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| Paul Touvier |
Paul TouvierPaul Touvier (April 3, 1915 - July 17, 1996) was one of only two Frenchmen to be convicted of war crimes against humanity (the other was Maurice Papon). He was born in Saint-Vincent-sur-Jabron, Alpes de Haute-Provence, in south-western France.
Sympathetic to the ideas of Marshall Petain, Touvier joined the "Milice", a militia of the Vichy regime which collaborated with the Nazis against French partisans ( e.g. the resistànce). Touvier was eventually appointed head of the intelligence department in the Chambéry Milice under the direction of Klaus Barbie and in January 1944 became second regional head of the Vichy Government.
After the liberation of France by the Allied forces, Touvier went into hiding. On September 10, 1946, he was sentenced to death in absentia by the French courts for treason and collusion with the enemy. He was arrested in 1947 while trying to hold up a bakery shop but was able to escape.
By 1966, implementation of his death sentence was statute-barred on the twenty-year time limitation. Following this, attorneys for Touvier filed an application for a pardon asking for the lifting of the life-time ban on leaving the country and the confiscation of goods linked to his death penalty. In 1971, French President Georges Pompidou granted him the pardon. Pompidou's pardon caused a public outcry that escalated when it was revealed that most of the property Touvier claimed as his own had in fact been property seized from deported Jews.
On July 3, 1973, a complaint was filed in Lyons Court against Touvier by Georges Glaeser charging him with crimes against humanity. Glaeser accused Touvier of ordering the assassination of seven Jewish hostages at Rillieux-la-Pape, near Lyons, on June 29, 1944, in retaliation for the murder the previous evening of Philippe Henriot, the Vichy Government's Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda. After being indicted, Touvier disappeared again but through his lawyers, years of legal maneuvering ensued until finally a warrant was issued for his arrest on November 27, 1981. However, it wasn't until 1989 that Touvier was found hiding in a monastery in Nice. After his arrest, further information came to light showing that he had been aided for years by the Catholic church hierarchy in Lyon and later by some of the right-wing Catholic clerics.
Besides the charge of the murder of the seven Jewish citizens, Touvier was suspected of having played a significant part in the execution of a prominent human-rights leader and his wife, as well as being involved in several deportations of other Jewish citizens. During the two years following Touvier's arrest, twenty additional charges were laid by individuals and associations against him.
Paul Touvier was granted provisional release in July 1991 and his trial for complicity in crimes against humanity only began on March 17, 1994. On April 20, a nine-person jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His 1995 appeal was rejected by the Court.
On July 17, 1996, Paul Touvier died of prostate cancer in the Fresnes prison hospital near Paris. His funerals were celebrated at St Nicolas du Chardonnet, the integrist catholic parish in Paris.
The movie "The Statement" is loosely based on his story.
Touvier, Paul
Touvier, Paul
Touvier, Paul
Touvier, Paul
Touvier, Paul
April 3
April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining.
Events
- 33 - Crucifixion of Jesus (traditional date)
- 1077 - Creation of the first Parliament of Friuli
- 1559 - The treaty, Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
- 1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins, and is completed on April 13).
- 1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the break-away Confederate States of America.
- 1882 - American Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed in Saint Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
- 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
- 1895 - The libel trial instigated by Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensbury begins, eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
- 1896 - first publication of La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Italy.
- 1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives at Petrograd Station in Russia from exile, marking the begining of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
- 1922 - Joseph Stalin succeeds Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union.
- 1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the baby son of Anne and world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.
- 1941 - Hungarian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.
- 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan falls on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
- 1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
- 1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
- 1948 - On Jeju, locals simultaneously raid the island's police stations, marking the start of a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju massacre.
- 1953 - TV Guide debuts.
- 1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
- 1956 - Elvis Presley sings "Heartbreak Hotel" on the Milton Berle Show, with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing.
- 1968 - Simon and Garfunkel release the critically acclaimed album Bookends.
- 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
- 1971 - In Dublin, Ireland, Séverine wins the sixteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Monaco singing "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" (A bench, a tree, a street).
- 1972 - The first ever Mobile phone call is placed by Martin Cooper, in New York City
- 1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, with 148 tornadoes affecting 13 states and 1 Canadian province in 18 hours, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
- 1974 - An F4 class hurricane rips through Monticello, Indiana, killing 8 and causing $100 million in damage. Most of the damage was centered in the downtown area. Some time later, the cornerstone of the city hall is found in rural Maine.
- 1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
- 1976 - In The Hague, Netherlands, Brotherhood of Man wins the twenty-first Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Save Your Kisses For Me".
- 1986 - IBM unveils the PC Convertible, their first laptop computer.
- 1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
- 1996 - An Air Force 737 carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on-board, including Brown.
- 1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
- 2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
- 2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves with explosives.
Births
- 1151 - Igor Svyatoslavich, Russian prince (d. 1202)
- 1245 - King Philip III of France (d. 1285)
- 1367 - King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
- 1529 - Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1581)
- 1593 - George Herbert, English poet and orator (d. 1633)
- 1643 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, general of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1690)
- 1683 - Mark Catesby, English naturalist (d. 1749)
- 1693 - George Edwards, English naturalist (d. 1773)
- 1715 - John Hanson, American delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1783)
- 1715 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (d. 1787)
- 1764 - John Abernathy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
- 1769 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
- 1783 - Washington Irving, American author (d. 1859)
- 1814 - Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1901)
- 1822 - Edward Everett Hale, American writer, (d. 1909)
- 1823 - William Marcy Tweed, American political boss (d. 1878)
- 1880 - Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (d. 1903)
- 1881 - Alcide De Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1954)
- 1885 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American film director (d. 1981)
- 1889 - Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian composer and violinist (d. 1949)
- 1893 - Leslie Howard, English actor (d. 1943)
- 1895 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
- 1898 - George Jessel, American comedian (d. 1981)
- 1898 - Henry Luce, American publisher (d. 1967)
- 1904 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1913 - Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)
- 1916 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (d. 1997)
- 1921 - Jan Sterling, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1924 - Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1924 - Doris Day, American actress
- 1925 - Tony Benn, British politician
- 1926 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (d. 1967)
- 1928 - Don Gibson, American country musician (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Kevin Hagen, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese actress
- 1930 - Lawton Chiles, U.S. Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida (d. 1998)
- 1930 - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany
- 1934 - Jane Goodall, English zoologist
- 1941 - Eric Braeden, German-born actor
- 1941 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
- 1941 - Jan Berry, American musician (Jan and Dean) (d. 2004)
- 1942 - Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor (d. 2005)
- 1942 - Marsha Mason, American actress
- 1942 - Wayne Newton, American singer
- 1942 - Billy Joe Royal, American singer
- 1943 - Jonathan Lynn, British actor and comedy writer
- 1943 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician and songwriter (d. 1986)
- 1944 - Tony Orlando, American musician
- 1948 - Carlos Salinas, President of Mexico
- 1949 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
- 1949 - Lyle Alzado, American football player
- 1954 - Elisabetta Brusa, Italian composer
- 1956 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
- 1958 - Alec Baldwin, American actor
- 1959 - David Hyde Pierce, American actor
- 1961 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
- 1962 - Mike Ness, American musician (Social Distortion)
- 1964 - Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
- 1968 - Sebastian Bach, Canadian musician (Skid Row)
- 1968 - Charlotte Coleman, British actress (d. 2001)
- 1972 - Jennie Garth, American actress
- 1975 - Michael Olowokandi, Nigerian basketball player
- 1976 - Drew Shirley, American musician (Switchfoot)
- 1978 - G. M. Palmer, American poet and editor
- 1979 - Daniel Lane, British music journalist (Kerrang!)
- 1979 - Luke Martin, British musician (Big Hand)
- 1986 - Amanda Bynes, American actress and show host
- 1987 - Paul Munro, British Chief Customer Services Administrator
- 1993 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer
Deaths
- 33 - Jesus (b. 0 / Christians believe he rose from the dead three days later)
- 963 - William III, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 915)
- 1287 - Pope Honorius IV
- 1350 - Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1295)
- 1606 - Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1680 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (b. 1630)
- 1682 - Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Spanish painter (b. 1618)
- 1691 - Jean Petitot, Swiss enamel painter (b. 1608)
- 1695 - Melchior d'Hondecoeter, Dutch painter
- 1717 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
- 1728 - James Anderson, Scottish lawyer (b. 1662)
- 1792 - George Pocock, British admiral (b. 1706)
- 1792 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (b. 1718)
- 1827 - Ernst Chladni, German physicist (b. 1856)
- 1849 - Juliusz Słowacki, Polish poet (b. 1809)
- 1868 - Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and inventor (b. 1796)
- 1882 - Jesse James, American outlaw (b. 1847)
- 1897 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
- 1901 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, British impresario (b. 1844)
- 1932 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1936 - Bruno Hauptmann, German killer of Charles Lindbergh III (b. 1899)
- 1950 - Kurt Weill, German composer (b. 1900)
- 1965 - Ernst Kirchweger, Austrian communist and resistance fighter, dies from injuries suffered during a demonstration
- 1971 - Joseph Valachi, American gangster (b. 1904)
- 1972 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (b. 1882)
- 1982 - Warren Oates, American character actor (b. 1928)
- 1986 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician (The Band) (b. 1943)
- 1986 - Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
- 1987 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
- 1990 - Sarah Vaughn, American singer (b. 1924)
- 1991 - Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
- 1991 - Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901)
- 1993 - Pinky Lee, American children's television host (b. 1907)
- 1996 - Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of Commerce (b. 1941)
- 1996 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (b. 1927)
- 1998 - Rob Pilatus, American entertainer and criminal (Milli Vanilli) (b. 1965)
- 2000 - Terence McKenna, American writer and philosopher (b. 1946)
- 2002 - Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget), British singer and musician (b. 1956)
- 2005 - Tony Croatto, Italian-born singer (b. 1940)
Holidays and observances
In Iran, people play jokes on each other on April 3, the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norooz). This day is called "Sizdah bedar" (Out-door thirteen). It is believed that people should go out on this date in order to escape the bad luck of number 13.
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/3 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/3 Today in History: April 3]
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April 2 - April 4 - March 3 - May 3 -- listing of all days
ko:4월 3일
ms:3 April
ja:4月3日
simple:April 3
th:3 เมษายน
July 17July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining.
Events
- 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa, executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
- 1203 - Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.
- 1453 - Hundred Years' War: The French under Jean Bureau utterly defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the Battle of Castillon at Gascony
- 1762 - Catherine II becomes tzar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
- 1771 - Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
- 1791 - Massacre at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution. 1200-1500 people were killed, including women and children.
- 1815 - Napoleonic Wars: In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to British forces.
- 1816 - The French passenger ship Medusa runs aground off the coast of Senegal. Klondike gold rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle, Washington, USA.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
- 1899 - NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
- 1917 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
- 1933 - After successful crossing of the Atlantic ocean, in Europe under mysterious reasons crashes the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica.
- 1936 - Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the Spanish civil war.
- 1944 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.
- 1944 - World War II: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
- 1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
- 1955 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
- 1962 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
- 1975 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
- 1975 - History of East Timor: East Timor was annexed, and became the 27th province of Indonesia.
- 1979 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
- 1981 - Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby killing 114.
- 1984 - Laurent Fabius becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time at 2510.04.
- 1995 - The Midwestern heat wave in the United States reaches its peak. Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, among other cities, set all-time high temperature records. The heat claims over 400 lives on this day alone.
- 1995 - The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- 1996 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
- 1997 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
- 1998 - In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
- 1998 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
- 1998 - Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.
Births
- 1487 - Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)
- 1674 - Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter (d. 1748)
- 1698 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)
- 1831 - Xianfeng, Emperor of China (d. 1861)
- 1839 - Ephraim Shay, American inventor (d. 1916
- 1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian conductor (d. 1960)
- 1888 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
- 1899 - James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1899 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American author (d. 1970)
- 1901 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)
- 1912 - Art Linkletter, Canadian television host
- 1917 - Phyllis Diller, American comedian
- 1918 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
- 1920 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish chairman of the International Olympic Committee
- 1920 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, English sports commentator (d. 2002)
- 1921 - František Zvarík, Slovakian actor
- 1928 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician and composer (d. 1976)
- 1935 - Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor
- 1935 - Peter Schickele, American composer, author, and radio host, creator of P.D.Q. Bach
- 1938 - Franz Alt, Austrian-born journalist
- 1941 - Spencer Davis, British singer and guitarist (Spencer Davis Group)
- 1941 - Jürgen Flimm, German theatre director and manager
- 1942 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedian
- 1944 - Carlos Alberto, Brazilian football player
- 1947 - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
- 1949 - Charlie Steiner, American sports broadcaster
- 1952 - David Hasselhoff, American actor and musician
- 1954 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
- 1954 - J. Michael Straczynski, American author
- 1960 - Mark Burnett, English-born television producer
- 1960 - Jan Wouters, Dutch football player and manager
- 1963 - Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper
- 1965 - Craig Morgan, American singer
- 1967 - CJ Marsicano, American musician, writer, and journalist
- 1971 - Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist
- 1973 - Eric Moulds, American football player
- 1975 - Konnie Huq, English television presenter
Deaths
- 1070 - Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)
- 1086 - King Canute IV of Denmark
- 1105 - Rashi, French rabbi and commentator (b. 1040)
- 1453 - John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader
- 1531 - Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)
- 1566 - Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)
- 1571 - Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)
- 1588 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)
- 1645 - Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician
- 1704 - Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer
- 1709 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (b. 1646)
- 1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)
- 1791 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
- 1793 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat and murderer (b. 1768)
- 1794 - John Roebuck, English inventor (b. 1718)
- 1878 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)
- 1887 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)
- 1894 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (b. 1810)
- 1912 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician (b. 1854)
- 1917 - Hector Malot, French writer (b. 1830)
- 1918 (N.S.) - Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868)
- Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (b. 1872)
- Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1895)
- Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1897)
- Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1899)
- Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1901)
- Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (b. 1904)
- 1928 - Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman (b. 1842)
- 1959 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
- 1959 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (b. 1875)
- 1961 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)
- 1967 - John Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)
- 1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (b. 1893)
- 1980 - Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
- 1995 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)
- 2001 - Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)
- 2003 - David Kelly, Welsh UN weapons inspector (b. 1944)
- 2003 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Pat Roach, English professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)
- 2005 - Sir Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
- 2005 - Joe Vialls, Australian writer
Holidays and observances
- Iraq - Ba'ath Revolution Day
- Puerto Rico - Luis Muñoz Rivera's Birthday
- South Korea - Constitution Day
- Various mathematics departments - Yellow Pig's Day
- Kyoto, Japan - Gion Matsuri
- Feast Day of St Cynllo
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/17 BBC: On This Day]
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July 16 - July 18 - June 16 - August 18 -- listing of all days
ko:7월 17일
ms:17 Julai
ja:7月17日
simple:July 17
th:17 กรกฎาคม
Maurice PaponMaurice Papon (born September 3, 1910) was an official of the French Vichy government, which collaborated with Nazi Germany in World War II. After the war ended, he hid his role in the Vichy government and went on to have a successful career in politics until the emergence of details about his past led to his trial and conviction for crimes against humanity in 1997-1998.
World War II and later career
During World War II, Papon served as a senior police official in the Vichy regime involved in the deportation of Jews; he was the number two official in the Bordeaux region and supervisor of its Service for Jewish Questions. After the war, he managed to hide his wartime activities, and went on to enjoy a civil service career as the chief of Paris police, and later as budget minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the 1970s.
Papon was chief of the Paris police on October 17, 1961 when, after a peaceful march organized by the Algerian National Liberation Front, a large number of Algerian civilians were killed in Paris by French police.
The exact number of the dead remains unknown. A French government commission in 1998 claim only 40 people died. Others claim the number to be as high as 400. However, most historians agree on 200 deaths.
Criminal conviction
Little by little evidence of his reponsibility in the Holocaust emerged, and throughout the 1980s he fought a string of legal battles. After 17 years of bitter legal wrangling, in 1997 he was charged with complicity in crimes against humanity.
The trial was the longest in French history.
It had different meanings for different French people; for some, it was considered to be the last chance to confront their collaborationist history in a court room. By his arrogance, his contempt, his refusal to express regrets or remorse during and since its lawsuit, Papon drew contempt from many.
Papon was accused of ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,560 Jews, including children and the elderly, between 1942 and 1944.
Most of these people were sent to Auschwitz.
One of the main issues of the trial was to determine to what extent an individual should be held responsible in a chain of responsibility. Papon's lawyers argued that he was merely a mid-level official, not the person making decisions about whom to deport; his lawyers even argued that he in fact did the most good he could given the circumstances, ensuring that those deported were treated well while in his custody. However, the prosecution argued that the defense of following orders was not sufficient, and that Papon bore at least some of the responsibility for the deportations.
However, they did recommended that he only be given a 20-year prison term, as opposed to the sentence of life imprisonment, which is usually the norm for such crimes.
Papon was convicted in 1998 and given a 10-year prison term, which was criticized by some for being relatively short. His lawyers filed an appeal before the Court of Cassation, but Papon fled to Switzerland; his appeal was summarily denied due to the Court's practice of requiring persons convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison terms to give themselves up as prisoners prior to the appeal ruling. After Switzerland sent him back to France to serve his prison sentence, he was sent to La Santé jail on October 22, 1999. Papon was also stripped of all his decorations; under French law, people convicted of severe crimes cannot be members of the Legion of Honor.
He applied for release on the grounds of poor health in March 2000, but President Jacques Chirac denied the petition. He continued to fight legal battles while in prison, however, taking his denied appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, where he argued the French court's denial of his appeal on a technicality (rather than on the merits of the case) constituted a violation of his right to appeal his conviction. The Court agreed in July 2002, admonishing the Court of Cassation and awarding Papon FF429,192 (approx. €65,400) in legal costs, but no damages.
However, Papon's lawyers had meanwhile been pursuing a separate appeal in France, petitioning for his release under the terms of a March 2002 law that provided for the release of ill and elderly prisoners to receive outside medical care. As doctors affirmed Papon, by this time 92 years old, was essentially incapacitated, he became the second person released under the terms of the law, leaving jail on September 18, 2002, less than 3 years into his sentence.
In March 2004, another criminal investigation was opened against Papon at the request of the chancery of the Legion of Honor. He was accused of wearing this decoration (which he used to possess before being stripped of it after his conviction) illegally while being photographed for a press interview for Le Point. He was tried and fined €2,500.
See also
- Klaus Barbie -- Paul Touvier -- Serge Klarsfeld
External links
- [http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=PREX9903836A Decision by the chancellor of the Legion of Honor] acknowledging Papon's condemnation and the stripping of his decoration.
Papon, Maurice
Papon, Maurice
Papon, Maurice
Papon, Maurice
Papon, Maurice
Alpes de Haute-Provence
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is a French département in the south of France, it was formerly part of the province of Provence.
History
Nord-de-Provence was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was renamed Haute-Provence and Basses-Alpes.
On December 8, 1793, the department of Vaucluse was created from parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes.
On April 13, 1970, the department of Basses-Alpes was renamed Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.
Geography
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is a mountainous region with peaks over 8,000 feet. The climate is very dry and arid and but irrigation allows for a prosperous fruit-growing industry.
It is surrounded by the French departments of Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Vaucluse, and Drôme, as well as Italy.
Rivers include: Durance, Verdon, Bléone, Ubaye, Var, Buëch, Jabron, Largue.
Arrondissements and cantons
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is subdivided into 4 arrondissements, 30 cantons and 200 communes.
| Arrondissement | Canton | # of communes |
|---|
| Barcelonnette | Barcelonnette | 11 |
| Le Lauzet-Ubaye | 5 |
| Castellane | Allos-Colmars | 6 |
| Annot | 7 |
| Castellane | 7 |
| Entrevaux | 6 |
| Saint-André-les-Alpes | 6 |
| Digne-les-Bains | Barrême | 8 |
| Digne-les-Bains-Est | 4 |
| Digne-les-Bains-Ouest | 10 |
| La Javie | 6 |
| Les Mées | 6 |
| Mézel | 8 |
| Moustiers-Sainte-Marie | 3 |
| Riez | 9 |
| Seyne | 8 |
| Valensole | 4 |
| Forcalquier | Banon | 9 |
| Forcalquier | 10 |
| Manosque-Nord | 3 |
| Manosque-Sud-Est | 3 |
| Manosque-Sud-Ouest | 3 |
| La Motte-du-Caire | 13 |
| Noyers-sur-Jabron | 7 |
| Peyruis | 4 |
| Reillanne | 8 |
| Saint-Étienne-les-Orgues | 8 |
| Sisteron | 5 |
| Turriers | 7 |
| Volonne | 9 |
See also: Communes of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département
Demographics
Inhabitants of this department are called Bas-Alpins.
The population was once distributed fairly evenly across the department, both in the mountainous regions and the agricultural ones. However, near the end of the 19th century it markedly decreased due to rural exodus to the cities. It fell from about 150,000 to below 100,000 after World War I. It was not until 1960, that the population began to grow again, from 84,335 in 1968 to 139,561 in 1999. However, although the population figures are about what they were before, the distribution is very different. The population is now centered around the larger towns, Manosque and Digne-les-Bains, and the mountainous regions are very sparsely populated.
The arrondissements of Barcelonette and Castellane are the two least heavily populated of France, the only ones with under 10,000 inhabitants. The town of Catellane is the smallest subprefecture of France.
Tourism
The beautiful scenery provides the background to many activities and sights. Eleven villages have been classified as having special architectural character. In particular there are:
- The town of Sisteron with its ancient citadel and narrow streets
- The Gorge of Verdon (Europe's Grand Canyon)
- Dignes-les-Baines Hot-spa town
- Moustiers-Sainte-Marie Pottery
In summer many aerial sports use the surrounding mountains such as gliding, hang gliding and paragliding. In winter there is extensive ski-ing at eleven ski resorts.
External links
- [http://www.cg04.fr Conseil Général website in French]
- [http://www.alpes-de-haute-provence.pref.gouv.fr/ Préfecture website in French]
- [http://uk.alpes-haute-provence.com/ Préfecture web-site in English]
- [http://splaf.free.fr/dep.php?depnum=04 Detailed information in French]
- [http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/alaupro.htm Detailed information in English]
- [http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/alaupro/villages.htm Village by village guide]
- [http://www.sisteron.com/index.php?lang=gb Sisteron guide]
- [http://www.aircross.co.uk/sisteron/ Gliding in the Alps from Sisteron]
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ja:アルプ＝ド＝オート＝プロヴァンス県
Milice Joseph Darnand. The inverted white ribbon was the Milice's logo.]]
Joseph Darnand
The Milice ("militia") was a paramilitary force created in 1943 to help fight "terrorism" in Vichy France – that is to say, to fight against the French Resistance. The Milice, headed by Joseph Darnand, participated in summary executions, assassinations and helped round up the Jews and resistants in France for deportation.
Like the Gestapo, the Milice often resorted to torture to extract information or confessions from those they rounded up. They were often considered even more deadly than the Gestapo and SS themselves, since they were Frenchmen who spoke the language, had a full knowledge of the towns and land, and knew people and informers.
Milice troops were uniformed and wore wide berets.
Since the Second World War, the term milice has acquired a derogatory meaning in French.
See also
- Secret police
Category:State security
Category:Political repression
Category:Law enforcement agencies of France
Category:Vichy regime
Nazis
:The term "National Socialism" has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation).
Nazism was the ideology held by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, commonly called NSDAP or the Nazi Party), which was led by its "Führer", Adolf Hitler. The word Nazism is most often used in connection with the dictatorship of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 (the "Third Reich"), and it is derived from the term National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus, often abbreviated NS). Adherents of Nazism held that the Aryan race were superior to other races, and they promoted Germanic racial supremacy and a strong, centrally governed state. Nazism has been outlawed in modern Germany, yet small remnants and revivalists, known as "Neo-Nazis", continue to operate in Germany and abroad.
Originally, Nazi was invented by analogy to Sozi (a common and slightly pejorative term for the Nazis' main opponents, the socialists in Germany). The Nazis from the era of the Third Reich rarely referred to themselves as "Nazis", preferring the official term "National Socialists" instead. Nazi was most commonly used as a pejorative term; however, its use became so widespread that, currently, some Neo-Nazis also use it to describe themselves.
There is a very close relationship between Nazism and Fascism. Since the term Nazism is normally used to refer to the ideology and policies of Nazi Germany alone, while Fascism is used in a broader sense, to refer to a wider political movement that exists or existed in many countries, Nazism is often classified as a particular version of Fascism.
Ideological theory
According to Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler developed his political theories after carefully observing the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born as a citizen of the Empire, and believed that ethnic and linguistic diversity had weakened it. Further, he saw democracy as a destabilizing force, because it placed power in the hands of ethnic minorities, whom he claimed "weakened and destabilize" the Empire, by dividing it against itself.
The Nazi rationale was heavily invested in the militarist belief that great nations grow from military power, which in turn grows "naturally" from "rational, civilized cultures". Hitler's calls appealed to disgruntled German Nationalists, eager to save face for the failure of World War I, and to salvage the militaristic nationalist mindset of that previous era. After Austria's and Germany's defeat of World War I, many Germans still had heartfelt ties to the goal of creating a greater Germany, and thought that the use of military force to achieve it was necessary.
Many placed the blame for Germany's misfortunes on those, such as Jews and communists, whom they perceived, in one way or another, to have sabotaged the goal of national victory, by obtaining a stranglehold on the national economy, and using the nation's own resources to control and corrupt it.
Nazi Theory
Alfred Rosenberg's racial philosophy wholly embraced the Aryan Invasion Theory, which traced Aryan peoples in ancient Iran invading the Indus Valley Civilization of India, and carrying with them great knowledge and science that had been preserved from the antediluvian world. This "antediluvian world" referred to Thule, the speculative pre-Flood/Ice Age origin of the Aryan race, and is often tied to ideas of Atlantis . Most of the leadership and the founders of the Nazi Party was made of members of "Thule Gesellschaft" (the Thule Society), who romanticized the Aryan race through theology and ritual.
Hitler also claimed that a nation is the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations) were the creation of homogenous populations of great races, working together. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits". The weakest nations, Hitler said, were those of impure or mongrel races, because they have divided, quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. -If this were correct theUnited States of America with its famous Melting pot would be weak. The United States is clearly strong.- Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and so called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben (Life-unworthy life) owing to their perceived deficiency and inferiority, as well as their wandering, nationless invasions ("the International Jew"). The persecution of homosexuals as part of the Holocaust has seen increasing scholarly attention since the 1990s. Adolf Hitler spent some time homeless in Vienna. If he had not been the Führer he could easily have been designated as having a "lebensunwertes Leben" (Life-unworthy life).
The role of homosexuals in the Nazi Party is considered anecdotal by most historians. Some tiny groups, like the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, and authors Scott Lively and Kevin E. Abrams in The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, (ISBN 0964760932), argue that many homosexuals were involved in the inner circle of the Nazi party: Ernst Röhm of the SA (whose execution was thinly rationalized as being based on his homosexuality), Horst Wessel, Max Bielas, and others. This perspective is denounced as hateful propaganda by most human rights associations and groups, stirring heated debates and accusations of censorship and "hate-speech" from both sides. Most historians and scholars of fascism do not take the work of Lively and Abrams seriously, and dismiss it as part of a Christian Right campaign against gay rights. Conversely, some Nazi supporters argue that such claims are simply more attempts to discredit Nazi ideology.
According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage multilingualism and multiculturalism within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races he thought of as less worthy to exist than "master races". In particular, if a master race should require room to live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior indigenous races. Hitler draws parallels between Lebensraum and the American ethnic cleansing and relocation policies towards the Native Americans, which he saw as key to the success of the US. Hitler had always admired the Americans for their treatment of the Indians, and considered America to be a shining example of what Germany's ambitions should be. Hitler often compared his Lebensraum policies to the Manifest Destiny policy of the United States, in which the ultimate destiny of the American people was to expand west and defeat the Indians.
"Races without homelands", Hitler proclaimed, were "parasitic races", and the richer the members of a "parasitic race" were, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race" could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazis' later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, the homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories in what is known as the Holocaust. Hitler and his living space doctrine found immense popularity among the German population. The Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS and other German soldiers as well as civilian paramilitary groups in occupied territories were responsible for the deaths of an estimated eleven million men, women, and children in concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, and death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Hitler extended his rationalizations into religious doctrine, claiming that those who agreed with and taught his "truths", were "true" or "master" religions, because they would "create mastery" by avoiding comforting lies. Those that preach love and tolerance, "in contravention to the facts", were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognizes these "truths", Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader", and those who deny it were said to be "natural slaves". "Slaves", especially intelligent ones he claimed, were always attempting to hinder masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines. Many Nazis thus regarded Christianity as a cowardly creed founded deliberately by Jews, and hoped to see it replaced with a reborn Germanic paganism based partly on Norse myth and partly on the principles of National Socialism.
The ideological roots which became German "National Socialism" were based on numerous sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th Century idealism, and from a biological reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the goal of an Übermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden (Germanic Order) or the Thule society. He also adopted many populist ideas such as limiting profits, abolishing rents and generously increasing social benefits - but only for Germans.
Hitler's theories were not only attractive to Germans. People in positions of wealth and power in other nations are said to have seen them as beneficial. Examples are Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oréal. Nevertheless, the support for these theories was highest among the general population of Germany.
Nazi mysticism
Nazi mysticism is a term used to describe a philosophical undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the combination of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal. Heinrich Himmler was one of the few Nazi leaders to show a strong interest in such matters.
Key elements of the Nazi ideology
- National Socialist Program
- Racism
- Especially anti-Semitism, which eventually culminated in the Holocaust.
- The creation of a Herrenrasse (or Herrenvolk) (Master Race = by the Lebensborn (Fountain of Life; A department in the Third Reich)
- Anti-Slavism
- Belief in the superiority of the White, Germanic, Aryan or Nordic races.
- Anti-Marxism, Anti-Communism, Anti-Bolshevism
- The rejection of democracy, with as a consequence the ending the existence of political parties, labour unions, and free press.
- Führerprinzip (Leader Principle) Belief in the leader (Responsibility up the ranks, and authority down the ranks.)
- Strong show of local culture.
- Social Darwinism
- Eugenics; sometimes included sterilization and euthanasia
- Religious freedom (Point #24 in the 25 point plan) [http://www.hitler.org/writings/programme/]
- Environmental protection
- Rejection of the modern art movement and an embrace of classical art
- Defense of Blood and Soil (German: "Blut und Boden" - represented by the red and black colors in the Nazi flag)
- "Lebensraumpolitik", "Lebensraum im Osten" (The creation of more living space for Germans in the east)
- Related to Fascism
Nazism and romanticism
According to Bertrand Russell, Nazism comes from a different tradition from that of either liberalism or Marxism. Thus, to understand values of Nazism, it is necessary to explore this connection, without trivializing the movement as it was in its peak years in the 1930s and dismissing it as little more than racism.
Many historians say that the anti-Semitic element, which did not exist in the sister fascism movements in Italy and Spain, was adopted by Hitler to gain popularity for the movement, as anti-Semitic prejudice, was very common among the masses in the German Empire at that time. Likewise, anti-Semitism fit very well with the Dolchstosslegende (betrayal myth) which blamed "non-German" Germans for the loss of WW I. Historians universally accept that Nazism's mass acceptance depended upon nationalistic and anti-immigrant (i.e. anti-Semitic) appeals, and a patriotic flattery toward the wounded collective pride of defeated WW I veterans. Others have focused on anti-Semitism (rather than the general anti-immigration) claiming it to have been central to Hitler's Weltanschauung, or world view.
Many see strong connections to the values of Nazism and the irrationalist tradition of the romantic movement of the early 19th century. Strength, passion, frank declarations of feelings, and deep devotion to family and community were valued by the Nazis though first expressed by many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers. German romanticism in particular expressed these values. For instance, Hitler identified closely with the music of Richard Wagner (a noted anti-Semite, author of Das Judenthum in der Musik, and idol to the young Hitler). Wagner's most important operas, the Ring cycle, express Aryanist ideals, contain what some people interpret as anti-Semitic caricatures.
The idealisation of tradition, folklore, classical thought, the leadership of Frederick the Great, their rejection of the liberalism of the Weimar Republic and the decision to call the German state the Third Reich (which hearkens back to the medieval First Reich and the pre-Weimar Second Reich) has led many to regard the Nazis as reactionary.
Ideological competition
Nazism and Communism emerged as two serious contenders for power in Germany after the First World War, particularly as the Weimar Republic became increasingly unstable.
What became the Nazi movement arose out of resistance to the Bolshevik-inspired insurgencies that occurred in Germany in the aftermath of the First World War. The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused a great deal of excitement and interest in the Leninist version of Marxism and caused many socialists to adopt revolutionary principles. The 1918-1919 Munich Soviet and the 1919 Spartacist uprising in Berlin were both manifestations of this. The Freikorps, a loosely organised paramilitary group (essentially a militia of former World War I soldiers) was used to crush both these uprisings and many leaders of the Freikorps, including Ernst Röhm, later became leaders in the Nazi party.
Capitalists and conservatives in Germany feared that a takeover by the Communists was inevitable and did not trust the democratic parties of the Weimar Republic to be able to resist a communist revolution. Increasing numbers of capitalists began looking to the nationalist movements as a bulwark against Bolshevism. After Mussolini's fascists took power in Italy in 1922, fascism presented itself as a realistic option for opposing "Communism", particularly given Mussolini's success in crushing the Communist and anarchist movements which had destabilised Italy with a wave of strikes and factory occupations after the First World War. Fascist parties formed in numerous European countries.
Many historians, such as Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest, argue that Hitler's Nazis were one of numerous nationalist and increasingly fascistic groups that existed in Germany and contended for leadership of the anti-Communist movement and, eventually, of the German state. Further, they assert that fascism and its German variant, National Socialism, became the successful challengers to Communism because they were able to both appeal to the establishment as a bulwark against Bolshevism and appeal to the working class base, particularly the growing underclass of unemployed and unemployable and growingly impoverished middle class elements who were becoming declassed (the lumpenproletariat). The Nazis' use of pro-labor rhetoric appealed to those disaffected with capitalism by promoting the limiting of profits, the abolishing of rents and the increasing of social benefits (only for Germans of course) while simultaneously presenting a political and economic model that divested "Soviet socialism" of elements which were dangerous to capitalism, such as the concept of class struggle, "the dictatorship of the proletariat" or worker control of the means of production.
Support of anti-Communists for Fascism and Nazism
Various right-wing politicians and political parties in Europe welcomed the rise of fascism and the Nazis out of an intense aversion towards Communism. According to them, Hitler was the savior of Western civilization and of capitalism against Bolshevism. During the later 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis were supported by the Falange movement in Spain, and by political and military figures who would form the government of Vichy France. A Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF) and other anti-Soviet fighting formations were formed.
The British Conservative party and the right-wing parties in France appeased the Nazi regime in the mid- and late-1930s, even though they had begun to criticise its totalitarianism. However Britain under both Conservative and Labour had appeased pre-Nazi Germany as well. Left-wing contemporary commentators suggested that these parties did in fact support the Nazis. Important reasons behind this appeasement included, first, the erroneous assumption that Hitler had no desire to precipitate another world war, and second, when the rebirth of the German military could no longer be ignored, a well-founded concern that neither Britain nor France was yet ready to fight an all-out war against Germany.
Nazism and Anglo-Saxons
Hitler admired the British Empire as a shining example of expansionist Germanic genius. Racialist theories had been developed in Britain and elsewhere during the 19th century to justify European imperial power. Nordicism and Aryanism arose from these developments. Especially important was the idea that North Europeans represented the highest branch of the Aryan peoples, who had in ancient times extended into India and created Indian culture (see Aryan invasion theory). Such Racist imperialist theories justified the idea that some races were innately superior, born to rule, while others were parasitic or inferior "savages". These concepts were taken to an ultimately genocidal conclusion by the Nazis.
Aryan invasion theory flag (invented by Otto von Bismarck, based on the Prussian colors black and white, blended with the red and white of the medieval Hanse cities). In 1871, with the foundation of the German Reich, the flag of the North German Confederation became the German Reichsflagge (Reich's flag). Black, white and red subsequently became the colors of the nationalists (e.g. during World War I and the Weimar Republic).]]
In his early years Hitler also greatly admired the United States of America. In Mein Kampf, he praised the United States for its race-based anti-immigration laws and for the subordination of the "inferior" black population. According to Hitler, America was a successful nation because it kept itself "pure" of "lesser races". However, as war approached, his view of the United States became more negative and he believed that Germany would have an easy victory over the United States precisely because the United States, in his later estimation, had become a mongrel nation, calling it "half Judaised, half Negrified".
Economic practice
Nazi economic practice concerned itself with immediate domestic issues and separately with ideological conceptions of international economics.
Domestic economic policy was narrowly concerned with three major goals:
- Elimination of unemployment
- Elimination of hyperinflation
- Expansion of production of consumer goods to improve middle- and lower-class living standards.
All of these policy goals were intended to address the perceived shortcomings of the Weimar Republic and to solidify domestic support for the party. In this, the party was very successful. Between 1933 and 1936 the German GNP increased by an average annual rate of 9.5 percent, and the rate for industry alone rose by 17.2 percent.
This expansion propelled the German economy out of a deep depression and into full employment in less than four years. Public consumption during the same period increased by 18.7%, while private consumption increased by 3.6% annually. However, as this production was primarily consumptive rather than productive (make-work projects, expansion of the war-fighting machine, initiation of conscription to remove working age males from the labor force and thus lower unemployment), inflationary pressures began to rear their head again, although not to the highs of the Weimar Republic. These economic pressures, combined with the war-fighting machine created in the expansion (and concomitant pressures for its use), has led some to conclude that a European war was inevitable. (See Causes of war.)
Some economists argue that the expansion of the German economy between 1933 and 1936 was not the result of the measures adopted by the Nazi Party, but rather the consequence of economic policies of the prior Weimar Republic which had begun to have an effect. In addition, it has been pointed out that while it is often popularly believed that the Nazis ended hyperinflation, the end of hyperinflation preceded the Nazis by several years.
Internationally, the Nazi Party believed that an international banking cabal was behind the global depression of the 1930s. The control of this cabal was identified with the ethnic group known as Jews, providing another link in their ideological motivation for the destruction of that group in the Holocaust. However, broadly speaking, the existence of large international banking or merchant banking organizations was well known at this time. Many of these banking organizations were able to exert influence upon nation states by extension or withholding of credit. This influence is not limited to the small states that preceded the creation of the German Empire as a nation state in the 1870s, but is noted in most major histories of all European powers from the 16th century onward.
In an economic sense, Nazism and Fascism are related. They both followed the economic model of corporatism, which included government control of finance and investment (allocation of credit), and supervision of industry and agriculture, combined with a strong influence of corporate business interests in the government's economic decisions. Corporate power and market based systems for providing price information co-existed with a strong, militaristic state. Independent labor unions were banned, and a single, government-run labor organization was created to replace them. Officially, the fascist and Nazi state sought to incorporate and harmonize all diverging economic interests. It was considered very important to unite labor and capital (workers and bosses) in order to combat socialism. The socialist and communist call for the workers of all countries to unite was seen by fascists and Nazis as a mortal enemy of the nationalist spirit which stood at the center of their beliefs.
Effects
These theories were used to justify a totalitarian political agenda of racial hatred and suppression using all the means of the state, and suppressing dissent.
Like other fascist regimes, the Nazi regime emphasized anti-communism and the leader principle (Führerprinzip), a key element of fascist ideology in which the ruler is deemed to embody the political movement and the nation. Unlike other fascist ideologies, Nazism was virulently racist. Some of the manifestations of Nazi racism were:
- Anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust
- Ethnic nationalism, including the notion of Germanic people's status as the Herrenvolk ("master race") and Übermensch
- A belief in the need to purify the German race through eugenics - this culminated in the involuntary euthanasia of disabled people and the compulsory sterilization of people with mental deficiencies or illnesses perceived as hereditary
Anti-clericalism was also part of Nazi ideology, although it was never acted on as the Nazis often used the church to justify their stance and included many Christian symbols in the Third Reich.
Backlash effects
Perhaps the primary intellectual effect has been that Nazi doctrines discredited the attempt to use biology to explain or influence social issues, for at least two generations after Nazi Germany's brief existence.
The Nazi descendants have been mute in the post-war democracies, with some exceptions, when interviewed by psychologists and historians. In Norway, a group of descendants have taken the official stigmatizing appellation "Nazi children" in order to break the silence and to protest against the continuous demonization of their families. Some historical revisionists disseminate propaganda which minimizes the Holocaust and other Nazi acts, and attempts to put a positive spin on the policies of the Nazi regime and the events which occurred under it.
These revisionists are often, however, either aligned with, or in the employ of, neo-Nazis, and this fact itself often casts suspicion on their beliefs.
People and history
spin
The most prominent Nazi was Adolf Hitler, who ruled Nazi Germany from January 30, 1933, until his suicide on April 30, 1945, and led the German Reich into World War II. Under Hitler, ethnic nationalism and racism were joined together through an ideology of militarism to serve his goals. After the war, many prominent Nazis were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials, where 21 were executed.
A few scattered people, mostly not from Germany, converted to Nazism during or after World War II and contributed to further development of the ideology, especially in a spiritual or esoteric direction: Sean Russell, Savitri Devi of India, Miguel Serrano of Chile, George Lincoln Rockwell of the United States.
Nazism in relation to other concepts
See the article Nazism in relation to other concepts for a detailed discussion of Nazism's relation to:
- Religion
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