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1698_12 | Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the party. Displaying his talent for oratory and propaganda skills, with the support of Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in early 1920. When early party members promulgated their 25-point manifesto on 24 February 1920 (co-authored by Hitler, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart), it was Hitler who penned the first point, revealing his intention to unify German-speaking peoples, claiming that the party demanded "all Germans be gathered together in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right of all peoples to self-determination". By the spring of 1920, he engineered the change of name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. Under his influence, the party adopted a modified swastika, a well-known good luck charm that had previously been used in Germany as a mark of |
1698_13 | volkishness and "Aryanism", along with the Roman salute used by Italian fascists. At this time, the Nazi Party was one of many small extremist groups in Munich, but Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships. He gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians and especially against Marxists and Jews. Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to advantage while engaged in public speaking. |
1698_14 | While Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin in June 1921, a mutiny broke out within the Nazi Party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. They capitulated to Hitler's demand and on 29 July 1921 a special congress was convened to formalize Hitler as the new chairman (the vote was 543 for Hitler and one against). |
1698_15 | Hitler asserted the Führerprinzip ("leader principle"). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors as he viewed the party structure and later the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader.
Early followers of the party included Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring (command of the Sturmabteilung (SA) as Oberster SA-Führer in 1923), Ernst Röhm (later head of the SA), Alfred Rosenberg (prominent racial theorist), Gregor Strasser, Dietrich Eckart (a key founder of the party), Hermann Esser, Ludwig Maximilian Erwin von Scheubner-Richter and Erich Ludendorff (Field-Marshal who was the party's candidate for President of the Republic in 1925).
Beer Hall Putsch |
1698_16 | Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff to try to seize power in Munich (the capital of Bavaria) in an attempt later known as the Beer Hall Putsch of 8–9 November 1923. This would be a step in the seizure of power nationwide, overthrowing the Weimar Republic in Berlin. On 8 November, Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters; however, neither the army nor the state police joined forces with him. The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government on their "March on Berlin". Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" (1922) by staging his own coup in Bavaria to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin. However, the Bavarian authorities ordered the police to stand their ground. The putschists were dispersed after a short firefight in the streets near the Feldherrnhalle. In all, sixteen Nazi members and |
1698_17 | four police officers were killed in the failed coup. |
1698_18 | Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide, although this state of mind has been disputed. Hitler was depressed but calm when he was arrested on 11 November 1923. Fearing "left-wing" members of the Nazi Party might try to seize leadership from him during his incarceration, Hitler quickly appointed Alfred Rosenberg as the party's temporary leader.
Mein Kampf |
1698_19 | Beginning in February 1924, Hitler was tried for high treason before the special People's Court in Munich. He used his trial as an opportunity to spread his message throughout Germany. At one point during the trial, Hitler discussed political leadership, during which he stated that leading people was not a matter of political science (Staatswissenschaft) but an innate ability, one of statecraft (Staatskunst). He further elaborated by claiming that out of ten thousand politicians only one Bismarck emerged, subtly implying that he too had been born with this gift. Continuing, he declared that it was not Karl Marx who stirred the masses and ignited the Russian Revolution but Vladimir Lenin, not making his appeal to the mind but to the senses. His rousing speeches during the trial made Hitler famous, but they did not exonerate him. In April 1924, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Landsberg Prison, where he received preferential treatment from sympathetic guards and received |
1698_20 | substantial quantities of fan mail, including funds and other forms of assistance. During 1923 and 1924 at Landsberg, he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his deputy Rudolf Hess. Originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice, his publisher shortened the title to Mein Kampf. |
1698_21 | The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. In Mein Kampf, Hitler speaks at length about his youth, his early days in the Nazi Party and general ideas on politics, including the transformation of German society into one based on race, with some passages implying genocide. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. In 1933, Hitler's first year in office, 1,000,000 copies were sold. The book acts as a reference, giving insight into the world view from which Hitler never wavered throughout his life. |
1698_22 | It states that during his childhood, Hitler had little interest in politics as he had ambitions to become a painter. Like other boys in his part of Austria, he was attracted to pan-Germanism, but his intellectual pursuits were generally those of a dilettante. Hitler portrays himself as a born leader interested in knightly adventures, exploration. By the time he was 11, Hitler was a nationalist interested in history.
Ultimately, Hitler never finished his primary schooling since he quit by the time he was 16, devoting his attention instead to his artistic pursuits which led him to Vienna in 1905. It was in Vienna where Hitler was later to proclaim he learned some hard lessons, namely that life was a critical struggle between the weak and the strong where principles of humanity mattered not at all since everything simply boiled down to "victory and defeat". |
1698_23 | While Hitler was incarcerated at the Landsberg prison writing Mein Kampf, he had routine visits from the respected First World War veteran, Major General Dr. Karl Haushofer, who was the chair of the military science and geography department at the University of Munich. These meetings consisted of lectures and academic briefings on geopolitics, most certainly covering the Nazi ideal of Lebensraum and which likely influenced the views Hitler laid out in Mein Kampf. Perhaps confirming Hitler's assertions, Haushofer espoused the theory that Germany was defeated in the Great War by her lack of sufficient space and autarchy. More importantly, Haushofer believed that nations which rested their power upon command of the sea and maritime trade routes were doomed to fail, since any such control "would soon be broken", writing that human history stood "at the great turning-point in the favourable position of the island empires". Hitler believed that for Germany to expand its influence, it would |
1698_24 | have to rely on continental space and abundant arable soil which could only be found eastward. Influenced by the theories of Haushofer, Hitler believed it was Germany's right to seize the cultivatable land in Russia since the earth belonged to those people willing to till it "industriously" as opposed to the slothful, incompetent people unworthy to possess it. Describing the Russians in the harshest of terms while intimating that the German people were more deserving by virtue of their alleged superior intellect, Hitler stated: "It is criminal to ask an intelligent people to limit its children in order that a lazy and stupid people next door can literally abuse a gigantic surface of the earth". Presaging this Nazi goal, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf: "Without consideration of traditions and prejudices, Germany must find the courage to gather our people and their strength for an advance along the road that will lead this people from its present restricted living space to new land and |
1698_25 | soil, and hence also free it from the danger of vanishing from the earth or of serving others as a slave nation". In this sense, social Darwinism and geography were merged in Hitler's mind. |
1698_26 | Many historians contend that Hitler's essential character and political philosophy can be discovered in Mein Kampf. Historian James Joll once claimed that Mein Kampf constituted "all of Hitler's beliefs, most of his programme and much of his character". According to Andreas Hillgruber, evident within the text of Mein Kampf is nothing less than the very crux of Hitler's program. One of Hitler's foremost goals was that Germany should become "a World Power" on the geopolitical stage, or as he stated, "it will not continue to exist at all". Biographer Joachim Fest asserted that Mein Kampf contained a "remarkably faithful portrait of its author". |
1698_27 | In his infamous tome, Hitler categorized human beings by their physical attributes, claiming German or Nordic Aryans were at the top of the hierarchy while assigning the bottom orders to Jews and Romani. Hitler claimed that dominated people benefit by learning from superior Aryans and said the Jews were conspiring to keep this "master race" from rightfully ruling the world by diluting its racial and cultural purity and exhorting Aryans to believe in equality rather than superiority and inferiority. Within Mein Kampf, Hitler describes a struggle for world domination, an ongoing racial, cultural and political battle between Aryans and Jews, the necessary racial purification of the German people and the need for German imperial expansion and colonisation eastwards. According to Hitler and other pan-German thinkers, Germany needed to obtain additional living space or Lebensraum which would properly nurture the "historic destiny" of the German people. This was a key idea he made central in |
1698_28 | his foreign policy. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf of his hatred towards what he believed were the world's twin evils, namely communism and Judaism. He said his aim was to eradicate both from Germany and moreover stressed his intention to unite all Germans in the process of destroying them. |
1698_29 | Völkisch nationalism |
1698_30 | Hitler was a pan-Germanic nationalist whose ideology was built around a philosophically authoritarian, anti-Marxist, antisemitic and anti-democratic worldview. Such views of the world in the wake of the fledgling Weimar government were not uncommon in Germany since democratic/parliamentary governance seemed ineffectual to solve Germany's problems. Correspondingly, veterans of the First World War and like-minded nationalists formed the Vaterlandspartei which promoted expansionism, soldierly camaraderie and heroic leadership, all under the guise of völkisch traditions like ethnic and linguistic nationalism, but which also included obedience to authority as well as the belief in political salvation through decisive leadership. The völkisch parties began to fractionalize during Hitler's absence from the revolutionary scene in Germany after the failed "Beer Hall Putsch" of November 1923. When he re-emerged upon release from Landsberg Prison, his importance to the movement was obvious and |
1698_31 | he came to believe that he was the realization of völkisch nationalistic ideals in a sort of near messianic narcissism which included his conviction to shake off the restrictive Treaty of Versailles and to "restore Germany's might and power", creating a reborn German nation as the chosen leader of the Nazi Party. |
1698_32 | Hitler stressed the völkisch ideology, claiming Germanic/Aryan superiority in Mein Kampf:
Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes today, is almost exclusively the product of the Aryan creative power. This very fact fully justifies the conclusion that it was the Aryan alone who founded a superior type of humanity; therefore he represents the archetype of what we understand by the term: MAN. He is the Prometheus of mankind, from whose shining brow the divine spark of genius has at all times flashed forth, always kindling anew that fire which, in the form of knowledge, illuminated the dark night by drawing aside the veil of mystery and thus showing man how to rise and become master over all the other beings on the earth. Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will vanish and the world will become a desert. |
1698_33 | The völkisch nationalism of Hitler and Nazis encompassed the notion that the German Volk was epitomized by German farmers and peasants, people who remained uncorrupted by modern ideals and whose greatest attribute was their "cheerful subservience" and their capacity to respond to their "monarchical calling". Hitler was their new monarch in a manner of speaking. Völkisch nationalism also forged into its ideals, the importance of nature, the centrality of a knightly savior (Hitler in this case) and the belief in the superior Aryan. Antisemitism remained a key component of the völkisch movement and a permanent undercurrent throughout conservative parties in German history and after many years culminated with the view that the Jews were the only thing standing in the way of the ideal society. As Germany's newfound völkisch nationalist leader, Hitler initiated a policy of ethnic nationalism replete with directives to eliminate Jews and other identified enemies as Nazism ultimately became |
1698_34 | the religion of the movement and the "irrational became concrete" under the terms of its "ideological framework". |
1698_35 | Social conservatism
Hitler and the Nazis promoted a socially conservative view concerning many aspects of life, supported by harsh discipline and a militaristic point of view. Conservative opinions about sexuality amid the Nazis led to extreme homophobia which resulted in the systematic persecution of homosexuals. Hitler and his paladins also controlled what constituted acceptable artistic expression in Nazi Germany, abolishing what they considered to be "degenerate art". The Nazis strongly discouraged and in some cases outright rejected the following behaviors, namely the use of cosmetics, premarital sex, prostitution, pornography, sexual vices, smoking and excessive drinking. In many ways, there was a distinct anti-intellectualism present within Nazi philosophy. Hearkening back to a simpler time, Hitler and the Nazis attempted to vindicate the glorious past as the key to a more promising future. |
1698_36 | Evidence of Hitler's disdain for Weimar's cultural and social decadence appears on multiple occasions in Mein Kampf. In his seminal tome, he expresses an ultraconservatism:
Hitler raved against what he considered to be tasteless and morally destructive art on display throughout Germany in Mein Kampf, calling some of it morbid and declaring that "people would have benefited by not visiting them at all". Convinced that it was necessary to show the German people what comprised, "degenerate art" so as to protect them in the future, Hitler arranged for a formally commissioned exhibit in July 1937 of specially selected carvings, sculptures, and paintings. Once the exhibit was at an end, selected artists' works were banned from Nazi Germany.
Well known was Hitler's vehement opposition to racial-mixing. He was also a natalist as he believed as did other pan-Germans that Germans had an obligation to procreate: |
1698_37 | Another area of concern for Hitler and which was mentioned by his childhood companion in Vienna, August Kubizek, was prostitution. Hitler associated it with venereal disease and cultural decline. Moreover, Hitler found the practice counter to proper family development and displayed a puritanical view in Mein Kampf, writing:
He goes on asserting that prostitution was dangerous and intimated much more significant, destructive socio-political implications. Once Hitler came to power, his regime moved against all forms of sexual deviations and sexual crimes, especially homosexuality, which was prosecuted as a crime as many as 30,000 times between 1934 and 1939. Hitler's social conservatism was so extreme towards homosexuals that he deemed them "enemies of the State" and grouped them in the same category as Jews and communists; a special department of the Gestapo was formed to deal with the matter. |
1698_38 | Hitler's general perception about women was ultra-conservative and patriarchal, with their foremost task being a domestic one as a mother of children who worked contentedly at home, ensuring it remained clean and orderly. Meanwhile, it was the woman's role to educate her children to be conscious of their importance as Aryans and instill within them a commitment to their ethnic community. Consequently, Hitler believed women had no place in public or political life due to their differing nature from men. Like many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers, the Nazis valued strength, passion, frank declarations of feelings and deep devotion to family and community (with women being seen as the center of the family in Nazi Germany). So great was Hitler's influence in all political aspects of social life that even education for children was subordinate to his opinion. Profoundly anti-intellectual and against conventional education for children, Hitler determined instead that training and |
1698_39 | education should be designed to create young German "national comrades" who were utterly convinced of their "superiority to others". Moreover, Hitler wanted to create young German soldiers who were willing to fight for their convictions so they were accordingly indoctrinated by Nazi propaganda, trained in military discipline and taught obedience to authority in the Hitler Youth. |
1698_40 | Contempt for democracy
Hitler blamed Germany's parliamentary government for many of the nation's ills. The Nazis and especially Hitler associated democracy with the failed Weimar government and the punitive Treaty of Versailles. Hitler often denounced democracy, equating it with internationalism. Since democratic ideals espoused equality for all men, it represented to Hitler and his Nazi ideologues the notion of mob rule and the hatred of excellence. Not only was democracy antithetical to their social-Darwinist abstractions, but its international-capitalist framework was considered an exclusively Jewish-derived conception. Hitler also thought democracy was nothing more than a preliminary stage of Bolshevism. |
1698_41 | Hitler believed in the leader principle (hence his title, the Leader, der Führer) and considered it ludicrous that an idea of governance or morality could be held by the people above the power of the leader. Joachim Fest described a 1930 confrontation between Hitler and Otto Strasser as such: "Now Hitler took Strasser to task for placing 'the idea' above the Führer and wanting 'to give every party comrade the right to decide the nature of the idea, even to decide whether or not the Führer is true to the so-called idea.' That, he cried angrily, was the worst kind of democracy, for which there was no place in their movement. 'With us the Führer and the idea are one and the same, and every party comrade has to do what the Führer commands, for he embodies the idea and he alone knows its ultimate goal'". |
1698_42 | Although Hitler realized that his ascension to power required the use of the Weimar Republic's parliamentary system (founded on democratic principles), he never intended for the continuation of democratic governance once in control. Contrarily, Hitler proclaimed that he would "destroy democracy with the weapons of democracy". The rapid transition made by the Nazis once they assumed control clearly reveals that Hitler succeeded in this regard. For the most part, democratic governance was never embraced by the German masses or by the elite. The ill-fated Weimar democracy's inability to provide economic relief to the German people during the Great Depression further enhanced its image as an ineffectual system of government amid the masses. Hitler offered people the prospect of a "new and better society". He exploited the conditions in Germany in the ultimate expression of political opportunism when he brought his dictatorial and totalitarian government to power and thereafter attempting |
1698_43 | to impose himself and his system upon the world in the process. |
1698_44 | Anti-communism
In Hitler's mind, communism was a major enemy of Germany, an enemy he often mentions in Mein Kampf. During the trial for his involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler claimed that his singular goal was to assist the German government in "fighting Marxism". Marxism, Bolshevism, and communism were interchangeable terms for Hitler as evidenced by their use in Mein Kampf: |
1698_45 | Later in his seminal tome, Hitler advocated for "the destruction of Marxism in all its shapes and forms". According to Hitler, Marxism was a Jewish strategy to subjugate Germany and the world and saw Marxism as a mental and political form of slavery. From Hitler's vantage point, Bolsheviks existed to serve "Jewish international finance". When the British tried negotiating with Hitler in 1935 by including Germany in the extension of the Locarno Pact, he rejected their offer and instead assured them that German rearmament was important in safeguarding Europe against communism, a move which clearly showed his anti-communist proclivities. |
1698_46 | In 1939, Hitler told the Swiss Commissioner to the League of Nations Carl Burckhardt that everything he was undertaking was "directed against Russia" and that "if those in the West are too stupid or too blind to understand this, then I shall be forced to come to an understanding with the Russians to beat the West, and then, after its defeat, turn with all my concerted force against the Soviet Union". When Hitler finally ordered the attack against the Soviet Union, it was the fulfillment of his ultimate goal and the most important campaign in his estimation, as it comprised a struggle of "the chosen Aryan people against Jewish Bolsheviks". |
1698_47 | Biographer Alan Bullock avows Hitler "laid great stress" on the need to concentrate on a single enemy, an enemy he lumps together as "Marxism and the Jew". Shortly in the wake of the Commissar Order, a directive pursuant to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, SS Deputy Reinhard Heydrich informed the SS of Hitler's geopolitical philosophy which conflated Bolshevism and Jews, writing that "eastern Jewry is the intellectual reservoir of Bolshevism and in the Führer's view must therefore be annihilated". Considering the eventual Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), no additional inducements are really requisite concerning Hitler's hatred of communism, particularly since the Nazi persecution and extermination of these groups was not only systematic, but it was extensive both within Germany and only intensified in the occupied zones during the war under Hitler's leadership. |
1698_48 | Because Nazism co-opted the popular success of socialism and Communism among working people while simultaneously promising to destroy Communism and offer an alternative to it, Hitler's anti-communist program allowed industrialists with traditional conservative views (tending toward monarchism, aristocracy and laissez-faire capitalism) to cast their lot with and help underwrite the Nazi rise to power. |
1698_49 | Lebensraum and the invasion of the Soviet Union
Historian Roderick Stackelberg contends that Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union was the result of "mutually reinforcing ideological, racial, and geopolitical assumptions" that Hitler had plainly laid out in Mein Kampf. Noted German historian Andreas Hillgruber shares this view. In fact, Hillgruber encapsulates Hitler's political views (which drove German policy throughout his rule) in summary through the invasion of the Soviet Union. He places it within the context of Hitler's intent to create a continental Reich which included the destruction of the Jews. According to Hillgruber, Hitler had the following objectives in mind when he invaded the former Soviet Union: |
1698_50 | 1. The total eradication of all forms of "Judeo-Bolshevik" leadership, which encompassed its perceived biological roots, namely the millions of Jews occupying central and eastern Europe.
2. The requisite acquisition of Lebensraum or colonial space necessary for German settlement in the finest and most arable territories within Russia, or in those parts of Russia which provided political or strategic advantages in Hitler's mind.
3. The subjugation and decimation of the Slavic people, which was to be divided into four German territories or "Reich Commissariats" entitled Ostland, Ukraine, Moskovia and Caucasus, with each subordinated to German "viceroys". One of the principal aims of German leadership in these Reich Commissariats would be the cancellation of any semblance or memory of Russian statehood and the conditioning of these subordinated "states" to German mastery. |
1698_51 | 4. Ultimately, a "great space" autarchy in continental Europe under German suzerainty would result, one capable of defeating any possible Allied blockade and for whom the vanquished eastern territories could provide a theoretically inexhaustible source of raw materials and food necessary for any protracted war against the Allied powers. The establishment of this "German Reich of the Germanic nation" also included in its planning to feed its soldiers off the Russian land, although that meant that "many millions of people will be starved to death", a directive already contemplated by the Economic Staff East no later than 2 May 1941. |
1698_52 | Not alone in this interpretation of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union as a move of continental expansion and one with an antisemitic eliminationist political intent, Hillgruber is joined by the likes of historian Karl Dietrich Bracher, among others. In his work The German Dictatorship, Bracher called the invasion the consequence of Hitler's "ideological obsession" and stated that "Hitler's drive for territorial expansion and the relentless expansion of the SS state ushered in the final phase of National Socialist rule". That final phase proved disastrous for the Jews, Slavs, Roma-Sinti and countless others. |
1698_53 | Antisemitism and the Holocaust |
1698_54 | Among scholars of the Nazi era, Hitler's role and relationship to the regime and The Holocaust has been a source of consternation and acrimonious historiographical debate. Biographer Ian Kershaw wrote that for historians Hitler was "unreachable" and that he was "cocooned in the silence of the sources". What Kershaw was referencing was the absence of any clear political directives accompanied by Hitler's signed authorization (primary source documents) regarding the atrocities carried out by his Nazi underlings. Given the abounding circumstantial evidence in Hitler's speeches, writing in Mein Kampf, administrative meeting notes taken by subordinates and the recollections of those in or near his inner-circle, it seems that his political intention was for Jews, Slavs and other "enemies" of the Nazi state to be persecuted without mercy in lieu of how gradual the process actually developed. A debate between two primary schools of thought emerged about Hitler's political role in Nazi policy |
1698_55 | and the Holocaust. One is termed intentionalist, represented by scholars who contend that virtually all Nazi policies (including the extermination of the Jews) were resultant from Hitler's desires; whereas the other school, entitled functionalist/structuralist, consists of scholars who see the intensification of Nazi persecution policies due to power struggles within the Nazi government as his minions attempted to "interpret" their master's wishes, often acting autonomously. |
1698_56 | Either way, antisemitism always constituted one of the most important aspects of Hitler's political views. Historian Peter Longerich writes: "There can be no doubt that Hitler's behaviour during his entire political career... was characterised by radical antisemitism". Correspondingly, Germanic cultural and racial purity remained paramount in his understanding of the world, having once exclaimed: "The greatest danger is and remains for us, the alien racial poison in our body. All other dangers are transitory". |
1698_57 | Hitler wrote his first antisemitic letter to Adolf Gemlich on 16 September 1919 stating that Jews were a race and not a religious group and that the aim for the government "must unshakably be the removal of the Jews altogether". Throughout Mein Kampf, Hitler employs biological crudity by describing the Jews as "parasites" or "vermin". Reflecting back on the beginning of the First World War, Hitler makes the eerily prescient statement that if "twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas, as happened to hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers in the field, the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain."
Underlining the argument that Hitler had overt eliminationist intentions for the Jews is the "prophecy" quote from the 30 January 1939 Reichstag speech: |
1698_58 | German historian Klaus Hildebrand insisted that Hitler's moral responsibility for the Holocaust was the culmination of his pathological hatred of the Jews and his ideology of "racial dogma" formed the basis of Nazi genocide. Historian David Welch asserts that even if Hitler never gave the direct order for the implementation of the Final Solution, this is nothing more than a "red herring" as it fails to recognize his "leadership style" where Hitler's simple verbal statements were sufficient to launch initiatives "from below". Those "working towards the Führer" would often implement "his totalitarian vision without written authority". Throughout his work Hitler and the Final Solution, historian Gerald Fleming demonstrates that on multiple occasions Heinrich Himmler referenced a Führer-Order concerning the destruction of the Jews, making it abundantly clear that Hitler had at the very least verbally issued a command on the matter. The diary entries of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels |
1698_59 | allude to Hitler being the driving force behind the Nazi genocide, that he followed the subject closely and that Goebbels even described Hitler as "uncompromising" about eliminating the Jews. Taking the scale of the logistical operations that the Holocaust comprised in the middle of a war into consideration alone, it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that the extermination of so many people and the coordination of such an extensive effort could have occurred in the absence of Hitler's authorization. As Welch relates, if Himmler was the "architect of genocide", he was merely "an instrument of Hitler's will". In the final analysis, Hitler was essentially omnipotent as the Führer of Nazi Germany with all encompassing power as the "supreme legislator, supreme administrator, and supreme judge" along with being the "leader of the Party, the Army, and the people". Hitler ruled the Nazi Party autocratically by asserting the (leader principle). The principle relied on absolute obedience |
1698_60 | of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. |
1698_61 | See also
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
Big lie
Early timeline of Nazism
List of books about Nazi Germany
Religious views of Adolf Hitler
Notes
References
Notes
Bibliography
Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf. Boston: Ralph Manheim, 1943 [1925]. Also cited are the following versions: Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. London: Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1939./ Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. New York: Reynal & Hitchkock, 1941./ Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. London: Hutchinson, 1969./ Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.
Political beliefs
Hitler
Anti-Marxism
Hitler
Nazism
Far-right politics
Antisemitism
Anti-Judaism
Homophobia
White supremacy |
1699_0 | In geometry, a point reflection or inversion in a point (or inversion through a point, or central inversion) is a type of isometry of Euclidean space. An object that is invariant under a point reflection is said to possess point symmetry; if it is invariant under point reflection through its center, it is said to possess central symmetry or to be centrally symmetric.
Point reflection can be classified as an affine transformation. Namely, it is an isometric involutive affine transformation, which has exactly one fixed point, which is the point of inversion. It is equivalent to a homothetic transformation with scale factor equal to −1. The point of inversion is also called homothetic center. |
1699_1 | Terminology
The term reflection is loose, and considered by some an abuse of language, with inversion preferred; however, point reflection is widely used. Such maps are involutions, meaning that they have order 2 – they are their own inverse: applying them twice yields the identity map – which is also true of other maps called reflections. More narrowly, a reflection refers to a reflection in a hyperplane ( dimensional affine subspace – a point on the line, a line in the plane, a plane in 3-space), with the hyperplane being fixed, but more broadly reflection is applied to any involution of Euclidean space, and the fixed set (an affine space of dimension k, where ) is called the mirror. In dimension 1 these coincide, as a point is a hyperplane in the line. |
1699_2 | In terms of linear algebra, assuming the origin is fixed, involutions are exactly the diagonalizable maps with all eigenvalues either 1 or −1. Reflection in a hyperplane has a single −1 eigenvalue (and multiplicity on the 1 eigenvalue), while point reflection has only the −1 eigenvalue (with multiplicity n).
The term inversion should not be confused with inversive geometry, where inversion is defined with respect to a circle.
Examples
In two dimensions, a point reflection is the same as a rotation of 180 degrees. In three dimensions, a point reflection can be described as a 180-degree rotation composed with reflection across a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation. In dimension n, point reflections are orientation-preserving if n is even, and orientation-reversing if n is odd.
Formula
Given a vector a in the Euclidean space Rn, the formula for the reflection of a across the point p is |
1699_3 | In the case where p is the origin, point reflection is simply the negation of the vector a.
In Euclidean geometry, the inversion of a point X with respect to a point P is a point X* such that P is the midpoint of the line segment with endpoints X and X*. In other words, the vector from X to P is the same as the vector from P to X*.
The formula for the inversion in P is
x* = 2a − x
where a, x and x* are the position vectors of P, X and X* respectively.
This mapping is an isometric involutive affine transformation which has exactly one fixed point, which is P.
Point reflection as a special case of uniform scaling or homothety
When the inversion point P coincides with the origin, point reflection is equivalent to a special case of uniform scaling: uniform scaling with scale factor equal to −1. This is an example of linear transformation. |
1699_4 | When P does not coincide with the origin, point reflection is equivalent to a special case of homothetic transformation: homothety with homothetic center coinciding with P, and scale factor −1. This is an example of non-linear affine transformation).
Point reflection group
The composition of two point reflections is a translation. Specifically, point reflection at p followed by point reflection at q is translation by the vector 2(q − p).
The set consisting of all point reflections and translations is Lie subgroup of the Euclidean group. It is a semidirect product of Rn with a cyclic group of order 2, the latter acting on Rn by negation. It is precisely the subgroup of the Euclidean group that fixes the line at infinity pointwise.
In the case n = 1, the point reflection group is the full isometry group of the line. |
1699_5 | Point reflections in mathematics
Point reflection across the center of a sphere yields the antipodal map.
A symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold with an isometric reflection across each point. Symmetric spaces play an important role in the study of Lie groups and Riemannian geometry.
Point reflection in analytic geometry
Given the point and its reflection with respect to the point , the latter is the midpoint of the segment ;
Hence, the equations to find the coordinates of the reflected point are
Particular is the case in which the point C has coordinates (see the paragraph below)
Properties
In even-dimensional Euclidean space, say 2N-dimensional space, the inversion in a point P is equivalent to N rotations over angles in each plane of an arbitrary set of N mutually orthogonal planes intersecting at P. These rotations are mutually commutative. Therefore, inversion in a point in even-dimensional space is an orientation-preserving isometry or direct isometry. |
1699_6 | In odd-dimensional Euclidean space, say (2N + 1)-dimensional space, it is equivalent to N rotations over in each plane of an arbitrary set of N mutually orthogonal planes intersecting at P, combined with the reflection in the 2N-dimensional subspace spanned by these rotation planes. Therefore, it reverses rather than preserves orientation, it is an indirect isometry.
Geometrically in 3D it amounts to rotation about an axis through P by an angle of 180°, combined with reflection in the plane through P which is perpendicular to the axis; the result does not depend on the orientation (in the other sense) of the axis. Notations for the type of operation, or the type of group it generates, are , Ci, S2, and 1×. The group type is one of the three symmetry group types in 3D without any pure rotational symmetry, see cyclic symmetries with n = 1.
The following point groups in three dimensions contain inversion:
Cnh and Dnh for even n
S2n and Dnd for odd n
Th, Oh, and Ih |
1699_7 | Closely related to inverse in a point is reflection in respect to a plane, which can be thought of as a "inversion in a plane".
Inversion centers in crystallography |
1699_8 | Molecules contain an inversion center when a point exists through which all atoms can reflect while retaining symmetry. In crystallography, the presence of inversion centers distinguishes between centrosymmetric and noncentrosymmetric compounds. Crystal structures are composed of various polyhedra, categorized by their coordination number and bond angles. For example, four-coordinate polyhedra are classified as tetrahedra, while five-coordinate environments can be square pyramidal or trigonal bipyramidal depending on the bonding angles. All crystalline compounds come from a repetition of an atomic building block known as a unit cell, and these unit cells define which polyhedra form and in what order. These polyhedra link together via corner-, edge- or face sharing, depending on which atoms share common bonds. Polyhedra containing inversion centers are known as centrosymmetric, while those without are noncentrosymmetric. Six-coordinate octahedra are an example of centrosymmetric |
1699_9 | polyhedra, as the central atom acts as an inversion center through which the six bonded atoms retain symmetry. Tetrahedra, on the other hand, are noncentrosymmetric as an inversion through the central atom would result in a reversal of the polyhedron. It is important to note that bonding geometries with odd coordination numbers must be noncentrosymmetric, because these polyhedra will not contain inversion centers. |
1699_10 | Real polyhedra in crystals often lack the uniformity anticipated in their bonding geometry. Common irregularities found in crystallography include distortions and disorder. Distortion involves the warping of polyhedra due to nonuniform bonding lengths, often due to differing electrostatic attraction between heteroatoms. For instance, a titanium center will likely bond evenly to six oxygens in an octahedra, but distortion would occur if one of the oxygens were replaced with a more electronegative fluorine. Distortions will not change the inherent geometry of the polyhedra—a distorted octahedron is still classified as an octahedron, but strong enough distortions can have an effect on the centrosymmetry of a compound. Disorder involves a split occupancy over two or more sites, in which an atom will occupy one crystallographic position in a certain percentage of polyhedra and the other in the remaining positions. Disorder can influence the centrosymmetry of certain polyhedra as well, |
1699_11 | depending on whether or not the occupancy is split over an already-present inversion center. |
1699_12 | Centrosymmetry applies to the crystal structure as a whole, as well. Crystals are classified into thirty-two crystallographic point groups which describe how the different polyhedra arrange themselves in space in the bulk structure. Of these thirty-two point groups, eleven are centrosymmetric. The presence of noncentrosymmetric polyhedra does not guarantee that the point group will be the same—two noncentrosymmetric shapes can be oriented in space in a manner which contains an inversion center between the two. Two tetrahedra facing each other can have an inversion center in the middle, because the orientation allows for each atom to have a reflected pair. The inverse is also true, as multiple centrosymmetric polyhedra can be arranged to form a noncentrosymmetric point group. |
1699_13 | Noncentrosymmetric compounds can be useful for application in nonlinear optics. The lack of symmetry via inversion centers can allow for areas of the crystal to interact differently with incoming light. The wavelength, frequency and intensity of light is subject to change as the electromagnetic radiation interacts with different energy states throughout the structure. Potassium titanyl phosphate, KTiOPO4 (KTP) crystalizes in the noncentrosymmetric, orthorhombic Pna21 space group, and is a useful non-linear crystal. KTP is used for frequency-doubling neodymium-doped lasers, utilizing a nonlinear optical property known as second-harmonic generation. The applications for nonlinear materials are still being researched, but these properties stem from the presence of (or lack thereof) an inversion center.
important in Inversion with respect to the origin |
1699_14 | Inversion with respect to the origin corresponds to additive inversion of the position vector, and also to scalar multiplication by −1. The operation commutes with every other linear transformation, but not with translation: it is in the center of the general linear group. "Inversion" without indicating "in a point", "in a line" or "in a plane", means this inversion; in physics 3-dimensional reflection through the origin is also called a parity transformation.
In mathematics, reflection through the origin refers to the point reflection of Euclidean space Rn across the origin of the Cartesian coordinate system. Reflection through the origin is an orthogonal transformation corresponding to scalar multiplication by , and can also be written as , where is the identity matrix. In three dimensions, this sends , and so forth. |
1699_15 | Representations
As a scalar matrix, it is represented in every basis by a matrix with on the diagonal, and, together with the identity, is the center of the orthogonal group .
It is a product of n orthogonal reflections (reflection through the axes of any orthogonal basis); note that orthogonal reflections commute.
In 2 dimensions, it is in fact rotation by 180 degrees, and in dimension , it is rotation by 180 degrees in n orthogonal planes; note again that rotations in orthogonal planes commute.
Properties
It has determinant (from the representation by a matrix or as a product of reflections). Thus it is orientation-preserving in even dimension, thus an element of the special orthogonal group SO(2n), and it is orientation-reversing in odd dimension, thus not an element of SO(2n + 1) and instead providing a splitting of the map , showing that as an internal direct product. |
1699_16 | Together with the identity, it forms the center of the orthogonal group.
It preserves every quadratic form, meaning , and thus is an element of every indefinite orthogonal group as well.
It equals the identity if and only if the characteristic is 2.
It is the longest element of the Coxeter group of signed permutations.
Analogously, it is a longest element of the orthogonal group, with respect to the generating set of reflections: elements of the orthogonal group all have length at most n with respect to the generating set of reflections, and reflection through the origin has length n, though it is not unique in this: other maximal combinations of rotations (and possibly reflections) also have maximal length. |
1699_17 | Geometry
In SO(2r), reflection through the origin is the farthest point from the identity element with respect to the usual metric. In O(2r + 1), reflection through the origin is not in SO(2r+1) (it is in the non-identity component), and there is no natural sense in which it is a "farther point" than any other point in the non-identity component, but it does provide a base point in the other component.
Clifford algebras and spin groups
It should not be confused with the element in the spin group. This is particularly confusing for even spin groups, as , and thus in there is both and 2 lifts of .
Reflection through the identity extends to an automorphism of a Clifford algebra, called the main involution or grade involution.
Reflection through the identity lifts to a pseudoscalar. |
1699_18 | See also
Affine involution
Circle inversion
Clifford algebra
Congruence (geometry)
Estermann measure
Euclidean group
Kovner–Besicovitch measure
Orthogonal group
Parity (physics)
Reflection (mathematics)
Riemannian symmetric space
Spin group
Notes
References
Euclidean symmetries
Functions and mappings
Clifford algebras
Quadratic forms |
1700_0 | Essex is a county in the East of England which originated as the ancient Kingdom of Essex and one of the seven kingdoms, or heptarchy, that went on to form the Kingdom of England.
Origins
The name Essex derives from the Kingdom of the East Seaxe or Kingdom of Essex which was traditionally founded by Aescwine in AD 527, occupying territory to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea.
In AD 825 it became part of the Kingdom of Wessex and was later ceded under the Treaty of Wedmore to the Danelaw under the Kingdom of East Anglia. In AD 991 the Battle of Maldon resulted in complete defeat of the Anglo-Saxons by the Vikings, and is commemorated in the poem The Battle of Maldon.
Hundreds
The county was divided into the hundreds of:
Barstable
Becontree
Chafford
Chelmsford
Clavering
Dengie
Dunmow
Freshwell
Harlow
Havering Liberty
Hinkford
Lexden
Ongar
Rochford
Tendring
Thurstable
Uttlesford
Waltham
Winstree
Witham |
1700_1 | Pre-Roman
The area which Essex now occupies was ruled before Roman settlement by the Celtic Trinovantes tribe. A dispute between them and the Catuvellauni was used as an excuse for a Roman invasion in 54 BC, and they allied with Rome when Claudius returned in AD 43. This led to Camulodunum (Colchester) becoming the capital of Roman Britain. The Trinovantes later fought with the Iceni tribe against Roman rule.
The coast and river estuaries of Iron Age Essex were home to many Red hill sites for evaporating sea water to obtain salt, many of which are still visible in the coastal landscape.
Norman Essex
Following the Norman conquest the Saxon kingdom formed the basis of a county in 1139 under the first Earl of Essex, Geoffrey de Mandeville. As a county Essex had administrative, political and legal functions.
Victorian era |
1700_2 | Much of the development of the county was caused by the railway. By 1843 the Eastern Counties Railway had connected Bishopsgate station in London with Brentwood and Colchester. In 1856, they opened a branch to Loughton (later extended to Ongar) and by 1884 the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway had connected Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London to Grays, Tilbury, Southend-on-Sea and Shoeburyness. Some of the railways were built primarily to transport goods but some (e.g. the Loughton branch) were to cater for commuter traffic; they unintentionally created the holiday resorts of Southend, Clacton and Frinton-on-Sea.
County councils were created in England in 1889. Essex County Council was based in Chelmsford, although it met in London until 1938. Its control did not cover the entire county. The London suburb of West Ham and later East Ham and the resort of Southend-on-Sea became county boroughs independent of county council control.
Districts in 1894
Post war |
1700_3 | Much of Essex is protected from development near to its boundary with Greater London and forms part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. In 1949 the new towns of Harlow and Basildon were created. These developments were intended to address the chronic housing shortage in London but were not intended to become dormitory towns, rather it was hoped the towns would form an economy independent of the capital. The railway station at Basildon, with a direct connection to the City, was not opened until 1974 after pressure from residents.
The proximity of London and its economic magnetism has caused many places in Essex to become desirable places for workers in the City of London to live. As London grew in the east places such as Barking and Romford were given greater autonomy and created as municipal boroughs. |
1700_4 | Finally in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 the County Borough of West Ham and the County Borough of East Ham were abolished and their area transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Newham.
Also at this time the Municipal Borough of Ilford and the Municipal Borough of Wanstead and Woodford were abolished and their area, plus part of the area of Chigwell Urban District (but not including Chigwell itself), were transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Redbridge. The Municipal Borough of Romford and Hornchurch Urban District were abolished and their area transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Havering. |
1700_5 | The Municipal Borough of Leyton, the Municipal Borough of Chingford and the Municipal Borough of Walthamstow were abolished and their area transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The Municipal Borough of Barking and the Municipal Borough of Dagenham were abolished and their area transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
Recent history
Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region.
In 1998 the boroughs of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea were given unitary authority status and ceased to be under county council control. They remain part of the ceremonial county.
Historical buildings |
1700_6 | The importance of the Anglo-Saxon culture in Essex was only emphasized by the rich burial discovered at Prittlewell recently. But the important Anglo-Saxon remains in Essex are mostly churches. St.Peter's straddles the wall of a Roman seafort at Bradwell (Othona), and is one of the early Anglo-Saxon, "Kentish" series of churches made famous by its documentation by Bede. Later Anglo-Saxon work may be seen in an important church tower at Holy Trinity, Colchester, an intact church at Hadstock, and elsewhere. At Greensted the walls of the nave are made of halved logs; although still the oldest church timber known in England, it is now thought to be early Norman. |
1700_7 | Being a relatively stone-less County, it is unsurprising that some of the earliest examples of the mediaeval revival of brick-making can be found in Essex; Layer Marney Tower, Ingatestone Hall, and numerous parish churches exhibit the brickmakers' and bricklayers' skills in Essex. A two-volume typology of bricks, based entirely on Essex examples, has been published. Similarly, spectacular early-mediaeval timber construction is to be found in Essex, with perhaps the two Templars' barns at Cressing Temple being pre-eminent in the whole of England. There is a complete
tree-ring dating series for Essex timber, much due to the work of Dr. Tyers at the University of Sheffield. |
1700_8 | Mediaeval "gothic" architecture in timber, brick, rubble, and stone is to be found all over Essex. These range from the large churches at Chelmsford, Saffron Walden and Thaxted, to the little gem at Tilty. The ruined abbeys, however, such as the two in Colchester and that at Barking, are disappointing in comparison to those that can be found in other counties; Waltham is the exception.
While the truncated remnant of Waltham Abbey was considered as a potential cathedral, elevation of the large parish church at Chelmsford was eventually preferred because of its location at the centre of the new diocese of Essex c.1908. Waltham Abbey remains the County's most impressive piece of mediaeval architecture. |
1700_9 | Quite apart from important towns like Colchester or Chelmsford, many smaller places in Essex exhibit continuity from ancient times. Perhaps the most amusing is the Anglo-Saxon church at Rivenhall, just north of Witham. A nearby, ruined Roman villa probably served as a source for its building materials, and the age of this church was underestimated by Pevsner by about a thousand years.
The villages of Wanstead and Woodford saw the French family setting up a brick making works adjacent to the road from Chelmsford to London, now known as Chigwell Road. This industry closed in 1952.
References
Further reading
Pevsner (the "Buildings of England" series, Penguin) is the best general introduction to the County's architecture. In the new editions, 'London over the border' will now appear with London: East, instead of with the rest of the County, as formerly. |
1700_10 | Hidden Heritage - Discovering Ancient Essex, by Terry Johnson
by Terry Johnson
Whilst major sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury are well known, few people realise how rich in ancient sites are other areas of Britain. Terry first examines features of the landscape and unusual church carvings in general, then gives a detailed listing of interesting sites in Essex with associated legends and folklore, in addition to examining possible leys.
Essex |
1701_0 | The following is a timeline of the 2005 French riots that began Thursday, October 27, 2005. Where the source lists events as occurring in a night and following morning, this article lists them on the date of the night, not the following morning. The extent table in the main article does the opposite. |
1701_1 | First week
Thursday, October 27 - 1st night of rioting
Gangs, mostly consisting of hundreds of youths, clashed with police, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police forces and firefighters, setting cars on fire, and vandalizing buildings. A shot was reportedly fired at police.
Police fired tear gas at the rioters. About 27 people were detained. 17 police officers and 3 journalists were wounded. The number of rioters and bystanders injured is not known.
Friday, October 28 - 2nd night of rioting
Rioters in Clichy-sous-Bois apparently set more than 30 cars alight and made barricades of those cars, along with dustbins, which firefighters worked to clear away.
At least 200 riot police and crowds of young rioters clashed in on-and-off, running battles, on the night of the 28th and the early morning of the 29th.
Saturday, October 29 - 3rd night of rioting |
1701_2 | About 500 people took part in a silent march through Clichy-sous-Bois, in memory of the teenagers. Representatives of the Muslim community appealed for calm and dignity at the procession. Marchers wore t-shirts printed with the message mort pour rien "dead for nothing".
Sunday, October 30 - 4th night of rioting
A tear gas grenade was launched into the mosque of the Cité des Bousquets, on what for Muslims is the holiest night of the holy month of Ramadan. Police denied responsibility but acknowledged that it was the same type used by French riot police. Speaking to 170 police officers at Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture in Bobigny (the local authority overseeing Clichy-sous-Bois), Nicolas Sarkozy said, "I am, of course, available to the Imam of the Clichy mosque to let him have all the details in order to understand how and why a tear gas bomb was sent into this mosque." Eyewitnesses also reported that police called women emerging from the mosque "whores" and other names . |
1701_3 | Monday, October 31 - 5th night of rioting
It was reported that the rioting had spread to other parts of Seine-Saint-Denis. In nearby Montfermeil, the municipal police garage was set on fire.
Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC (who only represents a minority of the police civil servants), described the unrest as a "civil war" and called on the French Army to intervene.
Tuesday, November 1 - 6th night of rioting
Rioting had spread to nine other suburbs, across which 69 vehicles were torched.
A total of 150 arson attacks on garbage cans, vehicles and buildings were reported.
The unrest was particularly intense in Sevran, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bondy, all in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, which is considered to be a "sensitive area of immigration and modest incomes."
In Sevran, youths set fire to two rooms of a primary school, along with several cars. Three officers were slightly injured. |
1701_4 | In Aulnay-sous-Bois, rioters threw Molotov cocktails at the town hall and rocks at the firehouse; police fired rubber bullets at advancing rioters.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy refers to rioters as "scum"
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin "met Tuesday with the parents of the three families, promising a full investigation of the deaths and insisting on 'the need to restore calm,' the prime minister's office said."
Wednesday, November 2 - 7th night of rioting
Reports suggest rioters briefly stormed a police station while 78 vehicles were torched.
One government official claims that live rounds were fired at riot police.
Two primary schools, a post office, and a shopping centre were damaged and a large car showroom set ablaze.
Police vans and cars were stoned as gangs turned on police.
Rioting had spread west-ward to the area of Hauts-de-Seine where a police station was bombarded with home-made Molotov cocktails. |
1701_5 | Jacques Chirac, the President of France, made appeals for calm, and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin held an emergency cabinet meeting. De Villepin issued a statement saying "Let's avoid stigmatising areas", an apparent rebuke to his political rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has called the rioters "scum" (racaille). .
A woman on crutches in her fifties, Joëlle M., was doused with petrol in Sevran-Beaudotes and set on fire as she exited a bus; "She was rescued by the driver (Mohammed Tadjer) and hospitalized with severe burns" |
1701_6 | Second week
Thursday, November 3 - 8th night of rioting
Traffic was halted on the RER B suburban commuter line which links Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport after unions called for a strike.
Rioters attacked two trains overnight at the Le Blanc-Mesnil station, forced a conductor from one train and broke windows, the SNCF rail authority said. A passenger was lightly injured by broken glass.
For the first time the riots spread outside of Paris, spreading to Dijon with sporadic violence in Bouches-du-Rhône in the south and Rouen in the north-west of France.
In Parliament, de Villepin pledged again to restore order as his government has come under criticism for its failure to prevent the violence.
Around 1000 firemen were called to put out a blaze at a carpet factory while twenty-seven buses were set alight. |
1701_7 | 500 cars were torched and arson occurred in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Le Blanc Mesnil, and Yvelines. . Additionally, 7 were burned in Paris , and others had their windows broken out near the metro station La Chapelle. Nationally, 593 vehicles were torched Thursday.
Friday night, November 4 - 9th night of rioting
Violence continued in Val d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis. Arson and attacks on vehicles occurred in Aubervilliers, Sarcelles, Montmagny and Persan.
French police claim incidents Thursday night have diminished in intensity compared to the previous night, with only fifty vehicles set on fire . Prefect Jean-François Cordet said in a statement that "contrary to the previous nights, there were fewer direct clashes with the forces of order."
"Traore's brother, Siyakah Traore, called for protesters to 'calm down and stop ransacking everything.'" .
Violence spread to Lille and Toulouse for the first time .
Saturday, November 5
Day |
1701_8 | Police reported the discovery of a bomb making factory for producing gasoline bombs inside of a derelict building in Évry, south of Paris, raising questions on the possibility of planning well in advance of the riots. Six minors have been arrested.
Several thousand residents of Aulnay-sous-Bois joined a march in protest against the riots, initiated by the commune's mayor, Gérard Gaudron.
At noon, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with Nicolas Sarkozy and other cabinet members.
Yves Bot, public prosecutor of the city of Paris, on Europe 1 radio described the events as organized violence, well beyond spontaneously erupting riots. Bot alleged that adolescents in other cities were being incited to commence rioting via the internet, saying that the violence was directed against institutions of the Republic, but he denied it being ethnic in character.
Night - 10th night of rioting
Around France, 897 vehicles were torched and 170 people arrested . |
1701_9 | An incendiary device was tossed at the wall of a synagogue Pierrefitte-sur-Seine .
Firefighters were attacked while rescuing a sick person in Meaux.
Violence continued both within and outside Paris. In Grigny, two schools were set on fire.
Another school was set on fire in Vigneux.
A nursery school was burned in Achères, west of Paris, outraging residents who demanded that the French Army be deployed or that a citizens militia be formed .
In Torcy, close to Bussy-Saint-Georges, rioters set fire to a police station and a youth center.
Additional attacks occurred in Avignon (Vaucluse), Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne), Soissons (Aisne), Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Blois (Loir-et-Cher), Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) and in the north at Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Mons-en-Baroeuil. Other incidents occurred in Cannes, Nice, and Toulouse..
In the Normandy city of Évreux, over 50 cars, a shopping center, a post office, and two schools were burned. . 253 people were arrested.
Sunday November 6 |
1701_10 | Morning
Cars torched in central Paris for the first time, in the historic third district. There, citizens urged for the French Army to be deployed.
The total number of vehicles torched during the night is estimated at 1,295, the highest number so far. 193 people were arrested. An extra 2,300 police were drafted. .
In broad daylight on Sunday, a Belgian RTBF news crew was physically assaulted in Lille, injuring a cameraman.
A Korean female journalist from KBS TV was knocked unconscious with repeated punches and kicks to her face and head in Aubervilliers
As of Sunday morning, tenth night, the total number of people arrested since October 27 surpassed 800, and the total number of vehicles set on fire is estimated to be around 3,500.
Night - 11th night of rioting |
1701_11 | Rioters fired large-caliber ammunition from pistols and hunting rifles in the southern Parisian suburb of Grigny, injuring 34 policemen, three of them seriously. Two of them are reported to have been hit in the head. The shots ended at 8:30 pm; according to a journaliste of Le Monde and several social workers, this might be related to the beginning of the soccer match PSG–AS Monaco (France Inter, Nov. 7)
For the first time, Catholic churches have been attacked with Molotov cocktails in Liévin and Lens in Pas-de-Calais and Sète in Hérault.
1408 vehicles have been torched during the night (982 vehicles were burned outside Paris), and 395 people were arrested. A Polish tourbus parked in Alfortville waiting to return a group of vacationers to Poland was one of the vehicles that were destroyed.
In the first incident outside France, five cars were torched in Saint-Gillis, Brussels, Belgium. |
1701_12 | German police suspects that the torching of five vehicles in Berlin may potentially be connected to the rioting in Paris suburbs. . Similar incidents have been registered in Bremen.
Monday November 7
Day
A 61-year-old man, Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec, a former Renault employee, died in the hospital because of the injuries sustained after being beaten when he went to check on a garbage can fire in the suburb of Stains. He succumbed to his injuries, becoming the first death caused by the riots. According to a witness, Jean-Jacques was 'deliberately assassinated'.
Rioter Moussa Diallo is quoted as saying: "This is just the beginning. It's not going to end until there are two policemen dead."
Eric Raoult, mayor of Raincy, which is one of the cities hit by the riots, has imposed a curfew on people younger than 15 years from 1 am to dawn .
France 3 has decided to stop revealing the toll of the riots and the number of cars torched in order to not inflame the situation. |
1701_13 | Three French blog participants have been arrested for provoking the violence.
Jewish religious leaders in France report they have been advised by the government not to discuss their fears publicly in order to avoid further anti-Semitic attacks.
The Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) issued a fatwa condemning the violence
De Villepin on the TF1 television channel announced the deployment of 18,000 police, supported by a 1,500 strong reserve. .
Night - 12th night of rioting
Police said that violence in Seine-Saint-Denis was still simmering, but the situation was calmer than in the previous nights, with three times fewer calls to the fire services, but violence continued in the province.
In Toulouse, some 50 rioters stopped and torched a bus and ordered the driver to get out, hurling firebombs and other objects as police arrived
Two schools were torched in Lille Sud and in Bruay-sur-Escaut near the city of Valenciennes. A gymnasium was burned in Villepinte. |
1701_14 | Additional violence and vandalism in eastern France in Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. Violence in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Blois, Moselle, and Doubs.
1173 vehicles have been burned.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced that, starting on Wednesday, "wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew". No army intervention is being planned .
Tuesday November 8
Day
The Belgian TV-station VTM reports that a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a school's bicycle parking during class hours, and that their reporters had been attacked on the scene.
President Jacques Chirac declares a state of emergency following an emergency session of his cabinet, and the re-activation of a 1955 law enacted during the Algerian War, allowing local authorities to impose curfews, beginning on Tuesday, 12 PM, with an initial 12-day limit.
Night - 13th night of rioting
Protestant church in Meulan attacked. |
1701_15 | Youths threw firebombs at police and set cars ablaze in suburb of Toulouse. Dozens of youths set fire to at least 10 cars and threw objects at police.
As of midnight Central European Time, the French Republic is placed under a State of Emergency. The cities of Orléans, Blois and Amiens imposed curfews on minors below 16 years of age.
Senior interior ministry official Claude Gueant said police had seen "a very significant drop" in the intensity of the unrest. The number of cars set alight across France overnight Tuesday to Wednesday fell to 617, hundreds fewer than the night before. Some 280 people were arrested and disturbances broke out in 116 areas, half the number affected the preceding night.
Public transport in Lyon was shut down after a Molotov cocktail hit a train station.
In Bordeaux, a Molotov cocktail hit a gas-powered bus.
Wednesday November 9
Day |
1701_16 | French businesses are worried that the cost of the past 13 nights of rioting that has swept the country could go beyond clean-up to hurt investment and consumer confidence going into the all-important winter shopping season. Concerns about the violence helped push the euro to two-year lows against the US dollar as companies postpone investment in some of the affected areas, potential tourists watch neighborhoods burn on television and the stakes increase the longer the riots continue.
Daniel Feurtet, the communist mayor of the riot-hit Le Blanc-Mesnil district, threatened to quit. "If the prefect decides to impose a curfew in one of our areas, I'll hand in my resignation right away", he told Le Monde newspaper, referring to the regional government officials empowered to impose curfews. |
1701_17 | Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of taking part in the riots that have swept France for 13 nights. He told parliament 120 foreigners had been found guilty of involvement and would be deported without delay.
Night - 14th night of rioting
Authorities imposed curfews in 38 areas, including Marseille, Nice, Cannes, Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse and Paris. Incidents of vandalism decreased noticeably, with some clashes in Belfort, and a nursery school going up in flames in the southern city of Toulouse
482 vehicles were burned and 203 arrests were made during the night.
The Paris area appeared quiet, according to authorities, and a spokesman for Seine-et-Marne said "the trouble is subsiding".
Several towns in the suburbs of Paris and elsewhere are organizing themselves to restore order. |
1701_18 | Third week |
1701_19 | Thursday November 10
Day
French President Jacques Chirac has acknowledged his country has "undeniable problems" in poor city areas and must respond effectively. "Whatever our origins we are all the children of the Republic and we can all expect the same rights", he said.
Meanwhile, eight police officers have been suspended after a young man was beaten up in a Paris suburb. Police said two of the eight were suspected of illegally hitting the man arrested in La Courneuve, one of the riot hotspots. The other six officers are also being investigated as suspected witnesses to the incident on 7 November. "A medical statement shows the man has superficial bruises on his forehead and his feet", a police statement said.
Paris police chief Pierre Mutz banned the transport and purchase of petrol (gasoline) in cans, saying he fears violence is being planned in the capital itself.
Sarkozy said local authorities were instructed to deport foreigners convicted of involvement in the riots. |
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