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Chapter 22: 12 December 1997
In a letter, Alex tells Jonathan that he is translating the novel for Little Igor as Jonathan sends chapters. This brings the brothers together and makes them laugh. Grandfather cannot look Alex in the eye anymore. He still wishes Father were gone.
Alex explains that his latest chapter was the most difficult so far to compose. He has been avoiding the issue of Grandfather "pointing at" Herschel. But he claims that Jonathan has taught him to be honest in his writing, even at the expense of dignity. For instance, he can barely believe the things Jonathan writes about his grandfather's sexual exploits, especially considering their immorality. Could Jonathan write like this if his grandfather were alive? If not, why not? And why do women love Safran's crippled arm so much? Do they want to feel superior to him, overpower him, or be close to death by being close to his arm?
Jonathan has advised Alex to remove the section where Jonathan talks about memories of his grandmother, but Alex resolutely refuses. Alex now returns to the issue of mixing truth with fantasy in writing. How can Jonathan write the way he does, or demand that Alex alter or omit facts? If this is allowed, then why not choose to make a fantastical account a happy one? Alex complains that the trip already seems too ordinary instead of triumphant. He wants to embellish it as Jonathan does with his family history. He even suggests that Grandfather could have saved Jonathan's grandfather from the Nazis: "I do not think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem."
Chapter 23: What We Saw When We Saw Trachimbrod, or Falling in Love
Alex, Jonathan, and Grandfather continue to think of the old woman as Augustine. She has never been in a car before, and she is too scared. Instead, she walks to the site where Trachimbrod once stood, resting frequently. The men drive behind her very slowly. They stop to let her rest in the front seat when she is tired.
As she rests in the front seat, the woman asks Grandfather if he has any children. Alex is proud when he introduces Alex as the oldest son of his oldest son. Then the woman asks if Alex and Jonathan have any children. When Alex asks her if she has any children, Grandfather shoots him a nasty look. She says she has a baby girl.
The woman leads them through many fields and forests, and darkness falls. In the dark she looks like a ghost leading the way. They stop in the middle of an empty field flanked with trees, where they can hear the sound of water. The woman announces that they have reached Trachimbrod.
Jonathan cannot believe her, so she explains how Trachimbrod was destroyed in one day. The Nazis came and burned the synagogue. Then they made all the men of the town line up. They unrolled a Torah scroll, and the Nazi General commanded that each man spit on it, or his family would be killed. Grandfather protests that this is a lie, but the woman insists that it is true. She says that the first few men obeyed, but when her father refused to desecrate the Torah, the General killed his wife and daughter. Jonathan says he does not want to hear any more. He walks away to fill bags with soil for his grandmother, should he ever tell her about his trip.
Meanwhile, Alex and Grandfather hear the rest of the story. When the General set his gun upon the woman's older sister, who was pregnant, her father again refused to spit. The General shot her in the womb, leaving her bleeding and in agony, but not dead. Again he demanded that her father spit on the Torah, but he refused again. Instead of killing the older sister (as reported above), they left her to suffer. Finally, they killed her father. The woman's older sister crawled away, but none of the Gentiles in the town would help her.
Grandfather asks the woman if she can forgive the Gentiles. She says she cannot. Grandfather says he could, because their families' lives were also at stake should they help a Jew. The woman tells him he does not know what he is saying.
Her older sister eventually crawled into the forest and went unconscious. She awoke to find that her baby was dead, but she was clearly alive. She followed the trail of her own blood back to Trachimbrod. The Nazis were gone. She gathered all the Jews' belongings, pried the gold fillings from the corpses' teeth, and cut their hair--to save it all from scavenging neighbors. The woman's sister bought the house in which the woman now lives, and she lived there with all the Jews' belongings until she died. She has considered this tragic load of memorials her punishment for surviving.
Before they leave Trachimbrod, the woman leads them to the monument that proves the existence of the massacre. The commemorative monument was dedicated by the Prime Minister of Israel, and it is engraved in Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Polish, Yiddish, English, and German. Grandfather and the woman walk off, leaving Alex and Jonathan to lie under the stars.
They return to the woman's house. She tells them that she last saw Jonathan's grandfather a few years after the war, when he had returned to Trachimbrod. They got into a terrible argument over Hamlet.
She says that Jonathan resembles his grandfather before the war. She tells them that there are very few Jews remaining in the area. They are too old or too scarred to share any information. Grandfather again invites the woman to live in Odessa, but she refuses.
She gives Jonathan a box labeled "In Case," as well as her friend Rivka's wedding ring, which Rivka hid before she died. Jonathan posits that Rivka hid the ring so that there would be proof she existed. The woman argues more broadly that Rivka saved the ring in case someone came looking for Trachimbrod someday. She says: "The ring does not exist for you. You exist for the ring. The ring is not in case of you. You are in case of the ring." The ring will not fit on Jonathan's finger, and the woman cuts him trying to make it fit.
Before they leave, Alex asks the woman her name. She says it is Lista. Then she asks him if the war is over. Grandfather kisses her on the lips. She walks back to her house, saying that her baby needs her.
Alex's opinions about Jonathan's writing and writing in general are crystallizing and becoming more sophisticated. He is becoming a writer. He has revealed something of his true self to Jonathan, including his feelings toward Grandfather, his love of sitting on the beach, and his love for Little Igor above all things. He is a much more passionate writer, now that he has dropped his pretenses and focused on telling the truth. At the same time, he now cannot stand to see Jonathan suggesting the slightest pretense. Jonathan suggests that Alex should remove elements that embarrass or scare him, but these choices seem to violate the principle of telling the truth. First, Jonathan wanted Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, cut, and now he asks that the stories about his grandmother be cut. He does not say it outright, but Alex thinks these suggestions by Jonathan are cowardly. But an author cannot include all details of every situation, so the question of authenticity turns on decisions about which details deserve to be remembered and told.
But in accepting this narrow end of the wedge, Alex concludes that "I do not think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem." Thus he articulates the difference between his and Jonathan's writing goals. Alex is still eager to embellish his stories about the present, while Jonathan embellishes the past in order to deepen his account of its underlying truth. Alex is still naive as a writer, but at least he is now a writer. He considers Jonathan inconsistent, even hypocritical, with regard to the use of fantasy. He does not yet see how myths can express deeper truths. Still, as the two writers develop and exchange their own voices, they are working together to create one narrative. They may have to resolve this conflict about the role of fantasy in order to reach synthesis in their common project.
Lista's story reintroduces two of the novel's greatest themes: guilt and responsibility, and fantasy. Lista suffers a terrible tragedy during the Holocaust, but she survives. But rather than regarding her survival as a miracle, she is filled with guilt. She punishes herself for her own survival, just as Grandfather punishes himself for his (though his survival is more complicated). Because there are no other people to be responsible for, she directs her responsibility towards objects and an imaginary child. She catalogues and guards them in the obsessive manner in which the people of Trachimbrod once protected their dreams and their lives.
As important as objects are to Lista, it is the lack of objects at the site of Trachimbrod that hits Jonathan with such weight. The commemorative object has come from elsewhere. Jonathan collects dirt, as though to chronicle the nothingness that the shtetl has become, though dirt is also a symbol of possibility in that soil provides for life, and it is a powerful remembrance of the land that Jonathan can bring back for his grandmother.
Fantasy and reality are now intertwined so delicately within the narrative that they are very difficult to untangle. Lista tells the story of her own near-death and survival as though it is her older sister's, as the reader gradually realizes that the story is about herself. She also refuses to believe that her baby is dead. Lista is living a life once-removed from her own pain. She does not have to face her agony of the Nazi atrocities so long as she pretends they affected her sister rather than herself.
The novel leads us to infer that Lista is the woman whose virginity Safran took. We know that Jonathan invents the story of Lista and Safran after having met Lista. Therefore, he chose to give them this particular relationship on the basis of the story told by Lista. If nothing else, this development satisfies our interest in connecting events and illuminating mysteries. After all, it is tantalizing to think that Lista's baby, whom the Nazis shot, was conceived with Safran. The author provides us with the ability to make this inference without giving us irrefutable evidence. If fantasy is always an acceptable choice for the author, can we ever be sure that any part of the narrative is true, including the deeper mythic reality of the narrative? The author empowers us as readers to use our own imagination, to decide for ourselves whether or not we will believe in the author's version of the truth.


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Riggleman says Zimmerman not getting credit he deserves just yet
Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman leads the National League in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.005) and slugging percentage (.594). He also ranks third in the league in on-base percentage (.411) and seventh in batting average (.309). Not too shabby, right?
But when Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman was asked Saturday whether he thought Zimmerman was getting the credit he deserved for his hot offensive start, Riggleman responded with a verbal thumbs down.
Zimmerman did not rank in the top five among National League third basemen in the latest All-Star voting update released by MLB.
"He's pretty well recognized around the league, but not like if it was right now in New York or Boston or somebody who's been in the playoffs recently and all that," Riggleman said. "Because if we were a playoff team at this point - if we had been in the playoffs the last couple of years - people would be saying he's the biggest reason; he's the main offensive cog to that team, hitting third and doing what he does.
"But until you get in the win column more, a lot of players are not going to be recognized ... Ryan has probably not gotten the accolades throughout the country that soon will come his way."
Steve Yanda
June 5, 2010; 6:16 PM ET
Categories: Ryan Zimmerman
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Next: Game 57 discussion thread: Nationals vs. Reds
I guess Dibble got suspended for a game after yesterday. Pretty funny.
Posted by: amorris525 | June 5, 2010 7:02 PM | Report abuse
Zimmerman is a special MLB player and the baseball public is naturally unaware of this 3rd baseman in a class of his own. Most impressive is his commitment at his youthfulness, A testament to himself and a community of family and friends. He has that Cal Ripken play the game right bulldog mentality. This entertainment era of sports with added mental demands on organizations like our Nats makes his longevity questionable. He has no bigtime mentally locked in hitters in front or behind him, and none seemingly coming. Willingham is pressuring opposing pitchers as EVERY batter should to gain his team any competitive edge. He must mentally decide this IS who I am. Guzman has been one of the best Nats hitter for several years as far as being in charge at the plate with runners on base, then the bonehead play suddenly appears. I'm not dogging one of the Nats best because we've seen it from nonchalant fielders, pitchers, catchers, runners, coaches and officials. The Nats lose quite abit because they don't take the win. Thats entertainment sports today. I love'em, I want them to win and I don't play. Never say die and you won't.
Posted by: DMcCall2 | June 6, 2010 1:17 AM | Report abuse
Dibble was not suspended. As noted on the previous day's broadcast, he was attending his son's HS graduation.
Posted by: natsfan1a1 | June 6, 2010 8:49 AM | Report abuse
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subset: commoncrawl


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So, in one of the UK's schemes to make the "Optional" EEA2 Residence Card a requirement for a non-EEA Family Member of an EEA National, (amongst others) the UK have began implementing their "Right to Rent" checks.
Announced at the start of the month, the Right to Rent checks will be focusing on the West Midlands:
Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire today announced the new measures in the Immigration Act would be launched in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton as part of a phased introduction across the country.
The new law will mean private landlords will have to check the right of prospective tenants to be in the country if they want to avoid potentially being fined up to £3,000.
I had already submitted my FOI Request (Right to Rent Checks) which received a response on the 5th September. In relation to the three main questions:
Please outline how said Right to Rent checks will work with a non-EU spouse of an EEA National. Said persons are not required to hold any form of residence documentation. Said persons can enter the UK under Article 5 of the Free Movement directive without a visa. Said persons are not subject to immigration control. If said person holds nothing other than their passport (non-EU) and marriage certificate – what would the process be for said person to rent accomodation.
We then move onto Zambrano / Derivative Rights residents. As with EEA national family members – they do not require residence documentation. Would the process for confirming their right to rent be any different?
- Please outline how said Right to Rent checks will work with a non-EU spouse of an EEA National
- what would the process be for said person to rent accommodation
- Would the process for confirming their right to rent be any different?- Derivative cases.
Home Office Response:
It is open, as now, for people who fall into these categories to obtain confirmation from the Home Office that they enjoy a right to reside in the UK under EU law.
Not only does this legislation breach EU law (Article 25(1)), but it also breaches UN Human Rights charters (Access to Housing).


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Overlooked Millions:
Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust
Karen Silverstrim, MA Candidate
University of Central Arkansas
The genocidal policies of the Nazis resulted in the deaths of about as many Polish Gentiles as Polish Jews, thus making them co-victims in a Forgotten Holocaust. This Holocaust has been largely ignored because historians who have written on the subject of the Holocaust have chosen to interpret the tragedy in exclusivistic terms--namely, as the most tragic period in the history of the Jewish Diaspora. To them, the Holocaust was unique to the Jews, and they therefore have had little or nothing to say about the nine million Gentiles, including three million Poles, who also perished in the greatest tragedy the world has ever known. Little wonder that many people who experienced these events share the feeling of Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz, who anxious when the meaning of the word Holocaust undergoes gradual modifications, so that the word begins to belong to the history of the Jews exclusively, as if among the victims there were not also millions of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, and prisoners of other nationalities. -- Richard C. Lukas, preface to The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944
In the American consciousness the Holocaust has become synonymous with Jewish history. Historical literature of the Holocaust has focused on the six million Jewish victims to the exclusion of the sixteen to twenty million Gentile victims. How is it possible to define an historic event based on the lives of six million Jewish people and not acknowledge the millions more Gentile lives that were also lost? It is understandable that the historiography of the Holocaust emphasizes the Jewish people since they were the single most persecuted group by the Nazis, but why have they become the only focus?
There were thousands of victims during the Holocaust. Many victims survived and many did not. The victims described here are those who died during the Holocaust or immediately after as a direct result of mistreatment during the Holocaust. Victims of the Holocaust are those groups of people targeted for immediate death by the Nazis and their accomplices, or treated in such a way so as to knowingly lead to their eventual deaths. Victims come from many countries throughout Europe and are not limited to strictly victims in Germany during World War II.
The Holocaust was more than a Jewish event. Records kept by the Germans prove they exterminated millions of Communists, Czechs, Greeks, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, mentally and physically handicapped, Poles, resistance fighters, Russians, Serbs, Socialists, Spanish Republicans, trade unionists, Ukrainians, Yugoslavians, prisoners of war of many nations, and still others whose identity may never be recognized.(1) Their victims, according to one survivor of four different concentration camps, "were of some thirty nationalities, from Nepalese to Andorrans, and of a variety of racial and linguistic stocks ranging from Basques to Buriats and from Ladinos to Lapps".(2) When people were not immediately exterminated, they were sent to work and/or concentration camps. There the prisoners were divided into six penal categories and given patches on their clothing for identification purposes. Ordinary criminals were assigned green; political prisoners wore red; black was worn by asocials (slackers, prostitutes, procurers, etc.); homosexuals wore pink; conscientious objectors wore purple, and the Jewish people wore yellow.(3)
Humankind has always formed groups according to kinship, religion, nation, or other identity. Those not of the recognized group were outsiders, who became targets during times of upheaval. When the Nazis victimized the Jewish people, blaming them for Germany's loss during World War I and for the economic crisis during the 1930s, this was not new. The Jewish people had been outsiders in one form or another throughout the Christian world since the crucifixion of Christ. Two aspects of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, however, differed from any history had seen. The Nazis mobilized the resources of the state to single out the Jews to a degree which was unprecedented.(4) Unlike other instances of Jewish persecution, however, this anti-Semitism was something more; it also included other people not connected to the Jews. Policies and practices designed to exterminate one group of people (the Jews) were also employed to eliminate other people based on their race, religion, politics, health, or sexual orientation. The Nazis' extermination program was like a large fishing net which swept across the land, snaring people of many backgrounds.
Elie Wiesel, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, has said, "while not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims," so careful handling of the definition of the Holocaust is important. No one can deny that Jewish people were the primary targets of the Nazis, nor should one belittle their suffering. But neither should the millions of other victims of the Nazis be forgotten. The same respect and remembrance afforded the Jewish victims should be extended to include the non-Jewish victims as well.
The Nazis sought to annihilate all Jews and all enemies of the state. Every Jew was to be wiped out, but not necessarily every Russian, Serb, or Yugoslavian. That millions of non-Jews were also killed demonstrates the determination and magnitude of the Nazi extermination program to eliminate anyone who could even remotely be considered an enemy of the state. Current estimates based on documents from Nazi war records, and official government documents of various countries, place the death toll of people murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust as conservatively over 15 million non-combatant people.(5) One official source estimates the number killed at 26 million.(6) However, "with the mass graves on the eastern front, exact figures will never be known".(7)
These figures represent a common denominator between Jews and Gentiles -- total lives lost. The "six million" figure used for Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust includes deaths attributable to starvation, beatings, street executions, concentration camp deaths, overwork, and relocations, to name just a few of the categories. Nazis targeted Jews for complete extermination and used whatever means were necessary and available. Many non-Jewish victims also died in concentration camps by gassing, lethal experiments, starvation, overwork, or beatings, but a greater number perished because of the aggressive tactics of the Nazis in rounding up their victims and in street assassinations. The death toll reported in Table 1 is of civilian lives lost unless otherwise noted. The Nazis deliberately killed these people who were undesirable to the Nazi vision of an Aryan state. Jews were the most intensely targeted victims, but the common denominator for all victims was death.
As is obvious from Table 1, no single group of people suffered as devastating a loss as did the Jewish people. Ukrainian deaths, however, ranged from five and a half million to seven million. The Ukrainian deaths represent an area of conflict for people determining who were victims of the Holocaust and whose deaths should be counted as Holocaust-related. The Ukrainian and Russian people were at various times during the war both victims and perpetrators. Should the vast majority of Ukrainian civilians killed by Nazis and Russians be discounted if some small group of Ukrainians turned perpetrator and killed Jews? Do Holocaust deaths only include people killed by the Nazis? Do Holocaust deaths only include those killed on German soil? Do Holocaust deaths only include deaths attributable to gassings in concentration camps?
Table 1
Estimates of Non-Combatant Lives Lost During the Holocaust
5.5 - 7 million
Jews (of all countries) 6 million +
Russian POWs 3.3 million +
Russian Civilians 2 million +
Poles 3 million +
Yugoslavians 1.5 million +
Gypsies 200,000 - 500,000
Mentally/Physically Disabled 70,000- 250,000
Homosexuals Tens of thousands
Spanish Republicans Tens of thousands
Jehovah's Witnesses 2,500 - 5,000
Boy and Girl Scouts, Clergy, Communists, Czechs, Deportees, Greeks, Political Prisoners, Other POWs, Resistance Fighters, Serbs, Socialists, Trade Unionists, Others Unknown
Table assembled from figures quoted by Milton; Lukas 38-39, 232; Gilbert 824; Berenbaum 123; and Holocaust Internet information sites.
The six million figure used in the Jewish death toll is an estimate for total lives lost. These Jewish lives were taken by a number of groups, not just Nazis. The six million figure includes Jewish lives lost in other countries as well, not just Germany, and by the various modes of killing, not just camp deaths. Ukrainian deaths were due to Russian and Nazi perpetrators alike, some killed on "acquired" German soil, others killed on Russian soil, some killed outright, others slowly worked or starved to death. If Russian Jews, killed on Russian soil by both Nazis and Russians, are considered Holocaust deaths, then the Ukrainians killed alongside them should also be categorized as Holocaust deaths. When groups of people are killed side by side -- in the same manner, by the same perpetrators, for the same reasons (their ethnic identity) -- one cannot separate some from the group and call it a Holocaust and say the others were merely victims of war, or worse, completely ignore their numbers and leave them no record in history. The criteria used to determine the six million Jewish deaths should be the same criteria used for the non-Jews. By using the same criteria for determining Holocaust deaths among all victims, the question of whether non-Jewish deaths were simply victims of war becomes irrelevant.
The numbers of lives lost for the Ukrainian people are astounding, more so given the fact that most Americans are completely unaware that any Ukrainians died, much less millions. But their situation is unique in that the Soviet Union, until its collapse, had suppressed the facts of the Ukrainian Holocaust. This is in part because of the role the Soviets (Russians) played in the massacre of the Ukrainian people. In Table 1, when the figure for the Ukrainian lives lost appears to be equal to or great than the Jewish lives lost, it must be noted the majority of Jewish lives lost were in street executions, roundups, and the concentration camps. The majority of the Ukrainian lives lost were in slave labor, starvation, and executions. So while more Jews lost their lives upon entering the camps, more Ukrainians were worked to death or shot outside the camps.
When the figures for both Russian civilians and Russian prisoners of war are combined, the Russians lost conservatively five million, three hundred thousand people, compared to the six million Jewish lives lost. Considering the mass graves on the Eastern front, the Russians probably lost more than these figures and should rightly claim a place as a major victim group. Yet little is said and even less written in the United States and Western Europe about Russian lives lost during the Holocaust. This is due to several factors.
To many in the West, the Russians' changing roles during World War II as both aggressor and ally obscure their role as victim. Further, the Russians, though they lost large numbers of people to Nazi aggression, were themselves responsible for their own Holocaust and that of the Ukrainian people as a result of their involvement with and against the Nazis. The subsequent Cold War and the Soviet Union's anti-Semitic stand, especially toward Israel, further obscured the Soviet people as victims, and the Western anti-Communist attitudes made the Soviets into enemies. No sympathy or understanding is given to an enemy, much less accurate representation of their lives lost during the Holocaust in our history books.
Other groups listed in Table 1 have also lost a great number of people in the Holocaust, Yugoslavia easily lost ten percent of its population, about one and a half million people. The three most prominent ways Yugoslavians were killed were the genocidal massacres by the Nazi-sponsored Ustash regime in Croatia, the veritable civil war between various ethnic groups and political movements in Yugoslavia unleashed by the German dismemberment of the country, and the occupation policies of the German military itself aimed at crushing partisan resistance. The German occupation forces were indirectly responsible for the first two forms of death, and directly responsible for the third.(8) In Yugoslavia at Novi Sad and Stari Becej in a period spanning six days (January 23-28, 1942) over 6,392 Serbs were executed along with 4,685 Jews.(9)
With the invasion and occupation of Belgium and France, the Nazi elimination of undesirable people continued to spread throughout the Jewish population and beyond. They targeted three main categories of people: racial enemies, social undesirables, and political enemies. Gypsies, Jews, and Blacks fell into the racial category. Criminals, prostitutes, homosexuals, and mental patients were social undesirables. Socialists, communists, pacifists, anti-Nazi refugees from Germany and Austria, members of the International Brigade, and Spanish Republican exiles were considered political enemies of the Nazi regime.(10)
Anti-Nazi refugees and illegal refugees in Belgium and France numbered over 30,000. The International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War were a sub-group within the anti-Nazi refugees. These "freedom fighters" were imprisoned automatically when they crossed the border into France after the defeat of Republican Spain. At the beginning of 1939, nearly one-half million refugees fled across the border to France. Almost one-third were women, children, and the elderly. These people chose exile in France over imprisonment in Spain. Upon arriving in France, these Spaniards were herded into primitive beach concentration camps near the Mediterranean coast.(11) When the Nazis invaded France two years later, many of the Spanish freedom fighters who were imprisoned in temporary camps in France were later deported to official concentration camps such as Mauthausen, Buchenwald, and Dachau.(12) In these camps the majority of the Spanish Republicans met their deaths. Tens of thousands of Spanish Republicans had been imprisoned in Mauthausen concentration camp. By early 1945 only 3,000 remained alive, and of these 2,163 were killed in a three-month time span from February through April of 1945.(13)
The Polish people, who rank fourth behind the Ukrainians, Jews, and Russians in lives lost, are also largely overlooked as victims of the Holocaust. One week before Hitler's forces invaded Poland, he told the Wehrmacht to "kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language . . . [T]he destruction of Poland is our primary task. The aim is not the arrival at a certain line but the annihilation of living forces. Be merciless. Be brutal. It is necessary to proceed with maximum severity. The war is to be a war of annihilation."(14) Clearly, the only differences between the intents of the Nazis toward the Jewish population and their intents toward the Polish population were in the timing and the writing. The Nazis wrote their agenda for the Jewish people in their laws, the complete annihilation of the entire population of Jews. They intended to completely wipe out the Polish population as well but never formally wrote it down. The other aspect was the timing. Whereas the Nazis intended to wipe out the Jews immediately, they planned to use the Poles as forced labor before exterminating them. Hitler's viceroy in the General Government, Hans Frank, was quoted in Richard Lukas' The Forgotten Holocaust, "As far as I am concerned," he said, "the Poles and the Ukrainians and their like may be chopped into small pieces. Let it be, what should be."(15)
Unlike most of the Jewish people who died in gas chambers, most of the Polish people died in singular or mass executions. When they were not executed immediately, they were worked and/or starved to death. However, a large number of Polish people were also gassed in the concentration camps. The first executions by gas at Auschwitz consisted of 300 Poles and 700 Soviet (Russian) prisoners of war.(16) During nearly six years of war, Poland lost 6,028,000 of its people, or twenty-two percent of its total population. This is the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe. Over half of these victims were Polish Christians, victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, epidemics, starvation, excessive work, and ill treatment.(17)
The treatment victims received varied as greatly as the types of victims themselves. Large numbers of Jewish people went directly from the trains to the gas chambers, with their identities never recorded. Other groups died a slow, brutal death of starvation, overwork, physical violence, and/or medical experimentation. In the camps, however, Nazis and prisoners alike consistently singled out one group for mistreatment. The tens of thousands of homosexuals incarcerated and killed in the camps were usually treated more harshly than other prisoners, and were also subjected to cruel medical experiments, like some other victims. The Nazis often used charges of homosexuality to target or eliminate people not falling under the various "legal" categories for Nazi persecution. The Nazis eliminated people within their own ranks in this manner. Ernst Röhm, chief of Sturmabteilung (the SA, Storm Troopers, Brown Shirts), and army supreme commander Von Fritsch, an opponent of Hitler's military policy, were brutally murdered because of accusations of homosexuality. The Nazis also used charges of rampant homosexuality within the Catholic Church to undermine the power of the Church.(18)
There are many other groups victimized and murdered by the Nazis whose stories deserve voice and whose lives need recognition. The perception of the word Holocaust, and even the event itself, should undergo a thorough examination and transformation because millions of other lives were lost. Since the Holocaust should not be considered exclusively Jewish, it is important to isolate just when, how, and why it became perceived as a Jewish event.
The when can be answered easily--right from the beginning. The media have shaped the American public's view of the Holocaust. Deborah Lipstadt found tendencies in reporting that altered the public's perception of what was actually occurring. She discovered that stories of the atrocities seldom received front-page coverage. Instead, such stories were confined to pages more distant from the front of the paper, with obscure headlines, small type, and limited information. Lipstadt's research examined numerous papers both in the United States and Britain for a number of years during the war. A limited sample from the New York Times also reveals Lipstadt's findings to be accurate. Further, when the reportings on Jewish atrocities were hard to find, stories on the non-Jewish victims were even scarcer.
With the stories that were being reported, the Jews were always viewed as the victims. Non-Jews received little attention. When non-Jews were mentioned, it was usually in the categories of refugees, Catholics, or political prisoners. Contemporaries placed little emphasis upon the identity or numbers of non-Jewish victims being exterminated daily. The focus, when there was one, was almost exclusively on the Jewish victims. Non-Jewish victim information is found in the index for the New York Times' World War II back issues. When looking for information on World War II stories concerning victims, deaths, or concentration camps, one is directed to other sub-categories. There are a number of steps to go through to find information concerning non-Jews. First one looks for "minorities," then is directed to "World War II Prisoners," at which point one is directed to look for "country headings," where non-Jews lost their lives. Even looking under "genocide," the coverage is in the various countries as it relates to Jews. It is incredibly difficult to find non-Jewish stories or information.
In a December 1938 edition of the New York Times, an article appears with the headline "Nazi Camps Release 7,000 Jews; Many Are Victims of Cold Wave." This article, which actually combines two stories from different cities, details the circumstances of the Jewish imprisonment, release, health, and terrible living conditions within two camps. Only two sentences out of the thirteen paragraphs mention the political prisoners who were also in these camps with the Jews. The report makes no mention of how many political prisoners were in the camps, if they suffered frostbite and amputations as did the Jews, or if there were prisoners of other categories as well.
The February 10, 1946, New York Times includes an article with the headline "Russians To Cite Crimes In Greece." Detailing Nazi crimes against Greeks, this article appears on page 32, column 5 of the newspaper. According to the article, the yearly death rate of Greeks during the war in various locations increased anywhere from 800 percent to 1000 percent. An example of German aggression was noted in "the bloody march." In early September of 1941, German soldiers "rounded up all males from 14 to 70 years of age….The Germans forced their captives to run from Sabac across [the] Sava River to Yarak in the Srem Province and back, a distance of 14.38 miles. Those who lagged behind…were pitilessly killed on the spot….[W]hen the survivors of this group returned, another group of 800 peasants were forced to run along the same routes….[O]nly 300 of this group reached Yarak alive."(19) This article was not near the front of the paper, and the article actually dealt more with the dispute concerning who would present the evidence and the original loss and mishandling of the evidence than it did with the Greek victims.
Another article from the New York Times, February 16, 1946, concerns the Nuremberg trial of Hans Frank, Hitler's viceroy in the General Government. The subtitle of this article reads, "Frank Termed Himself No. 1 War Criminal--Blamed for Death of 3,000,000 Jews," yet within this article there is no mention of Frank and others being linked to "the murder of millions of Russians, Poles, Yugoslavs and Czechoslovaks." In addition to highlighting the Jews as victims in the caption and the story, the article also describes the deaths of Jewish people in more graphic terms than the deaths of non-Jews. It describes the way Nazis killed the Jewish people as "those who cut in two the bodies of children at the Yanov camp." In contrast, the way Nazis killed non-Jews was described as "systematically exterminated." The portrayal of the deaths thus sought to elicit more sympathy for the Jews.
A final example from the New York Times, December 23, 1946, page 5, is an article concerning Yugoslavian victims of the Nazi extermination policies. The headline, which is much smaller than the surrounding headlines, reads: "18 Former Nazi Officers Doomed by Yugoslavia." This article only mentions 150,000 Yugoslavian deaths of men, women, and children, which included 35,000 Jews. The Yugoslavs actually had a death toll of over 1.5 million. This article also deals more with the men being tried for these crimes, and the events surrounding the trial than it does with the story surrounding the actual victims. A person reading this article would have no indication of the magnitude of the deaths in Yugoslavia. In defense of the reporters of these four examples, it is possible no one in the media at that time had full statistics for how many people died in the various countries or in the various camps. Since then, no complete set of statistics has been compiled in one location; however, statistics are available from the various countries that were able to either maintain records during the Holocaust or create a census of the victims after the war had ended.
From this limited sample, three tendencies emerge. First, stories of the Nazis' victims are hard to find within the newspaper. They are usually not in a section near the front of the paper, or near the front of the section within which they are found. Second, the headlines for these stories are unclear or in a typeface that is smaller than, and /or not in boldface as, are surrounding headlines of other stories. The focus of such articles is almost exclusively on the Jews as victims. Very little, if anything, is said about non-Jewish victims.
When the Holocaust became exclusively Jewish is clear--right from the beginning. Part of how is answered in the way the stories of the atrocities were covered. But newspapers were not the only places people went for information about the war and its victims. Theatre and cinema of the day also contributed to the perceptions of the Holocaust in the selection of stories they chose to present to the public. What did they present? Beginning in the 1950s, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl (1952) was presented in book, play, and movie--the story of Jewish victims, written by a Jewish victim. In the 1970s and 1980s, American television aired Gerald Green's Holocaust (1978) and Herman Wouk's Winds of War (1983) miniseries, both of which focused almost exclusively on the Jewish people as victims, while neglecting the non-Jewish victims.(20) In the 1990s, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) also dealt exclusively with Jewish victims. Typical of the treatment of non-Jews in newspapers and history books, the non-Jew star of Schindler's List was in the role of hero/rescuer. Nowhere does this movie show the millions of non-Jews who also met their deaths in the concentration camps, raids, death marches, and invasions of the various countries. While these examples are by no means all inclusive, they do demonstrate the overwhelming tendency of the entertainment media to consistently portray Jews as the exclusive victims of the Holocaust.
Remarkably, historians have repeated what newspapers and the entertainment media have done. Even though historians had access to first-hand accounts and official government documents, they too have focused on only one group of victims to the near exclusion of all others. Some of the earliest histories of the Holocaust portrayed the event as a singularly Jewish experience. Not all, but the majority of the histories fall into one or more of the following three categories: (1) the author is Jewish; (2) the focus of the book is on Jewish victims; and (3) non-Jews are portrayed as rescuers, bystanders, or perpetrators, but are seldom highlighted as victims themselves.
Before 1980, no book in print focused entirely on non-Jewish victims or recognized the millions more non-Jewish dead of the Holocaust. It has only been since the 1980s that reports have been published centering on these other forgotten millions and recognizing the millions of victims that have previously been unacknowledged. Since then, numerous records and government documents have identified the victims and chronicled the number of lives lost. Historians must use these sources to depict accurately this period in history from the perspectives of all the participants, not just one group.
The final question is why. Why with all this information, all these non-Jewish victims, and all these non-Jewish survivors, have so few stories and so little information been disseminated to the American public? To understand the answer to this question, the Holocaust must be viewed in the context of the political environment of the West following World War II. The creation of the nation of Israel, its pivotal role as a bulwark against communism during the Cold War, and its close ties with the United States ensured that the definition of the Holocaust would take on a uniquely Jewish identity at the expense of the non-Jewish stories.
After the end of World War II, with the Jewish people seen as the victims of a Holocaust, those who had turned their backs on the exterminations felt a collective sympathy and guilt. World guilt, anger, and outrage at the Jewish death toll spurred not only the global attitude favorable for a Jewish state, but also gave justification to the Jewish people to fight, and to see themselves as martyrs of the world. This is an image that has been fostered and fiercely protected by the Jewish people since the end of World War II. As long as the Holocaust centers exclusively on the Jewish people, it reaffirms in the world consciousness the necessity to maintain the Jewish state of Israel, so an atrocity such as the Holocaust will never happen again to their people.
Given the powerful voice the Jewish people have through the government of Israel, it is not surprising that the focus of the Holocaust has been on Jewish victims. However, strong support for Israel within the United States reinforced this view of the Holocaust. After World War II, the United States quickly slid into a Cold War with the Soviet Union and all its communist states. It is interesting to note that the majority of non-Jewish victims (Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Yugoslavians, Gypsies, Czechs, and Serbs) came from nations that after 1945 were under Communist rule. During the Cold War, the communists were our enemies, and no American wanted to hear about victims of the Holocaust who were now in communist countries. Israel consistently stood by the United States as an anti-Communist ally in the troubled Middle East. The Soviets themselves played a role in omitting their people as victims of the Holocaust, for in revealing their people as victims, they would also have to account for their own role in the deaths of so many millions of their own people. Some Soviet scholars estimate between 5.5 million and 7 million [of their people were victims of the Holocaust]. This includes some 600,000 Jews who fell victim to the German extermination policy" as well.(21) Thus, the players in the Cold War continued to shape the perception of the Holocaust as a Jewish event.
Numerous factors have contributed to the American public's perception of the Holocaust as an exclusively Jewish event. Recognizing these factors--misinformation, misrepresentation, and political agendas--should be the first step in correcting America's skewed version of Holocaust history. The Holocaust was an event of mass prejudice and abuse of power. It entailed the murdering of many millions of people who were singled out for their differences, whether they be religious, ethnic, physical, political, social or national. Over six million Jewish people were murdered by virtue of their ethnicity and religion, while somewhere between sixteen and twenty million non-Jews were also murdered because they did not fit the homogeneous mold the Nazi regime had selected for the German nation. Consequently, the image of the Holocaust as strictly a Jewish event must be corrected. If not, millions of non-Jews will have died without a record in history, and the Holocaust will never be an accurate portrayal of the actual historical event.
1. Michael Berenbaum,ed., A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis (New York/London, 1990), xi
2. David Rousset, The Other Kingdom (New York, 1947), 13-14.
3. Rousset, The Other Kingdom, 14.
4. Berenbaum, A Mosaic of Victims, xi.
5. Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War (New York, 1985), 824.
6. Service d'Information des Crimes de Guerre: Crimes contre la Personne Humain, Camps de Concentration (Paris, 1946), 197.
7. Sybil Milton, Telephone interview,
16 April 1997.
8. Christopher R. Browning, "Germans and Serbs: The Emergence of Nazi Antipartisan Policies in 1941," in A Mosaic of Victims, Michael Berenbaum, ed. (New York/London, 1990), 64.
9. Gilbert, The Holocaust, 287-88.
10. Sybil Milton, "German Occupation Policy in Belgium and France," in A Mosaic of Victims, Michael Berenbaum, ed. (New York/London, 1990), 82.
11. Milton, "German Occupation Policy
in Belgium and France," 84.
12. Milton, "German Occupation Policy in Belgium and France," 85.
13. Gilbert, The Holocaust, 807.
14. Richard C. Lukas, "The Polish Experience During the Holocaust," in A Mosaic of Victims, Michael Berenbaum, ed. (New York/London, 1990), 89.
15. Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944 (Lexington, Kentucky, 1986), 5.
16. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust, 38.
17. Lukas, "The Polish Experience During the Holocaust," 89.
18. Homosexuals (Washington, DC, 1996), 10.
19. New York Times (February 10, 1946): 32 col. 5.
20. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust, 38.
21. Taras Hunczak, "The Ukrainian Losses During World War II," in A Mosaic of Victims, Michael Berenbaum, ed. (New York/London, 1990), 121-23.
Berenbaum, Michael, ed. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York/London: New York University Press, 1990.
Service d'Information des Crimes de Guerre: Crimes contre la Personne Humain. Camps de concentration. Paris: War Crimes Information Service, 1946.
Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985.
Homosexuals. Pamphlet. Washington, DC:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996.
Lipstadt, Deborah E. Beyond Belief: the American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945. New York/London: The Free Press, 1986.
Lukas, Richard C. The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
Milton, Sybil. Senior Historian, The United States Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC. Telephone interview. 16 April 1997.
The New York Times.
Rousset, David. The Other Kingdom. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947.
Szonyi, David M. The Holocaust: An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide. New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1985.


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Individual Coaching
Career Coaching
Team and Group Coaching
What Clients Say
Sandra's Blog
Facilitation, Training and Consultancy
Sandra Whiles Coaching Ltd
Leadership and Business
Coach and Mentor
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Facilitation, Training and Consultancy
My facilitation, training and consultancy work uses tried and tested coaching and facilitation approaches to help you get better results, more quickly and more enjoyably than many traditional methods.
I design and deliver facilitated sessions covering a wide range of areas, from team building, to partnership development, to collaboration projects, to action planning, to change programmes.
Works starts with me spending time with the session sponsor to agree purpose, objectives and success criteria for the project. Before the session, I engage people to help establish an environment and prime behaviours and expectations so that the event succeeds
I offer training in the following areas:
Creative Coaching Tools and Techniques
Group and Team Coaching Tools and Techniques
Coaching Skills for Managers and Leaders
Mentoring Skills
Leadership Development
I support organisations who want to develop different approaches to a range of challenges, from building a coaching culture, to establishing a feedback culture, to building resilience, to focusing on priorities.
Get in touch to talk
through how my facilitation, training or consultancy services can help your business suceed.


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Chad and Tina started working together at the beginning of 2015.
Chad is on inspirational author who currently lives in Granite Falls, NC. He has been writing poems and short stories for over 20 years.His work is available internationally through major online booksellers. He is also internationally acclaimed, having work published in both the United States and Australia. He writes faith-based, nature themed and romantic poetry.
Chad designs all his book covers and framed art, and has a degree in graphic arts. Each book that he has written includes 101 inspirational poems; as well as various parables, proverbs and short stories. He works with various artists and photographers and is always interested in networking and working with others.
He believes that his work is a Spiritual gift, not a natural one. He began writing as a teenager after dedicating his life to Christ and believes that God's Spirit directs his words. His Spiritual gift is having an eye for inspiration.
Tina is a photographer who currently lives in Granite Falls, NC. She has been a professional photographer for the last 6 years. She has done photography for weddings, senior pictures, family pictures and nature. You can see some of her work with Chad's poetry.
Tina has written her first poem that was inspired by her nephew who is on the Autism Spectrum and is non-verbal. He is five years old and is full of energy. Her poem, "My Love Language", has been shared around the world on many Autism sites. Tina wrote the poem to bring awareness of Autism. She is also rising money for her sister to purchase a service dog to work along side her nephew.
Tina has also been working on a 31-Day Devotional book for singles to be released sometime this spring. It's called "A Quest for Jesus."


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Med Ball Challenge Clubs
The Med Ball Challenge Page for Schools can be found by clicking here
The England Athletics and AAA Med Ball Challenge is a new initiative to promote the development of Throwing activity at Club training nights/in curriculum time PE delivery.
A Virtual competition is being held to find the Top Individuals and Throwing Group across the Country. The team competition is open to clubs, schools and other youth groups.
– Each athlete should complete each of the 5 events below recording each distance thrown.
– To enter the Virtual League, the Group can either download the Spreadsheet from the right of this page and email the results to email@example.com or
– Enter the Top 5 Individual Total Distance (5 Throws) thrown on the Virtual League form (link at the top of the Page).
– The Individual Rankings can be viewed at the Link above.
– The performances will also be included in Power of 10.
Team Tables (by Age Group) will be published at regular intervals over the year.
This programme is kindly supported by England Athletics and the AAA. There are equipment bags placed all round the Country for groups to borrow for free – please see the Kit Hire Location list to the right of this page.
Forward Pitch
To highlight the valuable contribution that can be made by the legs to a throwing activity.
A two handed forward throw utilizing the legs and trunk.
Chest Push
To push the ball as far as possible.
In this standing throw the participant pushes a weighted ball with both hands from the chest into a pre-measured throwing area. This is a good introduction to the push technique use in the shot put event. This technique is also used in Basketball and Netball where it is known as the chest pass.
Soccer Throw
An overhead throw using the back and legs to propel the ball.
A two handed throw where the participant starts facing the direction of the throw. This event uses the whole body in a basic 'pull' technique which is a good training exercise for javelin throwers, soccer players, tennis players and several other ball games.
Overhead Heave
To power the ball over the head using the whole body to generate maximum momentum.
This is a two handed over the head power throw which is a full body exercise. If done correctly the ball should travel further than the distances achieved in the other throws. It develops the ability to combine the maximum contribution from all the parts of the body into a single action.
Shoulder Fling
To heave the ball over a shoulder having generated acceleration and created a long radius around the body.
A two handed reversed throw where the participant keeps their back to the direction of the throw. this event uses the whole body in a basic rotational technique which is used in several throwing events and is relevant to movements in some ball games.


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Apartmany Tucepi
Apartmány Tucepi, 3 apartmány v apartmánovém domě jen 300 m od oblázkové pláže, apartmány v Dalmácii, Tucepi, Střední Dalmácie, Chorvatsko
Poloha:Apartments Tucepi are located in heart of town Tucepi. App are 300 m away from one of the most beautiful pebble beach on Adriatic sea.
Pláž:Apartments are located 300 m from marvellous pebble beach.
Ubytování:Apartments Tucepi are located only 300 m from the sea. Comfy apartments are situated in apartment house, nearby many restaurants.
Apartment house offers 3 modern equipped and cozy apartments.
APP A2:Studio apartment for 2 people. Bed size: 160x200. Small kitchenette with fridge and freezer, stove, bathroom with shower and toilet, AC, wifi. No balcony. It is allowed to use the common terrace.
APP A3:Studio apartment is suitable for 3 people. Bathroom with shower and toilet. Small kitchenette with fridge with freezer, a table with 3 chairs. No balcony. Posibility of usage the common terrace. One big bed 160x200 and small bed 90x200. AC, wifi.
APP A2 +2:Apartment with two double rooms wit 2 x bed 160x200. Bathroom with shower and toilet. Small kitchenette with fridge and freezer. Balcony. Possibility of usage the common terrace.
Storno costs are 100 % at the moment of the booking. First xou need to pay 30 % of advance payment, the rest must be paid upon arrival.
Zvířata:not allowed


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70-687: Configuring Windows 8.1
The 70-687: Configuring Windows 8.1 online training course is designed for experienced IT professionals who have knowledge and experience administering Windows PCs and devices in a domain environment with managed access to the Internet. You will learn the skills you need to administer Windows 8.1 in a Windows Server domain environment and also provide secure, managed access to users from their non-domain joined Windows devices.
Read More
You will learn how to install and customize Windows 8.1 operating systems and apps, integrate and control access to domains and cloud services, and migrate and synchronize settings across multiple devices. In addition, you will learn how to implement mobile security and customize configurations using Windows management tools including Group Policy and Windows PowerShell. You will also learn how to configure user settings and profiles, local and remote network connectivity, Client Hyper-V, virtual apps, and Internet Explorer 11. Finally, you will learn how to optimize security and provide controlled access from Windows 8.1 PCs and devices to specified resources through Workplace Join services and Work Folders. This online training course is also designed to prepare candidates for Exam 687, Configuring Windows 8.1 and pursue the MCSA: Windows 8 certification.
Exam Number: 70-687


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I'm pretty typical of the average gamer demographic. I'm in my 30's (though 40 is a lot closer than I want to admit), and I play almost every day. I played a lot of sports games in the past, but as the years have passed I've gravitated to first-person shooters and games with substantial multiplayer content. For me, gaming isn't just about playing the games -- it's also a way to interact with friends across the country.
As an investor, I've also learned to follow Peter Lynch's advice to invest in things you know and understand. While I don't have any "insider" knowledge or expertise that gives me an edge or special insight on this industry, I do think I've come to understand what gamers want and what a successful video game maker must do to be a great investment.
I've played games made by a lot of companies over the years, and I seem to always gravitate back to those from Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI). I bought more shares just last week, after having played the Destiny beta and doing some research into Activision's financials. I came up with three things that show why Activision Blizzard is head and shoulders above competitors such as Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO), and even company partner Nintendo (NASDAQOTH:NTDOF).
1: Value of its content and intellectual property
It has to start here. Just like at a movie studio, compelling and entertaining content is a must. It doesn't matter how effectively a company can manage costs if it can't create something people will love -- and pony up for. When it comes to creating content that millions of people will spend billions of dollars annually to enjoy, Activision Blizzard has done a tremendous job:
As you can see in the chart, Activision Blizzard's annual sales are top tier. That is especially true when considering that a significant amount of Nintendo's revenue comes from consoles and hardware, and how insanely quickly it is shedding market share -- and relevance -- as its hardware loses any compelling edge against competitors Sony and Microsoft.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that EA, Konami (NASDAQOTH:KNMCY), and Take Two-Interactive don't make great games, because they most certainly do. I'm also not saying that Activision Blizzard's games are necessarily better. The truth is, games such as Grand Theft Auto and Evolve are often more critically acclaimed than Activision products like Call of Duty: Ghosts or Skylanders, but when it comes to pure-and-simple sales figures, Activision Blizzard's record speaks for itself.
Every year's list of top-grossing games is almost a lock to include the latest release or expansion pack from the company's collection of titles, including Skylanders, Call of Duty, Diablo, StarCraft, and the still-popular World of Warcraft. The value of Activision Blizzard's content has proven to be sustainably-valuable. The sheer number of highly popular names in its stable give the company an advantage against smaller producers like Take-Two and Konami.
2: Content acquisition and marketing costs
Of course, Electronic Arts and Nintendo have large collections of popular, valuable products as well. The difference is in Activision Blizzard's ability to turn those properties into sustainably-profitable games that players enjoy, for a lower cost than competitors.
Nintendo's difficulties with console relevance are well known, and frankly this hurts the value of properties such as The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Brothers. For Activision Blizzard, EA, and Take-Two, being platform-neutral removes that obstacle, though it does increase development costs as games must be coded for each platform, incrementally increasing production expense.
What separates Activision from EA is that the latter does not really own its most popular titles; instead they are held via licensing agreements with partners including the National Football League and FIFA. Licensing this content significantly increases development costs for EA, as is demonstrated in its financials.
In 2013, EA spent almost $1.2 billion on research and development and content costs, compared to $858 million in development, licenses, and royalties for Activision Blizzard. Electronic Arts also spent almost $800 million on marketing and sales, while Activision Blizzard spent just over $600 million. Add these two segments up and you get a pretty significant chunk of sales:
Activision Blizzard is measurably more efficient at both developing and marketing content than Electronic Arts -- largely because of costs related to EA's sports franchises, while Activision Blizzard owns almost all of its content.
Take-Two is also pretty effective in this area, but the difference is the "boom and bust" nature of its game cycle. Its most financially successful titles are only released every couple years, and this lag in between -- versus Activision Blizzard's numerous franchise titles with regular releases -- makes for a bumpier ride:
3: Longevity of content and incremental revenue
As a gamer, I want the $60 I drop on a game to give me months of enjoyment, and the numbers show that this is an area in which Activision Blizzard also leads. All of the company's biggest franchises tend to keep gamers engaged for significantly longer than competitive offerings.
One anecdotal example is the launch of the highly anticipated Titanfall from EA, which I ordered for my new Xbox One. Within about a month, I found myself going back to Call of Duty: Ghosts on a regular basis, and I haven't played Titanfall since July. Whether this is typical of other gamers outside my personal sphere I can't say, but the evidence -- as reported in sales of add-ons and the still-large number of online users of the nearly 10-month-old Ghosts--indicates that it is.
Furthermore, games like Skylanders, which target a younger audience and leverage the sales of physical toys to increase engagement and interaction, will help keep future gamers plugged into Activision Blizzard's brands for years to come.
Best at turning content into cash
I'm sure plenty of readers will slam this article, and find the very idea of Activision Blizzard being the "best" game company a joke. The truth? Numbers don't lie, and making money doesn't make it a "sellout" company.
While the most hard-core gamers may scoff at Activision Blizzard's products as just fodder for the masses, those masses keep video gaming relevant and viable. They're why companies invest the billions of dollars it takes to develop the amazing hardware and software that drives every game.
When it comes to an investment, there's no doubt in my mind that Activision Blizzard is the best long-term bet in the industry to keep doing what it does better than anyone else: return that value to its shareholders.


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NJPAC's Arts Education Program in Partnership with The Johnny Mercer Foundation Introduces 120 Newark, Orange and East Orange Middle School Students to the Magic of Musical Theater
Students Learn the History of American Musical Theater and Create Their Own Musical Production to be Performed at NJPAC on Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Newark, NJ (March 31, 2015) – As one of the musical greats of the 20th century America, Johnny Mercer was renowned as a lyricist, composer and mentor, whose words were his trade.
His namesake foundation, which champions the art of songwriting in schools, continues to show by example that musical theater is good for the soul.
For a third year, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and The Johnny Mercer Foundation are introducing the magic of musical theater to more than 100 New Jersey middle school students from Newark and the surrounding area. The Johnny Mercer Foundation/NJPAC Musical Theater Residency Program offers students an immersive study of the history of the American Musical and the necessary tools to create their own musical.
Five New Jersey schools – the Whitney Houston Academy in East Orange, the Heywood Avenue School in Orange, the Harriet Tubman School in Newark, the Cicely L. Tyson Community School for the Performing and Fine Arts in East Orange, and the BRICK Peshine Academy in Newark -- are participating in this one of a kind residency program. A team of three NJPAC Teaching Artists – Victor Burks, Daryl Stewart and Janeece Freeman Clark – will implement the program in the schools involved.
Beginning in February 2015, each residency meets twice a week for 20 sessions. During these sessions, students learn the diverse history of the American Musical, as well as the creation process including lyric writing, and the rehearsal and performance process. They develop their creativity, self-confidence, and ability to tell their own story through the musical. In addition, the residencies will help schools meet their curricular goals; all of NJPAC's educational programs, including this one, are developed in accordance with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. Curriculum for the program comes from Georgia State University, supported by The Johnny Mercer Foundation, and was launched as a pilot program at NJPAC in the Spring of 2013.
Each class will individually create sections of a joint musical, the topic chosen by the students, coming together at the finale to perform the full, collaborative show. Students will see the other portions of the musical for the first time at the culminating performance. This year's topic is Beyonce and her music, and the final performance will take place on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 in NJPAC's Victoria Theater.
"Self-expression is such an important topic these days, and the Johnny Mercer Foundation is incredibly proud to partner with the great folks of NJPAC to encourage students to express themselves through the writing of words and music. This will be our third year together," stated JMF Vice President, Jonathan Brielle.
"We are elated to host this one-of-a-kind musical theater program here at NJPAC," said Alison Scott Williams, NJPAC's Vice President of Arts Education. "To witness first-hand the growth of these middle school students coming together to write, rehearse and perform their own musical is thrilling. NJPAC is grateful to The Johnny Mercer Foundation for funding this extraordinary residency."
This residency has been made possible by the generous support of The Johnny Mercer Foundation. Additional funding is from the Victoria Foundation, Merck Company Foundation, The Prudential Foundation, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Automatic Data Processing, TD Charitable Foundation, Novo Nordisk, The Provident Bank Foundation, and Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Participating Schools
BRICK Peshine Academy (Newark, NJ)
Chaleeta Barnes, Principal; Matthew Petrucelli, Drama Teacher; Nikkia Neal, Dance Teacher
Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing & Fine Arts (East Orange, NJ)
Iqua Colson, Supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts; Anita D. Champagne, Principal;
Terri Gorgone, Musical Theater Teacher
Harriet Tubman School (Newark, NJ)
Malcolm Outlaw, Principal; Leslie Cleveland, Dance Teacher
Heywood Avenue School (Orange, NJ)
Faith Alcantara, Principal; Jessica Garofano, Vocal Music Teacher; Jacqueline Selesky,
Dance Teacher; Erin Leigh VanOrden, Instrumental Music Teacher
Whitney Houston Academy (East Orange, NJ)
Iqua Colson, Supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts;
Heather Schumacher-Jones, Assistant Principal; Stephen Lombard, Drama Teacher
About the Teaching Artists
Victor Burks (Musical Theater Instructor/Accompanist) is known for his skill in piano, keyboards, vocals and his crafting of exceptional compositions, performances and productions. With more than 25 years of experience as a composer, musical director and musician, Victor has worked worldwide with various artists and organizations including ESPN, Liz Withers, Jamie Fox, Laura Branigan and Fine Arts Militia (with Chuck D). His current projects include a 5 song EP titled "Short Stories," numerous remixes and a new Fine Arts Militia recording. For the past 13 years, Victor has been a teaching artist and accompanist working in Arts Education at NJPAC.
Daryl Stewart (Musical Theater Instructor) is a professional actor, teaching and performing artist. His work as an actor has been seen Off-Broadway at Fresh Play Festival/Manhattan Classic Company, and at the New York Musical Theater Festival. Stewart's regional credits include musical productions of Five Guys Named Moe, Ragtime, The Wild Party, Leader of the Pack, George and Ira Gershwin's My One and Only, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel, and Disney's Aida. He is the 2010 recipient of the NYU Wassermann Grant for Service in the Arts and a 2013 nominee for the BMC Award for Entertainment. Stewart is an alumnus of NYU and New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Miller Street Productions, a collaborative theatrical production company.
Janeece Freeman Clark (Lead Musical Theater Instructor) has spent most of her career simultaneously as a teacher and a performer. As an actor, she can be seeen as Miss Molly on PBS KIDS' award-winning children's series Dittydoodle Works. Ms. Clark has appeared On and Off-Broadway in Urinetown the Musical (Little Becky), The Ark (Egyptus), A Band of Angels (Ella), and Africa Plumbridge (Africa). She has also performed in numerous Regional Theater Houses across the country, and some of her favorite roles include Rusty in Footloose, Charlayne in Ain't Misbehavin', JoAnne in Godspell, Dorothy in The Wiz, Brenda in Smokey Joe's Café, Hattie in A Midnight Star, and Ida B. Wells in Constant Star. Ms. Clark holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan where she studied vocal performance, musical theater and music education. She has directed and choreographed musical productions at high schools in Brooklyn, NY; instructed children and young people at The Institute of Music for Children in Elizabeth, NJ; and has conducted youth choirs in the New York City area. Ms. Clark is currently the director of the Theater Arts Team at ChristChurch in Montclair, NJ and holds her own private Vocal Studio in South Orange, NJ. At NJPAC, she directs the Arts Education program's Musical Theater for the Summer Youth Performance Workshop and Young Artist Institute.
About The Johnny Mercer Foundation
The mission of The Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) is to support the discipline of songwriting in the tradition of the Great American Songbook as exemplified by the life and work of Johnny Mercer: lyricist, composer, performer, collaborator and producer. The Foundation continues Johnny's legacy by partnering with individuals and organizations dedicated to celebrating and nourishing the disciplines he mastered and the causes he and his wife Ginger Mercer championed.
JMF has created a number of dynamic creative joint ventures with several prestigious institutions to facilitate our goals including: the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, Accentuate The Positive Programs (New York-Kaufman Music Center, Los Angeles and Miami), The Musical Theater Program at NJPAC, Georgia State University Fellowship Program, Florida International University Fellowship Program, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project with Northwestern University, and the Johnny Mercer Archives at Georgia State University. In addition, JMF also supports various charitable causes including UCLA's Art of the Brain, Children's Hospital Los Angeles (Mark Taper and Johnny Mercer Artists Program), Braille Institute (Johnny Mercer Children and Adult Choirs) and KCET TVs Cinema Series. For more information please visit www.johnnymercerfoundation.org.
About Arts [email protected]
NJPAC's Arts Education offerings reach more than 60,000 students and families through live performances, in-school residency programs and arts training classes. These programs bring the joy of dance, music, theater, and poetry directly to the classroom. Through our innovative residencies, Teaching Artists create stimulating performing arts experiences that engage students' imaginations and build self-confidence through positive self-expression. Our residencies help students learn to work together and develop their creative independence.
In addition to NJPAC's innovative In-School Programs, the Arts Center's comprehensive Arts Education Department offers an Arts Training Program that helps students at every level learn their artistic and technical skills they need to study acting, dance, instrumental music, vocal music, and musical theater. NJPAC also presents a SchoolTime Performance Series which introduces students and their families to a world of entertainment and culture. NJPAC's Arts Education programs feature professional artists from a wide variety of traditions and performances of music, dance, storytelling, puppetry, and more.
About NJPAC
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in downtown Newark, New Jersey, is among the largest performing arts centers in the United States and is the artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey – where great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day. NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and showcasing the State's and the world's best artists while acting a leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted more than 9 million visitors (plus more than 1 million children) since opening its doors in 1997, and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of its constituents.


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Today, it looks like this:
So I've finally got around to uploading some photos from the past week. This is Maggie. She is a great dog, very fast and clever.
This is Lulu, who reminds me of a person sometimes.
Tom draws a cartoon every day for the newspaper.
I experienced the wonders of the Warehouse
And skated this park, was great fun. I love oldish parks that have got all weathered and rough, then have been painted over so they are sort of rough and slippery at the same time. Will logged some rollerblade footage of me shredding there (on a board). Confusing sentence.
Ralph is pretty amazing
He loves Auntie Rosie
This is the antipasto platter that Sam constructed - it has ruined all future platters. Note the very photogenic Jessica in the background.
Averil's turkey, wrapped in muslin cloth and looking a bit like a big crab. It was very baconny and delicious.
Everywhere's a party when Ralph's around!
xmas eve mayhem
Slinky madness!
Milly arrived!
The reaction to Rosie's infamous marmalade joke.
We went for a walk somewhere in there too (Sorry, I'm switching between two cameras, it's a bit confusing).
Xmas morning on the balcony
Beau - the best cat
Tom burns all the wrapping as he goes. Once he burnt all Averil's presents by mistake!
Then it was time to trek over the hill (crazy mountain range) to Helen's place. But that is another story for another blog post. Besides, I've got to go and watch Tintin. Oh, what the hell, here's a taster:


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Industry 4.0 ready!
Worldwide Machine Sensors from Shop Floor to Top Floor!
Industry 4.0 "manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly complex"
Frost & Sullivan sees in Industry 4.0 the solution to the challenges of industrial production in the 21st century. Industrial plants around the world would have to be connected by a huge number of sensors in a way that signals can be used in every segment of the value chain. It is a matter of the communication between different industrial software systems, the machine–to–machine communication with real-time data analysis.
"Manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly complex, the pressure on margins is driving end users to look for innovative products and services," according to Frost & Sullivan report. New software solutions in the production would have to be inserted into existing planning processes (ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning). Challenge is to increase overall equipment effectiveness through continuous improvement, Lean Manufacturing and 'Just-in–Time' programs.
MIM.365 goes to Industry 4.0
Worldwide Cost & Productivity dashboard from Shop Floor to Top Floor
- Allows global OEE-benchmarking across all plants over various time zones and languages
- A global Cost Saving & Productivity Dashboard for plants, machines, orders, products
- Completely web-based and accessible through all standard browsers and smart devices
- Supports communication to different external interfaces or machines (API, OPC, Siemens, Rockwell etc.)
in one dashboard from an overall view to your plant in China to your single machine somewhere in Hungary to your products in Chile or orders in UK.
In realtime or historical views!
Machine connector
Connect your cycle counter or production signal directly to our standard interface to get out the main information and save it directly in our database. MIM.365 supports different other protocols to communicate directly with machine PLC's. Or if you already have a database with machine information, we can connect directly via API interface.


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Central Bank Of Barbados Cuts Local Interest Rates Again – Fearing Slowdown In Economy
March 27, 2008 1 Comment
A week from today, next Tuesday, April 1, 2008, the minimum interest rate payable on deposits will be reduced by quarter of a percent, from 4.75% to 4.5% the Central Bank of Barbados said late week"any weakening in the economics of major trading partners will impact negatively on economic activity in Barbados".
The bank said its action was an attempt to reduce the cost of doing business, especially for companies which are foreign exchange earners. The bank noted that with many forecasters projecting a slowdown in world economic growth during 2008 mainly due to the rise in oil prices, ." The reduction in the minimum deposit rate follows a similar action taken by the bank on November 19, 2007, when it was reduced from 5.25% per annum to 4.75% per annum.
When a central bank raises its key interest rate, it does so expecting that commercial banks will have to follow suit, thus encouraging people to save more and borrow less. The goal is to protect the foreign reserves.
For example, the last time the Central Bank of Barbados raised interest rates, on December 15, 2006, from 4.75% to 5.25%, it noted that despite four interest rate hikes the previous year, bank credit to the private sector was still expanding due to the strong demand for residential mortgages along with other borrowing, and, as a result, the net international reserves (NIR) had fallen.
A strong demand for credit usually leads to a higher level of imports and weakens the external current account when the amount of foreign exchange being used up is in excess of the amount the country is earning in a particular year. Raising interest rates is therefore a measure to shore up the balance of payments by slowing credit and hence imports.
Last January, in its review of the economy for 2007, the central bank noted that the country's current account deficit improved in 2007 for the third consecutive year, ending the year at 6.6% of GDP, down from 8.1% in 2006 and 12.5% in 2005 and 10.5% in 2004.
However, as it tries to find the right level for local interest rates, the bank has already warned that the NIR will be under pressure this year due to an expected fall-off in foreign exchange earnings due to the Olympic Games in China and Barbados' increasing import bill, which has been estimated by the Thompson administration at about $3.1 billion this year.
[Taken from Broad Street Journal}


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is our Privacy Notice
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Tel: 08448 044 344 - International: +44 1603 899910 - Fax: 01603 899919
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Garage Conversions UK - The online place for homeowners considering
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Garage Conversions - Perhaps the easiest way to a new room
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STELLAR LUMENS (XLM) Profile/
Stellar Lumens Token Profile (PDF)
Stellar Lumens is a payments rail that is specifically designed for remittances, micropayments, and low cost financial services. The protocol employs a novel consensus mechanism called the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which provides low latency for transactions regardless of the amount being transacted. SCP also allows trust ratings to be assigned to the nodes that validate transactions, thereby making validation power proportionate to a quantitative metric representing trust. This protocol design also allows for low network fees, thereby enabling low cost microtransactions. Many partnerships have been created to build services on the Stellar network. For example, Deloitte, in June 2016, announced a partnership with Stellar to build a cross-border micropayments app. In November 2017, a partnership with IBM was announced to move money across borders throughout the South Pacific.


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Cautious welcome for Transport for London King's Cross and Bow announcements on cyclist and pedestrian safety
- By London Cycling Campaign on at 10:51am 22 December 2011
- Posted in: News and blogs, Islington, Camden
- Tagged with: transport for london, gyratory, olympics, kings cross, bow, two-way, min joo lee, camden council
- Boroughs: Islington, Camden
In response to recent campaigns by cyclists and pedestrians, Transport for London (TfL) has announced a "strategic review of traffic movements" around King's Cross, including examining the feasibility of returning it to two-way.
TfL also says it has "identified potential options for improvements" at Bow, (another location that has been a focus of campaigning in 2011) and is carrying out "detailed modeling and design", with a view to sharing information with us in the New Year.
The announcement of the King's Cross review, due to start spring 2012, comes just 48 hours after a candlelit vigil (pictured above) in the area commemorated the deaths of over 100 people who've died on the London's roads this year.
The review will see TfL working with Camden and Islington Councils, paying particular attention to the movements of pedestrians and cyclists.
LCC's Mike Cavenett said, "There's still a long way to go before we see a people-friendly King's Cross, but hearing this significant change in language from Transport for London is a great Christmas present.
"It's vital the reviews at Bow and King's Cross come up with solutions that provide real benefits to cyclists and pedestrians."
Christmas works unaffected
A pedestrian-improvement scheme at King's Cross, which was already planned to start during the Christmas holiday period, will go ahead largely unchanged.
TfL reviewed its plans, drawn up in conjunction with Camden Council, in the wake of the death of cyclist Min Joo Lee at the junction of York Way and Gray's Inn Road in October 2011.
The scheme promises wider pavements, reduced street clutter, and new advanced stop lines around Kings Cross station but it has decided there'll be "no significant changes to the original scheme in the short term", which it's desperate to have in place before the Olympics next year.


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Fertility preservation
Chemotherapy, or radiotherapy, often saves the lives of people with cancer. However, the loss or significant reduction of fertility can also result from such treatment.
People during and before reproductive age suffering from cancer often become healthy again, but aggressive therapy can permanently damage their reproductive functions. One way of protecting one's fertility is to freeze a sample of one's gametes and embryos in a special bank. Patients that recover from cancer can then use the deposited material to have children with the help of assisted reproduction techniques. Fertility preservation in cancer patients, professionally referred to as oncofertility, is possible in both women and men.
The simplest way of protecting a woman's fertility is to collect and freeze her oocytes. Another option is to freeze a sample of her ovarian tissue and re-implant it in the cured patient. This gives the woman the opportunity to restore her fertility as well as her hormonal functions. For women preparing for cancer treatment, and planning to start a family in the future, we would recommended:
- Oocytes freezing.
- Ovarian tissue freezing. After completion of the cancer treatment, the tissue is implanted in the healthy woman (re-transplantation treatment). In this way, the patient recovers her fertility (without the use of assisted reproduction techniques), as well as her normal hormonal functions..
Before initiation of treatment, men should deposit some semen in the bank, where it is stored under appropriate conditions guaranteeing the maintenance of its genetic quality. After winning the fight against cancer, the patient can use the deposited semen to become a dad. This is the simplest way of preserving fertility in men.