Nazi death camp survivors mark anniversary of Auschwitz liberation on Holocaust Remembrance Day

A group of survivors of Nazi death camps marked the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during World War II in a modest ceremony Saturday in southern Poland.

Issued on: 27/01/2024 - 

Holocaust survivors and relatives arrive at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2024. 

© Czarek Sokolowski, AP

By: NEWS WIRES


About 20 survivors from various camps set up by Nazi Germany around Europe laid wreaths and flowers and lit candles at the Death Wall in Auschwitz.

Later, the group will hold prayers at the monument in Birkenau. They were memorializing around 1.1 million camp victims, mostly Jews. The memorial site and museum are located near the city of Oswiecim.

Nearly 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust — the mass murder of Jews and other groups before and during World War II.

Marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the survivors will be accompanied by Polish Senate Speaker Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz and Israeli Ambassador Yacov Livne.

The theme of the observances is the human being, symbolized in simple, hand-drawn portraits. They are meant to stress that the horror of Auschwitz-Birkenau lies in the suffering of people held and killed there.

Holocaust victims were commemorated across Europe.

In Germany, where people put down flowers and lit candles at memorials for the victims of the Nazi terror, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that his country would continue to carry the responsibility for this “crime against humanity.”

He called on all citizens to defend Germany’s democracy and fight antisemitism, as the country marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

"Never again’ is every day,” Scholz said in his weekly video podcast. “Jan. 27 calls out to us: Stay visible! Stay audible! Against antisemitism, against racism, against misanthropy — and for our democracy.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country is fighting to repel Russia's full-scale invasion, posted an image of a Jewish menorah on X, formerly known as Twitter, to mark the remembrance day.

“Every new generation must learn the truth about the Holocaust. Human life must remain the highest value for all nations in the world," said Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and has lost relatives in the Holocaust.

"Eternal memory to all Holocaust victims!” Zelenskyy tweeted.

In Italy, Holocaust commemorations included a torchlit procession alongside official statements from top political leaders.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that her conservative nationalist government was committed to eradicating antisemitism that she said had been “reinvigorated” amid the Israel-Hamas war. Meloni’s critics have long accused her and her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, of failing to sufficiently atone for its past.

Later Saturday, leftist movements planned a torchlit procession to remember all victims of the Holocaust — Jews but also Roma, gays and political dissidents who were deported or exterminated in Nazi camps.

Police were also on alert after pro-Palestinian activists indicated that they would ignore a police order and go ahead with a rally planned to coincide with the Holocaust commemorations. Italy’s Jewish community has complained that such protests have become occasions for the memory of the Holocaust to be co-opted by anti-Israel forces and used against Jews.

In Poland, a memorial ceremony with prayers was held Friday in Warsaw at the foot of the Monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto, who fell fighting the Nazis in 1943.

Earlier in the week, the countries of the former Yugoslavia signed an agreement in Paris to jointly renovate Block 17 in the red-brick Auschwitz camp and install a permanent exhibition there in memory of around 20,000 people who were deported from their territories and brought to the block. Participating in the project will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.

The gate with "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free) written across it is pictured at the Auschwitz-Birkenau former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp during events marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27, 2024. 

© Bartosz Siedlik, AFP

Preserving the camp, a notorious symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust, with its cruelly misleading “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes One Free”) gate, requires constant effort by historians and experts, and substantial funds.

The Nazis, who occupied Poland from 1939-1945, at first used old Austrian military barracks at Auschwitz as a concentration and death camp for Poland’s resistance fighters. In 1942, the wooden barracks, gas chambers and crematoria of Birkenau were added for the extermination of Europe's Jews, Roma and other nationals, as well as Russian prisoners of war.

Soviet Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945, with about 7,000 prisoners there, children and those who were too weak to walk. The Germans had evacuated tens of thousands of other inmates on foot days earlier in what is now called the Death March, because many inmates died of exhaustion and cold in the sub-freezing temperatures.

Since 1979, the Auschwitz-Birkenau site has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage.

(AP)

Tens of thousands of Germans mark Holocaust Memorial Day

Berlin (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Germans turned out across the country on Saturday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, just days after a string of protests against right-wing extremists.


Issued on: 27/01/2024 - 

Holocaust Day, marking the Nazis' murder of six million Jews, falls on the date the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated  (ITS IN POLAND)

© BARTOSZ SIEDLIK / AFP

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who earlier this month joined a march against the far right, on Saturday welcomed what he said were "millions of fellow citizens marching in the streets" of Germany.

"Never again," Scholz vowed Saturday as police in the western city of Duesseldorf said about 100,000 people joined the peaceful protest there.

Demonstrations were planned in 300 towns and villages across the country this weekend, according to the alliance "Together against the extreme right".

In the northern city of Kiel, police said 11,500 people had gathered before midday.

"Democracy is not for the timid", read placards alongside others saying, "Red card for the AfD" party of the extreme right.

Physiotherapist Johannes Boecker, aged 29, told AFP, "It was important to demonstrate in memory of the victims of national socialism and also against the rise of the extreme right."

In Stuttgart, where a couple of thousand people gathered, 60-year-old Margrit Walter told AFP: "I want to create a Nazi-free zone for my grand-daughter."
'Never again is every day'

Scholz, who had turned out at a protest two weeks ago in Potsdam, close to the capital, said he was delighted to see people "stand up".

"Never again requires everybody's vigilance. Our democracy is not a gift from God, it is made by men," the chancellor said. "Never again is every day."

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius joined the protesters in his northwestern hometown of Osnabrueck, where he was born.

"There are three times as many demonstrations as last week, particularly in the east of Germany," said in a statement the citizen's alliance Campact, which is among the organisers of the protest movement.

It is in the east, formerly communist East Germany, where the AfD finds its biggest following.

Holocaust Day, commemorating the murder of six million Jews during World War Two, falls on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945.

In Poland, site of the former camp, Auschwitz survivor Halina Birenbaum, aged 95, lamented anti-Jewish protests around the world and the "barbaric and long Russian attack against Ukraine... the barbaric terrorist attacks by Hamas and war on every side.

"For me it makes the Holocaust go on," she said.

In Germany, this year's 79th Holocaust anniversary came shortly after a report by investigative outlet Correctiv that revealed that AfD members had discussed the mass expulsion of immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens" at a November meeting with extremists.

The news sent shockwaves across Germany at a time when the AfD is soaring in opinion polls, just months ahead of three major regional elections in eastern Germany where their support is strongest.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser compared the extremist meeting on foreigners with the 1942 Wannsee conference when the Nazis plotted to exterminate European Jews.

© 2024 AFP

ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Meet the woman who spearheaded California’s recent back-to-work protests

Anti-lockdown protesters rally in downtown San Diego on May 1, 2020, calling on state and local officials to fully reopen the economy. Many in attendance waved branded signs provided by a new group called We Have Rights.
(Joshua Emerson Smith / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Anti-lockdown protests have simultaneously erupted all over California using the website wehaverights.com

By JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH MAY 10, 2020

A group calling itself We Have Rights has recently started organizing large back-to-work protests throughout California, calling on state and local leaders to end social-distancing orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The group, which popped up in just the last two weeks, has a professional-looking website and growing social media presence, which provide details for upcoming events, instructions for dealing with the media, highly produced Instagram videos, as well as T-shirts and other branded merchandise for sale.

The campaign — which turned out hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters from San Diego to Sacramento starting May 1 and continuing through this weekend — also has had a charismatic front woman with something of a controversial past: 38-year-old Vivienne Nicole Reign.

Reign, who has been living with her husband in a $3 million home in Newport Beach, according to legal documents, is currently embroiled in legal challenges concerning several neuropathy treatment clinics she owns and operates with a chiropractor. The defendants have maintained their innocence, denying claims brought by former clients of medical negligence, financial elder abuse and fraud.

The Orange County-based entrepreneur recently told The San Diego Union-Tribune in a lengthy phone interview Thursday that she created the website wehaverights.com after having to layoff members of her staff as a result of the pandemic lockdown.

“I’ve had to let go of people that have worked with me for 10 years, and it happened overnight,” she said. “I’ll find a way to make it through this, but there are people who depend on me, and I feel a great sense of responsibility to provide them a paycheck.”

Reign did not cite political reasons as the driving force behind the campaign, however the rallies have overtly promoted President Donald Trump and conservative talking points.

Reign said the campaign has a wealthy backer but would not identify the person.

“Yes, we do have people who have contributed and we do have a benefactor who has contributed, and my husband and I have put money out of our own pocket,” she said.

The New York Times has reported that many of the anti-lockdown protests happening throughout the country are being bankrolled by wealthy conservative leaders and groups, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots.

Members of the Michigan Liberty Militia, including Phil Robinson, right, join protesters at a rally at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, April 30, 2020.
(Matthew Dae Smith / Lansing State Journal)

However, Reign’s campaign stands out compared to similar efforts in other parts of the country, said Jared Holt, an investigator with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Right Wing Watch.

“If something like this is happening in other states,” he said, “it’s certainly not as slick and well-produced as it seems to be in California where this shadowy source of money is coming in with a very branded effort.”

In something of a twist, Reign sent an email to the Union-Tribune on Friday, a day after her interview, saying that she had decided to donate the website and social-media accounts to a unnamed nonprofit.

“I will let them decide when they would like to announce who they are,” she said in the email.

“We are happy to have contributed to helping all of the grassroots groups organize and get their message of preserving and protecting our rights out across California,” she added. “We have confidence the group we are handing it over to will do wonderfully at continuing the efforts even better than we did!”

Reign’s recent organizing efforts don’t appear to be directly connected to those of San Diego resident Naomi Israel Soria, who promoted similar rallies on Facebook.

The 27-year-old Soria is facing misdemeanor criminal charges, including up to six months in jail, for putting together protests in San Diego that law enforcement officials have said violated county public health orders around social distancing. She’s being represented by the high-profile conservative attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who has filed multiple lawsuits against the state of California over its stay-home orders.

Who is Thomas Paine?

Until recently, Dan Summers had never heard of We Have Rights or Vivienne Reign.

Summers, a 70-year-old resident of Ramona, has long been plugged in to conservative politics and activism in the San Diego region. He’s served on the Republican Party’s local central committee and currently heads up an umbrella group called The Circle, which coordinates efforts between prominent conservative and libertarian groups throughout the region.

So it didn’t surprise Summers when an organizer from We Have Rights contacted him out of the blue looking for his help, and his access to mailing lists of about 6,000 people across the region, to boost turnout at a rally that was planned for May 1 in downtown San Diego. The group was also organizing events for that day in Huntington Beach, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

“I got a phone call from the guy who organized these four rallies who wanted to know if I could help him in San Diego, and I said, ‘Yes, I can,’” Summers recently told the Union-Tribune.

The group’s representative called himself “Thomas Paine,” Summers explained, noting that this was also the name of the famous American revolutionary.

“They’ve got a very good website,” he added.

The website’s homepage urges: “Be part of the biggest movement in California.” It demands the ability to worship at church, earn a living and assemble freely at sporting events, conferences and other gatherings.

“The elderly, sick, and high risk are encouraged to quarantine while the healthy and the able have a right to live their lives,” the website states.

Protests gathered on May 1, 2020 in downtown San Diego demanding local and state officials fully reopen the economy despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
(Joshua Emerson Smith / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

LIKE THE NAZI LABOUR FRONT THIS ARBEIT MACHT FREI REVIVAL UNDERMINES MAYDAY AS A WORKERS DAY OF REVOLT AGAINST CAPITALISM TO ONE OF SUPPLICATION TO RETURN TO WAGE SLAVERY

The back-to-work rally in downtown San Diego ended up drawing hundreds of people, many waving American flags and few wearing face masks. Some flew “Trump 2020" flags and many wore the iconic red hats.

While many protesters cited financial hardship as a reason for coming out, those in attendance also criticized everything from vaccines to Gov. Gavin Newsom to socialism.

Summers addressed the boisterous crowd with a bullhorn, as cars and trucks circled the block honking.

During the event, a person dressed in We Have Rights-branded merchandise passed out dozens of signs, declaring slogans such as “Freedom is essential” and “Open CA now.”

A woman dressed in branded merchandise from the group We Have Rights hands out signs at a rally in downtown San Diego.
(Joshua Emerson Smith / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Other We Have Rights rallies that day across the state drew even larger crowds, including more than 1,000 people on the capitol steps in Sacramento.

“Over 40,000 Patriots took a stand against the lockdown to demand Newsom fully open California and restore our rights!” the website said of the May 1 actions.

While Summers was pleased with the turnout, he still didn’t know much about Paine. Although, the phone number he used to communicate with Paine traced back to a Thomas Knight Reign, 46, of Newport Beach, according to multiple legal and business records.

Reign, according to his IMDb profile, appeared to be a once-aspiring movie producer and director. Over the years, he started several film-production businesses, including Red Horizon Films LLC, Xposure Entertainment LLC and the still operative Agency X LLC.

However, he has almost no professional or personal online presence that the Union-Tribune could find.

When the Union-Tribune reached out to Reign, he declined to comment and directed all questions to fullyopenca@gmail.com, which used the display name Thomas Paine.

According to court records, Thomas Reign and Vivienne Reign were married in 2011 — although at the time their legal names were Thomas John Wozny and Nicole Melanie Anderson.

She adopted the last name Wozny, but then in 2018, they both legally changed their monikers to Reign.

Vivienne Reign said her husband changed his last name as part of his writing business, and at that point she, too, decided to change both her first and last names. She would not elaborate on what her husband does for work, other than to say he’s a “surfer” and “creative artist.”

“I thought Vivienne was just a pretty name,” she explained. “I thought it was a little timeless, and so I left Nicole as my middle name.

“I go by Viv now, unless it’s my father, and then it’s still Niki,” she added.

From entrepreneur to activist

Vivienne Reign grew up Nicole Melanie Ackermann in the Orange County city of Cypress. She said her mother still lives in her childhood home and her father lives in Redondo Beach.

Her parents were in the aerospace industry and worked hard to give her an education at a private high school, she said. That’s where, at 16, she met her first husband, Darren Anderson.

Anderson, who lives in Mission Viejo, said he and Reign have remained good friends over the years.

“She’s great,” he said. “She’s a hard charger. She’s highly ethical. She’s one of the people in my life that I respect the most.

After graduating high school in 1999, Reign started classes at Fresno City College. However, she said she quickly dropped out to work full time and eventually start her own business.

“I did attend college for a short time, but to be honest, the entrepreneurial bug kept getting at me,” she said.

She said that before joining We Have Rights, she had never been an activist or even attended a protest. In 2016, she donated $250 to help Rand Paul’s presidential run.

Today, Reign has at least eight active companies operating under 17 different business names. Her companies largely focus on medical procedures not covered by health insurance, from stem cell injections to treatments for neuropathy.

Most notably, she owns a company with Orange County chiropractor Philip Straw called Neuropathy Solutions, which has been the subject of at least one patient lawsuit alleging fraud and financial elder abuse.

Reign and Straw have worked together for years, including with his previous business Optimal Health Straw Chiropractic, which has been the subject of about a half-dozen similar lawsuits. Straw was cited by the Board of Chiropractic Examiners in 2012 for falsely portraying himself as a neuropathy expert and advertising his services in a potentially deceptive way.

The businesses have also been bombarded by angry online reviews and drawn the attention of the local media.

The company’s clinics currently go by the name Superior Health Centers, with locations in Corona, Gardena, Glendale and Placentia.

According to court records, Reign is in charge of handling front-office staffing and other administrative tasks, including organizing free dinners used to market the company’s neuropathy treatments to seniors.

Senior citizens Harvey and Donna Stone attended one of those dinners in 2016 where the married couple watched a presentation on peripheral neuropathy, a type of nerve damage that can cause weakness and numbness in hands and feet.

They were told at the dinner that if the condition was not properly treated, it could lead to gangrene and amputation, according to an ongoing lawsuit brought by the couple. When they followed-up with a free medical evaluation at one of the company’s clinics, they were told they both had the condition.

To pay for the treatment, which wasn’t covered by their insurance, they agreed to take out a line of credit and make monthly payments at nearly 15 percent interest for a final sum of $18,655, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers have argued that the staff at the businesses were not trained or licensed to treat peripheral neuropathy and deceived the couple into thinking otherwise. The treatments included massages and exposure to light and electrical stimulation.

At one point, Harvey Stone was badly burned when staff used administered electrical shocks to his legs using a device dubbed the “HAKO-MED,” according to the lawsuit.

“It’s like the old West salesman setting up shop in a town and selling bottles of snake oil,” said Arnold Gross, senior trial attorney with State Law Firm, who is handling the couple’s case. “This is not a recognized treatment.”

After the Stones took out the high-interest loan, Donna’s primary care physician told her that she didn’t have neuropathy, Gross said.

Lawyer for the defendants Christopher R. Clark declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, other than to say in an email: “We are looking forward to prevailing in this case at trial on behalf of our client.”

According to the defense’s court filings, Harvey Stone received more than two dozen electro-stimulation treatments from the business, and he had acknowledged that “progress was being made and his symptoms were improving.”

Reign also wouldn’t talk about the lawsuit in detail, but said of the court battle: “Unfortunately, it is part of business in today’s age that those things do occur.”

Reign, who traveled to Sacramento for a big rally on May 1, said as recently as Thursday that she planned to focus her efforts on reopening the economy.

However, she has now changed her mind, according to the email she sent the Union-Tribune on Friday.

“I have enjoyed my time working on this, and I feel we made great strides in a short time,” she wrote. “However, as I mentioned, I have many demands on my time with various business investments and wanted to pass this to people who have this as a full time passion and can do the movement justice.”

Staff researcher Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this report.

Opinion: Another Volkswagen CEO bites the dust

Herbert Diess is stepping down as CEO of VW after just four years. The reason? Bad communications skills apparently. But his problems while helming the German giant went much deeper, argues DW's Henrik Böhme.

VW has cycled through its CEOs in recent years

Leading Europe's largest carmaker, Volkswagen, means being in the hot seat. The announcement that current CEO Herbert Diess will be stepping down after only four years is just the latest proof of that.

Diess took over the position in 2018 from Matthias Müller. The latter had himself taken on the job from Martin Winterkorn in 2015 after the Dieselgate scandal broke. Today, the 75-year-old Winterkorn continues to fight with all legal means to keep from going to court.

Then again, Diess' departure is not all that surprising. His position has seemed uncertain for some time now. The 63-year-old Austrian had previously managed to unite all the major players in this game — the Porsche and Piëch families — behind him, thereby securing his power at Volkswagen fro some time. 

Herbert Diess will be stepping down as VW CEO at the start of September 2022

From one misstep to another

But things were already looking shaky for him around three years ago, when Diess was trying to get company management to back tough financial targets. Doing this, he used the sentence, "Ebit macht frei," or "Ebit makes you free" — a combination of a business acronym for earnings before income tax, and the notorious Nazi phrase "Arbeit macht frei," or "work sets you free." The Nazi slogan was written above the gates of numerous concentration camps. Clearly, this was totally inappropriate for the CEO of a major global company. Diess called it a "slip of the tongue." 

Or, the same year, when he was asked about the human rights situation in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where VW has a plant and where there were rumors of forced labor using Uighur people, he said he knew nothing about the so-called reeducation centers that are really internment camps.

Then there was also the unpleasant way he dealt with the workforce at the main plant in Wolfsburg, where he, possibly with the best of intentions, repeatedly highlighted the successes of pioneering electric car company Tesla — only to then raise the possibility of some 30,000 job cuts.  

Rivals and buddies: VW's Herbert Diess (left) and Tesla's Elon Musk

Volkswagen is a special kind of company. In terms of ownership structure, the German state of Lower Saxony is the largest stakeholder, sits on the board of directors and has right of veto. Then there's the powerful German metalworkers' union IG Metall, which often plays the role of opponent. And finally there's the even more powerful Porsche and Piëch founding family members, all breathing down the necks of every VW executive.

The holding company in Salzburg is where the strings really get pulled. Just think back to early 2015 and the statement from former VW patriarch Ferdinand Piëch, about keeping his distance from Winterkorn. That caused a veritable earthquake at VW, a whole half a year before the Dieselgate scandal came to light.

So what caused Herbert Diess to fail?

Obviously, Diess' miserable communications skills played a role. Yes, he is undeniably a consummate professional in the car industry. That's precisely why VW's most powerful pried him away from BMW and lured him to Wolfsburg. And credit must be given where credit is due. In the aftermath of the Dieselgate scandal, he set Volkswagen firmly on the path toward electromobility, overseeing the transformation, shifting whole factories from combustion engines to electric cars, and also arranging for the huge billion-dollar investments VW needed in order to do this.

DW Business Editor Henrik Böhme

Diess didn't shy away from telling workers that significantly fewer personnel would be needed either, telling them it took Tesla 10 hours to build a car whereas it takes VW 30 hours. That didn't go down well. It seems Diess' soft touch is mainly reserved for the steering wheel of his car. 

New CEO, same old software problem

Now it's up to the head of one of VW's other brands, Porsche, to put things in order. Though Oliver Blume, who is succeeding Diess, is nine years younger than his predecessor, he has the same automotive industry genes. He'll be CEO of VW and also continue to head up the sports car brand, Porsche. That's if things go well. Blume will first have to prove that he can do at least one thing better than Diess: communicate. 

But — and this is likely to be the real challenge — Blume will also need to get a grip on VW's software needs.

Among Diess' failures was his inability to develop a proprietary software system at the German carmaker. Tens of thousands of IT workers are trying to develop a VW operating system that can be installed in all the company's car brands. Tesla already has this, Google and Apple do too.

In fact, this is one of the greatest fears of established car companies like VW. That, in the end, they will only build the things that wrap around the software, and the IT will actually be what makes the difference and the money. This would mean that whoever provides the software gets all the driver data, along with the cash that comes with it. 

And that would be the end of an era for classic car manufacturers. This is really what Diess failed at — and there is no guarantee that his successor will do any better.  

This article was translated from the German.

The liberation of Dachau, 75 years ago

When US soldiers reached the gate of the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, they had no idea what horrors awaited them. War reporter Martha Gellhorn shared what she saw with the world.



WHAT US SOLDIERS FOUND AT DACHAU
The arrival of the US army

On Sunday, April 29, 1945 Colonel Sparks gave the marching orders to the 3rd battalion of his infantry regiment. The US troops came from the West, advancing towards Munich. They didn't know exactly where Dachau, the concentration camp the Nazis set up in 1933, was located. When they discovered it, the troops encountered gruesome sights.

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On the morning of April 29, 1945 the "Rainbow Division" of the Seventh US Army reached the closed gates of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich. The German Wehrmacht had long since withdrawn, and most of the SS guards were on the run.

Without exchanging fire, the US soldiers entered the camp, and were shocked by what they saw: hundreds of corpses in barracks and freight cars, half-starved traumatized prisoners, many with typhoid. Only a few of them could stand on their own.

There was, however, a group of somewhat stronger concentration camp prisoners as well, who, earlier that month, had conspiratorially formed a secret resistance group in the chaos of the overcrowded barracks. They introduced themselves to the American GIs as the International Prisoners' Committee.

Prisoners rejoicing following the liberation of the concentration camp on April 29, 1945

The smell of death wafted through the camp

"Behind the barbed wire and the electric fence, the skeletons sat in the sun and searched themselves for lice. They have no age and faces; they all look alike..." wrote American journalist Martha Gellhorn, who as a war reporter, had been accompanying the advancing US troops through occupied Europe since the previous October.

A few days later, in the early days of May 1945, she entered the liberated concentration camp and described her shock in her writing: "We crossed the wide, dusty compound between the prison barracks and went to the hospital. In the hall sat more of the skeletons and from them came the smell of disease and death. They watched us but did not move: No expression shows on a face that is only yellowish stubbly skin stretched across bones."

Reporting from the gates of hell

Since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936-38, Martha Gellhorn had been reporting for major American newspapers from wars all over the world. She also happened to be the wife of novelist Ernest Hemingway, whom she married in 1940. As an "embedded journalist" she accompanied the US army on the front lines. On April 26, 1945, she and the GIs reached the Allgäu, and in early May, she was sent to the liberated Dachau concentration camp.

The main gate of the former concentration camp, with the infamous Nazi slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' ('Work sets you free')

"What killed most of them was hunger; starving to death was a routine matter here," the reporter summarized her shocking observations and initial conversations with surviving prisoners, who told her about forced labor and everyday life in the camp. "One worked these long hours on meager rations and lived so overcrowded, cramming bodies into unventilated barracks, waking up weaker and weaker each morning, expecting death."

Living next to the crematorium

Gellhorn gathered from the camp files that well over 200,000 prisoners were interned in Dachau concentration camp since its opening in 1933. "It is not known how many people died in this camp in the 12 years of its existence, but at least 45,000 are known to have died in the last three years," the American journalist wrote in one of her reports.

The facts and figures related to the death toll and human conditions inside Dachau shows that even the experienced war reporter was shaken. Towards the end of her article, she can no longer suppress cynicism.

nhumane medical experiments were performed at the concentration camp; here a subject is immersed in a tank of ice water

"And in front of the crematorium, separated from it by a stretch of garden, stood a long row of well-built, commodious homes," she wrote in May 1945: "The families of the SS officers lived here: their wives and children lived here quite happily while the chimneys of the crematorium spewed out the unending human ashes. ... And last February and March, 2,000 were killed in the gas chamber because, though they were too weak to work, they did not have the grace to die, so it was arranged for them.”

Training camp for the SS

Dachau was the first concentration camp that the Nazis built on German soil. By order of Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police, an internment camp for 5,000 male prisoners was built at the gates of the small Bavarian town in spring 1933. From its construction to its administrative organization, Dachau became a model for all other concentration camps, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Opened March 22, 1933 on the initiative of Heinrich Himmler, Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp

The first commander was Theodor Eicke, an SS officer who, in accordance with Himmler's orders, made Dachau into what he considered to be a "model camp." The wooden prisoners' barracks were aligned along long streets, with space in between for the SS guards.

The first prisoners in Dachau were political prisoners: opponents of the Nazi regime, trade unionists, social democrats, communists, and in some cases, conservative politicians. They were later followed by criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti and Roma, politically committed Christians, and also Jews. With military drills and merciless severity, Eicke trained SS supervisors to get used to torture, brutal violence and being part of the killing machine.

Dachau prisoners were used as forced laborers

30 April: Invasion of Munich

As the prisoners dragged themselves from the barracks to the roll call square in the early morning of April 28, 1945, they were amazed to see that the SS had raised a white flag on one of the watchtowers. Most of the SS men had long since fled.

The remaining guards tried to keep the prisoners in check with machine guns. Rumors ran through the camp like wildfire. The next day, the liberators of the Seventh US Army reached Dachau. It was the second to last of all concentration camps to be liberated by the allied troops.

On April 30, 1945, the Americans marched into Munich, where the Nazis had established the "capital of the movement," as it was called in Nazi jargon, which contained the party headquarters of the Nazi party. On the same day, they learned that Hitler and his partner Eva Braun had committed suicide in their bunker in Berlin.

The last transports of prisoners were liberated by US troops in early May. On May 8, the "unconditional surrender" came into effect, and the war was finally over.

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Date 29.04.2020
Author Heike Mund (sh)
Related Subjects Concentration camps, World War II, Nazis, Holocaust
Keywords Holocaust, Heinrich Himmler, concentration camp, Dachau, history, Nazis, liberation, US army
Feedback: Send us your feedback.
Print Print this page
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3bW8q

UK

Labour: Young people will be expected to take up work and training

RED TORIES SAY 

HEY KIDZ; ARBEIT MACHT FREI

SEAN SEDDON - BBC NEWS
March 4, 2024 

Liz Kendall

There will be "no option of a life on benefits" for young people under Labour, its shadow work secretary will declare in a speech on Monday.

Liz Kendall is expected to say the party will invest in careers and skills training but warn young people have a "responsibility" to take them up.

The party warned the number of people aged between 16-24 who are not in work, education or training is rising.

A Tory spokesman said Labour has an "abysmal" record on youth employment.

According to Office for National Statistics estimates, there were 851,000 young people not in employment, education or training between October to December 2023.

That number has risen by 20,000 compared to the same period in 2022 and accounts for 12% of all 16-24-year-olds.

In a speech to the Demos think tank in central London, Ms Kendall will say the Tories have "failed on the economy - and that is because they have failed on work".

She is expected to add: "This is our commitment to young people. We value you. You are important. We will invest in you and help you build a better future with all the chances and choices this brings.

"But in return for these new opportunities, you will have a responsibility to take up the work or training that's on offer. Under our changed Labour party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits."

The party has not detailed whether it would introduce enforcement measures to back up its stance.

Speaking to BBC's Today programme ahead of her speech, Ms Kendall said young people were "desperate to work" but struggled to get a job without experience, and experience without a job.

She said Labour would ensure jobseekers had access to careers advice, work experience, employment support and early mental health support.

Labour has previously pledged to invest in 1,000 new careers advisers, specialist mental health support in every school and so-called Young Future hubs in every area to provide a range of services to vulnerable young people.

It says it would fund the changes by removing tax breaks for private schools and closing tax loopholes used by some private equity fund managers.

The party plans to reform the apprenticeship levy - a 0.5% tax on large employers - to invest in skills training.

Ms Kendall is further expected to say on Monday that Labour would "overhaul access to work" for disabled young people if it wins the next election.

In response, a Conservative Party spokesman pointed towards the previous record of Labour governments on youth employment.

The Tories have also attacked Labour's plan to reform the apprenticeship levy in order to fund its policies, saying it would lead to a reduction in the number of people getting on-the-job training.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "Under the last Labour government, youth unemployment almost doubled and the number of people seeking out-of-work benefits soared - their abysmal record speaks for itself."

Nearly a quarter of young Americans believe the Holocaust didn’t happen or has been exaggerated


Gustaf Kilander

THE INDEPENDENT
Mon, June 21, 2021

A picture taken in April 1945 depicts Auschwitz concentration camp gate, with the inscription ARBEIT MACHT FREI; Work Makes You Free.

One in 10 young Americans believes that the Holocaust never happened, while 23 per cent think it’s a myth or that the number of those killed has been exaggerated.

In a 50-state survey of Americans aged between 18 and 39, 12 per cent said they had never heard, or thought they had never heard, the word “Holocaust” before.

Some younger Americans appear to have bought into conspiracy theories being shared on social media and some can’t name a single concentration camp.


Almost half of the survey respondents, 49 per cent, said they had seen Holocaust denial and distortion content on social media, with 11 per cent saying they thought Jews, not the Nazis, were responsible for the Holocaust. That number goes up to 19 per cent in New York state.

New York has the highest share, just over nine per cent, of the US Jewish population, with almost 1.8 million people identifying as Jewish in the state.

More than a third of respondents, 36 per cent, thought fewer than two million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and 63 per cent were unaware that the actual number of Jews killed was six million.

Almost half, 48 per cent, couldn’t name a single one of the 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos in Europe during the Holocaust.

While most of the killings took place between 1941 and 1945, the persecution of Jews started much earlier, with the first concentration camp, Dachau outside Munich, being built in 1933, initially intended to hold political prisoners.

Only six per cent of respondents said they were familiar with the Dachau camp.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany commissioned the survey. The president of the organisation, Gideon Taylor, said in a statement: “The results are both shocking and saddening, and they underscore why we must act now while Holocaust survivors are still with us to voice their stories.”

“We need to understand why we aren’t doing better in educating a younger generation about the Holocaust and the lessons of the past,” Mr Taylor added. “This needs to serve as a wake-up call to us all, and as a road map of where government officials need to act.”

To establish where in the country lack of knowledge was the biggest issue, the survey was done state by state with a “knowledge score” being devised to measure awareness.

The score was calculated by taking the percentage of respondents who had heard of the Holocaust and could name at least one concentration camp, death camp, or ghetto, and was aware that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

Arkansas came at the bottom of the list, with fewer than two in 10 – some 17 per cent – of Millennials and Gen Z individuals meeting the knowledge criteria. Mississippi at 18 per cent and Florida at 20 per cent also came in the bottom three.

Wisconsin was at the top of the list with 42 per cent, Minnesota at 37 per cent and Massachusetts at 35 per cent made up the rest of the top three.

Holocaust denial is thriving on social media, with a study from August last year showing that Facebook’s algorithm was “actively” pushing this kind of content.

Facebook spokesperson Dani Lever told USA Today in January: “We’ve made major progress in fighting Holocaust denial on Facebook by implementing a new policy prohibiting it and enforcing against these hateful lies in every country around the world.”

“It is clear that we must fight this distortion of history and do all we can to ensure that the social media giants stop allowing this harmful content on their platforms,” the executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Greg Schneider, said in a statement.

Munich bans use of Nazi 'Jewish star' at coronavirus protests

Anti-lockdown protesters in Germany have come under fire for appropriating the horrors of the Holocaust. Several have dressed up as concentration camp prisoners and put on Nazi-era stars reading: "unvaccinated."


The city of Munich banned the use of Nazi-era Stars of David at coronavirus protests on Sunday after participants were seen wearing them in recent weeks.

Several protesters in cities across Germany have started wearing six pointed, yellow stars with the word "unvaccinated" emblazoned on them. From the color to the font, they're nearly identical to the badges Jewish people were forced to wear across Nazi-occupied territories during the Holocaust.

Read more: How are Germany's coronavirus protests different?

Other anti-lockdown protesters have also dressed up in striped prisoner uniforms — drawing comparison to concentration camp prisoners — and held up signs reading: "Masks will set you free" or "Vaccination will set you free."


Protesters held signs reading "Vaccinations will set you free"

The slogans reference the "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free") signs that hung above several concentration camps, where millions of Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

Demonstrators are using the highly questionable protest tactics to voice their opposition to mandatory coronavirus vaccines — despite the fact that the German government has repeatedly said it will not implement such a program.

Read more: In Germany, vaccine fears spark conspiracy theories

Politicians slam anti-Semitic tactic

Felix Klein, Germany's commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said that wearing the altered Jewish stars was a "calculated breaking of a taboo," reported local public broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk.

The tactic has been used increasingly in protests in Germany, Klein said. In using symbols of the Holocaust to provoke at protests, he added, the demonstrators downplay the victims and their suffering.

Other politicians have called for more cities and states to also ban the use of Nazi-era stars at protests and to label them as a form of incitement.

Read more: Germany sees rise in anti-Semitic, political crimes

Rüdiger Erben, a Social Democrat lawmaker in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, said that the symbols have also appeared at protests in his state and that they have nothing to do with freedom of speech or freedom of assembly.

Whoever puts on one of the stars is acting "as an anti-Semite of the most repulsive kind," Erben told news agency epd.

Protesters have been gathering for weeks in cities across Germany to demonstrate against the government's restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Although participant numbers are starting to dwindle, politicians and analysts have grown increasingly concerned about right-wing extremist radicalization at the demonstrations.

https://www.dw.com/en/munich-bans-use-of-nazi-jewish-star-at-coronavirus-protests/a-53644792
Pushing back against coronavirus scapegoating in Germany

rs/dr (dpa, epd)

Every evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. Sign up to receive it directly here.


Date 31.05.2020
Related Subjects Holocaust, World War II, Nazis, Germany, Munich, Coronavirus
Keywords Germany, coronavirus, protests, Holocaust, "Jewish stars", Nazis, Munich
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Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3d5Sa

ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Trump unleashes late-night Twitter rant suggesting he’ll ‘cure’ coronavirus crisis by sending America back to work

March 23, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement


Trump’s Tweet Creates Images of Dystopian Sci-Fi: ‘Is This How the Hunger Games Began?’

At ten minutes to midnight on Sunday President Donald Trump launched a disturbing all-caps Twitter rant that suggests his “plan” to cure the coronavirus crisis will be to send everyone back to work, thus likely killing millions.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump actually tweeted, proving he values profits over people and saying clearly that if people have to die so the economy can get better than so be it.

“AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020


Sunday marked day seven of the 15-day “stay at home” policy just one-third of the nation is under.

It’s not surprising, given his recent statements on the coronavirus pandemic.

For instance, barely more than two weeks ago, on March 5, Trump lied about what medical experts were saying while he tried to minimize the lethality of COVID-19. The President falsely suggested to Americans it is not dangerous to report to work as normal if they have the deadly coronavirus – and even went so far as to say going back to work will make people get better.

“So we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that just get better, by, you know, sitting around and even going to work,” Trump lied.

Thousands of people did not recover from the deadly coronavirus by “going to work.”

But it looks like the President is poised to consider implementing that as policy, instituting what Britain tried – until a study showed “that as many as 250,000 people could die as a result.”

Here’s how some are responding:

Translation: Trump cares about the Dow Jones Industrial Average and his re-election chances more than he cares about the lives of the American people.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 23, 2020


Trump is literally torn between two choices. He can either redirect people fears and anxiety about the coronavirus and the economy towards Asian Americans as vulnerable scapegoats like a racist demagogue or he can go back to, “it’s just the flu, bro.”
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 23, 2020


Is this how the Hunger games began? https://t.co/Qe0MXzJwwO
— Chuck (@ChuckChaneyBCTG) March 23, 2020

Good luck everyone. https://t.co/GFcDUpHMzO
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 23, 2020

Is he hinting at lifting quarantine to initiate widespread herd immunity… scary https://t.co/WcEGRsbzUf
— matteo di bernardo (@Dibernardo_10) March 23, 2020

TL;dr: “Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.” https://t.co/9Sr0dp4ksf
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 23, 2020

If you’re thinking about herd immunity, you go first big guy https://t.co/P1NAwFEEIl
— eu_נøиαтħαи 

#VampiradaXOpalas (@Jn_malvadous) March 23, 2020


Remember 2016, talk of taking his phone away because it was embarrassing? I’m not hearing that now, yet behold: all caps vague-tweeting about pivoting pandemic strategy to herd immunity nine hours before the NYSE opens completely electronic, no humans, for the first time ever https://t.co/Qk8wxEKJuk
— Joe Spurr (@joespurr) March 23, 2020


YOUR INCOMPETENCE IS STAGGERING…
— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) March 23, 2020


Looks like theres another herd immunity strategy in the works https://t.co/vWgR2pwmbc
— simon

 

(@bolloticks) March 23, 2020

P.S. It’s midnight and we’re in the greatest national health and financial crisis in decades, and you’re supposed to be leading the nation.
Why in the hell are you tweeting right now, you malignant fraud? pic.twitter.com/PMhTuKRmBW
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) March 23, 2020

UK

Labour says jobless cannot ‘live a life on benefits’ as it pledges to be ‘party of work’

RED TORIES SAY: ARBEIT MACHT FREI

Daniel Martin
Sun, 3 March 2024

Liz Kendall said Labour will fight the next election as the 'party of work' 

- Heathcliff O'Malley/Heathcliff O'Malley

PARTY OF WORK NOT WORKERS

Labour will fight the next election as the “party of work” and warn the jobless they will not be able to live a “life on benefits”, the party’s shadow work and pensions secretary said.

Liz Kendall said young people will be told they have a “responsibility” to accept jobs or training opportunities when they are offered.

In an interview with The Telegraph, she made a direct appeal to life-long Conservative voters, saying: “If you believe in hard work, responsibility, taking care of yourself and your family… then take a look at us.”

And as Jeremy Hunt prepares to deliver his Budget, she accused the Chancellor of having “failed” on work - overseeing a huge increase in the numbers off work through sickness.

The shadow work and pensions secretary accused the Chancellor of overseeing a huge increase in the numbers off work through sickness - UNPIXS/UNPIXS

Ms Kendall will today unveil a new offer for young people, including better mental health support in schools, and improved work experience and careers advice to help them enter work or training.

She will point out that one in eight young people are now not in work, education or training (NEET), the highest level since 2016 - costing the taxpayer billions in benefits.

There are now 851,000 so-called NEETs, an increase of 20,000 in a year.

“We will not write them off like the Conservatives,” she said. “In return for those new opportunities, young people will have a responsibility to take up work or training when it’s offered.

“Because under a changed Labour Party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits.

“And that’s not just because the vast majority of the British public think rights and responsibilities go hand-in-hand. But because if you’re out of work or you lack basic qualifications, that could have a lifelong impact.

“That is not good enough for young people and it’s not good enough for our country. We believe that you should have the chance to fulfil your potential and live your hopes and dreams, no matter where you’re born, no matter what your parents did, no matter what your gender or the colour of your skin.”

She added: “Labour is the party of work… Labour was founded by working people for working people, it is our name, and under Keir Starmer and the changed Labour Party, work will absolutely be at the heart of what we do.

“We believe in the value of work, and that that goes beyond a payslip.

“For millions of families across Britain, holding down a job and providing for themselves and their family gives them a sense of dignity and self respect, and good work is good for mental health. Good work gives you pride and purpose and sense of fulfilment, and for many women, it gives them freedom and independence too.”

The Labour party has changed under Sir Keir Starmer, she said - Reuters/Reuters

The shadow minister said the Tories had “failed” over 14 years by not tackling Britain’s worklessness crisis, and Mr Hunt had also failed to tackle the issue despite making big promises in previous Budgets.

She pointed out that the UK has a record high in the number of people out to work due to long-term sickness: 2.8 million people.

“For all the Tories’ talk about being tough on benefits, if you look over the next five years, there’s going to be 600,000 more people on sickness and disability benefits, and it’s going to cost an extra £33 billion,” she said. “So they have failed on work.

“I know many of your readers are lifelong Conservative voters - but I would say to them: Take a look at Labour, we have changed.

“If you believe in hard work, responsibility, taking care of yourself and your family; if you believe in being careful with taxpayers’ money - because it’s not the government’s money, it’s your money; if you want a leader and a chancellor who will build everything on the rock of fiscal credibility, then take a look at us, because we we want your support.

“We know we’ve got to work hard to convince Conservative voters that we share those values, those decent British values. And we’re going to work day and night to convince people to trust us at the next election.”

Bringing down the number of inactive people will not only benefit individuals and taxpayers, it will help business, she said.

“Every single day I’m speaking to my businesses who say the number one barrier for them growing is they can’t recruit,” she said. “So we’ve got to sort out everything from the apprenticeship levy and other skills to make sure our businesses can recruit.”

She said Labour would bring in 1,000 new careers advisers, specialist mental health support in every school and a new growth and skills levy to boost apprenticeships.

New technical excellence colleges will improve young people’s skills, there will be new employment advisers for young people after they have left school, and more help for the disabled.

 

VALUE = $$$$$

Young people valued but must take opportunities to learn and work, Labour to say


Samuel Montgomery, PA
Mon, 4 March 2024 

Young people will be told they are valued and “important” but have a responsibility to take up the work or training that is being offered as part of Labour’s plan to invest in their future.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will say there is “no option of a life on benefits” for those able to work as she unveils the party’s plan to reduce the number of young people out of work, education or training in a speech on Monday.

Labour’s plan focuses on recruiting thousands of mental health professionals and career advisers to encourage young people to work, which it would fund by targeting tax breaks for private schools and closing tax loopholes used by some private equity fund managers.

In a speech to the Demos think tank in central London, Ms Kendall is also expected to say: “Under our changed Labour Party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits.”

The speech comes as new figures revealed almost 851,000 people aged 16-24 are not in education, employment or training (Neet), an increase of 20,000 in a year and the highest level since 2016.

Ms Kendall has pledged to recruit 1,000 new career advisers in schools and the creation of new employment advisers in Labour’s Young Future hubs, which have been billed to provide tailored specialist support.

She is expected to say: “The Labour Party was founded by working people, for working people.

“And that core belief, that Labour is the party of work, is at the heart of Keir Starmer’s changed Labour Party today.

“This is our commitment to young people. We value you. You are important.

“We will invest in you and help you build a better future with all the chances and choices this brings.

“But in return for these new opportunities, you will have a responsibility to take up the work or training that’s on offer.

“Under our changed Labour Party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits.”

(PA Graphics)

The party plans to expand the provision of specialist mental health support for young people by recruiting 8,500 more mental health professionals.

Ms Kendall will accuse the Tories of having “failed on the economy – and that’s because they have failed on work”.

Labour plans to overhaul the Tories’ apprentice levy with new technical excellence colleges and a growth and skills levy for those who did not achieve the required qualifications at school

The party will also pledge to improve access to work for young disabled people by ensuring they know what equipment, adaptations or personal support they will get before they start work so they feel more confident.

Some 281,500 people aged 18-24 are claiming unemployment related benefits, which is 14,800 more than a year ago, according to ONS figures.

Life on benefits will not be an option under Labour, says Liz Kendall

Ben Quinn Political correspondent
Mon, 4 March 2024 

Liz Kendall, centre, meets students at the Euston Skills Centre in north London after delivering a speech during an event hosted by thinktank Demos.Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Under a Labour government there would be “no option of a life on benefits”, the party has said, as it set out plans to reduce the number of young people not in work, education or training.

The shadow work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said the party would recruit 8,500 more mental health workers and promised that the sickness benefits bill would fall under Labour.

Kendall did not specify what form the tougher measures on universal credit would take.

“Under our changed Labour party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits,” she said in a speech to the centre-left Demos thinktank in London, where she sought to outline Labour’s commitment on “investing” in young people.

“Not just because the British people believe rights should go hand in hand with responsibilities. But because being unemployed or lacking basic qualifications when you’re young can harm your job prospects and wages for the rest of your life.”

The tough language on welfare – reminiscent of 90s-era New Labour – prompted concern about the implications of sanctions for those struggling with mental health issues.

Kendall also spoke of overhauling jobcentres to end a “tick-box culture” and devolving employment support to local areas “because the man – or even woman – in Whitehall can never know what’s best for Leicester, Liverpool and Leeds”.

She took aim at what she described as “Tory claims about being tough on benefits”, and said that over the next five years there would be 600,000 more people on incapacity and disability benefits, costing an extra £33bn.

Kendall made the speech as new figures revealed that almost 851,000 young people aged 16-24 were not in education, employment or training (Neet) – an increase of 20,000 in a year. It was largely driven by the increase in young men who are Neet.

Kendall was challenged in a question-and-answer session by Ollie Steadman, a policy and campaigns manager at the charity Mind, who prefaced his comments by welcoming her emphasis on the need for “quality” work.

But he added: “Many of the same people might feel a bit concerned about the talk around responsibility, and potentially for it to lead to sanctions and a kind of wider system or harsher system that doesn’t get mental health.”

Steadman said afterwards: “Supporting disabled people to find long-term, fulfilling work can only be achieved by taking a supportive approach. Punitive action does not work and only pushes disabled people further into poverty. Whoever forms the next UK government should restore trust in the benefits system by establishing a commission led by disabled people to redesign benefits assessments.”

Kendall responded to his question by saying there was clear evidence that having a good job was very good for mental health, adding: “We know that if you’re in good work, your relapses can be cut by a third or even half. That’s better for you. It’s better for the NHS, it’s better for taxpayers.”

Other concerns were expressed by Dr Michael Orton, of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, who welcomed much of what Kendall had outlined, in particular around devolving employment support.

“But there are questions as to how this differs from programmes going back to the 1980s and which the evidence shows have marginal impact at best,” he said. “Some critical issues weren’t mentioned including fluctuating health conditions, which standard jobs can’t accommodate, and the need to update our social security system to meet new challenges not repeat punitive approaches which do more harm than good.”

Mark Winstanley, the chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness, welcomed Kendall’s plans to help tear down obstacles that prevent people from getting into and staying in employment, but he added: “We also need reform of an overly punitive benefits system which too often has harmed the very people it was set up to help.”

Labour promises crackdown on benefits payments to inactive young people


Harry Stedman and Samuel Montgomery, PA
Mon, 4 March 2024 

Labour has promised tougher measures on handing out benefits payments as it sets out plans to reduce the number of young people out of work, education or training.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the party would recruit 8,500 more mental health workers and reform the Government’s “failed” apprenticeship levy to solve inactivity.

But Ms Kendall did not specify what form the tougher measures on universal credit would take.

She added Labour would give young people “chances and choices” as they were “chomping at the bit” to take up new opportunities.

Labour’s plan focuses on recruiting thousands of mental health professionals and career advisers to encourage young people to work, which it would fund by targeting tax breaks for private schools and closing tax loopholes used by some private equity fund managers.

New figures revealed almost 851,000 people aged 16-24 are not in education, employment or training (Neet), an increase of 20,000 in a year and the highest level since 2016.

Ms Kendall was promoted to shadow work and pensions secretary in a Labour cabinet reshuffle last September.

In a speech to the Demos think tank in central London on Monday, she said: “This is our commitment to young people – we value you, you are important.

“We will invest in you and help you build a better future, with all the chances and choices this brings.

“But in return for these new opportunities, you will have a responsibility to take up the work or training that’s on offer.

“Under our changed Labour Party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits, not just because the British people believe rights should go hand in hand with responsibilities, but because being unemployed or lacking basic qualifications when you’re young can harm your job prospects and wages for the rest of your life.

“This isn’t good enough for young people or for our country.”

Ms Kendall pledged to recruit 1,000 new career advisers in schools and the creation of new employment advisers in Labour’s Young Future hubs, which have been billed to provide tailored specialist support.

She said Labour would create specialist mental health support in every school to intervene at earlier ages with young people, and said she wanted to see job centres working in partnership with the NHS.

Ms Kendall said: “Under Labour, the Department of Work and Pensions and Job Centres will do what they say on the tin.

“We will have a relentless focus on helping more people get work and get on at work, and on making workplaces healthier and more productive places to be.”

(PA Graphics)

The party plans to expand the provision of specialist mental health support for young people by recruiting 8,500 more mental health professionals.

Ms Kendall accused the Tories of having “failed on the economy – and that’s because they have failed on work”.

Labour plans to overhaul the Tories’ apprentice levy with new technical excellence colleges and a growth and skills levy for those who did not achieve the required qualifications at school

The party will also pledge to improve access to work for young disabled people by ensuring they know what equipment, adaptations or personal support they will get before they start work so they feel more confident.

Some 281,500 people aged 18-24 are claiming unemployment related benefits, which is 14,800 more than a year ago, according to ONS figures.