title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: In addition to retaining the combat, material crafting, and weapon-upgrade systems from "Hyrule Warriors", the game incorporates environmental puzzle solving and the use of the Sheikah Slate tool and paraglider from "Breath of the Wild". Players can upgrade their characters, complete missions and challenges, use resources to access new areas, build weapons, and cook foods that can be used as buffs. Weapons in this game are invulnerable and will not break over time, unlike in "Breath of the Wild". The game's map is similar to the one for "Breath of the Wild". Players can choose stages from it and use the Sheikah Tower to explore between regions. The game features 18 playable characters; 14 are obtained via progression in the main story, while four can be unlocked by completing various side quests. Besides the characters, players are also able to control the gigantic Divine Beasts to destroy large numbers of enemies.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: The game also features compatibility with Nintendo's Amiibo figures, with the figures of the Four Champions relaunching alongside the game.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: During the Great Calamity, a small Guardian awakens within Hyrule Castle. It escapes the destruction through a time portal but is followed by a portion of Calamity Ganon's Malice. Arriving in an alternate timeline before the Calamity began, the Guardian is reactivated by Link and Impa during a battle. They take it to engineers Purah and Robbie for study and learn that it came from a future in which Ganon reawakens and destroys Hyrule. To prevent this, King Rhoam assembles four pilots for the recently-discovered Divine Beasts – Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali – and commands them, Link, and Zelda to find the Master Sword in Korok Forest.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: The Champions encounter the dark prophet Astor, who seeks to revive and control Calamity Ganon, corrupting the Forest, but Link draws the Master Sword and forces him to withdraw. Purah's research reveals the presence of Sheikah transport towers hidden underground, and the Champions reactivate them and use them to lead a preemptive strike on the Yiga Clan's hideout in Gerudo Desert. Learning from the Guardian's records that Calamity Ganon will return on Zelda's seventeenth birthday, King Rhoam sends her to train in hopes of awakening her sealing magic in time and deploys the Divine Beasts to prepare for the Calamity's impending return.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Robbie and Purah are captured by Yiga spies while restoring the Guardian's memory, but it escapes with the Sheikah Slate and delivers it to Zelda just as the Calamity arrives. With Hyrule Castle besieged and the Sheikah Towers shut down across Hyrule, the Champions are ambushed in their Divine Beasts by Calamity Ganon's Blight Ganons, and King Rhoam seemingly sacrifices himself as Link, Zelda, and Impa escape the Castle. The Guardian summons Sidon, Yunobo, Riju, and Teba from the original timeline to assist Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali, respectively, buying Link enough time to destroy the Blight Ganons. With the Champions saved and the Divine Beasts restored, they begin to clear the way to Hyrule Castle. To stop the timeline from changing, Astor kills many of the Yiga Clan and uses their life force to resurrect the four Blight Ganons, causing Yiga Clan leader Master Kohga and his right-hand-man Sooga to fight back against him. In Fort Hateno, Link is cornered by the revived Blights, but Zelda finally awakens her sealing magic to save him, forcing Astor to retreat. Master Kohga and the remnants of the Yiga Clan defect to Zelda's side in a bid to seek revenge against Astor, and on the Great Plateau, the group also discovers that King Rhoam survived.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: After Zelda and King Rhoam reconcile, Purah uses the Sheikah towers to transport all their allies to Hyrule Castle for a full-scale assault against Calamity Ganon. Although the Divine Beasts weaken Ganon's spirit form, Astor arrives with Harbinger Ganon, the small Guardian from the current timeline infected with the Malice from the original timeline. After being defeated by Link, Zelda, and the Champions, Astor is consumed by Harbinger Ganon, who transforms into Calamity Ganon. Calamity Ganon corrupts the little Guardian and turns it against the group, forcing them to destroy it. Upon its defeat, Zelda remembers she activated the little Guardian as a child and named it Terrako, but Rhoam took it away so she would focus on her training. Zelda and her allies confront Calamity Ganon but are unable to damage him until Terrako uses the last of its strength to self-destruct, weakening Calamity Ganon. Now vulnerable, Calamity Ganon is defeated by Link, and Zelda uses her power to permanently seal him away. The future heroes are returned to their timeline while Link, Zelda, and their allies look out at the now peaceful Hyrule. In a secret ending, Purah and Robbie repair Terrako, reuniting Zelda with her friend.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: "Age of Calamity" was revealed in a trailer that was released in September 2020, presented by "Zelda" series producer Eiji Aonuma and Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi. The game features the same art assets as "Breath of the Wild", but uses the more combat-focused gameplay style of the previous "Hyrule Warriors" game. More information was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show on September 26.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: The game came into fruition when "Breath of the Wild"'s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and art director Satoru Takizawa pitched the idea to Aonuma, who liked the idea and after discussions. Aonuma then approached Hayashi, a producer from Koei Tecmo, to make a new "Hyrule Warriors" about the events of the Great Calamity, which were mentioned but not properly shown in "Breath of the Wild". Aonuma felt that the battles would complement well with the style of a "Warriors" game. Nintendo's "Zelda" developers worked more closely with the development team at Koei Tecmo than on "Hyrule Warriors", providing advisement and assistance with gameplay, graphics, world, and dialogue.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: During Nintendo Treehouse Live gameplay presentation on October 7, Nintendo stated that the game will explore more backstories and relationships between characters, aspects that were not thoroughly examined in "Breath of the Wild". At the end of that month, the demo became available to download from the Nintendo eShop, which includes the first chapter of the game. "Kotaku" noted from the demo that the game felt more connected to "Breath of the Wild" than to a "Warriors" title.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released throughout 2021 via an "Expansion Pass". A purchase bonus was made available on May 28, featuring a new weapon and costume for Link. The first wave of content, titled "Pulse of the Ancients", was released on June 18, and features an additional playable character (Battle-Tested Guardian), new weapon types for Link and Zelda, new challenges in the Royal Ancient Lab, and newly-added challenging enemies. The second wave of content, titled "Guardian of Remembrance", was released on October 29, and adds new story stages set during the events of the main game. "Guardian of Remembrance" also adds new battle skills for existing characters, and two additional characters: Purah and Robbie, who function as a single unit, and Sooga.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: "Age of Calamity" holds a score of 78 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Four reviewers for "Famitsu" gave the game a total score of 36/40, the second-highest score for a 2020 Nintendo Switch game at that point of the year (with "" receiving 38/40 in March of the same year). TJ Denzer of "Shacknews" gave the game a 9/10 rating, giving high praise to the gameplay, differences between character playstyles, and story; they called "Age of Calamity" as the most fleshed out and well-crafted "Dynasty Warriors"-style game. They claimed that the game expands upon "Breath of the Wild" masterfully in both the iconic battle locations of the game and the soundtrack that accompanies them.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Giving the game a 4/5 rating, Scott Baird of "Screen Rant" stated that the game "offers a fascinating look into the world of "Breath of the Wild" alongside great gameplay", praising the combat system which rarely feels repetitive or dull, the differences between the character playstyles, the "hundreds of hours worth of content", and the character development. However, he criticized the camera, which "tends to get stuck during the indoor stages, which is especially frustrating when trying to dodge enemy attacks". While Baird praised the game for offering "a fascinating look at the world of "Breath of the Wild"", he also pointed out that the setting "severely limits the types of enemies that the players will encounter [compared to the first "Hyrule Warriors"], and the few additions to the lore (like elemental variations of monsters) feel less than impressive". Michael Goroff of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" also gave the game a 4 out of 5 review, praising the game's gameplay, and use of the universe, style, and gameplay elements from "Breath of the Wild", but was critical of the story's choice to feature time travel. In his review, Daniel Dell-Cornejo of "Nintendo Wire" gave "Age of Calamity" an 8.5, praising the gameplay, art style, cutscenes, music, and large roster but expressed disappointment with the story direction and occasional drops in framerate.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: In the United Kingdom, the game placed sixth in physical sales during its launch week, selling nearly 324% more copies than "Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition" during the same timeframe in 2018. It also sold 173,215 physical copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the second best-selling retail game of the week in the country. It was ultimately the 16th highest selling game in Japan for 2020. In the United States the game was the sixth best-selling game during its launch month.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Four days after its release, Koei Tecmo revealed that the game has shipped over 3 million digital and physical copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling "Warriors" game of all time and outselling all previous games in the entire "Warriors" franchise including all "Dynasty Warriors" games and their spin-offs, "Fire Emblem Warriors", and the previous "Hyrule Warriors" games. The game has shipped over 3.5 million copies by the end of 2020. As of April 2021, the game has sold over 3.7 million units. As of January 2022, the game has sold 4 million units worldwide, making it one of the best-selling Switch games.


title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

text: Starting in January 2021, Impa, Master Kohga, and the Diminutive Guardian from "Age of Calamity" have cameo appearances as collectable Spirits in the crossover fighting game "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate".


title: Julius Streicher

text: Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a member of the Nazi Party, the "Gauleiter" (regional leader) of Franconia and a member of the "Reichstag", the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virulently antisemitic newspaper "Der Stürmer", which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multi-millionaire.


title: Julius Streicher

text: After the war, Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity at the end of the Nuremberg trials. Specifically, he was found to have continued his vitriolic antisemitic propaganda when he was well aware that Jews were being murdered. For this, he was executed by hanging. Streicher was the first member of the Nazi regime held accountable for inciting genocide by the Nuremberg Tribunal.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher was born in Fleinhausen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, one of nine children of the teacher Friedrich Streicher and his wife Anna ("née" Weiss). He worked as an elementary school teacher, as his father had. In 1913, Streicher married Kunigunde Roth, a baker's daughter, in Nuremberg. They had two sons, Lothar (born 1915) and Elmar (born 1918).


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher joined the German Army in 1914. For his outstanding combat performance during the First World War, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, as well as earning a battlefield commission as an officer (lieutenant), despite having several reported instances of poor behaviour in his military record, and at a time when officers were primarily from aristocratic families. Following the end of World War I, Streicher was demobilised and returned to Nuremberg. Upon his return, Streicher took up another teaching position there but something unknown happened in 1919, which turned him into a "radical anti-Semite".


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher was heavily influenced by the endemic antisemitism found in pre-war Germany, especially that of Theodor Fritsch. In February 1919, Streicher became active in the antisemitic "Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund" (German Nationalist Protection and Defense Federation), one of the various radical-nationalist organizations that sprang up in the wake of the failed German Communist revolution of 1918. Such groups fostered the view that Jews and Bolsheviks were synonymous, and that they were traitors trying to subject Germany to Communist rule. In 1920 Streicher turned to the "Deutschsozialistische Partei" (German Socialist Party, DSP), a group whose platform was close to that of the Nazi Party, or "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei" (National Socialist German Workers' Party or NSDAP). The DSP had been created in May 1919 as an initiative of Rudolf von Sebottendorf as a child of the Thule Society, and its program was based on the ideas of the mechanical engineer Alfred Brunner (1881–1936); in 1919, the party was officially inaugurated in Hanover. Its leading members included Hans Georg Müller, Max Sesselmann and Friedrich Wiesel, the first two editors of the "Münchner Beobachter". Julius Streicher founded his local branch in 1919 in Nuremberg.


title: Julius Streicher

text: By the end of 1919, the DSP had branches in Düsseldorf, Kiel, Frankfurt am Main, Dresden, Nuremberg and Munich. Streicher sought to move the German Socialists in a more virulently antisemitic direction – an effort which aroused enough opposition that he left the group and brought his now-substantial following to yet another organisation in 1921, the "Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft" (German Working Community), which hoped to unite the various antisemitic "völkisch" movements. Meanwhile, Streicher's rhetoric against the Jews continued to intensify to such a degree that the leadership of the "Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft" thought he was dangerous and criticized him for his obsessive "hatred of the Jews and foreign races."


title: Julius Streicher

text: In 1921, Streicher left the German Socialist Party and joined the Nazi Party, bringing with him enough members of the DSP to almost double the size of the Nazi Party overnight. He would later claim that because his political work brought him into contact with German Jews, he "must therefore have been fated to become later on, a writer and speaker on racial politics". He visited Munich in order to hear Adolf Hitler speak, an experience that he later said left him transformed. When asked about that moment, Streicher stated:


title: Julius Streicher

text: Nearly religiously converted by this speech, Streicher believed from this point forward that, "it was his destiny to serve Hitler".


title: Julius Streicher

text: In May 1923 Streicher founded the sensationalist newspaper "Der Stürmer" ("The Stormer", or, loosely, "The Attacker"). From the outset, the chief aim of the paper was to promulgate antisemitic propaganda; the first issue had an excerpt that stated, "As long as the Jew is in the German household, we will be Jewish slaves. Therefore he must go." Historian Richard J. Evans describes the newspaper:


title: Julius Streicher

text: ["Der Stürmer"] rapidly established itself as the place where screaming headlines introduced the most rabid attacks on Jews, full of sexual innuendo, racist caricatures, made-up accusations of ritual murder, and titillating, semi-pornographic stories of Jewish men seducing innocent German girls.


title: Julius Streicher

text: In November 1923, Streicher participated in Hitler's first effort to seize power, the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. Streicher marched with Hitler in the front row of the would-be revolutionaries. As a result of his participation in the attempted Putsch, Streicher was suspended from teaching school. His loyalty to the cause earned him Hitler's lifelong trust and protection; in the years that followed, Streicher would be one of the dictator's few true intimates. Streicher, Rudolf Hess, Emil Maurice, and Dietrich Eckart were the only Nazis mentioned in "Mein Kampf"; in the book, Hitler praised him for subordinating the German Socialist Party to the Nazi Party, a move Hitler believed was essential to the success of the National Socialists. When the Nazi Party was banned in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, Streicher in early 1924 joined the Greater German People's Community ("Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft", GVG) a Nazi front organization established by Alfred Rosenberg. Streicher challenged Rosenberg's weak leadership and on 9 July 1924 was elected as Chairman of the GVG in his place. When Hitler was released from his prison sentence at Landsberg am Lech on 20 December 1924 for his role in the Putsch, Streicher was one of the few remaining followers waiting for him at his Munich apartment. Hitler – who would value loyalty and faithfulness very highly throughout his life – remained loyal to Streicher even when he landed in trouble with the Nazi hierarchy. Although Hitler would allow suppression of "Der Stürmer" at times when it was politically important for the Nazis to be seen as respectable, and although he would admit that Streicher was not a very good administrator, he never withdrew his personal loyalty.


title: Julius Streicher

text: In April 1924, Streicher was elected to the Bavarian "Landtag" (legislature), a position which gave him a margin of parliamentary immunity — a safety net that would help him resist efforts to silence his racist message. In January 1925 he also joined the Nuremberg City Council. Hitler re-founded the Nazi Party on 27 February 1925 in a speech at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. Streicher was present and pledged his loyalty; the GVG was soon formally disbanded. As a reward for Streicher's loyalty and dedication, on 2 April he was appointed "Gauleiter" of "Nordbayern" the Bavarian region that included Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia. He established his capital in his home town of Nuremberg. His jurisdiction would undergo several changes in the coming years. On 1 October 1928, it was significantly reduced to the area around Nuremberg-Fürth. On 1 March 1929, it again expanded, absorbing a neighboring Gau. Now encompassing all of Middle Franconia, it was renamed "Gau Mittelfranken". Finally, in April 1933, the districts were consolidated and became simply Gau Franken. In the early years of the party's rise, "Gauleiter" were essentially party functionaries without real power; but in the final years of the Weimar Republic, as the Nazi Party grew, so did their power. "Gauleiters" such as Streicher wielded immense power and authority under the Nazi state.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Beginning in 1924, Streicher used "Der Stürmer" as a mouthpiece not only for general antisemitic attacks, but for calculated smear campaigns against specific Jews, such as the Nuremberg city official Julius Fleischmann, who worked for Streicher's nemesis, mayor . "Der Stürmer" accused Fleischmann of stealing socks from his quartermaster during combat in World War I. Fleischmann sued Streicher and disproved the allegations in court, where Streicher was fined 900 marks. "Der Stürmer"s official slogan, "Die Juden sind unser Unglück" (the Jews are our misfortune), was deemed non-actionable under German statutes, since it was not a direct incitement to violence.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher's opponents complained to authorities that "Der Stürmer" violated a statute against religious offense with his constant promulgation of the "blood libel" – the medieval accusation that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood to make matzoh. Streicher argued that his accusations were based on race, not religion, and that his communications were political speech, and therefore protected by the German constitution.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher orchestrated his early campaigns against Jews to make the most extreme possible claims, short of violating a law that might get the paper shut down. He insisted in the pages of his newspaper that the Jews had caused the worldwide Depression, and were responsible for the crippling unemployment and inflation which afflicted Germany during the 1920s. He claimed that Jews were white-slavers responsible for Germany's prostitution rings. Real unsolved killings in Germany, especially of children or women, were often confidently explained in the pages of "Der Stürmer" as cases of "Jewish ritual murder".


title: Julius Streicher

text: One of Streicher's constant themes was the sexual violation of ethnically German women by Jews, a subject which he used to publish semi-pornographic tracts and images detailing degrading sexual acts. The fascination with the pornographic aspects of the propaganda in "Der Stürmer" was an important feature for many antisemites. With the help of his cartoonist Phillip "Fips" Rupprecht, Streicher published image after image of Jewish stereotypes and sexually-charged encounters. His portrayal of Jews as subhuman and evil is considered to have played a critical role in the dehumanization and marginalization of the Jewish minority in the eyes of common Germans – creating the necessary conditions for the later perpetration of the Holocaust. To protect himself from accountability, Streicher relied on Hitler's protection. Hitler declared that "Der Stürmer" was his favorite newspaper, and saw to it that each weekly issue was posted for public reading in special glassed-in display cases known as . The newspaper reached a peak circulation of 600,000 in 1935. One of the possible solutions to the Nazi's perceived problem Streicher mentioned in the pages of "Der Stürmer" was transporting Jews to Madagascar.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher's publishing firm also released three antisemitic books for children, including the 1938 "Der Giftpilz" (translated into English as "The Toadstool" or "The Poisonous Mushroom"), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which warned about the supposed dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. Late 1936 Streicher also issued "Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath", an infamously anti-Semitic children's picture book by 18 year old Elvira Bauer. In the book the Jews are depicted as 'children of the devil' and Streicher as the great educator and a hero of all German children.


title: Julius Streicher

text: In July 1932, Streicher was elected as a deputy of the "Reichstag" from electoral constituency 26, Franconia, a seat that he would hold throughout the Nazi regime. In April 1933, after Nazi control of the German state apparatus gave the "Gauleiters" enormous power, Streicher organised a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses which was used as a dress-rehearsal for other antisemitic commercial measures. As he consolidated his hold on power, he came to more or less rule the city of Nuremberg and his "Gau Franken", and boasted that every Jew had been removed from Hersbruck. Among the nicknames provided by his enemies were "King of Nuremberg" and the "Beast of Franconia." Because of his role as "Gauleiter" of Franconia, he also gained the nickname of "Frankenführer". Streicher became a member of the SA on 27 January 1934 with the rank of SA-"Gruppenführer" and was promoted to SA-"Obergruppenführer" on 9 November 1937. On 6 September 1935, Hitler named him to the Academy for German Law. The New York Times decried this action with the headline: "Reich Honors Streicher. Anti-Semitic Leader is Named to Academy for German Law."


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher later claimed that he was only "indirectly responsible" for passage of the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and that he felt slighted because he was not directly consulted. Perhaps epitomizing the "profound anti-intellectualism" of the Nazi Party, Streicher once opined that, "If the brains of all university professors were put at one end of the scale, and the brains of the "Führer" at the other, which end do you think would tip?"


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher was ordered to take part in the establishment of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, that was to be organized together with the German Christians, the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Reich Ministry of Education and the Reich Ministry of the Churches. A surgical operation prevented Streicher from participating fully in this endeavor. This antisemitic standpoint concerning the Bible can be traced back to the earliest time of the Nazi movement, for instance Dietrich Eckart's (Hitler's early mentor) book "Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me", where it was claimed that "Jewish forgeries" had been added to the New Testament.


title: Julius Streicher

text: In August 1938, Streicher ordered that the Grand Synagogue of Nuremberg be destroyed as part of his contribution to "Kristallnacht". Streicher later claimed that his decision was based on his disapproval of its architectural design, which in his opinion "disfigured the beautiful German townscape."


title: Julius Streicher

text: Author and journalist John Gunther described Streicher as "the worst of the anti-Semites", and his excesses brought condemnation even from other Nazis. Streicher's behaviour was viewed as so irresponsible that he was embarrassing the party leadership; chief among his enemies in Hitler's hierarchy was "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring, who loathed him and later claimed that he forbade his own staff to read "Der Stürmer".


title: Julius Streicher

text: Despite his special relationship with Hitler, after 1938 Streicher's position began to unravel. He was accused of keeping Jewish property seized after "Kristallnacht" in November 1938; he was charged with spreading untrue stories about Göring – such as alleging that he was impotent and that his daughter Edda was conceived by artificial insemination; and he was confronted with his excessive personal behaviour, including unconcealed adultery, several furious verbal attacks on other "Gauleiters" and striding through the streets of Nuremberg cracking a bullwhip. He was brought before the Supreme Party Court and judged to be "unsuitable for leadership." On 16 February 1940, he was stripped of his party offices and withdrew from the public eye, although he was permitted to retain the title of a "Gauleiter", and to continue publishing "Der Stürmer". Hitler remained committed to Streicher, whom he considered a loyal friend, despite his unsavory reputation. Streicher's wife, Kunigunde Streicher, died in 1943 after 30 years of marriage.


title: Julius Streicher

text: When Germany surrendered to the Allied armies in May 1945, Streicher said later, he decided not to commit suicide. Instead, he married his former secretary, Adele Tappe. Days later, on 23 May 1945, Streicher was captured in the town of Waidring, Austria, by a group of American officers led by Major Henry Plitt of the 101st Airborne Division.


title: Julius Streicher

text: During his trial, Streicher claimed that he had been mistreated by Allied soldiers after his capture. When the German version of the Wechsler-Bellevue IQ test was administered by Gustave Gilbert, Streicher had an above average IQ (106), the lowest among the defendants. Streicher was not a member of the military and did not take part in planning the Holocaust, or the invasion of other nations. Yet his actions during the war were significant enough, in the prosecutors' judgment, to include him in the trial of Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal – which sat in Nuremberg, where Streicher had once been an unchallenged authority. He complained throughout the process that all his judges were Jews.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Most of the evidence against Streicher came from his numerous speeches and articles over the years. In essence, prosecutors contended that Streicher's articles and speeches were so incendiary that he was an accessory to murder, and therefore as culpable as those who actually ordered the mass extermination of Jews. They further argued that he kept up his antisemitic propaganda even after he was aware that Jews were being slaughtered.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher was acquitted of crimes against peace, but found guilty of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to death on 1 October 1946. The judgment against him read, in part:


title: Julius Streicher

text: He, along with Hans Fritzsche, were the first persons to be indicted for what would later be classified as incitement to genocide, though Fritzsche was acquitted at trial.


title: Julius Streicher

text: During his trial, Streicher displayed for the last time the flair for courtroom theatrics that had made him famous in the 1920s. He answered questions from his own defence attorney with diatribes against Jews, the Allies, and the court itself, and was frequently silenced by the court officers. Streicher was largely shunned by all of the other Nuremberg defendants. He also peppered his testimony with references to passages of Jewish texts he had so often carefully selected and inserted into the pages of "Der Stürmer".


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher was hanged at Nuremberg Prison in the early hours of 16 October 1946, along with the nine other condemned defendants from the first Nuremberg trial. Göring, Streicher's nemesis, committed suicide only hours earlier. Streicher's was the most melodramatic of the hangings carried out that night. At the bottom of the scaffold he cried out "Heil Hitler!". When he mounted the platform, he delivered his last sneering reference to Jewish scripture, snapping ""Purimfest"!" Streicher's final declaration before the hood went over his head was, "The Bolsheviks will hang you one day!" Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, a journalist for the International News Service who covered the executions, said in his filed report that after the hood descended over Streicher's head, he also apparently said "Adele, meine liebe Frau!" ("Adele, my dear wife!").


title: Julius Streicher

text: The consensus among eyewitnesses was that Streicher's hanging did not proceed as planned, and that he did not receive the quick death from spinal severing that was typical of the other executions at Nuremberg. Kingsbury-Smith reported that Streicher "went down kicking", which may have dislodged the hangman's knot from its ideal position. The bungled hanging may have been caused by an error on the part of the hangman, Master Sergeant John C. Woods.


title: Julius Streicher

text: Streicher's body, along with those of the other nine executed men and the corpse of Hermann Göring, was cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: The term megadiverse country refers to any one of a group of nations that harbor the majority of Earth's species and high numbers of endemic species. Conservation International identified 17 megadiverse countries in 1998. Many of them are located in, or partially in, tropical or subtropical regions.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: Megadiversity means exhibiting great biodiversity. The main criterion for megadiverse countries is endemism at the level of species, genera and families. A megadiverse country must have at least 5,000 species of endemic plants and must border marine ecosystems.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: In 2002, Mexico formed a separate organization focusing on Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries, consisting of countries rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge. This organization includes all but three megadiverse countries as identified by Conservation International.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: On 18 February 2002, the Ministers in charge of the Environment and the Delegates of Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa and Venezuela assembled in Cancún, Mexico. These countries declared to set up a Group of Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries as a mechanism for consultation and cooperation so that their interests and priorities, related to the preservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, could be promoted. They also declared that they would call on those countries that had not become Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change to become parties to these agreements.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: At the same time, they agreed to meet periodically, at the ministerial and expert levels, and decided that upon the conclusion of each annual Ministerial Meeting, the next rotating host country would take on the role of Secretary of the group, to ensure its continuity, the further development of cooperation among these countries, and to reach the various agreements and objectives. Later, in 2010, Guatemala and Iran were also included in the list.


title: Megadiverse countries

text: The current member countries of the Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries organization are as follows, in alphabetical order:


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: James Taft "Jimmer" Fredette (born February 25, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player. He last played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association. Fredette was the 2011 National Player of the Year in college basketball after ranking as the leading scorer in all of NCAA Division I during his senior season for the BYU Cougars. He was subsequently selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, but only played limited minutes across four teams over five NBA seasons. He spent the majority of the 2015–16 season in the NBA Development League, during which he won the All-Star Game MVP.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: In 2016, Fredette joined the CBA's Shanghai Sharks, and during the 2016–17 CBA season, he led the league in scoring, at 37.6 points per game, counting all phases of the season (although Errick McCollum was the league's scoring champion, as only regular season stats count toward that award). He also won the CBA International MVP award that season.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette was born in Glens Falls, New York to parents Al and Kay Fredette, as the youngest of three children. His mother wanted to call him something unique and nicknamed him "Jimmer."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: From his early childhood, Fredette showed unusual dedication to athletics. His older brother TJ recalled, "He was the most determined, competitive four-year-old I had ever seen." TJ helped him train for his basketball career since before kindergarten. He regularly played with TJ, seven years older, and TJ's friends on the family's backyard court. Fredette was able to hit three-pointers at age 5, and developed moves to get around his larger opponents. TJ also remembered that his brother "willed himself to find ways to win, even if he was physically outmatched. From the time he was 10, I was telling everybody he was going to make the NBA."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Other family members assisted Fredette in his development. His father, a financial adviser, introduced him to schoolyard competition against adults at age eight. As Fredette developed, his father took him on occasional road trips to Hartford and New York City for more intense competition, and also helped to coach his AAU teams. His mother allowed him to bounce basketballs throughout the house, and even built a dribbling studio for him in their basement. Her brother Lee Taft, a personal trainer who now operates a speed training school in Indianapolis, started him on running drills as a five-year-old, and still works with Fredette.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette also has an older sister, Lindsay, Miss Teen New York 1998. Fredette's father became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 18 after meeting missionary Kimball Rogers; the father of Fredette's former BYU teammate Stephen Rogers — while his mother is a Catholic. Fredette, along with his two older siblings, chose to become Latter-day Saints after their parents allowed them to choose their religion.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette was ranked among the nation's top 75 shooting guards by ESPN.com in high school. He was Glens Falls High School's all-time leading scorer, ranking 16th on New York's all-time scoring list, with 2,404 points. Until February 24, 2015, Fredette held the all-time Section 2 high school record, when he was surpassed by Lake George senior Joel Wincowski. Fredette was named first-team all-state by the New York State Sportswriters Association and the "Times Union" as a junior and senior. He had several memorable on-court moments in his career at Glens Falls, including 12 different 40-point performances in his senior season, and a shot against Voorheesville High School's Andrew Catellier in the season opener of his junior year in which he banked a three-pointer off the glass and in with his opposite hand to force overtime at the end of regulation. In his senior season Fredette led his team to a 25–2 record and the Class A State Championship game which they lost, 58–48, to a Peekskill High School team led by future Syracuse University forward Mookie Jones. He played AAU for the Albany City Rocks alongside future Penn State University point guard Talor Battle and Mark Domaracki. Fredette averaged 25 points per game to help the Rocks to a third-place win over the Minnesota Magic at the 2006 AAU National Championships.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Despite his high school accolades, he went largely unnoticed by the traditional "basketball powers". He received offers from 12 schools and ultimately chose to attend BYU, which was his sister Lindsay's alma mater.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette played basketball collegiately at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2007–2011. He wore jersey number 32 and majored in American studies.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette played in all 35 games for the BYU Cougars as a true freshman, helping BYU earn a 27–8 record and capture the Mountain West Conference regular season championship. He averaged 18.5 minutes, 7.0 points, 1.7 assists, 1.1 rebounds per game, and was the team's fifth-leading scorer.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette played in all 33 games of his sophomore season starting 32 of them. He was second on the team in scoring (16.2), three-point shooting percentage (.382), three-point makes (52), and free throw percentage (.847), and first in steals (1.5) and assists (4.1). He scored in double figures 29 times and had 20-plus points 8 times. Fredette led the team in scoring 10 times, assists 19 times, and was named first team all Mountain West. Fredette became BYU's first point guard to earn first-team all-conference honors since Marty Haws in 1990.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On December 28, 2009, Jimmer Fredette scored 49 points against the Arizona Wildcats, setting a new BYU record and a new McKale Center record for points scored in a single game.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 11, 2010, Fredette scored 45 points, shooting 10-for-23 from the field, and making 23-of-24 free throws, in his team's 95–85 win over TCU. His scoring broke the cumulative Mountain West Conference tournament and single-game tournament records. His free throw shooting broke the MWC tournament record for free throws in a single game.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 18, 2010, Fredette helped secure BYU's first-round win in the NCAA tournament. He scored 37 points and hit two three-pointers in double-overtime to seal the Cougars' 99–92 win over 10th-seeded Florida, the first time they had reached the second round of the tournament in 17 years. In doing so, he tied a BYU record for most points scored in an NCAA tournament game (Danny Ainge, 1981).


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette considered forgoing his senior year and entering the draft after his junior year, and he was expected to be picked 25th to 30th, but he decided to stay at BYU and play his senior year.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette was named co-captain of his team alongside Jackson Emery and Logan Magnusson. He was the top-ranked point guard in the nation according to Rivals.com and led the nation in points per game despite frequently being double- or triple-teamed, which allowed him to open up shots for his teammates.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette scored a season-high 47 points in BYU's road victory over archrival Utah on January 11, 2011, scoring 32 in the first half including a 40-foot buzzer-beater to end the first half. He finished with 16 of 28 shooting, along with four rebounds and six assists. He also scored 39 against UNLV on January 5, 2011 and 33 in a rematch against the same University of Arizona team he scored 49 against his junior season.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On December 8, 2010, he returned to his hometown of Glens Falls, in what was dubbed "The Hometown Classic", to play Vermont in the Glens Falls Civic Center, scoring 26 and attracting a crowd of 6,300, nearly half of Glens Falls' population of 14,354.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On January 26, 2011, in the Mountain West Conference's first battle of top-10 teams, which attracted a crowd of over 22,700 at BYU's Marriott Center, Fredette scored 43 points against previously undefeated San Diego State, ending the game in a 71–58 victory. It was his third game that season to score over 40 points. When BYU played on the road in San Diego, BYU dealt SDSU its only other loss that season, with an 80–67 victory in which Fredette had 25 points, 9 assists and 3 rebounds.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: He became the Mountain West Conference's all-time leading scorer on February 5, 2011, with a 29-point performance versus UNLV in the Marriott Center.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 7, 2011, Fredette was named both the Mountain West Conference's player of the year and the CBSSports.com National Player of the Year. He was among the final ten candidates for the Bob Cousy Award.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 11, 2011, Fredette broke BYU's career scoring record, previously held by Danny Ainge, in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament. He set the school's single-game scoring record with a career-high 52-point game against New Mexico, to whom BYU had lost twice in the regular season. He also set BYU's record for most points in one half by scoring 33 points in the first half of the game. Fredette and number 12-ranked BYU were unable to hold off an aggressive 5th-ranked San Diego State team in the Mountain West Conference championship game, and lost, 72–54.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 17, 2011, Fredette led 3rd-seeded BYU's scoring in the first round of the NCAA tournament with 32 points, leading the Cougars to a 74–66 victory over 14th-seeded Wofford, and for the second consecutive year BYU advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 19, 2011, Fredette again led BYU's scoring with 34 points as they defeated 11th-seeded Gonzaga, 89–67, and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament (Sweet Sixteen) for the first time since 1981, falling to the Florida Gators (in overtime) in a rematch of the game from the previous year.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: For his senior year performance, Fredette was unanimously named the 2011 national player of the year, being so named by the Associated Press, "Basketball Times", CBSSports.com, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, SI.com, "Athlon Sports", and "Sporting News". He was also awarded the 2011 Best Male College Athlete ESPY Award.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: After BYU's nationally televised game against San Diego State in which Fredette scored 43 points, the media attention around him became significant. Fredette gained "pop culture lore", and his name became a verb—opponents on whom he scored many points were considered "Jimmered". His image appeared in on one of the regional covers for Sports Illustrated for the 2011 NCAA tournament preview issue.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: While revealing his NCAA Tournament brackets, President Barack Obama said of Fredette: "Unbelievable. Best scorer obviously in the country. Great talent."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On June 23, 2011, Fredette was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 10th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. He was subsequently traded to the Sacramento Kings in a deal with Milwaukee and the Charlotte Bobcats involving John Salmons, Beno Udrih, Shaun Livingston, Corey Maggette, and Stephen Jackson.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: "Jimmermania" in Sacramento was felt immediately as he recharged the fan base. Sales of his jersey resulted in a 540% increase in Sacramento Kings merchandise sales, as his No. 7 Kings jersey sold out in stores in the Sacramento area, as well as online. Fredette made his rookie debut in a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors on December 17, 2011, scoring 21 points (tied for team high) and recording 4 rebounds. He got his first start on January 10, 2012 against the Philadelphia 76ers.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On February 12, 2014, Fredette scored a career-high 24 points, along with two assists, in a 106–101 overtime win over the New York Knicks. On February 27, 2014, Fredette's contract was bought out by the Kings.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On July 24, 2014, Fredette signed with the New Orleans Pelicans. On December 31, 2014, he had a season-best game with 14 points and 3 rebounds in a 95–93 overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On July 22, 2015, Fredette signed with the Spurs. However, he was later waived by the Spurs on October 21, 2015, after appearing in two preseason games. On October 31, Fredette was selected by the Westchester Knicks with the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Development League Draft.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On November 10, 2015, Fredette re-signed with the Pelicans to help the team deal with numerous injuries. New Orleans had to use an NBA hardship exception in order to sign him as he made their roster stand at 16, one over the allowed limited of 15. On November 19, he was waived by the Pelicans.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On November 28, 2015, Fredette was reacquired by the Westchester Knicks. He made his debut for the Knicks two days later, recording 37 points and eight assists in a 102–90 win over the Grand Rapids Drive. On January 29, 2016, he was named to the East All-Star team for the 2016 NBA D-League All-Star Game. On February 13, he led the East All-Star team to a 128–124 win over the West, winning the D-League All-Star Game MVP trophy after recording 35 points, six rebounds, eight assists, and one steal in 25 minutes.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On February 22, 2016, Fredette signed a ten-day contract with the New York Knicks. That night he made his debut for New York in a 122–95 loss to the Toronto Raptors, recording three points in two minutes off the bench. On March 2, the Knicks chose not to offer Fredette a second 10-day contract, making him a free agent.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 6, Fredette was reacquired by Westchester. At the season's end, he was named to the All-NBA D-League Second Team. Fredette played for the Denver Nuggets Summer League team during the 2016 NBA offseason, but was not signed by an NBA team.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On August 2, 2016, Fredette signed with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Early in the season, on November 11, he had a 51-point outing against the Guangdong Southern Tigers. On February 19, 2017, Fredette scored 73 points in Shanghai's 135–132 double overtime loss to Zhejiang Guangsha Lions. He was subsequently named the CBA's International Regular Season MVP of the 2016–17 season. In 41 games, he averaged 37.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. He shot 52.5% from the field on 2-point field goal attempts, 47.4% from the field, 39.6% from 3-point range, and 93.3% from the free throw line. He ranked first in the CBA in points per game scoring average, over all phases of the season; and he ranked second in the league in scoring, during the first phase of the season, which determines the league's scoring champion.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On July 23, 2017, Fredette re-signed with the Sharks on a two-year deal. On November 11, Fredette recorded a career-high 75 points (including him scoring a record-high 40 in the fourth quarter) in a 137–136 loss to the Beikong Fly Dragons. At the end of the 2018–19 CBA season, he led the entire league in overall total points scored, however Pierre Jackson was the league's scoring champion, as he led the league in points per game.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On March 22, 2019, Fredette signed a two-year contract with the Phoenix Suns. He made his official return to the NBA a day later against his first NBA team, the Sacramento Kings. In his next game on March 25, Fredette was given a standing ovation in his return to Utah in a loss against the Utah Jazz. However, after only playing in six games and averaging only 3.7 points per game, on June 24, Phoenix declined to pick up the second-year option of Fredette's deal and his short return to the NBA ended.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On July 15, 2019, Fredette signed a two-year contract with Panathinaikos of Greece's top-tier level Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague. When the Greek League suspended play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Panathinaikos was named league champion.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Panathinaikos experienced serious financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic, and on July 4, 2020, the team announced that Fredette's contract was too heavy for the team's budget. As a result, Fredette was essentially laid off.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On September 6, Fredette confirmed via Twitter that he intended to return to the Shanghai Sharks, and he made his return debut on October 18. On October 20, he scored 26 points to lead all scorers as the Sharks earned their first win of the season, 95–88 over the Shanxi Sturgeons. Fredette became the Shanghai Sharks all time 3-point leader on December 29, 2020.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: As a result of the pandemic, Fredette was forced to leave China early in 2021 and suspend his involvement with the Shanghai Sharks. On August 5, 2021, as it became clear that foreign players likely would not be able to compete in the 2021–22 CBA season, Fredette was signed to the Denver Nuggets Summer League roster for the second time. However, he almost immediately withdrew from Summer League play due to unspecified issues.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette has participated in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a million-dollar winner-take-all summer tournament broadcast on the ESPN family of channels. In TBT 2017, he acted as coach for Team Fredette, who lost in the first round to Team Utah, 100–97. In TBT 2018, he played for Team Fredette, leading the team to four wins and a spot in the semifinals, where they lost to Eberlein Drive, 80–76. He returned as a player in TBT 2022, with The Money Team.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: In 2022, Fredette began playing 3x3 basketball with hopes of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He made his 3x3 debut at the 2022 Red Bull USA Basketball 3X East Regional, which took place October 8-9 in New York, and helped team NYC Blue win the event. On October 25, 2022, Fredette, Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox, and Dylan Travis were named to the USA Men’s 2022 3x3 AmeriCup team. At the 2022 FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup, which took place November 4-6 in Miami, Fredette and his team won gold.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: In a January 2011 article, "Sports Illustrated" writer Kelli Anderson said about Fredette's playing style:


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: His skills were noted by several collegiate and NBA players across the country. Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder posted on his Twitter account that "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!", while Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns tweeted "Jimmer Fredette? That name's straight out of Hoosiers. No wonder he never misses." Jared Sullinger, a forward at Ohio State University, said "Jimmer is going off right now. Pure scorer."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Other facets of his personality were noted by other college coaches. Former Utah Utes coach Jim Boylen cited "swagger and confidence" as Fredette's biggest weapons, and Villanova's Jay Wright also remarked favorably on Fredette's on-court aggressiveness, comparing him to Pete Maravich in that respect. However, Kelli Anderson described Fredette as "fiercely competitive while remaining unassuming and likable," noting that Arizona coach Sean Miller hugged Fredette after he scored 49 on the Wildcats.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette describes his older brother TJ as his biggest fan and supporter. TJ, a rapper whose song "Amazing" was written for his brother, said, "I see him play, and it gives me chills sometimes when he hits some of those big shots and the crowd is going crazy."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: In an article published in "Sports Illustrated", Marcus Morris, a forward at Kansas, noted the work ethic and moral character Fredette exhibited while at USA Basketball camp. He said, "He's got heart. You can see he has a feel for the game, and he can shoot it from anywhere. Even if you try to box-and-one the guy, he brings it up and just pulls up from the hashmark. That's tough to guard."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: An unusual set of Fredette fans resided in the Mount McGregor Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison, where he and his older brother played games with the inmates. Fredette credits these experiences as helping with his focus in rough situations. The prison closed in 2014.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Upon entering the NBA, Fredette struggled to find his game, with Yahoo Sports' Michael Lee noting that Fredette's inability to adjust from being a scorer to more of a role player could ultimately usher an end to his career.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: After signing with the CBA's Shanghai Sharks, Fredette has become a dominant player in the Chinese Basketball League, leading his team to the playoffs in 3 of his 4 years there. He has also acquired the fan nickname "Jimo Dashen," which translates to "The Lonely Master" or "The Lonely God" in Chinese. Fredette commented on this during an interview: "It's not necessarily the same sense that you think about being lonely. In America, you just think you are by yourself and depressed and that type of stuff. But in this way, it more means that you're on top, and nobody is around you."


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: Fredette has become a leader on his team, although, particularly early in his CBA career, his primary form of communication with his teammates was via an interpreter.


title: Jimmer Fredette

text: On August 26, 2011, Fredette announced his engagement to BYU cheerleader Whitney Wonnacott on Twitter. They were married on June 1, 2012, in the Denver LDS Temple. During the 2017 CBA playoffs, he missed his team's first playoff game because he traveled home to Denver, Colorado, to be with his wife during the birth of their first child, a daughter named Wesley. Upon his return, he scored 39 points in overtime to give his team the win. While exiting the court he waved to the camera and told his wife and child he was bringing them home a championship. During his return to the NBA with Phoenix, his wife gave birth to his second child, a son named Taft, on March 28, 2019.


title: 2006 NFL Draft

text: The 2006 National Football League Draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with additional coverage offered by ESPNU and, for the first time, by NFL Network. Having signed a contract with the Houston Texans on the evening before the draft, Mario Williams, a defensive end from North Carolina State, became the draft's first pick. The selection surprised many commentators, who predicted that the Texans would draft Southern California running back Reggie Bush or Texas quarterback Vince Young. Ohio State produced the most first round selections (five), while Southern California produced the most overall selections (eleven). Twenty-seven compensatory and supplemental compensatory selections were distributed amongst seventeen teams; Tampa Bay, Baltimore, and Tennessee each held three compensatory picks. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.


title: 2006 NFL Draft

text: For each player selected in the Supplemental Draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season.


title: 2006 NFL Draft

text: In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2006 draft.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached, and was made archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program "The Catholic Hour" on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting "Life Is Worth Living" (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated "The Fulton Sheen Program" (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier "Life is Worth Living" show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of "Time" magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a major step towards beatification – and he is now referred to as "venerable". On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a reputed miracle that occurred through the intercession of Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but the beatification was postponed after the current Bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way".


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. His parents were of Irish descent and their own parents were from Croghan, County Roscommon, Connacht. Though he was known as "Fulton", his mother's maiden name, he was baptized as "Peter John Sheen". As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis. After the family moved to nearby Peoria, Illinois, Sheen's first role in the Church was as an altar boy at St. Mary's Cathedral.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: After earning high school valedictorian honors at Spalding Institute in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, in 1913, Sheen was educated at St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Kankakee County, Illinois, and attended Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota before his ordination on September 20, 1919. He continued studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, District of Columbia. He celebrated his first Christmas Mass at St. Mark Parish in Peoria, Illinois, which remains the only altar in the Peoria area where he held a Mass. His youthful appearance was still evident on one occasion when a local priest asked Sheen to assist as altar boy during the celebration of the Mass.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen completed a pair of doctoral degrees. He became fluent in French, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1923. His thesis was titled "The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God". While at Leuven, he became the first American ever to win the Cardinal Mercier Prize for the best philosophical treatise. In 1924 Sheen pursued further studies in Rome, earning a Sacred Theology Doctorate at the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum".


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen was the assistant to the pastor at St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square in London for a year, while teaching theology at St. Edmund's College, Ware, where he met Ronald Knox. Although Oxford and Columbia wanted him to teach philosophy, in 1926 Bishop Edmund Dunne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, asked Sheen to take over St. Patrick's parish. After nine months, Dunne returned him to the Catholic University of America, where he taught philosophy until 1950.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In 1929, Sheen gave a speech at the National Catholic Educational Association. He encouraged teachers to "educate for a Catholic Renaissance" in the United States. Sheen was hoping that Catholics would become more influential in their country through education, which would help attract others to the faith. He believed that Catholics should "integrate" their faith into the rest of their daily life.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen was consecrated a bishop on June 11, 1951, and served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1951 to 1966. The principal consecrator was the Discalced Carmelite Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina e Poggio Mirteto and the Secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation (what is today the Congregation for Bishops). The co-consecrators were Archbishop Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris, Titular Archbishop of Philippi and the Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (what is today the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples); and Archbishop Martin John O'Connor, Titular Archbishop of Laodicea in Syria and President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In 1966, Sheen was made the Bishop of Rochester. He served in this position from October 21, 1966, to October 6, 1969, when he resigned and was made the archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, Sheen was notable for early efforts seeking common ground with Christians from non-Roman churches, whether Eastern or Protestant. He occasionally celebrated Byzantine Divine Liturgy, with papal permission awarding him certain bi-ritual faculties. He often commended Protestant devotion to Bible study: "The first subject of all to be studied is Scripture, and this demands not only the reading of it but the study of commentaries. ... Protestant commentaries, I discovered, were also particularly interesting because Protestants have spent more time on Scripture than most of us." His autobiography summarized his ecumenical outlook: "The combination of travel, the study of world religions and personal encounter with different nationalities and peoples made me see that the fullness of truth is like a complete circle of 360 degrees. Every religion in the world has a segment of that truth."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: A popular instructor, Sheen wrote the first of 73 books in 1925, and in 1930 began a weekly NBC Sunday-night radio broadcast, "The Catholic Hour". Sheen called World War II not only a political struggle, but also a "theological one". He referred to Hitler as an example of the "Anti-Christ". Two decades later, the broadcast had a weekly listening audience of four million people. "Time" referred to him in 1946 as "the golden-voiced Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, U.S. Catholicism's famed proselytizer", and reported that his radio broadcast received 3,000–6,000 letters weekly from listeners. During the middle of this era, he narrated the first religious service broadcast on the new medium of television, putting in motion a new avenue for his religious pursuits.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: While at the Catholic University of America, Sheen provided voice-over commentary for an Easter Sunday Mass in 1940 that was one of the first televised religious services. During the sermon, telecast on experimental station W2XBS, Sheen remarked: "This is the first religious television in the history of the world. Let therefore its first message be a tribute of thanks to God for giving the minds of our day the inspiration to unravel the secrets of the universe."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On February 12, 1952, he began a weekly television program on the DuMont Television Network, titled "Life Is Worth Living". Filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City, the program consisted of the unpaid Sheen simply speaking in front of a live audience without a script or cue cards, occasionally using a chalkboard.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The show, scheduled in a prime time slot on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m., was not expected to challenge the ratings giants Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, but did surprisingly well. Berle, known to many early television viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and for using ancient vaudeville material, joked about Sheen, "He uses old material, too", and observed that "[i]f I'm going to be eased off the top by anyone, it's better that I lose to the One for whom Bishop Sheen is speaking." Sheen responded in jest that maybe people should start calling him "Uncle Fultie". "Life" and "Time" magazines ran feature stories on Bishop Sheen. The number of stations carrying "Life Is Worth Living" jumped from three to fifteen in less than two months. There was fan mail that flowed in at a rate of 8,500 letters per week. There were four times as many requests for tickets as could be fulfilled. Admiral, the sponsor, paid the production costs in return for a one-minute commercial at the show's opening and another minute at the close. In 1952, Sheen won an Emmy Award for his efforts, accepting the acknowledgment by saying, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." When Sheen won the Emmy, Berle quipped, "We both work for 'Sky Chief, a reference to Berle's sponsor Texaco. "Time" called him "the first 'televangelist and the Archdiocese of New York could not meet the demand for tickets.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: One of his best-remembered presentations came in February 1953, when he forcefully denounced the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Sheen gave a dramatic reading of the burial scene from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", substituting the names of prominent Soviet leaders Stalin, Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Andrey Vyshinsky for the original Caesar, Cassius, Marc Antony, and Brutus. He concluded by saying, "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." Days later, the dictator suffered a stroke, dying within the week.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Indeed, Sheen was often quick to rebuke what he considered wrongful conduct, as in his televised sermon "False Compassion" when he shouted: "There are sob sisters; there are the social slobberers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers, to the dope fiends, to the throat slashers, to the beatniks, to the prostitutes, to the homosexuals, to the punks, so that today the decent man is practically off the reservation" – before clarifying the criticism and charging his viewers with the responsibility to "hate the sin ... and love the sinner."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The show ran until 1957, drawing as many as 30 million people weekly. In 1958, Sheen became national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, serving for eight years before being appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester, New York, on October 26, 1966. He also hosted a nationally syndicated series, "The Fulton Sheen Program", from 1961 to 1968 (first in black and white and then in color). The format of this series was essentially the same as "Life Is Worth Living".


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In September 1974, the Archbishop of Washington asked Sheen to be the speaker for a retreat for diocesan priests at the Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, Maryland. This was recorded on reel-to-reel tape, state of the art at the time.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen requested that the recorded talks be produced for distribution. This was the first production of a worldwide cassette tape ministry called Ministr-O-Media. This nonprofit company operated on the grounds of St. Joseph's Parish, Pomfret, Maryland. The retreat album was titled "Renewal and Reconciliation" and included nine 60-minute audiotapes.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen was credited with helping convert a number of notable figures to the Catholic faith, including agnostic writer Heywood Broun, politician Clare Boothe Luce, automaker Henry Ford II, communist writer Louis F. Budenz, communist organizer Bella Dodd, theatrical designer Jo Mielziner, violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, and actress Virginia Mayo. Each conversion process took an average of 25 hours of lessons, and reportedly more than 95% of his students in private instruction were baptized.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: According to the foreword written for a 2008 edition of Sheen's autobiography, "Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen", Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo wrote why Sheen "retired" from hosting "Life is Worth Living" "at the height of its popularity ... [when] an estimated 30 million viewers and listeners tuned in each week." Arroyo wrote that "It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Arroyo relates that: "In the late 1950s, the government donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On at least one occasion, he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop Sheen, "pay" the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the itchy fingers of his own Cardinal."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Spellman later took the issue directly to Pope Pius XII, pleading his case with Sheen present. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman later confronted Sheen, stating, "I will get even with you. It may take six months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like." Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop." In 1966, Spellman had Sheen reassigned to Rochester, New York, and caused his leadership at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to be terminated (a position he had held for 16 years and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for, to which he had personally donated $10 million of his earnings). On December 2, 1967, Spellman died in New York City.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Sheen never talked about the situation, only making vague references to his "trials both inside and outside the Church." He even went so far as to praise Spellman in his autobiography.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: While serving in Rochester, he created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation. He also spent some of his energy on political activities, such as his denunciation of the Vietnam War in late July 1967. On Ash Wednesday in 1967, Sheen decided to give St. Bridget's Parish building to the federal Housing and Urban Development program. Sheen wanted to let the government use it for black Americans. There was a protest since Sheen acted on his own accord. The pastor disagreed, saying that "There is enough empty property around without taking down the church and the school." The deal fell through.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On October 15, 1969, one month after celebrating his 50th anniversary as a priest, Sheen resigned from his Rochester position. He was then appointed archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales () by Pope Paul VI. This ceremonial position gave him a promotion to archbishop and helped him continue his extensive writing. Sheen wrote 73 books and numerous articles and columns.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On October 2, 1979, two months before Sheen's death, Pope John Paul II visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and embraced Sheen, saying, "You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Beginning in 1977, Sheen "underwent a series of surgeries that sapped his strength and even made preaching difficult". Throughout this time, he continued to work on his autobiography, parts of which "were recited from his sickbed as he clutched a crucifix". Soon after an open-heart surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital, Sheen died on December 9, 1979, in his private chapel while praying before the Blessed Sacrament. He was interred in the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral near the deceased archbishops of New York, including Cardinal Spellman. On June 27, 2019, the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen were transferred to The Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria, IL, where his cause is being promoted for sainthood.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The official repository of Sheen's papers, television programs, and other materials is at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Joseph Campanella introduced the reruns of Sheen's various programs that are aired on EWTN. Reruns are also aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. In addition to his television appearances, Sheen can be heard on Relevant Radio.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The Fulton J. Sheen Museum, which is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria and located in Peoria, Illinois, houses the largest set of Sheen's personal items in five collections. The museum is located one block south of Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception, where Sheen served as an altar boy, had his first communion and confirmation, was ordained and celebrated his first Mass. Another museum is located in Sheen's hometown of El Paso, Illinois. This museum contains various Sheen artifacts, but is not connected to the Diocese of Peoria.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, located along Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan, is named after him.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The actor Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez adopted the stage name of Martin Sheen partly in admiration of the bishop.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: Fulton Sheen did much of his preaching at Saint Agnes Church in Midtown Manhattan, from 1927 until his death in 1979. On October 7, 1980, New York Mayor Ed Koch renamed East 43rd Street in front of the church as "Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Place".


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation was formed in 1998 by Gregory J. Ladd and Lawrence F. Hickey to make known the archbishop's life. The foundation approached Cardinal John O'Connor of the Archdiocese of New York for permission to commence the process of his cause, which was under the authority of the Diocese of Peoria. In 2002, Sheen's cause for canonization was officially opened by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., of the Diocese of Peoria, and from then on Sheen was referred to as a "Servant of God". On February 2, 2008, the archives of Sheen were sealed at a ceremony during a special Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois, where the diocese was sponsoring his canonization. In 2009, the diocesan phase of the investigation came to an end, and the records were sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Holy See in Rome.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On June 28, 2012, the Holy See announced officially that it had recognized Sheen's life as one of "heroic virtue", a major step towards eventual beatification. From this moment on, Sheen is styled "Venerable Servant of God". According to the Catholic News Service and "The Catholic Post" (the official newspaper of the Peoria Diocese), the case of a newborn boy who had no discernible pulse for 61 minutes (who was about to be declared dead at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, as a stillborn infant) and yet lived to be healthy – without physical or mental impairment – was in the preliminary stages of being investigated as the possible miracle needed for Sheen's potential beatification. If the miracle is approved at the diocesan level, and then by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Holy See (being both medically unexplainable and directly attributable theologically to Sheen's intercession according to expert panels in both subject areas), beatification may proceed. Another such miracle would be required for him to be considered for canonization.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On September 7, 2011, a tribunal of inquiry was sworn in to investigate the alleged healing. During a special Mass at 10:30 am on Sunday, December 11, 2011, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, the documentation gathered by the tribunal over nearly three months was boxed and sealed. It was then shipped to the Holy See for consideration by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluding the diocesan tribunal's work.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On Sunday, September 9, 2012, a Mass of Thanksgiving and banquet was held at St. Mary's Cathedral and the Spalding Pastoral Center in celebration of the advancement of Archbishop Sheen's cause. Attendees included Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., and his predecessor as Bishop of Peoria, Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, New Jersey, along with many clergy and religious from around the country. Copies of the "positio", the book detailing the documentation behind his cause, were presented to Myers, representatives of the Church in other states, a delegate from the Archdiocese of Chicago, and other patrons and supporters of Sheen's cause. According to statements made during the service by clergy connected to the cause, the medical and theological study of the possible miracles needed for his beatification and canonization was well underway. At least one was being seriously considered. Due to new rules under Pope Benedict XVI stating that beatification should occur locally, ideally in the candidate's home diocese (which is usually but not always the diocese that sponsors the cause), it would likely take place in Peoria, the first there. Should he be beatified and canonized, he would be among a select few natives of the U.S. to hold that distinction.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In September 2014, it was announced that the canonization cause would be suspended due to a disagreement with the Archdiocese of New York concerning the return of Sheen's remains to the Diocese of Peoria. In a press release on June 14, 2016, it was announced that Sheen's surviving family petitioned the New York Supreme Court to allow the transfer of Sheen's remains to Peoria. The press release stated that "on several occasions, the Archdiocese [of New York] has declared its desire to cooperate with the wishes of the family."


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: In an action brought in New York Supreme Court (the trial-level court in New York), on November 16, 2016, Justice Arlene P. Bluth ordered the Archdiocese of New York to grant permission to disinter Sheen's body. The court ruled that the archdiocese's objection that Sheen would not want the disinterment was without factual basis. Given that his elevation to sainthood was being blocked, the court found the family had sufficient justification for moving his body.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: However, on February 6, 2018, the New York State Appellate Division overturned Bluth's decision, ordering an evidentiary hearing be held as to whether moving Sheen's body would be consistent with his wishes. The court noted, "[I]t is unclear if Archbishop Sheen's direction in his will to be buried in 'Calvary Cemetery, the official cemetery of the Archdiocese of New York' evinces an express intention to remain buried in the Archdiocese of New York, or was merely a descriptive term for Calvary Cemetery." However, after re-examining the case and holding the evidentiary hearing on June 9, 2018, Bluth affirmed her earlier ruling. The archdiocese had allowed Peoria to begin the work on his cause for canonization, which eventually would have required at the least a collection of his relics.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: The Archdiocese of New York announced on June 9, 2019, that it was officially giving up the fight to keep Sheen's remains under the altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. On June 27, 2019, the remains were transferred to St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On July 6, 2019, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree approving Sheen's miracle needed for beatification. The miracle involves the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy stillborn in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the Peoria-area town of Goodfield. Engstrom's parents prayed for the intercession of Sheen for their son's recovery. Pope Francis approved the miracle, and Sheen was scheduled for beatification on December 21, 2019, at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.


title: Fulton J. Sheen

text: On December 3, 2019, the Diocese of Peoria announced that the Holy See had decided on December 2 that Sheen's beatification would be "postponed". The postponement was prompted by Salvatore Matano, Bishop of Rochester, who expressed concern that his predecessor's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from New York State Attorney General Letitia James. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way." As of late 2022, the Attorney General's Rochester investigation was still ongoing, and the Holy See has not announced when or if the beatification will move ahead.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( ; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Polish nobility. From 1917 until his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky led the first two Soviet state-security organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU, establishing a secret police for the post-revolutionary Soviet regime. He was one of the architects of the Red Terror and decossackization.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 to ethnically Polish parents of noble descent, at the Dzerzhinovo family estate, about from the small town of Ivyanets in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Belarus). In the Russian Empire, his family was of a type known as "column-listed nobility" (, stolbovoe dvorianstvo), whose nobility was formally acknowledged, but so old that they did not enjoy the privileges of the new nobility. His sister Wanda died at the age of 12, when she was accidentally shot with a hunting rifle on the family estate by one of her brothers. At the time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński graduated from the Saint Petersburg Imperial University in 1863 and moved to Vilnius, where he worked as a home teacher for a professor of Saint Petersburg University named Januszewski and eventually married Januszewski's daughter Helena Ignatievna, who also was of Polish origin. In 1868, after a short period in Kherson gymnasium, he worked as a gymnasium teacher of physics and mathematics at the gymnasiums of Taganrog in the Don Host Province, Russia, particularly the Chekhov Gymnasium. In 1875, Edmund Dzierżyński retired due to health conditions and moved with his family to his estate near Ivyanets and Rakaŭ, Russian Empire. In 1882, Felix's father died from tuberculosis.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: As a youngster Dzerzhinsky became a polyglot, speaking: Polish, Russian, German and Latin. He attended the Vilnius Gymnasium from 1887 to 1895. One of the older students at this gymnasium was his future arch-enemy, Józef Piłsudski. Years later, as Marshal of Poland, Piłsudski recalled that Dzerzhinsky "distinguished himself as a student with delicacy and modesty. He was rather tall, thin and demure, making the impression of an ascetic with the face of an icon... Tormented or not, this is an issue history will clarify; in any case this person did not know how to lie." School documents show that Dzerzhinsky attended his first year in school twice, while his eighth year he was not able to finish. Dzerzhinsky received a school diploma which stated: "Dzerzhinsky Feliks, who is 18 years of age, of Catholic faith, along with a satisfactory attention and satisfactory diligence showed the following successes in sciences, namely: Divine law—"good"; Logic, Latin, Algebra, Geometry, Mathematical geography, Physics, History (of Russia), French—"satisfactory"; Russian and Greek—"unsatisfactory".


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Two months before he expected to graduate, the gymnasium expelled Dzerzhinsky for "revolutionary activity" and for posting signs with communist slogans at the school. He had joined a Marxist group, the Union of Workers (Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego "SDKP"), in 1895. In late April 1896 he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP). In 1897 he attended the second congress of the LSDP, where it rejected independence in favor of national autonomy. On 18 March 1897 he was sent to Kaunas to take advantage of the arrest of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) branch. He worked in a book-binding factory and set up an illegal press. As an organizer of a shoemakers' strike, Dzerzhinsky was arrested for "criminal agitation among the Kaunas workers"; the police files from this time state: "Felix Dzerzhinsky, considering his views, convictions and personal character, will be very dangerous in the future, capable of any crime." Dzerzhinsky envisioned merging the LSDP with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and was a follower of Rosa Luxemburg on a national issue.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: He was arrested on a denunciation for his revolutionary activities for the first time in 1897, after which he served almost a year in the Kaunas prison. In 1898 Dzerzhinsky was exiled for three years to the Vyatka Governorate (city of Nolinsk) where he worked at a local tobacco factory. There Dzerzhinsky was arrested for agitating for revolutionary activities and was sent north to the village of . In August 1899 he returned to Vilnius. Dzerzhinsky subsequently became one of the founders of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (, SDKPiL) in 1899. In February 1900 he was arrested again and served his time at first in the Alexander Citadel in Warsaw and later at the Siedlce prison. In 1902 Dzerzhinsky was sent deep into Siberia for the next five years to the remote town of Vilyuysk, while "en route" being temporarily held at the Alexandrovsk Transitional Prison near Irkutsk. While in exile he escaped on a boat and later emigrated from the country. He traveled to Berlin, where at the SDKPiL conference Dzerzhinsky was elected a secretary of its party committee abroad (, KZ) and met with several prominent leaders of the Polish Social Democratic movement, including Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches. They gained control of the party organization through the creation of a committee called the "Komitet Zagraniczny" (KZ), which dealt with the party's foreign relations. As secretary of the KZ, Dzerzhinsky was able to dominate the SDKPiL. In Berlin, he organized publication of the newspaper "Czerwony Sztandar" ("Red Banner"), and transportation of illegal literature from Kraków into Congress Poland. Being a delegate to the IV Congress of SDKPiL in 1903 Dzerzhinsky was elected as a member of its General Board.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Dzerzhinsky visited Switzerland, where his fiancée Julia Goldman, the sister of Boris Gorev, was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. She died in his arms on 4 June 1904. Her illness and death depressed him - in letters to his sister, Dzerzhinsky explained that he no longer saw any meaning for his life. That changed with the Russian Revolution of 1905, as Dzerzhinsky became involved with work again. After the revolution failed he was again jailed in July 1905, this time by the Okhrana. In October he was released on amnesty. As a delegate to the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Stockholm, Dzerzhinsky entered the central body of the party. From July through September 1906, he lived in Saint Petersburg and then returned to Warsaw, where he was arrested again in December of the same year. In June 1907 Dzerzhinsky was released on bail. At the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, in London in May–June 1907, he was elected "in absentia" as a member of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. In April 1908 Dzerzhinsky was arrested once again in Warsaw and again exiled to Siberia (Yeniseysk Governorate) in 1909. As before, Dzerzhinsky managed to escape (by November 1909). In 1910 he reached Italy, where he met Maxim Gorky on Capri; he then returned to Poland.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Back in Kraków in 1910, Dzerzhinsky married RSDLP party member Zofia Muszkat, who was already pregnant. A month later she was arrested; she gave birth to their son Janek in Pawiak prison. In 1911 Zofia was sentenced to permanent Siberian exile, and she left the child with her father. Dzerzhinsky saw his son for the first time in March 1912 in Warsaw. In attending the welfare of his child, Dzerzhinsky repeatedly exposed himself to the danger of arrest. On one occasion, Dzerzhinsky narrowly escaped an ambush that the police had prepared at the apartment of his father-in-law.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Dzerzhinsky continued to direct the Social Democratic Party (SDKPiL), while considering his continued freedom "only a game of the Okhrana". The Okhrana, however, was not playing a game; Dzerzhinsky simply was a master of conspiratorial techniques and was therefore extremely difficult to find. A police file from this time says: "Dzerzhinsky continued to lead the Social Democratic party and at the same time he directed party work in Warsaw, led strikes, published appeals to workers, and traveled on party matters to Łódź and Kraków." The police were unable to arrest Dzerzhinsky until the end of 1912, when they found the apartment where he lived in the name of Władysław Ptasiński.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Dzerzhinsky spent the next four-and-a-half years in tsarist prisons, first at the notorious Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel. When World War I began in 1914, all political prisoners were relocated from Warsaw into Russia itself. Dzerzhinsky was taken to Oryol Prison. He was very concerned about the fate of his wife and son, with whom he did not have any communication. Moreover, Dzerzhinsky was beaten frequently by the Russian prison guards, which caused permanent disfigurement of his jaw and mouth. In 1916, Dzerzhinsky was moved to the Moscow Butyrka prison, where he was soon hospitalized because the chains that he was forced to wear had caused severe cramps in his legs. Despite the prospects of amputation, Dzerzhinsky recovered and was put to labor sewing military uniforms.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Dzerzhinsky was freed from Butyrka after the February Revolution of 1917. Soon after his release, Dzerzhinsky's goal was to organize Polish refugees in Russia and then go back to Poland and fight for the revolution there, writing to his wife that "together with these masses we will return to Poland after the war and become one whole with the SDKPiL." He remained in Moscow where he joined the Bolshevik party, writing to his comrades that "the Bolshevik party organization is the only Social Democratic organization of the proletariat, and if we were to stay outside of it, then we would find ourselves outside of the proletarian revolutionary struggle." Already in April, he entered the Moscow Committee of the Bolsheviks and soon thereafter was elected to the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet. Dzerzhinsky endorsed Lenin's "April Theses", demanding uncompromising opposition to the Russian Provisional Government, the transfer of all political authority to the Soviets, and the immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war. Dzerzhinsky's brother Stanisław was murdered on the Dzerzhinsky estate by deserting Russian soldiers that same year.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Dzerzhinsky was elected subsequently to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Sixth Party Congress in late July. He then moved from Moscow to Petrograd to begin his new responsibilities. In Petrograd, Dzerzhinsky participated in the crucial session of the Central Committee in October and he strongly endorsed Lenin's demands for the immediate preparation of a rebellion, after which Felix Dzerzhinsky had an active role with the Military Revolutionary Committee during the October Revolution. With the acquisition of power by the Bolsheviks, Dzerzhinsky eagerly assumed responsibility for making security arrangements at the Smolny Institute where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Lenin regarded Felix Dzerzhinsky as a revolutionary hero and appointed him to organize a force to combat internal threats. On 20 December 1917, the Council of People's Commissars officially established the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage—usually known as the Cheka (based on the Russian acronym ВЧК). Dzerzhinsky became its director. The Cheka received extensive resources, and became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements. As the Russian Civil War expanded, Dzerzhinsky also began organizing internal security troops to enforce the Cheka's authority.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: The Cheka became notorious for mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War. The Cheka undertook drastic measures as thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places. Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly," and "[The Red Terror involves] the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles."


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as the State Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of the NKVD. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as the Joint State Political Directorate (Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye, or OGPU), directly under the Council of People's Commissars. These changes did not diminish Dzerzhinsky's power; he was Minister of the Interior, director of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU, Minister for Communications, and director of the Vesenkha (Supreme Council of National Economy) 1921–24. Indeed, while the (O)GPU was theoretically supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka, in time its "de facto" powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: At his office in Lubyanka, Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of fellow Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg on the wall.


title: Felix Dzerzhinsky

text: Besides his leadership of the secret police, Dzerzhinsky also took on a number of other roles; he led the fight against typhus in 1918, was chair of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs from 1919 to 1923, initiated a vast orphanage construction program, chaired the Transport Commissariat, organised the embalming of Lenin's body in 1924 and chaired the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema.