where Jews disembarked from the trains to be "selected" either for the gas chamber or slave labor. The level of detail with which he described the transports allowed Slovakian officials to compare his account with their own deportation records, and the corroboration convinced the Allies to take the report seriously.[146][156] Two other Auschwitz inmates, Arnost Rosin and CzesÅ?aw Mordowicz escaped on May 27, 1944, arriving in Slovakia on June 6, the day of the Normandy landing (D-Day). Hearing about Normandy, they believed the war was over and got drunk to celebrate, using dollars they'd smuggled out of the camp. They were arrested for violating currency laws, and spent eight days in prison, before the Judenrat paid their fines. The additional information they offered the Judenrat was added to Vrba and Wetzler's report and became known as the Auschwitz Protocols. They reported that, between May 15 and May 27, 1944, 100,000 Hungarian Jews had arrived at Birkenau, and had been killed at an unprecedented rate, with human fat being used to accelerate the burning.[157] The BBC and The New York Times published material from the Vrba-Wetzler report on June 15[158] and June 20, 1944. The subsequent pressure from world leaders persuaded Miklos Horthy to bring the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz to a halt on July 9, saving up to 200,000 Jews from the extermination camps.[157] Death marches (1944â??1945) Main article: Death marches (Holocaust) Children from Auschwitz liberated by the Red Army in January, 1945. Although most children were immediately killed upon arrival, this group includes Jewish twins kept alive to be used in Mengele's medical experiments By mid 1944, the Final Solution had largely run its course. Those Jewish communities within easy reach of the Nazi regime had been largely exterminated, in proportions ranging from more than 90 percent in Poland to about 25 percent in France. In May, Himmler claimed in a speech that "The Jewish question in Germany and the occupied countries has been solved."[159] During 1944, in any case, the task became steadily more difficult. German armies were evicted from the Soviet Union, the Balkans and Italy, and German allies were either defeated or were switching sides to the Allies. In June, the western Allies landed in France. Allied air attacks and the operations of partisans made rail transport increasingly difficult, and the objections of the military to the diversion of rail transport for carrying Jews to Poland more urgent and harder to ignore. At this time, as the Soviet armed forces approached, the camps in eastern Poland were closed down, any surviving inmates being shipped west to camps closer to Germany, first to Auschwitz and later to Gross Rosen in Silesia. Auschwitz itself was closed as the Soviets advanced through Poland. The last 13 prisoners, all women, were killed in Auschwitz II on November 25, 1944; records show they were "unmittelbar getötet" ("killed outright"), leaving open whether they were gassed or otherwise disposed of.[160] Despite the desperate military situation, great efforts were made to conceal evidence of what had happened in the camps. The gas chambers were dismantled, the crematoria dynamited, mass graves dug up and the corpses cremated, and Polish farmers were induced to plant crops on the sites to give the impression that they had never existed. In October 1944, Himmler, who is believed to have been negotiating a secret deal with the Allies behind Hitler's back, ordered an end to the Final Solution. But the hatred of the Jews in the ranks of the SS was so strong that Himmler's order was generally ignored.[citation needed] Local commanders continued to kill Jews, and to shuttle them from camp to camp by forced "death marches" until the last weeks of the war.[161] Already sick after months or years of violence and starvation, prisoners were forced to march for tens of miles in the snow to train stations; then transported for days at a time without food or shelter in freight trains with open carriages; and forced to march again at the other end to the new camp. Those who lagged behind or fell were shot. Around 250,000 Jews died during these marches.[162] The largest and best-known of the death marches took place in January 1945, when the Soviet army advanced on Poland. Nine days before the Soviets arrived at Auschwitz, the SS marched 60,000 prisoners out of the camp toward Wodzislaw, 56 km (35 miles) away, where they were put on freight trains to other camps. Around 15,000 died on the way. Elie Wiesel and his father, Shlomo, were among the marchers: An icy wind blew in violent gusts. But we marched without faltering. Pitch darkness. Every now and then, an explosion in the night. They had orders to fire on any who could not keep up. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of this pleasure. If one of us had stopped for a second, a sharp shot finished off another filthy son of a bitch. Near me, men were collapsing in the dirty snow. Shots.[163]
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:50:48 Liberation A grave inside Bergen-Belsen Starving prisoners in Mauthausen camp liberated on May 5, 1945 Main articles: Battle of Berlin, Death of Adolf Hitler, Prague Offensive, and Victory in Europe Day The first major camp, Majdanek, was discovered by the advancing Soviets on July 23, 1944. Auschwitz was liberated, also by the Soviets, on January 27, 1945; Buchenwald by the Americans on April 11; Bergen-Belsen by the British on April 15; Dachau by the Americans on April 29; Ravensbrück by the Soviets on the same day; Mauthausen by the Americans on May 5; and Theresienstadt by the Soviets on May 8.[164] Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec were never liberated, but were destroyed by the Nazis in 1943. Colonel William W. Quinn of the U.S. 7th Army said of Dachau: "There our troops found sights, sounds, and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind."[165][166] â?? We heard a loud voice repeating the same words in English and in German: "Hello, hello. You are free. We are British soldiers and have come to liberate you." These words still resound in my ears. â?? â??Hadassah Rosensaft, inmate of Bergen-Belsen.[167] In most of the camps discovered by the Soviets, almost all the prisoners had already been removed, leaving only a few thousand aliveâ??7,000 inmates were found in Auschwitz, including 180 children who had been experimented on by doctors.[168] Some 60,000 prisoners were discovered at Bergen-Belsen by the British 11th Armoured Division,[169] 13,000 corpses lay unburied, and another 10,000 died from typhus or malnutrition over the following weeks.[170] The British forced the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses and place them in mass graves.[171] The BBC's Richard Dimbleby described the scenes that greeted him and the British Army at Belsen:[172] Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which ... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms ... He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days. This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life. Victims and death toll Members of the Sonderkommando burn corpses in the fire pits at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Courtesy of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, Poland.[173] Further information: The Destruction of the European Jews and The War Against the Jews Victims Killed Source Jews 5.9 million [174] Soviet POWs 2â??3 million [175] Ethnic Poles 1.8â??2 million [176][177] Romani 220,000â??1,500,000 [178][179] Disabled 200,000â??250,000 [180] Homosexuals 5,000â??15,000 [181] Jehovah's Witnesses 2,500â??5,000 [182] The number of victims depends on which definition of "the Holocaust" is used. Donald Niewyk and Francis Nicosia write in The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust that the term is commonly defined[3] as the mass murder, and attempt to wipe out, European Jewry, which would bring the total number of victims to just under six million â?? around 78 percent of the 7.3 million Jews in occupied Europe at the time.[183] Broader definitions include between 220,000 and 500,000 Romani, and the 200,000 disabled and mentally ill who were also targeted for eradication. A broader definition still includes political and religious dissenters, two to three million Soviet POWs, and 5,000 to 15,000 gay men, bringing the death toll to nine million. This rises to 11 million if the deaths of 1.8 to 2 million ethnic Poles are included. The broadest definition would include 6 million Soviet civilians, raising the death toll to 17 million.[3] R.J. Rummel estimates the total democide death toll of Nazi Germany to be 21 million. Since 1945, the most commonly cited figure for the total number of Jews killed has been six million. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, writes that there is no precise figure for the number of Jews killed. The figure most commonly used is the six million cited by Adolf Eichmann, a senior SS official. Early calculations range from 5.1 million from Raul Hilberg, to 5.95 million from Jacob Leschinsky. Yisrael Gutman and Robert Rozett in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust estimate 5.59â??5.86 million.[184] A study led by Wolfgang Benz of the Technical University of Berlin suggests 5.29â??6.2 million.[185][186] Yad Vashem writes that the main sources for these statistics are comparisons of prewar and postwar censuses and population estimates, and Nazi documentation on deportations and murders.[185] Its Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names currently holds close to 3 million names of Holocaust victims, all accessible online. Yad Vashem continues its project of collecting names of Jewish victims from historical documents and individual memories.[187] Jews Entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1945 Hilberg's estimate of 5.1 million, in the third edition of The Destruction of the European Jews, includes over 800,000 who died from "ghettoization and general privation"; 1,400,000 killed in open-air shootings; and up to 2,900,000 who perished in camps. Hilberg estimates the death toll of Jews in Poland as up to 3,000,000.[188] Hilberg's numbers are generally considered to be a conservative estimate, as they typically include only those deaths for which records are available, avoiding statistical adjustment.[189] British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his Atlas of the Holocaust, but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations.[190] Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died (see table below) here).[191] There were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the territories controlled directly or indirectly by the Nazis (the uncertainty arises from the lack of knowledge about how many Jews there were in the Soviet Union). The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews. Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, over 90 percent were killed. The same proportion were killed in Latvia and Lithuania, but most of Estonia's Jews were evacuated in time. Of the 750,000 Jews in Germany and Austria in 1933, only about a quarter survived. Although many German Jews emigrated before 1939, the majority of these fled to Czechoslovakia, France or the Netherlands, from where they were later deported to their deaths. In Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia, over 70 percent were killed. More than 50 percent were killed in Belgium, Hungary, and Romania. It is likely that a similar proportion were killed in Belarus and Ukraine, but these figures are less certain. Countries with notably lower proportions of deaths include Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Italy, and Norway. Year Jews Killed[192] 1933â??1940 under 100,000 1941 1,100,000 1942 2,700,000 1943 500,000 1944 600,000 1945 100,000 The number of people killed at the major extermination camps is estimated as: Auschwitz-Birkenau: 1.4 million;[106] Treblinka: 870,000;[121] Belzec: 600,000;[109] Majdanek: 360,000;[115] Chelmno: 320,000;[111] Sobibór: 250,000.[119] This gives a total of over 3.8 million; of these, 80â??90% were estimated to be Jews. These seven camps thus accounted for half the total number of Jews killed in the entire Nazi Holocaust. Virtually the entire Jewish population of Poland died in these camps.[174] In addition to those who died in the above extermination camps, at least half a million Jews died in other camps, including the major concentration camps in Germany. These were not extermination camps, but had large numbers of Jewish prisoners at various times, particularly in the last year of the war as the Nazis withdrew from Poland. About a million people died in these camps, and although the proportion of Jews is not known with certainty, it was estimated to be at least 50 percent.[citation needed] Another 800,000 to one million Jews were killed by the Einsatzgruppen in the occupied Soviet territories (an approximate figure, since the Einsatzgruppen killings were frequently undocumented).[193] Many more died through execution or of disease and malnutrition in the ghettos of Poland before they could be deported. By country The following figures from Lucy Dawidowicz show the annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe by (pre-war) country:[174] Country â?? Estimated Pre-War Jewish population â?? Estimated Jewish population annihilated â?? Percent killed â?? Poland 3,300,000 3,000,000 90 Baltic countries 253,000 228,000 90 Germany & Austria 240,000 210,000 90 Bohemia & Moravia 90,000 80,000 89 Slovakia 90,000 75,000 83 Greece 70,000 54,000 77 Netherlands 140,000 105,000 75 Hungary 650,000 450,000 70 Byelorussian SSR 375,000 245,000 65 Ukrainian SSR 1,500,000 900,000 60 Belgium 65,000 40,000 60 Yugoslavia 43,000 26,000 60 Romania 600,000 300,000 50 Norway 2,173 890 41 France 350,000 90,000 26 Bulgaria 64,000 14,000 22 Italy 40,000 8,000 20 Luxembourg 5,000 1,000 20 Russian SFSR 975,000 107,000 11 Denmark 8,000 52 <1 Finland 2,000 22 1 Total 8,861,800 5,933,900 67 Non Jewish victims Note: Scholars differ on whether the definition of the Holocaust should also include the millions of non-Jewish victims of Nazi genocide.[3] Slavs Main article: Generalplan Ost One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from their native lands so as to make living space for German settlers. This plan of genocide[194] was to be carried into effect gradually over a period of 25â??30 years.[195] Ethnic Poles Execution of Poles by Einsatzkommando, Leszno, October 1939 Announcement of death penalty for Poles helping Jews Polish civilians executed in Warsaw Auschwitz I patch with the letter "P", required wear for Polish inmates Further information: Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles, Occupation of Poland (1939â??1945), and Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland The actions taken against ethnic Poles were not on the scale of the genocide of the Jews. Most Polish Jews (90%) perished during the Holocaust, while most Christian Poles (94%) survived brutal German occupation.[196] German Nazi planners in November 1939 called for nothing less than â??the complete destructionâ?? of the Polish people.[197] "All Poles", Heinrich Himmler swore, "will disappear from the world". The Polish state under German occupation was to be cleared of ethnic Poles and settled by German colonists.[198] Of the Poles, by 1952 only about 3â??4 million of them were supposed to be left residing in the former Poland, and then only to serve as slaves for German settlers. They were to be forbidden to marry, the existing ban on any medical help to Poles in Germany would be extended, and eventually Poles would cease to exist. On August 22, 1939, about one week before the onset of the war, Hitler "prepared, for the moment only in the East, my 'Death's Head' formations with orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need."[199] Nazi planners decided against a genocide of ethnic Poles on the same scale as against ethnic Jews, it could not proceed in the short run since "such a solution to the Polish question would represent a burden to the German people into the distant future, and everywhere rob us of all understanding, not least in that neighbouring peoples would have to reckon at some appropriate time, with a similar fate".[197] Between 1.8 and 2.1 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished in German hands during the course of the war, about four-fifths of whom were ethnic Poles with the remaining fifth being ethnic minorities of Ukrainians and Belarusians, the vast majority of them civilians.[176][177] At least 200,000 of these victims died in concentration camps with about 146,000 being killed in Auschwitz. Many others died as a result of general massacres such as in the Warsaw Uprising where between 120,000 and 200,000 civilians were killed.[200] The policy of the Germans in Poland included diminishing food rations, conscious lowering of the state of hygiene and depriving the population of medical services. The general mortality rate rose from 13 to 18 per thousand.[201] Overall, about 5.6 million of the victims WW2 were Polish citizens,[177] both Jewish and non-Jewish, and over the course of the war Poland lost 16 percent of its pre-war population; approx. 3.1 million of the 3.3 million Polish Jews and approx. 2 million of the 31.7 non-Jewish Polish citizens died at German hands during the war.[202] Over 90 percent of the death toll came through non-military losses, as most of the civilians were targeted by various deliberate actions by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.[200] Ethnic Yugoslavs Main article: World War II persecution of Serbs In the Balkans, up to 581,000 Yugoslavs were killed by the Nazis and their UstaÅ¡e fascist allies in Yugoslavia.[203][204] German forces, under express orders from Hitler, fought with a special vengeance against the Serbs, who were considered Untermensch.[205] The UstaÅ¡e collaborators conducted a systematic extermination of large numbers of people for political, religious or racial reasons. The most numerous victims were Serbs. Bosniaks and Croats were also victims of Jasenovac. According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum: "The UstaÅ¡a authorities established numerous concentration camps in Croatia between 1941 and 1945. These camps were used to isolate and murder Serbs, Jews, Roma, Muslims [Bosniaks], and other non-Catholic minorities, as well as Croatian political and religious opponents of the regime." The USHMM and Jewish Virtual Library report between 56,000 and 97,000 persons were killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp.[206][207][208] However, Yad Vashem reports 600,000 deaths at Jasenovac.[209] As per the most recent study, Bosnjaci u Jasenovackom logoru ("Bosniaks in Jasenovac concentration camp") by the author Nihad Halilbegovic, at least 103,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslim Slavs) perished during Holocaust at the hands of the Nazi regime and Croatian UstaÅ¡e. According to the study "unknown is the full number of Bosniaks who were murdered under Serb or Croat alias or national name" and "large numbers of Bosniaks were killed and listed under Roma populations", therefore in advance sentenced to death and extermination.[210][211] East Slavs Main articles: Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany and Reichskommissariat Ukraine In Belarus, Nazi Germany imposed a regime in the country that was responsible for burning down some 9,000 villages, deporting some 380,000 people for slave labour, and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. More than 600 villages, like Khatyn, were burned along with their entire population and at least 5,295 Belarusian settlements were destroyed by the Nazis and some or all of their inhabitants killed. Altogether, 1,670,000 civilians (18 percent of the population) were killed during the three years of German occupation.[212] including 245,000 Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen.[191] Soviet POWs Soviet POWs in German captivity Main article: Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs According to Michael Berenbaum, between two and three million Soviet prisoners-of-warâ??or around 57 percent of all Soviet POWsâ??died of starvation, mistreatment, or executions between June 1941 and May 1945, and most those during their first year of captivity. According to other estimates by Daniel Goldhagen, an estimated 2.8 million Soviet POWs died in eight months in 1941â??42, with a total of 3.5 million by mid-1944.[213] The USHMM has estimated that 3.3 million of the 5.7 million Soviet POWs died in German custodyâ??compared to 8,300 of 231,000 British and American prisoners.[214] The death rates decreased as the POWs were needed to work as slaves to help the German war effort; by 1943, half a million of them had been deployed as slave labor.[175] Romani people Romani arrivals in the Belzec extermination camp, 1940. Map of persecution of the Roma. Main article: Porajmos Because the Roma and Sinti are traditionally a secretive people with a culture based on oral history, less is known about their experience of the genocide than about that of any other group.[215][216] Yehuda Bauer writes that the lack of information can be attributed to the Roma's distrust and suspicion, and to their humiliation, because some of the basic taboos of Romani culture regarding hygiene and sexual contact were violated at Auschwitz. Bauer writes that "most [Roma] could not relate their stories involving these tortures; as a result, most kept silent and thus increased the effects of the massive trauma they had undergone."[217] Donald Niewyk and Frances Nicosia write that the death toll was at least 130,000 of the nearly one million Roma and Sinti in Nazi-controlled Europe.[215] Michael Berenbaum writes that serious scholarly estimates lie between 90,000 and 220,000.[218] A detailed study by the late Sybil Milton, formerly senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, calculated a death toll of at least 220,000, and possibly closer to 500,000.[219][220] Martin Gilbert estimates a total of more than 220,000 of the 700,000 Romani in Europe.[221] Ian Hancock, Director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin, has argued in favour of a higher figure of between 500,000 and 1,500,000.[222] Hancock writes that, proportionately, the death toll equaled "and almost certainly exceed[ed], that of Jewish victims."[223] â?? â?¦ they wish to toss into the Ghetto everything that is characteristically dirty, shabby, bizarre, of which one ought to be frightened and which anyway had to be destroyed. â?? â??Emmanuel Ringelblum on the Roma.[224] Before being sent to the camps, the victims were herded into ghettos, including several hundred into the Warsaw Ghetto.[86] Further east, teams of Einsatzgruppen tracked down Romani encampments and murdered the inhabitants on the spot, leaving no records of the victims. They were also targeted by the puppet regimes that cooperated with the Nazis, e.g. the UstaÅ¡e regime in Croatia, where a large number of Romani were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp. In May 1942, the Romani were placed under the same labor and social laws as the Jews. On December 16, 1942, Heinrich Himmler, Commander of the SS and regarded as the "architect" of the Nazi genocide,[225] issued a decree that "Gypsy Mischlinge (mixed breeds), Romani, and members of the clans of Balkan origins who are not of German blood" should be sent to Auschwitz, unless they had served in the Wehrmacht.[226] On January 29, 1943, another decree ordered the deportation of all German Romani to Auschwitz. This was adjusted on November 15, 1943, when Himmler ordered that, in the occupied Soviet areas, "sedentary Gypsies and part-Gypsies (Mischlinge) are to be treated as citizens of the country. Nomadic Gypsies and part-Gypsies are to be placed on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."[227] Bauer argues that this adjustment reflected Nazi ideology that the Roma, originally an Aryan population, had been "spoiled" by non-Romani blood.[228] Disabled and mentally ill "60,000 RM is what this person with genetic defects costs the community during his lifetime. Fellow Germans,[229] that's your money too â?¦"[230] Main articles: Nazi eugenics, Action T4, Erbkrank, Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, Rhineland Bastard, and Schloss Hartheim â?? Our starting point is not the individual: We do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked â?¦ Our objectives are different: We must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world. â?? â??Joseph Goebbels, 1938.[231] Action T4 was a program established in 1939 to maintain the genetic purity of the German population by killing or sterilizing German and Austrian citizens who were judged to be disabled or suffering from mental disorder.[232] Between 1939 and 1941, 80,000 to 100,000 mentally ill adults in institutions were killed; 5,000 children in institutions; and 1,000 Jews in institutions.[233] Outside the mental health institutions, the figures are estimated as 20,000 (according to Dr. Georg Renno, the deputy director of Schloss Hartheim, one of the euthanasia centers) or 400,000 (according to Frank Zeireis, the commandant of Mauthausen concentration camp).[233] Another 300,000 were forcibly sterilized.[234] Overall it has been estimated that over 200,000 individuals with mental disorders of all kinds were put to death, although their mass murder has received relatively little historical attention. Despite not being formally ordered to take part, psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions were at the center of justifying, planning and carrying out the atrocities at every stage, and "constituted the connection" to the later annihilation of Jews and other "undesirables" in the Holocaust.[235] After strong protests by the German Catholic and Protestant churches on 24 August 1941 Hitler ordered the cancellation of the T4 program[236] The program was named after TiergartenstraÃ?e 4, the address of a villa in the Berlin borough of Tiergarten, the headquarters of the Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Heil und Anstaltspflege (General Foundation for Welfare and Institutional Care),[237] led by Philipp Bouhler, head of Hitlerâ??s private chancellery (Kanzlei des Führer der NSDAP) and Karl Brandt, Hitlerâ??s personal physician. Brandt was tried in December 1946 at Nuremberg, along with 22 others, in a case known as United States of America vs. Karl Brandt et al., also known as the Doctors' Trial. He was hanged at Landsberg Prison on June 2, 1948. Homosexuals The Homomonument in Amsterdam, a memorial to the gay victims of Nazi Germany. Main articles: Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, Pink triangle, and Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust Between 5,000 and 15,000 homosexuals of German nationality are estimated to have been sent to concentration camps.[181] James D. Steakley writes that what mattered in Germany was criminal intent or character, rather than criminal acts, and the "gesundes Volksempfinden" ("healthy sensibility of the people") became the leading normative legal principle.[238] In 1936, Himmler created the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Homosexuality was declared contrary to "wholesome popular sentiment,"[181] and homosexuals were consequently regarded as "defilers of German blood." The Gestapo raided gay bars, tracked individuals using the address books of those they arrested, used the subscription lists of gay magazines to find others, and encouraged people to report suspected homosexual behavior and to scrutinize the behavior of their neighbours.[181][238] Tens of thousands were convicted between 1933 and 1944 and sent to camps for "rehabilitation", where they were identified by yellow armbands[239] and later pink triangles worn on the left side of the jacket and the right trouser leg, which singled them out for sexual abuse.[238] Hundreds were castrated by court order.[240] They were humiliated, tortured, used in hormone experiments conducted by SS doctors, and killed.[181] Steakley writes that the full extent of gay suffering was slow to emerge after the war. Many victims kept their stories to themselves because homosexuality remained criminalized in postwar Germany. Around two percent of German homosexuals were persecuted by Nazis.[238] Freemasons Main articles: Suppression of Freemasonry#Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe and Nacht und Nebel A memorial for Loge Liberté chérie, founded in November 1943 in Hut 6 of Emslandlager VII (KZ Esterwegen), one of two Masonic Lodges founded in a Nazi concentration camp. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that Freemasonry had "succumbed" to the Jews: "The general pacifistic paralysis of the national instinct of self-preservation begun by Freemasonry is then transmitted to the masses of society by the Jewish press."[241] Freemasons were sent to concentration camps as political prisoners, and forced to wear an inverted red triangle.[242] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum believes â??because many of the Freemasons who were arrested were also Jews and/or members of the political opposition, it is not known how many individuals were placed in Nazi concentration camps and/or were targeted only because they were Freemasons.â??[243] Jehovah's Witnesses Main article: Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany Refusing to pledge allegiance to the Nazi party or to serve in the military, roughly 12,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to wear a purple triangle and placed in camps, where they were given the option of renouncing their faith and submitting to the state's authority. Between 2,500 and 5,000 were killed.[182] Historian Detlef Garbe, director at the Neuengamme (Hamburg) Memorial, writes that "no other religious movement resisted the pressure to conform to National Socialism with comparable unanimity and steadfastness."[244] Political activists German communists, socialists and trade unionists were among the earliest domestic opponents of Nazism[245] and were also among the first to be sent to concentration camps. Hitler claimed that communism was a Jewish ideology which the Nazis termed "Judeo-Bolshevism". Fear of communist agitation was used as justification for the Enabling Act of 1933, the law which gave Hitler his original dictatorial powers. Herman Göring later testified at the Nuremberg Trials that the Nazis' willingness to repress German communists prompted President Paul von Hindenburg and the German elite to cooperate with the Nazis. The first concentration camp was built at Dachau, in March 1933, to imprison German communists, socialists, trade unionists and others opposed to the Nazis.[246] Communists, social democrats and other political prisoners were forced to wear a red triangle. Hitler and the Nazis also hated German leftists because of their resistance to the party's racism. Many leaders of German leftist groups were Jews, and Jews were especially prominent among the leaders of the Spartacist Uprising in 1919. Hitler already referred to Marxism and "Bolshevism" as a means of "the international Jew" to undermine "racial purity" and survival of the Nordics or Aryans, as well to stir up socioeconomic class tension and labor unions against the government or state-owned businesses. Within the concentration camps such as Buchenwald, German communists were privileged in comparison to Jews because of their "racial purity."[247] Whenever the Nazis occupied a new territory, members of communist, socialist, or anarchist groups were normally to be the first persons detained or executed. Evidence of this is found in Hitler's infamous Commissar Order, in which he ordered the summary execution of all political commissars captured among Soviet soldiers, as well as the execution of all Communist Party members in German held territory.[248][249] Einsatzgruppen carried out these executions in the east.[250] Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") was a directive (German: Erlass) of Hitler on December 7, 1941 signed and implemented by Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of many political activists throughout Nazi Germany's occupied territories.
Wikispammer Member	Tue Oct 27 22:51:07 See also Involvement of other countries and nationals * General: Ã?vian Conference, Bermuda Conference, International response to the Holocaust, Voyage of the Damned, Struma. * Collaborators: The response of individual states. * Rescuers: Ã?ngel Sanz Briz, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Ho Feng Shan, Chiune Sugihara, Folke Bernadotte, Jorge Pelasca, List of people who assisted Jews during the Holocaust, List of Righteous Among the Nations by country, Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, Hugh O'Flaherty, Raoul Wallenberg, Rescue of the Danish Jews, Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust, Resistance during the Holocaust, Righteous Among the Nations, Witold Pilecki, Oskar Schindler, Irena Sendler, Jan Karski, Henryk Slawik, Å»egota, ZwiÄ?zek Organizacji Wojskowej. Aftermath and historiography * General discussion: Aftermath of the Holocaust, Aftermath of World War II, Denazification. * Legal response: Command responsibility, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Doctors' Trial, German war crimes, Nuremberg Trials, Trial of Adolf Eichmann, War crimes of the Wehrmacht. * Victims: List of victims of Nazism. * Survivors: List of famous Holocaust survivors, Sh'erit ha-Pletah, Wiedergutmachung. * Memorials: Holocaust memorials, Yom HaShoah, Yad Vashem. * Cultural, political, and scholarly responses: Holocaust denial, Criticism of Holocaust denial, Holocaust theology, The Holocaust in art and literature. * For the issue of where responsibility for the Holocaust lies: The Holocaust (responsibility), Command responsibility, and for an account of the historiographical positions: Functionalism versus intentionalism and Historikerstreit. * For further resources: Holocaust (resources). Miscellaneous * Animal rights and the Holocaust, Antiziganism, Aryanization, Bereavement in Judaism, Friedrich Kellner, Ilse Koch, International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, Irma Grese, List of composers influenced by the Holocaust, Jews outside Europe under Nazi occupation, Anti-Semitism, Is the Holocaust Unique? (book) Related links * Genocide * Holodomor * Armenian genocide * Rwandan genocide * Maafa * Bosnian genocide * Darfur genocide References 1. ^ a b "Holocaust," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question ..." 2. ^ a b Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question". 3. ^ a b c d Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 45-52. 4. ^ Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths, would produce a death toll of 17 million. [1] Estimates of the death toll of non-Jewish victims vary by millions, partly because the boundary between death by persecution and death by starvation and other means in a context of total war is unclear. Overall, about 5.7 million (78 percent) of the 7.3 million Jews in occupied Europe perished (Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust 1988, pp. 242-244). Compared to five to 11 million (1.4 percent to 3.0 percent) of the 360 million non-Jews in German-dominated Europe. Small, Melvin and J. David Singer. Resort to Arms: International and civil Wars 1816-1980 and Berenbaum, Michael. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York University Press, 1990 5. ^ a b Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Museum, 2006, p. 103. 6. ^ The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, vol.4, p.2859 7. ^ Simon Schama, A History of Britain, episode 3, 'Dynasty'; BBC DVD, 2000 8. ^ a b ""The Holocaust: Definition and Preliminary Discussion", Yad Vashem. Retrieved June 8, 2005. 9. ^ For an opposing view on the allegedly offensive nature of the meaning of the word Holocaust, see Petrie, Jon. "The Secular Word 'HOLOCAUST': Scholarly Myths, History, and Twentieth Century Meanings," Journal of Genocide Research Vol. 2, no. 1 (2000): 31-63. 10. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, 2nd ed.Oxford 1989, vol.VII p.315 sect c.'complete destruction, esp. of a large number of persons; a great slaughter or massacre' citing examples from 1711, 1833, and 1883 onwards. 11. ^ "As for the Turkish atrocities ... helpless Armenians, men, women, and children together, whole districts blotted out in one administrative holocaust - these were beyond human redress" (Winston Churchill, The World in Crisis, volume 4: The Aftermath, New York, 1923, p. 158). 12. ^ a b Holocaust, Yad Vashem 13. ^ a b Setbon, Jessica. "Who Beat My Father? Issues of Terminology and Translation in Teaching the Holocaust", workshop from a May 2006 conference; see Yad Vashem website. [2] 14. ^ "Holocaustâ??Definition", Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol. II, MacMillan. 15. ^ Petrie, Jon. "The Secular Word 'HOLOCAUST': Scholarly Myths, History, and Twentieth Century Meanings," Journal of Genocide Research Vol 2, no. 1 (2000): 31-63. 16. ^ A useful analysis of the terms can be found in Bartov, Omer. "Antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Reinterpretation of National Socialism," in Berenbaum, Michael & Peck, Abraham J. (eds.) The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined. Bloomington 1998, pp. 75â??98. 17. ^ Columbia Encyclopedia on "Holocaust"[dead link] 18. ^ "The Holocaust", Compact Oxford English Dictionary: "(the Holocaust) the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime in World War II." 19. ^ "Holocaust", Encarta: "Holocaust, the almost complete destruction of Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II (1939â??1945). The leadership of Germanyâ??s Nazi Party ordered the extermination of 5.6 million to 5.9 million Jews (see National Socialism). Jews often refer to the Holocaust as Shoah (from the Hebrew word for â??catastropheâ?? or â??total destructionâ??)." 20. ^ *Weissman, Gary. Fantasies of Witnessing: Postwar Attempts to Experience the Holocaust, Cornell University Press, 2004, ISBN 0801442532, p. 94: "Kren illustrates his point with his reference to the Kommissararbefehl. 'Should the (strikingly unreported) systematic mass starvation of Soviet prisoners of war be included in the Holocaust?' he asks. Many scholars would answer no, maintaining that 'the Holocaust' should refer strictly to those events involving the systematic killing of the Jews'." * "The Holocaust: Definition and Preliminary Discussion", Yad Vashem: "The Holocaust, as presented in this resource center, is defined as the sum total of all anti-Jewish actions carried out by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945: from stripping the German Jews of their legal and economic status in the 1930s, to segregating and starving Jews in the various occupied countries, to the murder of close to six million Jews in Europe. The Holocaust is part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and murder of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the Nazis." * Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II. Not everyone finds this a fully satisfactory definition. The Nazis also killed millions of people belonging to other groups: Gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, political prisoners, religious dissenters, and homosexuals." * Paulsson, Steve. "A View of the Holocaust", BBC: "The Holocaust was the Nazis' assault on the Jews between 1933 and 1945. It culminated in what the Nazis called the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe', in which six million Jews were murdered. The Jews were not the only victims of Nazism. It is estimated that as many as 15 million civilians were killed by this murderous and racist regime, including millions of Slavs and 'asiatics', 200,000 Gypsies and members of various other groups. Thousands of people, including Germans of African descent, were forcibly sterilised." * "The Holocaust", Auschwitz.dk: "The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War 2. In 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be military occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed. 1.5 million children under the age of 12 were murdered. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children." * "Holocaustâ??Definition", Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: "HOLOCAUST (Heb., sho'ah). In the 1950s the term came to be applied primarily to the destruction of the Jews of Europe under the Nazi regime, and it is also employed in describing the annihilation of other groups of people in World War II. The mass extermination of Jews has become the archetype of genocide, and the terms sho'ah and "holocaust" have become linked to the attempt by the Nazi German state to destroy European Jewry during World War II â?¦ One of the first to use the term in the historical perspective was the Jerusalem historian BenZion Dinur (Dinaburg), who, in the spring of 1942, stated that the Holocaust was a "catastrophe" that symbolized the unique situation of the Jewish people among the nations of the world." * Also see the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies list of definitions: "Holocaust: A term for the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945." * The 33rd Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches defines the Holocaust as "the Nazi attempt to annihilate European Jewry," cited in Hancock, Ian. "Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview"[dead link], Stone, Dan. (ed.) The Historiography of the Holocaust. Palgrave-Macmillan, New York 2004, pp. 383â??396. * Bauer, Yehuda. Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2001, p.10. * Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews: 1933â??1945. Bantam, 1986, p.xxxvii: "'The Holocaust' is the term that Jews themselves have chosen to describe their fate during World War II." 21. ^ Yehuda Bauer A History of the Holocaust. F. Watts, 1982 ISBN 0531098621 p.331; chapter 1 22. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Yehuda Bauer 23. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Xu Xin 24. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Ben Kiernan 25. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Edward Kissi 26. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Simone Veil 27. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Monika Richarz 28. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, Francis Deng 29. ^ a b Michael Berenbaum Berenbaum, Michael. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis, New York: New York University Press, 1990, pp.21-35 30. ^ Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State:Germany 1933-1945 ISBN 0521398029 Cambridge University Press 1991. This work favors a more expansive definition of the Holocaust, pointing out that Nazi Germany had a racist ideology by no means limited to anti-Semitism. 31. ^ Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper Series, László Teleki 32. ^ David E. Stannard, American Holocaust:The Conquest of the New World, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 268. 33. ^ Alan S Rosenbaum, Israel W. (FRW) Charny, Is the Holocaust Unique? 34. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Museum, 2006, p. 104. 35. ^ a b Friedländer, Saul (2007). Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Extermination. London: HarperCollins. pp. xxi. ISBN 0-06-019043-4. 36. ^ Bauer, Yehuda (2002). Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp. 48. ISBN 0-300-09300-4. 37. ^ Maier, Charles The Unmasterable Past, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988 page 53 38. ^ Holocaust Map of Concentration and Death Camps 39. ^ Dear, Ian (2001). The Oxford companion to World War II. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860446-7. 40. ^ Bauer, Yehuda. Rethinking the Holocaust New Haven: Yale UP, 2002, p. 49. For a good summary of this point, see Yehuda Bauer's Address to the Bundestag. 41. ^ Bauer, Yehuda (2002). Rethinking the Holocaust. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp. 49. ISBN 0-300-09300-4. 42. ^ a b Harran, Marilyn J. (2000). The Holocaust Chronicles: A History in Words and Pictures. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International. pp. 384. ISBN 0-7853-2963-3. Full text 43. ^ Müller-Hill, Benno (1998). Muderous science: elimination by scientific selection of Jews, Gypsies, and others in Germany, 1933-1945. Plainview, N.Y: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. pp. 22. ISBN 0-87969-531-5. 44. ^ a b Berenbaum, Michael (1993). The world must know: The history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 194â??5. ISBN 0-316-09134-0. 45. ^ "Boycotts", Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota. Retrieved September 6, 2006. 46. ^ Yehuda Bauer- A History of the Holocaust-1982 47. ^ Raul Hilberg- The Destruction of the European Jews-1961. 48. ^ Lucy Dawidowicz-The War Against the Jews-1975 49. ^ Hans Küng, On Being a Christian (Doubleday, Garden City NY, 1976), p. 169. 50. ^ Hell, Josef. "Aufzeichnung", 1922, ZS 640, p. 5, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, cited in Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1984. p. 17, cited in "Joseph Hell on Adolf Hitler", The Einsatzgruppen. 51. ^ a b Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933â??1939. First published 1997 by HarperCollins; this edition, HarperPerennial 1998, p. 33. 52. ^ Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933â??1939. First published 1997 by HarperCollins; this edition, HarperPerennial 1998, p. 29. 53. ^ Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933â??1939. First published 1997 by HarperCollins; this edition, HarperPerennial 1998, p. 30â??31. 54. ^ "Extracts From Hitler's Speech in the Reichstag on the Nuremberg Laws, September 1935". Yad Vashem. http://www...st/documents/part1/doc35.html. 55. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, p. 57. 56. ^ Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933â??1939. First published 1997 by HarperCollins; this edition, HarperPerennial 1998, p. 1. 57. ^ a b Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933â??1939. First published 1997 by HarperCollins; this edition, HarperPerennial 1998, p. 12. 58. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wolfgang Benz, Die 101 wichtigsten Fragen- das dritte Reich, 2nd edition, C.H.Beck, 2007, p.97, ISBN 3406568491 59. ^ Benz 2007:97 says 26,000 to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen; Buchholz 1999:510 says Pomeranian Jews to Oranienburg 60. ^ a b Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.510, ISBN 3886802728 61. ^ a b Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsfuhrer SS. Macmillian 1990, p. 270. Padfield gives as his source for both the Heydrich quote and Eichmann's comment on it J von Lang and C Sybill (eds) Eichmann Interrogated. Bodley Head, London 1982, pp. 92â??93. 62. ^ "The Warsaw Ghetto". http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/warsaw.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-05. 63. ^ Magnus Brechtken, Madagaskar für die Juden: antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885-1945, 2nd edition, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1998, pp.196ff, ISBN 348656384 64. ^ a b c Magnus Brechtken, Madagaskar für die Juden: antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885-1945, 2nd edition, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1998, p.207, ISBN 348656384 65. ^ a b Joseph Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's man in the East, McFarland, 2004, p.150, ISBN 0786416254 66. ^ Magnus Brechtken, Madagaskar für die Juden: antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885-1945, 2nd edition, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1998, p.197, ISBN 348656384 67. ^ Magnus Brechtken, Madagaskar für die Juden: antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885-1945, 2nd edition, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1998, pp.200-201, ISBN 348656384 68. ^ Browning, Christopher R.; Matthäus, Jürgen (2007). "The Search for a Final solution through Expulsion, 1939-1941". The Origins of the Final Solution. University of Nebraska Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780803259799. http://books.google.com/books?id=jHQdRHNdK44C&pg=PA81&dq=Madagascar+Plan&sig=XLRq7StzFTkTYIgyKMzIWGdgXC0. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 69. ^ Rubenstein, Richard L.; Roth, John K. (2003). "War and the Final solution". Approaches to Auschwitz (2nd ed.). Westminster John Knox Press. p. 164. ISBN 9780664223533. http://books.google.com/books?id=IfoBx6skMCkC&pg=PA163&dq=Madagascar+Plan&sig=8wH0tmAnh4tUrBhkKANO7bVUbMU#PPA164,M1. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 70. ^ Naimark, Norman M. (2001). "The Nazi Attack on the Jews". Fires of hatred. Harvard University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780674009943. http://books.google.com/books?id=L-QLXnX16kAC&pg=PA73&dq=Madagascar+Plan&sig=FafySVgGSk3recIuaIv8bSfm4ps. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 71. ^ Hildebrand, Klaus (1986). "Historical Survey: The Second World War, 1939-42: Internal Developments". The Third Reich. Routledge. p. 70. ISBN 9780415078610. http://books.google.com/books?id=xgkzMdZD3iQC&pg=PA70&dq=madagascar+plan+abandoned&sig=FyJWxc_EoHcCJEl6iEMpcLDcdlA#PPA70,M1. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 72. ^ Nicosia and Niewyk, The Columbian Guide to the Holocaust, 232. 73. ^ Dwork, Debórah, Jan van Pelt, Robert, Holocaust: A History, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003, p. 206. 74. ^ Nicosia and Niewyk, The Columbian Guide to the Holocaust, 153. 75. ^ Kats, Alfred, Poland's Ghettos at War, New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1970, 35. 76. ^ Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʾah ṿela-gevurah, Yad Vashem studies XXXI, Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2003, p.322 77. ^ Nicosia and Niewyk, The Columbian Guide to the Holocaust, 154. 78. ^ Dwork and Jan van Pelt, Holocaust: A History, 208. 79. ^ a b "Holocaust Timeline: The Camps". A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida. http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/camps.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-06. 80. ^ Harran, Marilyn (2000). The Holocaust Chronicles, A History in Words and Pictures. Publications International. pp. Pg.321. ISBN 0-7853-2963-3. Full text 81. ^ "Concentration Camp Listing", Jewish Virtual Library. 82. ^ "The Forgotten Camps". 83. ^ Harran, Marilyn (2000). The Holocaust Chronicles, A History in Words and Pictures. Publications International. pp. Pg.461. ISBN 0-7853-2963-3. Full text 84. ^ "Just a Normal Day in the Camps", JewishGen, January 6, 2007. 85. ^ a b Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, p. 114. 86. ^ a b c "Deportations to and from the Warsaw Ghetto", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 87. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, p. 115â??116. 88. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, pp. 81â??83. 89. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, p 116. 90. ^ a b c Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition, 2006, p. 93. 91. ^ Dina Porat, â??The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspectsâ??, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 159 92. ^ Konrad Kwiet, Rehearsing for Murder: The Beginning of the Final Solution in Lithuania in June 1941, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 3-26, 1998, [3] 93. ^ a b c d e f g h Browning, Christopher, and Matthäus, Jürgen, Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy September 1939 -March 1942, Yad Vashem / University of Nebraska Press 2004 ISBN 0-8032-1327-1, at pages 268-277. 94. ^ Hilberg, Raul cited in Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, John Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition, 2006, p. 93. 95. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 â?? March 1942 (Comprehensive History of the Holocaust). University of Nebraska Press. pp. 225â??226. ISBN 978-0803213272. http://books.google.com/books?id=d9Wg4gjtP3cC&pg=RA1-PA226&ots=ci4PczZKYY&dq=%22dr+otto+ohlendorf%22&sig=zQsLkXmX4b2enQLVRXFUzVH-1HY. 96. ^ a b Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, pp. 97â??98. 97. ^ Issacs, Jeremy."Susan McConachy', The Guardian, November 23, 2006. 98. ^ The inscription on the memorial stone raised in the place of the barn at Jedwabne read: "Place of torture and execution of the Jewish population. The Gestapo and Nazi gendarmerie burned 1600 people alive on July 10, 1941." (Polish: Miejsce kaźni ludnoÅ?ci żydowskiej. Gestapo i żandarmeria hitlerowska spaliÅ?a żywcem 1600 osób 10.VII.1941.). In 2001 the stone was removed and deposited in the Polish Army Museum in BiaÅ?ystok. 99. ^ a b c d e Wolfgang Benz, Die 101 wichtigsten Fragen- das dritte Reich, 2nd edition, C.H.Beck, 2007, p.98, ISBN 3406568491 100. ^ Quoted in Kogon, E., H. Langbein, and A. Rueckerl (Eds.) 1993. Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas. New Haven: Yale University Press. 101. ^ Letter from Reinhard Heydrich to Martin Luther, Foreign Office, February 26, 1942, regarding the minutes of the Wannsee Conference. 102. ^ a b c Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, p. 101â??102. 103. ^ Morris, Errol. "Mr. Death: Transcript". http://www.errolmorris.com/film/mrd_transcript.html. Retrieved 2008-05-15. 104. ^ a b c d Protocol of the Wannsee Conference, Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. 105. ^ Yad Vashem, Accessed May 7, 2007 106. ^ a b "Learning and Remembering about Auschwitz-Birkenau", Yad Vashem. 107. ^ Per [4], Auschwitz II total numbers are "between 1.3Mâ??1.5M", so we use the middle value 1.4M as estimate here. 108. ^ Coordinates from: Auschwitz concentration camp 109. ^ a b Belzec, Yad Vashem. 110. ^ Coordinates from: Belzec extermination camp 111. ^ a b c Chelmno, Yad Vashem. 112. ^ Coordinates from: Chelmno extermination camp 113. ^ Jasenovac, Yad Vashem. 114. ^ Coordinates from: Jasenovac concentration camp 115. ^ a b Majdanek, Yad Vashem. 116. ^ Coordinates from: Majdanek 117. ^ Maly Trostinets, Yad Vashem. 118. ^ Coordinates from: Maly Trostenets extermination camp 119. ^ a b Sobibór, Yad Vashem. 120. ^ Coordinates from: Sobibor extermination camp 121. ^ a b Treblinka, Yad Vashem. 122. ^ Coordinates from: Treblinka extermination camp 123. ^ "Aktion Reinhard" (PDF). Yad Vashem. http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205724.pdf. 124. ^ Although Chelmno was not technically part of Aktion Reinhard, it began functioning as an extermination camp in December 1941.[5] 125. ^ Rudolf Vrba cited in Berenbaum, Michael (1993). The world must know: the history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 114. ISBN 0-316-09134-0. 126. ^ "The Auschwitz Album", Yad Vashem. 127. ^ Piper, Franciszek in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (Eds.) (1998). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 173. ISBN 0-253-20884-X. 128. ^ Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 162. 129. ^ a b Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 170. 130. ^ a b Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 163. 131. ^ Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 163. Also in Goldensohn, Leon. Nuremberg Interviews, Vintage paperback 2005, p. 298: Goldensohn, an American psychiatrist, interviewed Rudolf HöÃ? at Nuremberg on April 8, 1946. HöÃ? told him: "We cut the hair from women after they had been exterminated in the gas chambers. The hair was then sent to factories, where it was woven into special fittings for gaskets." HöÃ? said that only women's hair was cut and only after they were dead. He said he had first received the order to do this in 1943. 132. ^ Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 172. For the living conditions of the Sonderkommando, Piper quotes survivor testimony from the trial of Adolf Eichmann. 133. ^ Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 171. 134. ^ Piper, Franciszek. "Gas chambers and Crematoria," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 164. 135. ^ Modern History Sourcebook: Rudolf HöÃ?, Commandant of Auschwitz: Testimony at Nuremberg, 1946 Accessed May 6, 2007 136. ^ * Bauer, Yehuda. Forms of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust. In The Nazi Holocaust: Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews. Vol. 7: Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust, edited by Michael R. Marrus, 34â??48. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1989. * Bauer, Yehuda, They chose life: Jewish resistance in the Holocaust, New York, The American Jewish Committee, 1973. * Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Israel Gutman. Yad Vashem. * Resistance During the Holocaust U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum * Jewish Resistance. A Working Bibliography. The Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 137. ^ Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. London: St. Edmundsbury Press 1986. 138. ^ Resistance During the Holocaust U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. 139. ^ Klempner, Mark. The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage, The Pilgrim Press, 2006, pp. 145-146. 140. ^ Klempner, Mark. The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage. The Pilgrim Press, 2006, pg. 145. 141. ^ Kimel, Alexander. "Holocaust Resistance", accessed May 4, 2007. 142. ^ Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews, Harper Perennial, 1988, p. 506. 143. ^ Wood, Thomas E. & Jankowski, StanisÅ?aw M. Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust, 1994. 144. ^ "Killing Centers". USHMM. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007327. 145. ^ quoted in Richard J. Evans, Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial, (New York: Basic Books), p.92 146. ^ a b Conway, John S. "The first report about Auschwitz", Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Annual 1 Chapter 07. Retrieved September 11, 2006. 147. ^ Linn, Ruth. Escaping Auschwitz. A culture of forgetting, Cornell University Press, 2004, p. 20. 148. ^ Swiebocki, Henryk. "Prisoner Escapes," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 505. 149. ^ Grojanowski Report 150. ^ Grojanowski Report, Yad Vashem 151. ^ Yad Vashem, "Diaries" 152. ^ Memorandum, Arthur Sweetser to Leo Rosten, February 1, 1942, quoted in Eric Hanin, "War on Our Minds: The American Mass Media in World War II" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester, 1976), ch. 4, n.6 153. ^ Het Parool, September 27, page 4â??5. Concentration camps: where the Nazi's bring their ideals in practice, NIOD (Dutch Institute of War Documentation), Amsterdam 154. ^ [6] and [7] (Het Parool, September 27, 1943, p 4â??5) 155. ^ Hilberg, Raul (1985). The destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier. pp. 1212. ISBN 0-8419-0910-5. 156. ^ Vrba, Rudolf (2002). I Escaped From Auschwitz. New York: Barricade Books. ISBN 1-56980-232-7. 157. ^ a b Linn, Ruth. "Rudolf Vrba", The Guardian, April 13, 2006. 158. ^ The BBC first broadcast information from the report on June 18, not June 15, according to Ruth Linn in Escaping Auschwitz: A Culture of Forgetting, p. 28. 159. ^ "Captured German sound recordings", The National Archives. 160. ^ Czech, Danuta (1989). Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz- Birkenau 1939 - 1945.. Rowohlt, Reinbek. pp. , pp.920, 933. ISBN 3-498-00884-6. using information from a series called Hefte von Auschwitz, and cited in Kárný, Miroslav. "The Vrba and Wetzler report," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, p. 564, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994. The original German is: "25. November Im KL Auschwitz II kommen 24 weibliche Häftlinge ums Leben, von denen 13 unmittelbar getötet werden." 161. ^ Maps of the main death marches, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 162. ^ Friedländer, Saul (2007). Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Extermination. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019043-4. p. 649 163. ^ Wiesel, Elie. Night, p. 81. 164. ^ Stone, Dan G.; Wood, Angela (2007). Holocaust: The events and their impact on real people. DK CHILDREN, in conjunction with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. pp. 144. ISBN 0-7566-2535-1. 165. ^ Holocaust: The events and their impact on real people, DK Publishing in conjunction with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, p. 146. 166. ^ A film with scenes from the liberation of Dachau, Buchenwald, Belsen and other Nazi concentration camps, supervised by the British Ministry of Information and the American Office of War Information, was begun but never finished or shown. It lay in archives until first aired on PBS's Frontline on May 7, 1985. The film, partly edited by Alfred Hitchcock, can be seen online at Memory of the Camps. 167. ^ Wiesel, Elie. After the Darkness: Reflections on the Holocaust, Schocken Books, p. 39. 168. ^ Holocaust: The events and their impact on real people, DK Publishing in conjunction with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, p. 145. 169. ^ "The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain)", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 170. ^ "Bergen-Belsen", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 171. ^ Wiesel, Elie. After the Darkness: Reflections on the Holocaust, Schocken Books, p. 41. 172. ^ "Liberation of Belsen", BBC News, April 15, 1945. 173. ^ Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in OÅ?wiÄ?cim, Poland. 174. ^ a b c Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews, Bantam, 1986.p. 403 175. ^ a b Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, p. 125. 176. ^ a b 1.8â??1.9 million non-Jewish Polish citizens are estimated to have died as a result of the Nazi occupation and the war. Estimates are from Polish scholar, Franciszek Piper, the chief historian at Auschwitz. Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 177. ^ a b c Piotrowski, Tadeusz. "Project InPosterum: Poland WWII Casualties", accessed March 15, 2007; and Å?uczak, CzesÅ?aw. "Szanse i trudnoÅ?ci bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939â??1945", Dzieje Najnowsze, issue 1994/2. 178. ^ "Sinti and Roma", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The USHMM places the scholarly estimates at 220,000â??500,000. Michael Berenbaum in The World Must Know, also published by the USHMM, writes that "serious scholars estimate that between 90,000 and 220,000 were killed under German rule." (Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, p. 126. 179. ^ ROMANIES AND THE HOLOCAUST: A REEVALUATION AND AN OVERVIEW 180. ^ Donna F. Ryan, John S. Schuchman, Deaf People in Hitler's Europe, Gallaudet University Press 2002, 62 181. ^ a b c d e The Holocaust Chronicle, Publications International Ltd., p. 108. 182. ^ a b Shulman, William L. A State of Terror: Germany 1933â??1939. Bayside, New York: Holocaust Resource Center and Archives. 183. ^ Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust, 1988, pp. 242-244. 184. ^ Israel Gutman. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Macmillan Reference Books; Reference edition (October 1, 1995. 185. ^ a b "How many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust?", FAQs about the Holocaust, Yad Vashem. 186. ^ Benz, Wolfgang (1996). Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus.. Dtv. ISBN 3-423-04690-2. 187. ^ About: The Central Database of Shoah Victims Names, Yad Vashem web site. 188. ^ Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Yale University Press, 2003, c. 1961). 189. ^ Gutman, Yisrael. (ed.) (1998). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 71. ISBN 0-253-20884-X. 190. ^ Gilbert, Martin, Atlas of the Holocaust, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1993. 191. ^ a b Dawidowicz, Lucy S. (1986). The war against the Jews, 1933-1945. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-34302-5. p. 403 192. ^ The Destruction of the European Jews - Revised and Definite Edition 1985, Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc. Table B-3, p. 1220 193. ^ Rhodes, Richard (2002). Masters of death: the SS-Einsatzgruppen and the invention of the Holocaust. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40900-9. 194. ^ DIETRICH EICHHOLTZ "»Generalplan Ost« zur Versklavung osteuropäischer Völker"[8] 195. ^ Madajczyk, CzesÅ?aw. "Die Besatzungssysteme der Achsenmächte. Versuch einer komparatistischen Analyse." Studia Historiae Oeconomicae vol. 14 (1980): pp. 105-122 [9] in Hitler's War in the East, 1941â??1945: A Critical Assessment by Gerd R. UeberschÌ?ear and Rolf-Dieter Müller [10] 196. ^ Israel Gutman, Uneuqal Victims Holocaust Library 1985 197. ^ a b Gellately, Robert (2001). Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. pp. 153â??154. "German planners in November 1939 called for nothing less than â??the complete destructionâ?? of the Polish people. [...] For Nazi planners, the genocide of the Poles, though some of them may have desired it almost as much as the annihilation of the Jews, could not proceed in the short run, because â??such a solution to the Polish question would represent a burden to the German people into the distant future, and everywhere rob us of all understanding, not least in that neighbouring peoples would have to reckon at some appropriate time, with a similar fateâ??. Later versions of the â??General Plan Eastâ?? grew more expansive, and envisioned serial genocide and the death or deportation of the 30 to 40 million â??racially undesirableâ?? peoples like the Poles and Jews from the area to be colonized in the east. A second group of about 14 million, mainly Slavs, would stay to be used as slaves. Germans and others from â??Germanic nationsâ??, like the Norwegians and the Dutch, would settle the new territory." 198. ^ Berghahn, Volker R. (1999). "Germans and Poles 1871â??1945". Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences (Rodopi). 199. ^ Davies, Norman (1982). God's playground, a history of Poland. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 2: 263. ISBN 0-231-05351-7. 200. ^ a b (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company. pp. 295. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=qETeuFX3hbmM0VPSO13o0LmjgEc. See also review 201. ^ Nurowski, Roman. 1939â??1945 War Losses in Poland, Warsaw 1960, 202. ^ Poland-WWII-casualties ,Piotrowski, Tadeusz. "Project InPosterum: Poland WWII Casualties" 203. ^ ŽerjaviÄ?, VladimirYugoslavia manipulations with the number Second World War victims, Zagreb: Croatian Information center,1993 ISBN 0-919817-32-7 [11] and [12] 204. ^ KoÄ?oviÄ?,Bogoljub-Žrtve Drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji 1990 ISBN 8601019285 205. ^ Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941â??1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0804736154 206. ^ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Holocaust Era in Croatia: 1941â??1945, Jasenovac (go to section III Concentration Camps)[13], 207. ^ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Jasenovac.[14], 208. ^ Jasenovac 209. ^ Yadvashem. Jasenovac 210. ^ *Bosniaks in Jasenovac Concentration Camp â?? Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals, Sarajevo. ISBN 9789958471025. October 2006. (Holocaust Studies) 211. ^ of Bosniak victims of Jasenovac[dead link] Meliha Pihura, Bosnjaci.net Magazine, April 13, 2007. 212. ^ Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 213. ^ "Soviet Prisoners of war". http://www.gendercide.org/case_soviet.html. 214. ^ "Nazi persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War". http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007178. 215. ^ a b Niewyk, Donald & Nicosia, Frances. "The Gypsies", The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, p. 47. 216. ^ "We had the same pain", The Guardian, November 29, 2004. 217. ^ Bauer, Yehuda. "Gypsies," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1994); this edition 1998, p. 453. 218. ^ Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, p. 126. 219. ^ cited in Re. Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) Special Master's Proposals, September 11, 2000). 220. ^ "Sinti and Roma", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 221. ^ Gilbert, Martin (2002). The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust. Routledge, London & New York. ISBN 0 415 28145 8. (ref Map 182 p 141 with Romani deaths by country & Map 301 p 232) Note: formerly The Dent Atlas of the Holocaust; 1982, 1993. 222. ^ Hanock, Ian. "Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview"[dead link], published in Stone, D. (ed.) (2004) The Historiography of the Holocaust. Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York. 223. ^ Hancock, Ian. Jewish Responses to the Porajmos (The Romani Holocaust), Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota. 224. ^ Kermish, Joseph. (ed.) "Emmanuel Ringblaum's Notes, Hitherto Unpublished"PDF (31.2 KB), , Yad Vashem Studies VII, Jerusalem 1968, pp. 177â??178. 225. ^ Breitman, Richard. Himmler and the Final Solution: The Architect of Genocide. Random House, 2004. 226. ^ Bauer, Yehuda. "Gypsies", in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1994); this edition 1998, p. 444. 227. ^ Bauer, Yehuda. "Gypsies", in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1994); this edition 1998, p. 445. 228. ^ Bauer, Yehuda. "Gypsies", in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1994); this edition 1998, p. 446. 229. ^ The word translated here as "fellow German" is Volksgenosse, a term used by the Nazis to signify pure German blood. The Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei 1920 manifesto stated: "Staatsbürger kann nur sein, wer Volksgenosse ist. Volksgenosse kann nur sein, wer deutschen Blutes ist, ohne Rücksichtnahme auf die Konfession. Kein Jude kann daher Volksgenosse sein." ("Citizens must be Volksgenosse. Volksgenosse must be of German blood â?¦ No Jew can be Volksgenosse.") 230. ^ Poster advertising Neues Volk, the monthly magazine of the Bureau for Race Politics of the NSDAP. 231. ^ Holocaust Remembrance Network. 232. ^ Kershaw, Ian. Hitler, volume II, Norton 2000, p. 430. 233. ^ a b Lifton, Robert J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. London: Papermac, 1986 (reprinted 1990) p. 142. 234. ^ Neugebauer, Wolfgang. "Racial Hygiene in Vienna 1938", Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, special edition, March 1998. 235. ^ Rael D Strous (2007) Psychiatry during the Nazi era: ethical lessons for the modern professional Annals of General Psychiatry 2007, 6:8doi:10.1186/1744-859X-6-8 236. ^ Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, Basic Books 1986 237. ^ Sereny, Gitta. Into That Darkness, Pimlico 1974, p. 48. 238. ^ a b c d Steakley, James. "Homosexuals and the Third Reich", The Body Politic, Issue 11, January/February 1974. 239. ^ "Non-Jewish victims of Nazism", Encyclopaedia Britannica. 240. ^ Giles, Geoffrey J. "The Most Unkindest Cut of All': Castration, Homosexuality and Nazi Justice", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 27, No. 1, (January 1992): pp. 41â??61. 241. ^ Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf, pp. 315 and 320. 242. ^ Katz, Jews and Freemasons in Europe cited in The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, volume 2, page 531. 243. ^ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, FREEMASONRY UNDER THE NAZI REGIME 244. ^ Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi-Regime 1933â??1945 Social Disinterest, Governmental Disinformation, Renewed Persecution, and Now Manipulation of History? p. 251. 245. ^ Non-Jewish Resistance, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 246. ^ "Horrors of Auschwitz", Newsquest Media Group Newspapers, January 27, 2005 247. ^ Augustine, Dolores, Book Review of Niven, Bill, The Buchenwald Child: Truth, Fiction, and Propaganda in Central European History 41:01, Cambridge University Press 248. ^ "The war that time forgot", The Guardian, October 5, 1999 249. ^ Commissar Order 250. ^ Peter Hitchens, The Gathering Storm, April 9, 2008 Further reading Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Holocaust * External links, references, and other resources are listed at Holocaust (resources). 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MrPresident07 Member	Wed Oct 28 00:01:56 Yes, thanks for clarifying for me kargen. A&W Cream Soda only. I've tried others and they're garbage.
freaky boy Member	Wed Oct 28 02:44:13 we dont get root beer here in australia. I can only assume its the same thing as 'ginger beer' but yea, thats like in my top five of favourite non alco drinks.
CrownRoyal Member	Wed Oct 28 04:16:10 There are very few thing as disgusting as root beer.
Camaban Moderator	Wed Oct 28 04:32:24 >>but yea, thats like in my top five of favourite non alco drinks. << Tried alcoholic ginger beer? It's awesome.
freaky boy Member	Wed Oct 28 04:35:09 Ive had that mix of bundy rum with ginger beer, I like that
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