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Fidel Castro

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Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008.

Castro's regime was successful in reducing illiteracy, stamping out racism and improving public health care, but was widely criticized for stifling economic and political freedoms. Castro's Cuba also had a highly antagonistic relationship with the United States-most notably resulting in the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two nations officially normalized relations in July 2015, ending a trade embargo that had been in place since 1960, when U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba were nationalized without compensation. Castro died on November 25, 2016, at 90.

Fidel Castro: Early Years

Castro was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, a small town in eastern Cuba. His father was a wealthy Spanish sugarcane farmer who first came to the island during the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). His mother was a domestic servant for his father's family who bore him out of wedlock. After attending a couple of Jesuit schools-including the Colegio de Belén, where he excelled at baseball-Castro enrolled as a law student at the University of Havana. While there, he became interested in politics, joining the anti-corruption Orthodox Party and signing up for what became an aborted coup attempt against the brutal Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Did you know? In addition to the Bay of Pigs invasion, the United States made several failed attempts on Fidel Castro's life, including poisoning his cigars with Botox.

In 1950, Castro graduated from the University of Havana and opened a law office. Two years later, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. The election never happened, however, because Batista seized power that March. Castro responded by planning a popular uprising. "From that moment on, I had a clear idea of the struggle ahead," he said in a 2006 "spoken autobiography."

Castro's Revolution Begins

In July 1953, Castro led about 120 men in an attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The assault failed, Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison, and many of his men were killed. The U.S.-backed Batista, looking to counter his authoritarian image, subsequently released Castro in 1955 as part of a general amnesty. Castro ended up in Mexico, where he met fellow revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and plotted his return.

The following year, Castro and 81 other men sailed on the yacht "Granma" to the eastern coast of Cuba, where government forces immediately ambushed them. The estimated 19 survivors, including Castro, his brother Raúl and Guevara, fled deep into the Sierra Maestra Mountains in southeastern Cuba with virtually no weapons or supplies.

The small band of survivors rearmed itself by first launching raids on small army posts and then using the weaponry acquired there to attack larger posts. By early 1957 they were already attracting recruits and winning small battles against Rural Guard patrols.

"We'd take out the men in front, attack the center, and then ambush the rear when it started retreating, in the terrain we'd chosen," Castro said in his spoken autobiography. In 1958, Batista tried to snuff out the uprising with a massive offensive, complete with air force bombers and naval offshore units. The guerrillas held their ground, launched a counterattack and wrested control from Batista on January 1, 1959. Castro arrived in Havana a week later and soon took over as prime minister. At the same time, revolutionary tribunals began trying and executing members of the old regime for alleged war crimes.

Castro's Rule

In 1960, Castro nationalized all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil refineries, factories and casinos. This prompted the United States to end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo that still stands today. Meanwhile, in April 1961, about 1,400 Cuban exiles trained and funded by the CIA landed near the Bay of Pigs with the intent of overthrowing Castro. Their plans ended in disaster, however, partially because a first wave of bombers missed their targets and a second air strike was called off. Ultimately, more than 100 exiles were killed and nearly everyone else was captured. In December 1962, Castro freed them in exchange for medical supplies and baby food worth about $52 million.

Castro publicly declared himself a Marxist- Leninist in late 1961. Ostracized by the United States, Cuba was becoming increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for economic and military support. In October 1962, the United States discovered that nuclear missiles had been stationed there, just 90 miles from Florida, setting off fears of a World War III. After a 13-day standoff, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the nukes against the wishes of Castro, who was left out of the negotiations. In return, U.S. President John F. Kennedy publicly consented not to reinvade Cuba and privately consented to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey.

Cuban Life Under Castro

After taking power, Castro abolished legal discrimination, brought electricity to the countryside, provided for full employment and advanced the causes of education and health care, in part by building new schools and medical facilities. But he also closed down opposition newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents and made no move toward elections. Moreover, he limited the amount of land a person could own, abolished private business and presided over housing and consumer goods shortages. With political and economic options so limited, hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including vast numbers of professionals and technicians, left Cuba, often for the United States.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Castro supplied military and financial aid to various leftist guerilla movements in Latin America and Africa. Meanwhile, relations with many countries, with the notable exception of the United States, began to normalize. Cuba's economy foundered when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s and the United States expanded sanctions even further. Yet Castro, who by this time had switched his title from prime minister to president, found new trading partners and was able to cling to power until 2006, when he temporarily gave control of the government to Raúl after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery. Two years later, in 2008, he permanently resigned.

In 2015, U.S. and Cuban officials announced they had agreed to terms on the normalization of relations between the two nations, with mutual embassies and diplomatic missions opening in each country.

Castro died on November 25, 2016, at the age of 90. His death was announced on state television and later confirmed by his brother Raúl. Castro's ashes were buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in the Cuban city of Santiago.

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Fidel Castro was a communist revolutionary who established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. During his tenure as president of Cuba (1976-2008), Castro survived multiple assassination attempts by the CIA.

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this is connected to mahmoud

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More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State. This is the story of the civil war so far, in eight short chapters.

1. Uprising turns violent

Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.

The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country.

Opposition supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas.

2. Descent into civil war

Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012.

By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN.

The conflict is now more than just a battle between those for or against Mr Assad. It has acquired sectarian overtones, pitching the country's Sunni majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect, and drawn in regional and world powers. The rise of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has added a further dimension.

3. War crimes

A UN commission of inquiry has evidence that all parties to the conflict have committed war crimes - including murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances. They have also been accused of using civilian suffering - such as blocking access to food, water and health services through sieges - as a method of war.

The UN Security Council has demanded all parties end the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas, but civilians continue to die in their thousands. Many have been killed by barrel bombs dropped by government aircraft on gatherings in rebel-held areas - attacks which the UN says may constitute massacres.

IS has also been accused by the UN of waging a campaign of terror. It has inflicted severe punishments on those who transgress or refuse to accept its rules, including hundreds of public executions and amputations. Its fighters have also carried out mass killings of rival armed groups, members of the security forces and religious minorities, and beheaded hostages, including several Westerners.

4. Chemical weapons

Hundreds of people were killed in August 2013 after rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at several suburbs of Damascus. Western powers said it could only have been carried out by Syria's government, but the government blamed rebel forces.

Facing the prospect of US military intervention, President Assad agreed to the complete removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

The operation was completed the following year, but the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has continued to document the use of toxic chemicals in the conflict. Investigators found chlorine was used "systematically and repeatedly" in deadly attacks on rebel-held areas between April and July 2014.

IS has also been accused of using homemade chemical weapons, including sulphur mustard. The OPCW said the blister agent was used in an attack on the northern town of Marea in August 2015 that killed a baby.

5. Humanitarian crisis

More than 4.5 million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict, most of them women and children. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history. About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the burden.

A further 6.5 million people are internally displaced inside Syria, 1.2 million were driven from their homes in 2015 alone.

The UN says it will need $3.2bn to help the 13.5 million people, including 6 million children, who will require some form of humanitarian assistance inside Syria in 2016. About 70% of the population is without access to adequate drinking water, one in three people are unable to meet their basic food needs, and more than 2 million children are out of school, and four out of five people live in poverty.

The warring parties have compounded the problems by refusing humanitarian agencies access to civilians in need. Up to 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations who do not have access to life-saving aid.

6. Rebels and the rise of the jihadists

The armed rebellion has evolved significantly since its inception. Secular moderates are now outnumbered by Islamists and jihadists, whose brutal tactics have caused global outrage.

So-called Islamic State has capitalised on the chaos and taken control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq, where it proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate" in June 2014. Its many foreign fighters are involved in a "war within a war" in Syria, battling rebels and rival jihadists from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, as well as government and Kurdish forces.

In September 2014, a US-led coalition launched air strikes inside Syria in an effort to "degrade and ultimately destroy" IS. But the coalition has avoided attacks that might benefit Mr Assad's forces. Russia began an air campaign targeting "terrorists" in Syria a year later, but opposition activists say its strikes have mostly killed Western-backed rebels and civilians.

In the political arena, opposition groups are also deeply divided, with rival alliances battling for supremacy. The most prominent is the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, backed by several Western and Gulf Arab states. However, the exile group has little influence on the ground in Syria and its primacy is rejected by many opponents of Mr Assad.

7. Peace efforts

With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, the international community long ago concluded that only a political solution could end the conflict in Syria. The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique, which envisages a transitional governing body with full executive powers "formed on the basis of mutual consent".

Talks in early 2014, known as Geneva II, broke down after only two rounds, with then-UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi blaming the Syrian government's refusal to discuss opposition demands.

Mr Brahimi's successor, Staffan de Mistura, focused on establishing a series of local ceasefires. His plan for a "freeze zone" in Aleppo was rejected, but a three-year siege of the Homs suburb of al-Wair was successfully brought to an end in December 2015.

At the same time, the conflict with IS lent fresh impetus to the search for a political solution in Syria. The US and Russia led efforts to get representatives of the government and the opposition to attend "proximity talks" in Geneva in January 2016 to discuss a Security Council-endorsed road map for peace, including a ceasefire and a transitional period ending with elections.

8. Proxy war

What began as another Arab Spring uprising against an autocratic ruler has mushroomed into a brutal proxy war that has drawn in regional and world powers.

Iran and Russia have propped up the Alawite-led government of President Assad and gradually increased their support. Tehran is believed to be spending billions of dollars a year to bolster Mr Assad, providing military advisers and subsidised weapons, as well as lines of credit and oil transfers. Russia has meanwhile launched an air campaign against Mr Assad's opponents.

The Syrian government has also enjoyed the support of Lebanon's Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement, whose fighters have provided important battlefield support since 2013.

The Sunni-dominated opposition has, meanwhile, attracted varying degrees of support from its international backers - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, along with the US, UK and France.

Until late 2015, rebel appeals for anti-aircraft weapons to stop devastating government air strikes were rejected by the US and its allies, amid concern that they might end up in the hands of jihadist militants. A US programme to train and arm 5,000 rebels to take the fight to IS on the ground also suffered a series of setbacks before being abandoned.
Produced by Lucy Rodgers, David Gritten, James Offer and Patrick Asare

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More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about the characters in The One and Only Ivan, written by experts just for you.

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Syria

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A peaceful uprising against the president of Syria 12 years ago turned into a full-scale civil war. The conflict has left half a million people dead, devastated cities and drawn in other countries.

Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, after he died in 2000.

In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by uprisings in neighbouring countries against repressive rulers.

When the Syrian government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding the president's resignation erupted nationwide.

The unrest spread and the crackdown intensified. Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid their areas of security forces. Mr Assad vowed to crush what he called "foreign-backed terrorism".

The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war. Hundreds of rebel groups sprung up and it did not take long for the conflict to become more than a battle between Syrians for or against Mr Assad. Foreign powers began to take sides, sending money, weaponry and fighters, and as the chaos worsened extremist jihadist organisations with their own aims, such as the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda, became involved. That deepened concern among the international community who saw them as a major threat.

Syria's Kurds, who want the right of self-government but have not fought Mr Assad's forces, have added another dimension to the conflict.

The United Nations Human Rights Office estimated last year that 306,887 civilians - 1.5% of the total pre-war population - were killed between March 2011 and March 2021 due to the conflict.

It said 143,350 civilian deaths were individually documented by various sources with detailed information, and that a further 163,537 deaths were estimated to have occurred using statistical techniques. At least 27,126 of those estimated to have been killed were children.

The then-UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stressed that the fatalities were the "direct result of war operations", adding: "This does not include the many, many more civilians who died due to the loss of access to healthcare, to food, to clean water and other essential human rights."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, had documented the deaths of 503,064 people by March 2023. It said at least 162,390 civilians had been killed, with the Syrian government and its allies responsible for 139,609 of those deaths.

The group estimated that the actual toll from the war was more than 613,400, with an additional 55,000 civilians believed to have died of torture in government-run prisons.

Another monitoring group, the Violations Documentation Center, which relies on information from activists across the country, had documented 240,215 battle-related deaths, including 145,765 civilians, as of March 2023.

The government's key supporters have been Russia and Iran, while Turkey, Western powers and several Gulf Arab states have backed the opposition to varying degrees during the conflict.

Russia - which had military bases in Syria before the war - launched an air campaign in support of Mr Assad in 2015 that has been crucial in turning the tide of the war in the government's favour.

The Russian military says its strikes only target "terrorists" but activists say they regularly kill mainstream rebels and civilians.

Iran is believed to have deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Mr Assad.

Thousands of Shia Muslim militiamen armed, trained and financed by Iran - mostly from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, but also Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen - have also fought alongside the Syrian army.

The US, UK and France initially armed what they considered "moderate" rebel groups. But they have prioritised non-lethal assistance since jihadists became the dominant force in the armed opposition.

A US-led global coalition has also carried out air strikes and deployed special forces in Syria since 2014 to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture territory once held by IS militants in the north-east and stop the jihadist group rebuilding.

Turkey is a major supporter of the opposition, but its focus has been on using rebel factions to contain the Kurdish YPG militia that dominates the SDF, accusing it of being an extension of a banned Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.

Turkish troops and allied rebels have seized stretches of territory along Syria's northern border and intervened to stop an all-out assault by government forces on the last opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Saudi Arabia, which is keen to counter Iranian influence, armed and financed the rebels at the start of the war. Having refused to engage with President Assad for more than a decade, it is now discussing how to facilitate Syria's "return to the Arab fold".

Israel, meanwhile, has been so concerned by what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" in Syria and shipments of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah and other Shia militias that it has conducted air strikes with increasing frequency in an attempt to thwart them.

Twelve years of war have inflicted immense suffering on the Syrian people.

In addition to the bloodshed, more than half of Syria's pre-war population of 22 million have had to flee their homes. Some 6.8 million are internally displaced, with more than two million living in tented camps with limited access to basic services.

Another 6 million are refugees or asylum-seekers abroad. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, which are hosting 5.3 million of them, have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history.

At the start of 2023, the UN said 15.3 million people inside Syria were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance - an all-time high since the war began - and 12 million did not know where their next meal was coming from.

The already dire humanitarian situation in north-western Syria - the location of the last opposition stronghold - was made significantly worse by the huge earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 80km (50 miles) from the Syrian border, on 6 February 2023.

More than 5,900 people were killed across Syria and another 8.8 million were affected, according to the UN. Thousands of homes and critical infrastructure were destroyed, leaving many families without food, water and shelter. Deliveries of life-saving aid to opposition-held areas were also delayed for days because of what a UN panel described as "shocking" failures by the warring parties as well as the international community.

The disaster happened at a time when the prices of food and fuel in Syria were already skyrocketing because of runaway inflation and the collapse of its currency, as well as the global crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Syria has also been one of the countries in the Middle East worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic - although the true extent is not known because of limited testing - and is now also having to deal with a deadly cholera outbreak that was made worse by the earthquake.

Access to medical care is severely restricted for the sick and injured because only half of the country's hospitals are fully functional.

Despite their protected status, 601 attacks on at least 400 separate medical facilities had been documented by Physicians for Human Rights as of February 2022, resulting in the deaths of 942 medical personnel. The vast majority of the attacks were blamed on government and Russian forces.

Entire neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure across the country also remain in ruins. UN satellite analysis suggested that more than 35,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Aleppo city alone before it was recaptured by the government in late 2016.

Much of Syria's rich cultural heritage has likewise been destroyed. All six of the country's Unesco World Heritage sites have been damaged significantly, with IS militants deliberately blowing up parts of the ancient city of Palmyra.

A UN commission of inquiry has concluded that the warring parties "have cumulatively committed almost every crime against humanity... and nearly every war crime applicable in a non-international armed conflict".

"Syrians," a February 2021 report says, "have suffered vast aerial bombardments of densely populated areas; they have endured chemical weapons attacks and modern day sieges in which perpetrators deliberately starved the population along medieval scripts and indefensible and shameful restrictions on humanitarian aid".

The government has regained control of Syria's biggest cities, but large parts of the country are still held by rebels, jihadists and the Kurdish-led SDF. There have been no shifts in the front lines for three years.

The last remaining opposition stronghold is in the north-western province of Idlib and adjoining parts of northern Hama and western Aleppo provinces.

The region is dominated by a jihadist alliance called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), but is also home to mainstream rebel factions backed by Turkey. An estimated 2.9 million displaced people, including a million children, are living there, many of them in dire conditions in camps.

In March 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib. That led to an extended lull in violence, but there continues to be sporadic clashes, air strikes and shelling.

In the country's north-east, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels launched an offensive against the SDF in October 2019 to create a "safe zone" clear of Kurdish YPG militia along the Syrian side of the border, and have occupied a 120km (75 miles) long stretch since.

To halt the assault the SDF struck a deal with the Syrian government that saw the Syrian army return to the Kurdish-administered region for the first time in seven years. Despite the presence of Syrian troops, there are still regular clashes between the SDF and Turkish-led forces along the front line.

IS sleeper cells also continue to carry out frequent and deadly attacks.

It does not look like it will anytime soon, but everyone agrees a political solution is required.

The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, which envisages a transitional governing body "formed on the basis of mutual consent".

Nine rounds of UN-mediated peace talks - known as the Geneva II process - failed to make progress, with President Assad apparently unwilling to negotiate with political opposition groups that insist he must step down as part of any settlement.

Russia, Iran and Turkey set up parallel political talks known as the Astana process in 2017.

An agreement was reached the following year to form a 150-member committee to write a new constitution, leading to free and fair elections supervised by the UN. But little progress has been achieved after eight rounds of talks.

As the conflict entered its 13th year, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said the situation in Syria was "untenable" and that "to carry on in the same manner, defies humanity and logic".

But he also expressed hope that the devastating earthquake could be a "turning point", noting the "humanitarian steps from all sides that have moved beyond previous positions, even if temporarily".
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While the world's attention is focused on Ukraine, Syria is still suffering in its long war.

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homeless

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Renee Delisle was one of over 3,500 homeless people in Santa Cruz when she found out she was pregnant. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported she was turned away from a shelter because they did not have space for her. While other homeless people slept in cars or under culverts, Renee ended up living in an abandoned elevator shaft until her water broke.

Jerome Murdough, 56, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell on a cold night. The New York Times reported that one week later, Jerome died of hyperthermia in a jail cell heated to over 100 degrees.

Paula Corb and her two daughters lost their home and have lived in their minivan for four years. They did laundry in a church annex, went to the bathroom at gas stations, and did their studies under street lamps, according to America Tonight.

Fact 1: Over half a million people are homeless. On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the U.S., according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Most people are spending the night either in homeless shelters or in some sort of short-term transitional housing. Slightly more than a third are living in cars or under bridges or are in some other way living unsheltered.

Fact 2: One quarter of homeless people are children. HUD reports that on any given night, over 138,000 of the homeless in the U.S. are children under the age of 18. Thousands of these homeless children are unaccompanied, according to HUD. Another federal program, No Child Left Behind, defines "homeless children" more broadly and includes not just those living in shelters or transitional housing but those who are sharing the housing of other persons due to economic hardship; living in cars, parks, bus or train stations; or awaiting foster-care placement. Under this definition, the National Center for Homeless Education reported in September 2014 that local school districts reported there are over 1 million homeless children in public schools.

Fact 3: Tens of thousands of veterans are homeless. Over 57,000 veterans are homeless each night, according to HUD. Sixty percent of them are in shelters, the rest unsheltered. Nearly 5,000 are female.

Fact 4: Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness among women. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP), more than 90 percent of homeless women are victims of severe physical or sexual abuse, and escaping that abuse is a leading cause of their homelessness.

Fact 5: Many people are homeless because they cannot afford rent. The lack of affordable housing is a primary cause of homelessness, according to the NLCHP. HUD has seen its budget slashed by over 50 percent in recent decades, resulting in the loss of 10,000 units of subsidized low-income housing each and every year.

Fact 6: There are fewer places for poor people to rent than before. According to the NLCHP, one eighth of the nation's supply of low-income housing has been permanently lost since 2001. The U.S. needs at least 7 million more affordable apartments for low-income families, and as a result, millions of families spend more than half of their monthly income on rent.

Fact 7: In the last few years millions have lost their homes. Over 5 million homes have been foreclosed on since 2008; that's one out of every 10 homes with a mortgage. This has caused even more people to search for affordable rental property.

Fact 8: The government does not help as much as you think. There is enough public rental assistance to help about one out of every four extremely low-income households. Those who do not receive help are on multi-year waiting lists. For example, Charlotte just opened up their applications for public housing assistance for the first time in 14 years, and over 10,000 people applied.

Fact 9: One in five homeless people suffers from untreated severe mental illness. While about 6 percent of the general population suffers from severe mental illness, 20 to 25 percent of the homeless suffer from severe mental illness, according to government studies. Half of this population self-medicate and are at further risk for addiction and poor physical health. A University of Pennsylvania study tracking nearly 5,000 homeless people for two years discovered that investing in comprehensive health support and treatment of physical and mental illnesses is less costly than incarceration, shelter and hospital services for the untreated homeless.

Fact 10: Cities are increasingly making homelessness a crime. A 2014 survey of 187 cities by the NLCHP found that 24 percent of cities make it a city-wide crime to beg in public, 33 percent make it illegal to stand around or loiter anyplace in the city, 18 percent make it a crime to sleep anywhere in public, 43 percent make it illegal to sleep in your car, and 53 percent make it illegal to sit or lie down in particular public places. And the number of cities criminalizing homelessness is steadily increasing.

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Renee Delisle was one of over 3,500 homeless people in Santa Cruz when she found out she was pregnant. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported she was turned away from a shelter because they did not have space for her.

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Read below for some basic facts about homelessness. For more information, check out these resources:

Why Are People Homeless?

Housing

A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. Recently, foreclosures have also increased the number of people who experience homelessness.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the 2017 Housing Wage is $21.21 per hour, exceeding the $16.38 hourly wage earned by the average renter by almost $5.00 an hour, and greatly exceeding wages earned by low income renter households. In fact, the hourly wage needed for renters hoping to afford a two-bedroom rental home is $13.96 higher than the national minimum wage of $7.25.

Poverty

Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the national poverty rate in 2016 was 12.7%. There were 40.6 million people in poverty. While the poverty rate has been slowly declining since 2014, a couple of factors account for continuing poverty:

Lack of Employment Opportunities - With unemployment rates remaining high, jobs are hard to find in the current economy. Even if people can find work, this does not automatically provide an escape from poverty.

Decline in Available Public Assistance - The declining value and availability of public assistance is another source of increasing poverty and homelessness and many families leaving welfare struggle to get medical care, food, and housing as a result of loss of benefits, low wages, and unstable employment. Additionally, most states have not replaced the old welfare system with an alternative that enables families and individuals to obtain above-poverty employment and to sustain themselves when work is not available or possible.

Other major factors, which can contribute to homelessness, include:

Lack of Affordable Health Care - For families and individuals struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction.

Domestic Violence - Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In addition, 50% of the cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).

Mental Illness - Approximately 16% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).

Addiction - The relationship between addiction and homelessness is complex and controversial. Many people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs never become homeless, but people who are poor and addicted are clearly at increased risk of homelessness.

There are three types of homelessness - chronic, transitional, and episodic - which can be defined as follows:

Chronic Homelessness

Persons most like the stereotyped profile of the "skid-row" homeless, who are likely to be entrenched in the shelter system and for whom shelters are more like long-term housing rather than an emergency arrangement. These individuals are likely to be older, and consist of the "hard-core unemployed", often suffering from disabilities and substance abuse problems. Yet such persons represent a far smaller proportion of the population compared to the transitionally homeless.

Transitional Homelessness

Transitionally homeless individuals generally enter the shelter system for only one stay and for a short period. Such persons are likely to be younger, are probably recent members of the precariously housed population and have become homeless because of some catastrophic event, and have been forced to spend a short time in a homeless shelter before making a transition into more stable housing. Over time, transitionally homeless individuals will account for the majority of persons experiencing homelessness given their higher rate of turnover.

Episodic Homelessness

Those who frequently shuttle in and out of homelessness are known as episodically homeless. They are most likely to be young, but unlike those in transitional homelessness, episodically homeless individuals often are chronically unemployed and experience medical, mental health, and substance abuse problems.

Who Experiences Homelessness?

Persons living in poverty are most at risk of becoming homeless, and demographic groups who are more likely to experience poverty are also more likely to experience homelessness. Yet because of methodological and financial constraints, most studies are limited to counting persons who are in shelters or on the street. While the Census Bureau has taken a series of innovations to better incorporate the homeless population, these procedures continue to undercount this group by failing to visit many locations with homeless populations. Additionally, different governmental agencies often present different estimates/counts, making the figures on homelessness inconclusive.

Housing and Urban Development's Point-in-Time Count, 2016:

HUD found 549,928 individuals to be homeless on a single night in January 2016. Most homeless persons (65%) are individuals while 35% of homeless persons are in family households.

The number of families experiencing homelessness has increased significantly from past years. For example, in 2013 only 15% of homeless persons were in family households.

31% of all homeless people were youths under the age of 24.

Close to 40,000 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2016. 66% were residing in shelters or transitional housing programs, while 33% were without shelter.

The number of those in homeless shelters or transitional housing was split almost equally between people in families (47%) and individuals (53%).

Five states, California (22%), New York (16%), Florida (6%), Texas (4%), and Washington (4%), accounted for more than half of the homeless population in the United States in 2016.

Where Do People Experience Homelessness?

Homelessness is often assumed to be an urban phenomenon because homeless people are more numerous, more geographically concentrated, and more visible in urban areas. However, people experience the same difficulties associated with homelessness and housing distress in America's small towns and rural areas as they do in urban areas.

In urban areas, estimates commonly rely on counts of persons using services. However, by this measure, homeless persons in rural areas are likely substantially under-counted due to the lack of rural service sites, the difficulty capturing persons who do not use homeless services, the limited number of researchers working in rural communities, and the minimal incentive for rural providers to collect data on their clients.
Rural homelessness, like urban homelessness, is the result of poverty and a lack of affordable housing, and research has shown:

The odds of being poor are between 1.2 to 2.3-times higher for people in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas

1 in 5 non-metro counties is classified as a 'high poverty' county (having a poverty rate of 20% or higher), while only 1 in 20 metro counties are defined as such

Homeless people in rural areas are more likely to be white, female, married, currently working, homeless for the first time, and homeless for a shorter period of time

Fact Sheets and Publications

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Homelessness in America - National Coalition for the Homeless

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Read below for some basic facts about homelessness. For more information, check out these resources: Further Issues that can lead to homelessness, or that face specific populations of people experiencing homelessness. NCH Reports and Publications on topics ranging from Criminalization to Homeless Counts. Archives of historical NCH Reports and resources collected by NCH relating to [...]

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A good sight to know what it is about and effects.

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Learn about this cancer that forms in the blood and bone marrow.

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KIRKUS REVIEW

How Ivan confronts his harrowing past yet stays true to his nature exemplifies everything youngsters need to know about courage.

Living in a "domain" of glass, metal and cement at the Big Top Mall, Ivan sometimes forgets whether to act like a gorilla or a human-except Ivan does not think much of humans. He describes their behavior as frantic, whereas he is a peaceful artist. Fittingly, Ivan narrates his tale in short, image-rich sentences and acute, sometimes humorous, observations that are all the more heartbreaking for their simple delivery. His sorrow is palpable, but he stoically endures the cruelty of humans until Ruby the baby elephant is abused. In a pivotal scene, Ivan finally admits his domain is a cage, and rather than let Ruby live and die in grim circumstances, he promises to save her. In order to express his plea in a painting, Ivan must bravely face buried memories of the lush jungle, his family and their brutal murder, which is recounted in a brief, powerful chapter sure to arouse readers' passions. In a compelling ending, the more challenging question Applegate poses is whether or not Ivan will remember what it was like to be a gorilla. Spot art captures poignant moments throughout.

Utterly believable, this bittersweet story, complete with an author's note identifying the real Ivan, will inspire a new generation of advocates. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)

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THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate , Patricia Castelao | Kirkus Reviews

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How Ivan confronts his harrowing past yet stays true to his nature exemplifies everything youngsters need to know about courage. Living in a "domain" of glass, metal and cement at the Big Top Mall, Ivan sometimes forgets whether to act like a gorilla or a human-except Ivan does not think much of humans.

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A good website

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President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has confounded many observers by holding on to power for more than seven years in the face of a rebellion by a large part of the population.

Unlike his former counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, when protests against him and his government began in 2011 he gave orders to crush the dissent, rather than tolerate it.

The brutal crackdown by the security forces did not, however, stop the protests and eventually triggered an armed conflict that activists say has left more than 350,000 people dead, displaced 11 million others, devastated cities and drawn in other countries.

Russia and Iran have helped turn the tide of the war decisively in Mr Assad's favour over the past three years, with rebel forces being routed in many areas.

But UN-brokered talks on a political solution to end the fighting have so far failed, with the main sticking point being the future of a president accused of atrocities.

Second son

Born on 11 September 1965, Bashar al-Assad was not always destined for the highest office.

As the second son of President Hafez al-Assad, he was largely left to follow his own interests.

He graduated from the College of Medicine of the University of Damascus in 1988, intending to pursue a career in this field.

Between 1988 and 1992 he specialised in ophthalmology at Tishrin military hospital in the capital, before going to London to pursue further studies.

After the death of his older brother Basil in a high-speed car crash in 1994, Mr Assad was hastily recalled from the UK and thrust into the spotlight.

He soon entered the Syrian military academy at Homs, and rose through the ranks to become an army colonel in 1999.

In the last years of his father's life, Mr Assad emerged as an advocate of modernisation and the internet, becoming president of the Syrian Computer Society.

He was also put in charge of a domestic anti-corruption drive, which reportedly resulted in prominent figures from the old leadership being put on trial.

Flirtation with reform

Following his father's death in June 2000, after more than a quarter of a century in power, Mr Assad's path to the presidency was assured by loyalists in the security forces, military, ruling Baath Party and his minority Alawite sect.

He was then promoted to the rank of field marshal, and appointed commander of the armed forces and secretary general of the Baath Party.

A July 2000 referendum confirmed him as president with 97% of the vote.

Mr Assad promised wide-ranging reforms, including modernising the economy, fighting corruption and launching "our own democratic experience".

It was not long before the authorities released hundreds of political prisoners and allowed the first independent newspapers for more than three decades to begin publishing. Intellectuals pressing for reforms were even permitted to hold public political meetings.

But the "Damascus Spring", as it became known, was short-lived.

By early 2001, the intellectuals' meetings began to be closed down, and several leading opposition figures were arrested. Limits on the freedom of the press were also soon put back in place.

For the rest of the decade, emergency rule remained in effect. Security agencies continued to detain people without arrest warrants and held them incommunicado for lengthy periods. And what economic liberalisation there was appears to have benefitted the elite and its allies.

In May 2007, Mr Assad won another referendum with 97% of the vote - criticised as a sham by opposition groups - extending his term for another seven years.

Hardline diplomacy

In foreign policy, Bashar al-Assad continued his father's hardline policy towards historic foe Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East war.

President Assad has insisted there would be no peace with Israel until occupied land was returned "in full" and has supported militant groups opposed to the Jewish state.

His vocal opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and the Syrian authorities' tacit support of Iraqi insurgent groups, also prompted anger in Washington, but it was popular in Syria and in the wider region.

Syria's already tense ties with the US soured in the wake of the February 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.

The finger of suspicion was immediately pointed at President Assad, his inner circle and the Syrian security services, which dominated Lebanon. Despite their denials of involvement, international outrage at the killing forced Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon that April, ending a 29-year military presence.

'External conspiracy'

When anti-government protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March 2011, President Assad initially appeared to be unsure how to respond.

In his first speech addressing the unrest, he insisted that questions of reform and economic grievances had been overshadowed by a small number of troublemakers and saboteurs who were part of an external conspiracy to undermine Syria's stability and national unity.

The following month, Mr Assad lifted the hated Emergency Law that had been in place since 1963.

But days later, the crackdown against protesters was stepped up. Soldiers supported by tanks were sent into restive towns and cities to combat "armed criminal gangs".

Despite the security forces' concerted and ruthless efforts, and pledges by President Assad to start a "national dialogue" on reform, the uprising continued unabated in almost every part of the country. Opposition supporters began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and then to oust loyalist forces from their areas.

Mr Assad denied ordering the military to kill people, saying only a "crazy person" would do so. But in January 2012 he vowed to crush what he called "terrorism" with an "iron fist".

Referendum

Mr Assad pressed ahead with holding a referendum on a new constitution which dropped an article giving the Baath Party unique status as the "leader of the state and society" in Syria. It also allowed new parties to be formed. The government claimed the charter was approved by almost 90% of voters, but the opposition denounced it as sham.

Over the next few months, pressure built the president as rebels seized control of large parts of the north and east of the country and launched offensives against Damascus and Aleppo; four top security chiefs were killed in a bombing; and the opposition National Coalition was recognised as "the legitimate representative" of the Syrian people by more than 100 countries.

By the end of the year, as the death toll passed 60,000, Mr Assad ruled out any peace talks with the rebels, whom he denounced as "enemies of God and puppets of the West".

In early 2013, pro-government forces launched - offensives to recover territory in the south and west of the country, notably in the third city of Homs - once dubbed the "capital of the revolution".

They received a major boost when the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, began sending members of its military wing to fight the rebels, whose appeals for heavy weaponry were rejected by Western and Gulf allies concerned by the prominence of jihadists.

Chemical weapons

That August, Mr Assad was forced on the defensive after his supporters were blamed for a chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. Hundreds of people died after rockets containing the nerve agent Sarin were fired at rebel-held towns in the Ghouta region.

The US, UK and France concluded that the attack could only have been carried out by government forces, but the president blamed rebel fighters.

Although the Western powers did not carry out their threats to launch punitive air strikes, they did compel Mr Assad to allow the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to destroy Syria's declared chemical arsenal.

The disarmament process ended in June 2014, the same month that Mr Assad run for a third term in office, winning 88.7% of votes cast in areas under his control. Despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades, many dismissed the election as a farce.

That summer also saw international attention largely shift away from the war between the Syrian government and opposition towards the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) militants who had overrun large swathes of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate".

Russian intervention

In the first half of 2015, the government suffered a string of defeats, losing control of the northern provincial city of Idlib to rebel factions and more territory in the east to IS.

Worried by his ally's precarious position, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of a major air campaign in support of Mr Assad that September.

The Russian military said its strikes would only target "terrorists", but activists said they repeatedly hit mainstream rebel groups and civilian areas.

The intervention swung the conflict heavily in Mr Assad's favour.

Intense Russian air and missile strikes were decisive in the battles for the besieged rebel strongholds of eastern Aleppo in late 2016 and the Eastern Ghouta in early 2018.

UN human rights investigators have accused government and Russian forces of committing war crimes during the offensives, which reportedly left hundreds of civilians dead and led to the forced displaced of tens of thousands.

The government has also been accused by a joint UN-OPCW mission of being behind a Sarin attack on the rebel-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017, which opposition health officials say killed more than 80 people, and an alleged chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta town of Douma in April 2018 that rescue workers say left 40 dead.

The latter prompted the US, UK and France to conduct air strikes that they said targeted facilities associated with the "Syrian regime's chemical weapons programme".

Mr Assad and the Russian military have denied committing war crimes, and said the incidents in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma were "staged" by the opposition and their Western backers.

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President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has confounded many observers by holding on to power for more than seven years in the face of a rebellion by a large part of the population. Unlike his former counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, when protests against him and his government began in 2011 he gave orders to crush the dissent, rather than tolerate it.

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Global Issues

The German liner St. Louis, carrying about 900 German Jewish refugees, was denied entrance to the Havana harbor in 1939. The ship was later denied entrance to the United States and returned to Hamburg, Germany. Credit... Associated Press

Browse all our Text to Text lesson plans Introduction .
Today there are more than 65 million displaced people worldwide - the highest number on record since the United Nations Refugee Agency began collecting statistics. Europe faces a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people fleeing conflicts in Syria and around the Middle East and Africa arriving in Greece, Hungary, Germany and other countries each month. Some European citizens are wary of allowing refugees to enter, citing concerns about security and the economy; other countries on the continent have struggled to find the resources and the political will to meet migrants' and refugees' needs.

For many observers, today's challenges also raise uncomfortable historical echoes, as scenes of refugees crowding European train platforms and waiting in grim reception camps recall the events of World War II and the Holocaust. A Times article noted the parallels and asked, "How apt is the comparison between Syrians today and German Jews before World War II, and what can and cannot be learned from it?" In an Op-Ed in August, the columnist Nicholas Kristof argued that "history rhymes" and wrote, "Today, to our shame, Anne Frank is a Syrian girl."

Mr. Kristof and other writers invoke the fate of Jewish refugees in the 1930s as a cautionary tale about the consequences of indifference and inaction in the world community today. A new documentary film by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky, " Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War," offers another historical lens that can sharpen our perspective on today's crisis. It tells the little-known story of Martha and Waitstill Sharp, an American couple who left behind the safety of their Massachusetts home and their own young children to aid refugees in Europe on the brink of World War II. The Sharps faced a complex and desperate situation with humanity, creativity and courage.

In this Text to Text, we pair a Times article about the historical resonance of Europe's refugee crisis with an excerpt from "Defying the Nazis" that chronicles the Sharps's relief and rescue mission in 1939. Together, these texts raise important questions about whether there are "lessons" of history and invite reflection on how individuals and governments choose to respond to those in need.

Police officers on Sept. 4 guarded a so-called reception center for migrants in Roszke, Hungary. Some migrants were tricked into boarding trains for such camps. Related Article Credit... Reuters

Even before the beginning of World War II in September 1939, Nazi Germany's open aggression toward both neighboring countries and people within its borders had sparked a refugee crisis. The German annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938 increased the number of people affected by Nazi restrictions, while at the same time those restrictions intensified to the point that Jews, political dissidents and others were effectively removed from German public life and denied rights, employment and education. Germany's aggressive steps to expand its borders touched off both an international political crisis, as world leaders scrambled to avoid war, and a humanitarian refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, mostly Jews, sought safety from the Nazis in countries outside the grip of the Third Reich.

Despite an isolationist mood, a suspicions of refugees, and official policies that often discouraged involvement, some Americans felt a sense of responsibility toward European refugees and found ways to act on their behalf. The Unitarian Church - a liberal religion with roots in Christianity - had links to Czechoslovakia and wanted to offer assistance to refugees streaming into the country. Though Germany had annexed Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland region, the rest of the country and its capital remained still free and independent. In January 1939, Unitarian leadership sought volunteers to lead an aid mission in Prague. Seventeen couples had turned down the risky post, but Martha and Waitstill Sharp decided to accept. Just weeks later, after arranging for neighbors to look after their children, ages 8 and 3, they sailed for Europe.

In Prague, the Sharps spent seven months providing food, shelter and medical care to refugees. Just weeks after they arrived, German troops occupied the whole of Czechoslovakia. The Sharps quickly saw the necessity for rescue as well as relief efforts, and mastered the intricacies of emigration procedures, helping refugees find jobs and sponsors abroad and often accompanying them on dangerous border crossings. They were watched by the Gestapo and had to do much of their work in secret. The Sharps went home to Wellesley only when they heard rumors of their imminent arrest. But just a few months later they returned to Europe, this time for another rescue and relief mission in war-torn France. There, Martha led a children's emigration project that allowed 27 children from dissident or Jewish families to escape to the United States. For their work in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and France, the Sharps have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem - the highest recognition accorded by the state of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. They are two of only five Americans to be so honored.

In the aftermath of World War II, the newly formed United Nations moved to set up international bodies and laws to define the status and rights of refugees for the first time. The U.N. High Commission for Refugees was established in 1951 and given a three-year mandate to resolve postwar refugee problems. Sixty-five years later, it still exists, and there are more refugees around the world today than at any time since the end of World War II.

Today's refugee crisis has its roots in conflicts all around the world. Many of those fleeing to Europe come from Syria, where a brutal civil war that began in 2011 has created nearly 5 million refugees, many of them children. Some of those refugees live tenuously in camps and cities in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon; many others, desperate to get to Europe, have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats. The crisis has overwhelmed the systems for aiding refugees created in the wake of World War II. Humanitarian impulses and the rights of refugees guaranteed by international law are competing with concerns that the migrants may pose a threat to the security of European countries where they seek asylum. In fact, the refugee crisis and the threat of terrorism have become intertwined in the minds of many Europeans.

Can the history of the refugee crisis of the 1930s help us think about how we respond to Syrian refugees today? The Times article by Daniel Victor' explores the parallels between today's Syrian refugees and Jewish refugees before World War II. We pair this news article with a 10-minute excerpt from "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War" that focuses on the Sharps's efforts to help refugees escape from occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939. Together, these sources complicate our thinking about how individuals and governments define their responsibility to refugees, in the past and the present.
________ Key Questions
* What are similarities and differences between the refugee crises of the 1930s and today?

* How might examining the history of refugees in the 1930s inform the choices that individuals and governments make in responding to refugees today?

Activity Sheets: As students read and discuss, they might take notes using one or more of the three graphic organizers (PDFs) we have created for our Text to Text feature:

* Comparing Two or More Texts

* Double-Entry Chart for Close Reading

* Document Analysis Questions
_________ Text 1: "Comparing Jewish Refugees of the 1930s With Syrian Refugees Today," Daniel Victor, The New York Times, Nov. 19, 2015.

A tweet drawing a historical parallel to the current plight of Syrian refugees drew thousands of retweets this week.

An article in The Washington Post with a similar premise also drew attention in recent days.

They both raised the question: How apt is the comparison between Syrians today and German Jews before World War II, and what can and cannot be learned from it?

Some historians say that, while the two groups are not completely symmetrical, there are lessons to be drawn.

Republican leaders and some Democrats have sought to halt the Syrian refugee program, fearing fighters from the Islamic State could be among the 10,000 migrants allowed to enter the country.

"We cannot allow terrorists to take advantage of our compassion," Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said. "This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry."

In 1938, Jews sought to escape Nazi Germany at a time when the United States was struggling through the Great Depression, and Americans expressed similar concern over accepting refugees.

"I don't think it would meet the part of wisdom," said Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, according to the Nov. 5, 1938 edition of The New York Times. "Our conditions here at home prohibit accepting an influx of population."

Peter Shulman, an associate professor of history at Case Western Reserve University and the man behind the @HistOpinion Twitter account, said most of the responses to his tweet had supported the premise, while others disputed it. Americans were primarily concerned with economics in 1939 while today's fears are related to safety, many replied.

It's true that Americans in 1939 were worried about refugees taking jobs. Those who lived through the Depression were overwhelmingly supportive of restricting immigration, Mr. Shulman said.

But safety was also a concern. Jews were associated with a variety of acts and ideas that were seen as un-American, Mr. Shulman said, including Communism and violence.

That caused Jewish refugees to be "extraordinarily, excruciatingly vetted," said Marion Kaplan, a professor in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

"The State Department worried that among the Jewish refugees there would be Nazi spies," she said. "There was hysteria about fifth columnists coming in with the refugees."

One area where the two refugee groups do not neatly match, Ms. Kaplan said, is the racial animus they faced both home and abroad. Unlike modern Syrians, Jews in the 1930s "were singled out as the racial enemy, par excellence, in German society," she said.

And the United States was not entirely welcoming. On top of wanting to preserve jobs, Americans were concerned about Jews "weakening the Nordic or Anglo racial stock," Mr. Shulman said. "That was a very real concern."

He added: "You can't just reduce it to economics or politics. That sort of racial identity was very powerful."

________

________ For Writing and Discussion
1. How does Daniel Victor's article compare responses to Jewish refugees in the 1930s with responses to Syrian refugees today? What are some of the key similarities and differences? How do ideas about race and religion shape attitudes to refugees in each example? What other factors play a role?

2. How does the film clip from "Defying the Nazis" connect to Mr. Victor's article? How does it extend your thinking about the lives of refugees and the fears, hopes and challenges they have experienced? How does it add to your understanding of United States' policies and attitudes toward refugees in the 1930s?

3. The historian Peter Shulman, interviewed in the article, argued that there are "enough similarities between Jewish refugees in the 1930s and Syrian refugees today to draw a 'moral connection' between the two situations." Do you agree with Mr. Shulman? Why or why not? If yes, how would you describe this "moral connection?"

4. What dilemmas did Martha and Waitstill Sharp face in their decision to leave home and help refugees in Europe? What risks did they take? What do you think motivated them to make a choice to help refugees when that was so at odds with American public opinion and national policy?

5. Many who connect the refugee crisis of the 1930s to the plight of Syrian refugees today emphasize the failure of the United States and other countries to help. The Sharps's story, in contrast, is about a small group of private citizens banding together to aid refugees. Is their history relevant to the current refugee crisis? How might a story of people who chose to help then inform decision-making about the refugee crisis today?

6. In another Times article, a Human Rights Watch staff member argued, "We all say we have learned the lessons of history, but to be turning away these desperate people who are fleeing a horrific situation suggests that we haven't learned the lessons at all." What are the potential benefits of looking for "lessons" in history? What might be some of the challenges or drawbacks? Why is it so difficult to learn and apply the "lessons of history?"

Martha and Waitstill Sharp departing New York Harbor for Europe in 1939, in "Defying the Nazis." Credit... Sharp Family Archives

1. Contextualizing Today's Refugee Crisis: Samantha Power is the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Recently, she visited Newcomers High School in New York City to discuss the current refugee crisis with students, all of whom are immigrants to the United States. In this video, a student asks, "Did World War II and the Holocaust change how the United States of America and the world thinks about the refugee crisis right now?" In response, Ms. Power shares the history of the St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees that was turned away from United States in 1939.

Based on Ms. Power's response, what significance does she see in this history? How does hindsight help us understand an event differently from people at the time? According to Ms. Power, how has this history affected the way some individuals and organizations are responding to the refugee crisis today? The lesson " Understanding the Global Refugee Crisis " from Facing History and Ourselves includes more footage of Ms. Power's conversation with students, with additional readings and questions that contextualize today's crisis. It invites us to think about the importance of humanizing refugees and suggests that there are small steps people can take to help.

2. Learning from the Sharps's Mission: The short video "A Willingness to Act" is drawn from Ken Burns's and Artemis Joukowsky's documentary, " Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War," featuring the voice of Tom Hanks as Waitstill Sharp. Facing History and Ourselves' companion classroom resources invite students to explore what motivated the Sharps'smission, the dilemmas they faced, and the impact of their actions. Three lesson plans for teaching with "Defying the Nazis" incorporate additional clips from the film, activities like historical character maps, which help students identify the forces that shaped the Sharps's decision to act, and letters from the Sharps's archive, like this 1940 letter from Martha to her young son, Hastings, where she explains her decision to stay in Europe to help vulnerable children.

3. Gaining Perspective on History: Part of the challenge in drawing "lessons" from history lies in the fact that when we look back at a moment in history, it's difficult to fully inhabit the perspective of the people who lived at that time and see the world as they did. One way to gain perspective is to read news accounts of events, like the refugee crisis in Czechoslovakia in 1938 or the American debate about accepting Jewish refugees in 1939, that were written at the time the events were happening. The New York Times's archive contains dozens of stories about the refugee crisis of the 1930s and the United States' response to it. Below are just a few of those articles.

* Refugee Ship Idles Off Florida Coast (June 5, 1939)

* Refugee Ship (June 8, 1939)

* Hoover Backs Bill to Wave Quota Act for Reich Children (April 23, 1939)

* French Seize 2 Refugee Vessels (Aug. 9, 1939)

As you read them, consider these questions: How do the articles portray the crisis and the options available to refugees? What was the range of responses and attitudes to refugees, and what arguments were offered in support of allowing or restricting immigration? What questions would you want to ask the individuals living at the time who are quoted in these articles? What would you want them to understand?

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum project " History Unfolded: U.S. Newspapers and the Holocaust " is another way to gain insight about what ordinary Americans knew and thought about Europe, based on accounts in local newspapers from all over the United States. Its website offers hundreds of articles from newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s. It also invites readers to become "citizen historians" by seeking out and submitting articles from the archives of their own local newspapers.

New York Times coverage of the current refugee crisis is collected on this Times Topics page on Refugees and Displaced People. How do you imagine people reading these articles in the future reacting to what they see? What might you want these future readers to understand about the forces that shape attitudes to refugees today?

4. Considering the Protections Afforded Refugees: The United Nations created the official "refugee" designation in 1951 to encompass individuals who have been forced to flee their countries because of persecution, war or violence. At the time, many believed it was important for international institutions such as the newly founded United Nations to commit to aiding refugees because of the failure to help those fleeing Nazi persecution in the 1930s and 1940s. In this video, Sasha Chanoff, the director of the refugee advocacy organization RefugePoint, explains the distinction between refugees and other migrants and describes the international agreements that govern the rights and treatment of refugees today. What laws and protections are in place for refugees today that did not exist during Europe's refugee crisis in the 1930s? What do you think these international agreements have achieved? Where do you think they have fallen short?

A New York Times Room for Debate piece in September 2015 asked five scholars and advocates to respond to the question, " What Can Countries Do To Help Refugees Fleeing to Europe? " How do the contributors' perspectives add to your thinking about what responsibilities governments have to refugees coming from outside their borders? What is the role of empathy and ideals in how countries respond to refugees? What is the role of practical concerns?

A family of refugees receiving an English lesson from William Stocks, 23, in Marietta, Ga. "My job is to serve these people," Mr. Stocks said, "because they need to be served." Credit... Dustin Chambers for The New York Times

5. Aiding Refugees, One at a Time: When they accepted the mission to Czechoslovakia in 1939, Martha and Waitstill Sharp were among the founders of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a nonsectarian human rights group that is still active around the world. Today, too, even as the refugee crisis has provoked political controversy, individuals and private organizations have found ways to aid refugees. Mothers in the United States called for donations of baby carriers and children's clothing and delivered them to refugees in Greece. Some Germans greeted arriving refugees at the border of their country with welcome signs in German, English and Arabic. And in Canada, where the government pledged to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees, a private sponsorship program gave people a way to provide essential support and help the government keep its promise.

The articles below highlight some of these efforts. As you read them, consider: How do these stories compare to that of the Sharps? What is the range of actions individuals have taken to help refugees in Europe today? How do these various efforts differ, and what do they have in common? What tools are these individuals and groups using to make a difference? How have people been able to help when they live in proximity to refugees? How have they helped when they are far away? What can an individual or a small group accomplish that a government may not be able to?

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Text to Text: Comparing Jewish Refugees of the 1930s With Syrian Refugees Today (Published 2017)

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Global Issues Browse all our Text to Text lesson plans Introduction . Today there are more than 65 million displaced people worldwide - the highest number on record since the United Nations Refugee Agency began collecting statistics.

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four year old fights cancer

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Emily Whitehead First Child Treated in Trial of T Cell Therapy for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

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Help now: http://bit.ly/1EAqE8j Connect with a Specialist: http://bit.ly/1GTzmi7 Meet Dr. Guinipero: http://bit.ly/1FuVB9T Learn about our Cancer program: http://bit.ly/1FuVNGe Meet Sully. A feisty four-year-old boy and self-proclaimed "crazy pants" fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He's doing it with the help of his family and the most innovative treatments available at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

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The Communist Party of Cuba is the political party that rules in Republic of Cuba, although others exist without legal recognition or incorporation.[citation needed ] It is a communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the party to be the "leading force of society and of the state".

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this is to connect to Isabel

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Two decades ago, in the midst of rioting and anti-government protests in Cuba, Fidel Castro announced that 'whoever wanted to leave, could go'-indicating that his forces would not prevent refugees from fleeing the country. More than 35,000 took the opportunity to leave, most heading to the United States. Men, women, and children packed into small boats and makeshift rafts and set off for Florida in the largest exodus from Cuba since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. Reuters photographer Enrique de la Osa recently caught up with some of those 1994 refugees in Miami, photographing them at work and at home in their new country, 20 years later.
An earlier version of this photo essay misattributed a photo. The credit has been corrected.
View this page Hints: full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

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20 Years After the 1994 Cuban Raft Exodus

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In 1994, more than 35,000 people took the opportunity to leave, most heading to the United States. Men, women, and children packed into small boats and makeshift rafts and set off for Florida in the largest exodus from Cuba since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.

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leukemia

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Meet Cellie. A unique stuffed toy, created to help children with cancer and their families better handle the multitude of stresses they face. The Cellie Cancer Coping Kit, which also includes cards printed with coping tips and a guide for parents, is part of an innovative new program at CHOP.

Despite his goofy appearance, everything about Cellie has been carefully considered.

in July 2010. During the course of his treatment at CHOP, he and his parents, Bill and Lisa, agreed to look at an early prototype of Cellie. They were Ten-year-old Justin Stagner-Hertz found out he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)participating in a research study to gather patients' and families' feedback to improve the Cellie Coping Kits.

"I gave them the idea to make a pocket so you could put notes in his mouth," says Justin. Indeed, the final version of Cellie has a zippered mouth that can be used to hold the coping cards and other notes.

When Lisa saw Cellie for the first time, "I immediately thought, 'What a great idea,'" she says. "It would be great for newly diagnosed families to help them learn how to cope. I could envision kids cuddling it during treatments. We had discovered some of the ideas on our own, but I knew it would be especially helpful for families early on."

Conversation starter

When Justin relapsed this spring, he was given a Cellie Coping Kit of his own. As a 10-year-old boy, he doesn't cuddle Cellie much, but he and his family have found the coping kit to be helpful during this cycle of treatment.

"It invites conversation," Lisa says. "At first, it was hard to even talk about the C-word. Now, we take Cellie out and look at the cards, and I try to engage Justin in talking about having cancer. Cellie helps him open up.

"Sometimes, we get silly," she says. "Laughter and humor are a big part of healing."

For a recent treatment, Cellie made the trip with Justin from their home in Aston Township, PA, to CHOP. Justin wore an allergy alert bracelet, and so did Cellie. Cellie also comes along when Justin is admitted to the Hospital for four days every month for treatment.

Justin says he gained confidence to ask his doctors questions himself from one of the kit's coping tips that encourages kids to write down questions they have for their doctor, so they don't forget to ask them at the next appointment.

Tips for caregivers too

Bill and Lisa follow some of the more than 100 tips in the caregiver's guide. For example, they remind Justin to use "belly breathing" during needle pokes and distract him with complex LEGO® sets that are brought out only during his hospitalizations.

"We've made a space shuttle and a ninja ship with moveable parts," Bill says. "The kits have hundreds of pieces and keep him really occupied."

Creating and refining Cellie

Clinical psychologist and behavioral researcher Meghan Marsac, PhD, who came up with the Cellie idea, started with existing research and discussions with CHOP's oncology team to develop the prototype.

An independent artist, Anne Vinsel, MFA, created Cellie.

"We wanted something engaging for the children to help them through this difficult time in their lives," Marsac says. "It needed to be child friendly and family friendly. Families can use the Cellie Kit independently, but medical providers can include it in their care of the patient, too."

After incorporating input from the first research study - the one the Stagner-Hertz family participated in - Marsac conducted a second study with a dozen families who were given a Cellie Coping Kit when their child was diagnosed. Overwhelmingly, children and parents liked the kit, felt the advice was trustworthy and helpful, and most importantly, they used it.

Sharing Cellie with others

This summer, the Cancer Center began providing coping kits to newly diagnosed patients ages 6 to 12 years. The Hospital's Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center has adapted the kit for a study involving its patients, and other areas of CHOP are also considering rolling out their own versions. Marsac would like to make Cellie available to kids facing cancer at other hospitals, too.

"The Cellie kit was just one of so many things CHOP has done to make this experience easier on Justin and on us," Lisa says. "The generosity and caring blows my mind."

Learn more about the Cellie Cancer Coping Kit.

Originally posted: November 2012

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Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and the Cellie Cancer Coping Kit: Justin's Story

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Meet Cellie. A unique stuffed toy, created to help children with cancer and their families better handle the multitude of stresses they face. The Cellie Cancer Coping Kit, which also includes cards printed with coping tips and a guide for parents, is part of an innovative new program at CHOP.

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Contents

1. Nazi Party Origins

2. Beer Hall Putsch Sends Hitler to Prison

3. Hitler and the Nazis Come to Power: 1933

4. Nazi Foreign Policy: 1933-39

5. Nazis Fight to Dominate Europe: 1939-45

6. The Holocaust

7. Denazification

The National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Founded in 1919 as the German Workers' Party, the group promoted German pride and anti-Semitism, and expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-1918) and required Germany to make numerous concessions and reparations. Hitler joined the party the year it was founded and became its leader in 1921. In 1933, he became chancellor of Germany and his Nazi government soon assumed dictatorial powers. After Germany's defeat in World War II (1939-45), the Nazi Party was outlawed and many of its top officials were convicted of war crimes related to the murder of some 6 million European Jews during the Holocaust.

Nazi Party Origins

In 1919, army veteran Adolf Hitler, frustrated by Germany's defeat in World War I, which had left the nation economically depressed and politically unstable, joined a fledgling political organization called the German Workers' Party. Founded earlier that same year by a small group of men including locksmith Anton Drexler (1884-1942) and journalist Karl Harrer (1890-1926), the party promoted German nationalism and anti-Semitism, and felt that the Treaty of Versailles, the peace settlement that ended the war, was extremely unjust to Germany by burdening it with reparations it could never pay. Hitler soon emerged as a charismatic public speaker and began attracting new members with speeches blaming Jews and Marxists for Germany's problems and espousing extreme nationalism and the concept of an Aryan "master race." In July 1921, he assumed leadership of the organization, which by then had been renamed the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party.

Did you know? Sales of Hitler's political autobiography "Mein Kampf," sometimes referred to as the bible of the Nazi Party, made him a millionaire. From 1933 to 1945, free copies were given to every newlywed German couple. After World War II, the publication of "Mein Kampf" in Germany became illegal.

Through the 1920s, Hitler gave speech after speech in which he stated that unemployment, rampant inflation, hunger and economic stagnation in postwar Germany would continue until there was a total revolution in German life. Most problems could be solved, he explained, if communists and Jews were driven from the nation. His fiery speeches swelled the ranks of the Nazi Party, especially among young, economically disadvantaged Germans.

Many dissatisfied former army officers in Munich joined the Nazis, including Ernst Röhm, the man responsible for recruiting the Sturmabteilung (SA) ("strong arm" squads) Hitler used to protect party meetings and attack opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch Sends Hitler to Prison

In 1923, Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Hitler had hoped that the "putsch," or coup d'etat, would spark a larger revolution against the national government. In the aftermath of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison but spent less than a year behind bars (during which time he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, his political autobiography). The publicity surrounding the Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler's subsequent trial turned him into a national figure. After his release from prison, he set about rebuilding the Nazi Party and attempting to gain power through the election process.

Hitler and the Nazis Come to Power: 1933

In 1929, Germany entered a period of severe economic depression and widespread unemployment. The Nazis capitalized on the situation by criticizing the ruling government and began to win elections. In the July 1932 elections, they captured 230 out of 608 seats in the "Reichstag," or German parliament. In January 1933, Hitler was appointed German chancellor and his Nazi government soon came to control every aspect of German life.

Under Nazi rule, all other political parties were banned. In 1933, the Nazis opened their first concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, to house political prisoners. Dachau evolved into a death camp where countless thousands of Jews died from malnutrition, disease and overwork or were executed. In addition to Jews, the camp's prisoners included members of other groups Hitler considered unfit for the new Germany, including artists, intellectuals, Gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped and homosexuals.

Nazi Foreign Policy: 1933-39

Once Hitler gained control of the government, he directed Nazi Germany's foreign policy toward undoing the Treaty of Versailles and restoring Germany's standing in the world. He railed against the treaty's redrawn map of Europe and argued it denied Germany, Europe's most populous state, "living space" for its growing population. Although the Treaty of Versailles was explicitly based on the principle of the self-determination of peoples, he pointed out that it had separated Germans from Germans by creating such new postwar states as Austria and Czechoslovakia, where many Germans lived.

From the mid- to late 1930s, Hitler undermined the postwar international order step by step. He withdrew Germany from the League of Nations in 1933, rebuilt German armed forces beyond what was permitted by the Treaty of Versailles, reoccupied the German Rhineland in 1936, annexed Austria in 1938 and invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. When Nazi Germany moved toward Poland, Great Britain and France countered further aggression by guaranteeing Polish security. Nevertheless, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Six years of Nazi Party foreign policy had ignited World War II.

Nazis Fight to Dominate Europe: 1939-45

After conquering Poland, Hitler focused on defeating Britain and France. As the war expanded, the Nazi Party formed alliances with Japan and Italy in the Tripartite Pact of 1940, and honored its 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with the Soviet Union until 1941, when Germany launched a massive blitzkrieg invasion of the Soviet Union. In the brutal fighting that followed, Nazi troops tried to realize the long-held goal of crushing the world's major communist power. After the United States entered the war in 1941, Germany found itself fighting in North Africa, Italy, France, the Balkans and in a counterattacking Soviet Union. At the beginning of the war, Hitler and his Nazi Party were fighting to dominate Europe; five years later they were fighting to exist.

The Holocaust

When Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, they instituted a series of measures aimed at persecuting Germany's Jewish citizens. By late 1938, Jews were banned from most public places in Germany. During the war, the Nazis' anti-Jewish campaigns increased in scale and ferocity. In the invasion and occupation of Poland, German troops shot thousands of Polish Jews, confined many to ghettoes where they starved to death and began sending others to death camps in various parts of Poland, where they were either killed immediately or forced into slave labor. In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Nazi death squads machine-gunned tens of thousands of Jews in the western regions of Soviet Russia.

In early 1942, at the Wannsee Conference near Berlin, the Nazi Party decided on the last phase of what it called the " Final Solution" of the "Jewish problem" and spelled out plans for the systematic murder of all European Jews in the Holocaust. In 1942 and 1943, Jews in the western occupied countries including France and Belgium were deported by the thousands to the death camps mushrooming across Europe. In Poland, huge death camps such as Auschwitz began operating with ruthless efficiency. The murder of Jews in German-occupied lands stopped only in last months of the war, as the German armies were retreating toward Berlin. By the time Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, some 6 million Jews had died.

Denazification

After the war, the Allies occupied Germany, outlawed the Nazi Party and worked to purge its influence from every aspect of German life. The party's swastika flag quickly became a symbol of evil in modern postwar culture. Although Hitler killed himself before he could be brought to justice, a number of Nazi officials were convicted of war crimes in the Nuremberg trials, which took place in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949.
READ MORE: The 7 Most Notorious Nazis Who Escaped to South America

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Nazi Party Origins Beer Hall Putsch Sends Hitler to Prison Hitler and the Nazis Come to Power: 1933 Nazi Foreign Policy: 1933-39 Nazis Fight to Dominate Europe: 1939-45 The Holocaust Denazification The National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).