2NAZI GERMANY - EUGENICS, RACIAL PURITY & PERSECUTION

EUGENICS, RACIAL PURITY & PERSECUTION

There are nine posts in this series on Nazi Germany. Each post touches briefly on the subject given that there are already numerous research papers, articles and books, covering each topic in depth. Many links are included in each post. For the reasoning behind writing these posts, read the Introduction HERE.

0 INTRODUCTION - Why this Series of Posts?

1 UN CHARTER & UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS - Why WWII Drove The Creation Of The UDHR.

2 EUGENICS, RACIAL PURITY AND PERSECUTION - The US Influenced Nazi Germany's Eugenics Program. A Snapshot of the Diverse Groups Persecuted and Imprisoned in Concentration Camps. The Nuremberg Trial, Which Dealt With Racial Purity - RuSHA (USA vs. Ulrich Greifelt et al).
3 FORCED AND SLAVE LABOUR - Without Forced and Slave Labour the Nazi War Machine would have Collapsed and Brought the War to an Abrupt End. A Brief History of Forced and Slave Labour Before, During and After World War II. Details of The Nuremberg Trials for German Industrialists - Flick, Krupp and IG Farben.
4 FORCED PROSTITUTION, SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE - Sexual Crimes Were Not Tried at Nuremberg even though There Were Established Laws Condemning These Crimes. Information About Nazi Military Brothels and Concentration Camp Brothels. Evidence and Testimonies from Witnesses. Both Axis and Allied Forces were Guilty of Sexual Violence and Rape.

5 NAZI DOCTORS EXPERIMENTS AND TRIALS - The Nazi Doctors' Nuremberg Trial and Details of Their Experiments. Names of Nazi Doctors who Escaped Prosecution. Information about Post War Unethical Experiments Without Informed Consent, in the USA, Russia, South Africa and Israel.

6 STERILIZATION AND EUTHANASIA PROGRAMS - Life “Unworthy of Life” A Brief History of the Sterilization and the Euthanasia Programs and German Public Opposition. Using Cost Benefits Analysis in Nazi Medicine to Educate Children.
7 WORLD WAR II BY DESIGN – THE ECONOMY AND FOREIGN INVESTORS - An Important Component of Nazi Germany's War Infrastructure. Brief History of the German Economy and Hermann Goering's Four Year Plan. Role of Jewish Public Protests and their Boycott of German Goods in 1933 and Germany's Retaliatory Actions. The Real Role of Neutral Countries During the War. Post War Looting of German Patents, Cover Up of German Research on Tobacco and Cancer and the Removal/Kidnap of Nazi Experts to Allied Countries. The Role of Foreign Subsidiaries/Investors before and during World War II in Germany.
8 UNWCC (UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION) LAW REPORTS - The UNWCC prepared and published a 15 volume set of law reports covering 89 War Crimes Trials From World War II. This post contains links to all of these law reports and a list of the cases in each volume. Some information on CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects).

***

EUGENICS, RACIAL PURITY & PERSECUTION

As we know today some of the groups persecuted and discriminated against during WWII are also present day victims.

WHO INFLUENCED ADOLF HITLER?
Extracts From Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California Connection By Edwin Black

Eugenics was born as a scientific curiosity in the Victorian age. In 1863, Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, theorized that if talented people married only other talented people, the result would be measurably better offspring. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power.

Eugenics was the pseudoscience aimed at "improving" the human race. In its extreme, racist form, this meant wiping away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype.

Elements of the philosophy were enshrined as US national policy by forced sterilization and segregation laws, as well as marriage restrictions, enacted in 27 (USA) states. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt such laws. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in "colonies," and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning.

Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state accounted for a third of all such surgeries. Only after eugenics became entrenched in the United States was the campaign transplanted into Germany, in no small measure through the efforts of California eugenicists, who published booklets idealizing sterilization and circulated them to German officials and scientists.

During the '20s, the Carnegie Institution eugenic scientists cultivated deep personal and professional relationships with Germany's fascist eugenicists. In "Mein Kampf," published in 1924, Hitler quoted American eugenic ideology and openly displayed a thorough knowledge of American eugenics.

America Funded Germany's Eugenic Institutions
By 1926, Rockefeller had donated some $410,000 -- almost $4 million in today's money -- to hundreds of German researchers. In May 1926, Rockefeller awarded $250,000 toward creation Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Psychiatry. Among the leading psychiatrists at the German Psychiatric Institute was Ernst Rüdin, who became director and eventually an architect of Hitler's systematic medical repression.

The Rockefeller Foundation helped found the German eugenics program and even funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.

After the war, eugenics was declared a crime against humanity -- an act of genocide. Germans were tried and they cited the California statutes in their defense -- to no avail. They were found guilty.

*

Other Books and Articles By Edwin Black
Edwin Black is the award-winning, New York Times and international investigative author of 65 bestselling editions in 14 languages in 61 countries, as well as scores of newspaper and magazine articles in the leading publications of the United States, Europe and Israel. His work focuses on genocide and hate, corporate criminality and corruption, governmental misconduct, academic fraud, philanthropy abuse, oil addiction, alternative energy and historical investigation.

His book - War Against The Weak - How American corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the United States, helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele — and then created the modern movement of "human genetics."

The Transfer Agreement is Edwin Black's compelling, award-winning story of a negotiated arrangement in 1933 between Zionist organizations and the Nazis to transfer some 50,000 Jews, and $100 million of their assets, to Jewish Palestine in exchange for stopping the worldwide Jewish-led boycott threatening to topple the Hitler regime in its first year.

IBM and the Holocaust is the stunning story of IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany -- beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continuing well into World War II. As the Third Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.

America's Corporate Connections to Hitler's Holocaust Nazi Nexus is the long-awaited wrap-up in a single explosive volume that details the pivotal corporate American connection to the Holocaust. The biggest names and crimes are all there. IBM and its facilitation of the identification and accelerated destruction of the Jews; General Motors and its rapid motorization of the German military enabling the conquest of Europe and the capture of Jews everywhere; Ford Motor Company for its political inspiration; the Rockefeller Foundation for its financing of deadly eugenic science and the program that sent Mengele into Auschwitz; the Carnegie Institution for its proliferation of the concept of race science, racial laws, and the very mathematical formula used to brand the Jews for progressive destruction; and others.

*

RACIAL PURITY AND PERSECUTION

Charts of Prisoner Markings and Identification Badges in Concentration Camps are widely available. They give a snapshot view of people considered racially impure, persecuted and imprisoned. The Nazis viewed Poles and other Slavs as inferior to themselves.

Link to US Holocaust Museum About the Badge Identification System in Camps.

The most common forms of badge in camps were:

RED TRIANGLE — Political Prisoners (Social Democrats, Trade Unionists, Liberals, Communists, Freemasons, Anarchists.) Some Anarchists, and other "Enemies of the State," were also given a BLACK TRIANGLE.
GREEN TRIANGLE "Habitual Criminals"
BLUE TRIANGLE - Foreign Forced Laborers, Emigrants.
PINK TRIANGLE — Homosexuals and Sexual Offenders.
PURPLE TRIANGLE — Religious Dissidents, Bible Students as Jehovah's Witnesses were then known
BLACK TRIANGLE — people who were deemed "Asocial Elements," included Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) (later assigned a BROWN TRIANGLE), The Mentally Retarded, The Mentally Ill, Alcoholics Vagrants and Beggars, Aristocrats, Intellectuals, Pacifists, Conscription Resisters, The Habitually "Work-Shy", Prostitutes and some anarchists.
BROWN TRIANGLE — Roma (Gypsies) (previously wore the BLACK TRIANGLE).

YELLOW STAR - Jews were required to wear the Star of David (a double triangle) not only in the camps but throughout most of occupied Europe.

A quick note about how Jews were Identified. All Germans were required to prove their Aryan ancestry and racial purity by tracing back their blood line to 1750. Jews were immediately identified by being members of a synagogue, of a known Jewish family and with four Jewish Grandparents. In the 1935 Nuremberg Laws expanded the definition of a Jew to

- Anyone who was descended from three or four Jewish grandparents
- Anyone with two Jewish grandparents and who belonged to the Jewish religion, or were married to a Jew as of the date of the adoption of the Laws

The word "Mischling" was introduced and is similar in meaning to the English "half-breed" or "mongrel".
- Mischling First Degree were those with two Jewish grandparents, but who did not belong to the Jewish religion and were not married to a Jew.
- Mischling Second Degree were people descended from one Jewish grandparent.

*

In addition to color-coding, some groups had a letter insignia on their triangles to denote country of origin.
A Red triangle with a letter: "B" (Belgier, Belgians), "F" (Franzosen, French), "H" (Holländer, Dutch), "I" (Italiener, Italians), "N" (Norweger, Norwegians), "P" (Polen, Poles), "S" (Republikanische Spanier, Republican Spanish) "T" (Tschechen, Czechs), "U" (Ungarn, Hungarians). More Information Go HERE

Religious Institutions
The Catholic Church was particularly suppressed in Poland because of the Church's opposition to many of Nazi Party's beliefs. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 3,000 members, 18% of the Polish clergy were murdered; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps. 2,600 Catholic priests from 24 different countries were also killed.

It is common knowledge Jews had no choice whereas Jehovah's Witnesses did. Alone of all the groups targeted by the Nazis, the Jehovah's Witnesses became victims because of what they Refused To Do. They would not enlist in the army, undertake air raid drills, stop meeting or proselytizing. They would not say the words ‘Heil Hitler.’ Their dissent was irksome, disciplined and systematic. Over 12,000 Witnesses were sent to the concentration camps, and estimated 2,500-5,000 died in the Holocaust.

Skin Colour
European and American Blacks were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. More Information HERE at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Homosexuals
Victims of the Nazi Era And the Future. More Information HERE (PDF) at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

*

WHICH NUREMBERG TRIAL IDENTIFIED PRINCIPAL PLAYERS?

In the RuSHA Trial (USA vs. Ulrich Greifelt, et al.) from 20 October 1947 - 10 March 1948, 14 officials from various SS organizations responsible for the implementation of the Nazi "pure race" programme (RuSHA, RKFDV, VoMi and The Lebensborn Society) were charged with crimes against humanity relating to racial cleansing and resettlement activities, murder, deportation, and torture on political, racial, and religious grounds. 13 officials were found guilty on one or more of the following charges:

1. Crimes Against Humanity by implementing "racial purity" programmes by kidnapping children, forcing "non-Aryan" pregnant women to undergo abortions, plundering, deportation of populations from their native lands in occupied countries and resettling of so-called "ethnic Germans" on such lands, sending people who had had "interracial" sexual relationships to concentration camps, and general participation in the persecution of Jews.
2. War Crimes for the same reasons.
3. Membership of a criminal organization, the SS.

Maria Dolezalova, a 15-year-old Czech girl kidnapped by the Germans, testified for the prosecution at the RuSHA Trial.

Children were kidnapped from their parents in conquered countries. They were racially screened for possible adoption by German parents in the SS Lebensborn ("Fount of Life") program. Children chosen for Germanization were given German names, forbidden to speak other languages and reeducated in SS or other Nazi institutions. Clearly physical appearance played a far more significant role than racial purity/blood lines.

*
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Clearly States:

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

*****

PREVIOUS POSTS TO JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED ON THE SAME THEME
Discrimination and Persecution of Atheists, Agnostics and Irreligious People
Emile Zola & The Alfred Dreyfus Affair - "J’Accuse ...!” - So Do I!

Go To This Post For Numerous UDHR Translations:
UDHR (Universal Declaration Of Human Rights) in Arabic, Czech, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian & Spanish - Also Includes links to 359 translations of the UDHR.

Discrimination and Persecution of Atheists, Agnostics and Irreligious People

DISCRIMINATION AND PERSECUTION OF ATHEISTS, AGNOSTICS, IRRELIGIOUS PEOPLE, ETC

There are still too many stories of different religions persecuting each other. None of these groups have the higher moral ground nor can they invoke their God to prove their God actually exists.

There are also instances (with less publicity) of persecution and discrimination against Atheists, Agnostics and Irreligious People. This is the Focus of this Post.

* * *

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

ECHR & UKHRA98 - Article 9 - Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion
ECHR & HRA98 - Article 10 – Freedom of Expression

* * *

The Meaning of Atheism, Agnosticism and an Irreligious Person.

According to Wikipedia, Atheism, as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods, or the rejection of theism. It is also defined more broadly as synonymous with any form of nontheism, including the simple absence of belief in deities.

According to Dictionary.com, An Atheist is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

According to Wikipedia, Agnosticism (Greek: without + knowledge; after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality — is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable.

According to Dictionary.com An Agnostic is
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

According to Wikipedia, Irreligion is a lack of religion, indifference to religion, or hostility to religion. Depending on the context, it may be understood as referring to atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, free thought, secular humanism or general secularism.

According to Dictionary.com, An Irreligious Person is
1. not religious; not practicing a religion and feeling no religious impulses or emotions.
2. showing or characterized by a lack of religion.
3. showing indifference or hostility to religion.

* * *

Discrimination and Persecution in Specific Countries

Discrimination against atheists is a negative categorical bias against atheists or secularism. Such prejudice and discrimination is a type of religious intolerance. In nations where freedom of belief is biased towards established religions, the issue becomes persecution of atheists.


Denmark
Even though religious freedom is guaranteed in the Danish constitution some laws exists that are considered discriminatory against non-religious citizens. The state church is partially subsidized by public funds. The state pays for the salaries and pensions of bishops, the pensions of priests and provost, 40% of the salaries of priests and provosts and all expenses concerning the conduction of church services in Ertholmene. The monarch is required to be a member of the state church by the Danish Constitution.

Egypt
Egypt introduced new identity cards in 2004 which identifies each citizen of Egypt as one of three religions: Muslim, Christian or Jewish. No other entries are possible, nor is it possible to leave the space for religion blank. If atheists are unwilling to lie about their religion, they are denied many basic human rights. Egyptian atheists cannot obtain birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates or passports. Without identity cards they have no access to medical treatment, cannot vote, cannot be employed, cannot do business with banks, not even to withdraw money from their own bank accounts.

This treatment is a requirement of Sharia law, which the Egyptian constitution states goes above normal law, and even above the constitution. This treatment of atheists is not limited to Egypt, but is practiced in almost all muslim-majority nations, with the notable exception of Turkey.

Germany
Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed, yet the state collects a church tax ("Kirchensteuer") from all registered members of the Evangelical and Catholic Christian faiths. De-registering oneself costs up to €50, depending on the federal state (as of 2000, has increased in the meantime). Payment is not required when switching between the two "taxed" faiths. This fee is required, too, if the person who wants to leave the church doesn't have any own income, in cases of someone who is 14 (the legal age in Germany at which a person can chose his religion without the parent's consent), or in cases of someone who is unemployed.

Iran
In Iran, Irreligious people are not recognized as citizens. While Jews, Christians and other minorities have the right to take part in university entrance exams and can become members of parliament or city councils, irreligious people are not granted even their basic rights. Most irreligious people, however, hide their beliefs and pretend to be Muslims. Non-believers—atheists—under Islam do not have "the right to life". Apostasy in Iran is punishable by death.

Norway
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Norwegian parents who had sued the Norwegian state. The case was about a subject in compulsory school, kristendomskunnskap med religions- og livssynsorientering (Teachings of Christianity with orientation about religion and philosophy), KRL. The applicants complained that the refusal to grant full exemption from KRL prevented them from ensuring that their children received an education in conformity with their atheist views and philosophical convictions. A few years earlier, in 2004, the UN Committee on Human Rights in Geneva had given its support to the parents.

Sweden
In Sweden, generally considered one of the most secularized countries in the world, there exist laws that could be considered discriminatory towards atheists: The king of Sweden must according to the law be a Christian. This is seen as an endorsement of Christianity by many atheists. Until 2000, Sweden had an official state church. Even after the law was changed, there is a special law that regulates the church and its affairs. In many public schools, the commencement after each semester is held in a church and a priest delivers a sermon. Sometimes schools go to church to celebrate holidays. When atheists have objected to this "tradition", politicians have defended it.

United States
In the United States, there is widespread disapproval of atheists. For example, according to motherjones.com, 52% of Americans claim they would not vote for a well-qualified atheist for president. More recently a 2007 Gallup poll produced nearly identical results. A 2006 study at the University of Minnesota showed atheists to be the most distrusted minority among Americans. Notwithstanding such attitudes, atheists are legally protected from discrimination in the United States. They have been among the strongest advocates of the legal separation of church and state. American courts have regularly, if controversially, interpreted the constitutional requirement for separation of church and state as protecting the freedoms of non-believers, as well as prohibiting the establishment of any state religion.

Several private organizations, the most notable being the Boy Scouts of America, do not allow atheist members. However, this policy has come under fire by organizations who assert that the Boy Scouts of America do profit from taxpayer money and thus cannot be called a truly private organization, and thus must admit atheists (along with homosexuals, and others currently barred from membership).

An organization called Scouting for All, founded by Eagle Scout Steven Cozza, is at the forefront of the movement to expose perceived hypocrisy on the part of the Boy Scouts of America. Cozza and others allege that when the BSA wants to discriminate, they act as a private organization; when they want money or the use of publicly-funded buildings, venues, or property, they act as a public organization.

* * *

FURTHER READING

USA - Atheist Soldier Claims Harassment - 26 April 2008 -CNN

USA - Discrimination Against Atheists - The Facts by Margaret Downey - Free Inquiry Magazine, V. 24, #4

USA - Religion in America: Atheists Claim Discrimination By Caroline Hsu
2 August 2005 - U.S. News & World Report

USA - Army to EO Reps: “Discrimination Against Atheists OK” By Wayne Adkins
29 April 2007 - American Chronicle

USA - Atheist Discrimination in the Army: A Firsthand Account By Elaine Friedman
16 May 2007 - www.HumanistNetworkNews.org

USA - NoGodBlog.com - A Free Service for Atheists from American Atheists

Portugal - Atheists Create First Portuguese Association 7 June 2008 The Portugal News OnLine

UK - Our Lost Religion - The atheists may cheer the exit from organised religious belief, but there's no virtue in wholesale ignorance. Friday April 13, 2001 The Guardian

Morocco - The situation of atheists; discrimination or ill-treatment of these people by the state - 28 October 2004 - UNHCR

Poland - www.Ateista.pl The aim of Ateista.pl is to consolidate the community of atheists in Poland, to inform about atheism and atheists, to represent their outlook on life and to protect the ideas of pluralism, tolerance, free-thought and democracy.

Italy - Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics

* * *

JUST A FEW OF THE MANY FAMOUS ATHEISTS

The following list of famous people have either been specifically identified as an "atheist" by a reliable source, or have expressed a position that is firmly consistent with atheism. Persons who have merely criticized religion are excluded. Names have been taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_atheists.

ATHEISTS - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Sir Edward Battersby Bailey FRS (1881–1965): British geologist, director of the British Geological Survey.
Hermann Bondi (1919–2005): Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist, best known for co-developing the steady-state theory of the universe and important contributions to the theory of general relativity.
Sean M. Carroll (1956–): American cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity.
Francis Crick (1916–2004): English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist; noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.
Richard Dawkins (1941–): British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concepts of the selfish gene and the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science, author of The God Delusion and founder of theRichard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955): German-born theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity and recipient of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Father of psychoanalysis.
E. T. 'Teddy' Hall (1924–2001): English archaeological scientist, famous for exposing the Piltdown Man fraud and dating the Turin Shroud as a medieval fake.
G. H. Hardy (1877–1947): a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.
Stephen Hawking CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (1942–): British theoretical physicist, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes, and his popular works in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general, including A Brief History of Time.
Sir Julian Huxley FRS (1887–1975): English evolutionary biologist, a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935-1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.
Sir Peter Medawar (1915–1987): Nobel Prize-winning British scientist best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts tissue transplants.
Jonathan Miller (1934–): British physician, actor, theatre and opera director, and television presenter. Wrote and presented the 2004 television series, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world.
Desmond Morris (1928–): English zoologist and ethologist, famous for describing human behaviour from a zoological perspective in his books The Naked Ape and The Human Zoo.
John Allen Paulos (1945–): Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia and writer, author of Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up (2007)
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936): Nobel Prize winning Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.
Carl Sagan (1934–1996): American astronomer and astrochemist, a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences, and pioneer of exobiology and promoter of the SETI.
Eleazar Sukenik (1889–1953): Israeli archaeologist and professor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, undertaking excavations in Jerusalem, and recognising the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel.
Alan Turing (1912–1954): English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer; often considered to be the father of modern computer science. The Turing Award, often recognized as the "Nobel Prize of computing", is named after him.
Matthew Turner (d. c.1789): chemist, surgeon, teacher and radical theologian, author of the first published work of avowed atheism in Britain (1782).
Steve Wozniak (1950–): co-founder of Apple Computer and inventor of the Apple I/II.


FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION AND THEATRE
Mary Adams (1898–1984): English producer and administrator in the BBC, instrumental in setting up the BBC's television service.
Joan Bakewell CBE (1933–): English television presenter and journalist.
Paul Bettany (1971–): English actor, known for his roles in A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and The Da Vinci Code.
Derren Brown (1971–): English psychological illusionist, mentalist, and skeptic of paranormal phenomena. Professed to being an atheist in his book Tricks of the Mind and described Bertrand Russell's collection of essays Why I Am Not a Christian "an absolute joy."
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977): English comedy actor, director and musician; he is considered to be one of the finest mimes and clowns caught on film.
Billy Connolly (1942—): Scottish comedian, actor and presenter.
Sir Noël Coward (1899–1973): English actor, playwright and composer of popular music.
David Cronenberg OC, FRSC (1943–): Canadian film director, one of the principal originators of the 'body horror' genre.
Mackenzie Crook (1971–): English actor and comedian, known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Jodie Foster (1962–): American film actress, director, and producer. Two-time Academy Award-winner.
Stephen Fry (1957–): British humourist, writer, actor and filmmaker.
Ricky Gervais (1961 –): Emmy winning English TV and film star, Gervais is best known for his shows The Office and Extras, both of which he starred in and co wrote along with with fellow atheist Stephen Merchant.
Tony Hancock (1924–1968): British actor and comedian, star of the popular Hancock's Half Hour.
Sir David Hare (1947–): Award-winning English dramatist and theatre and film director.
Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003): American actress who appeared in 53 films from 1932 to 1994; winner of four Academy Awards for Best Actress.
John Huston (1906–1987): American Academy Award-winning film director and actor, especially known for the classic films The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Asphalt Jungle, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The African Queen, The Misfits and The Man Who Would Be King.
Skandar Keynes (1991–): English actor (Chronicles of Narnia films).
Hugh Laurie OBE (1959–): English actor, comedian and writer, star of the television show House.
Nigella Lawson (1960–): English journalist, food writer, broadcaster and television presenter.
Kevin Macdonald (1967–): Scottish two-time BAFTA winning director, most famous for his films The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.
Sir Ian McKellen (1939–): English stage and screen actor.
Stephen Merchant (1974–): British actor and writer, co-creator of The Office.
George Meyer (1956–): American television producer and writer, notably for The Simpsons.
Helen Mirren DBE (1945–): English stage, television and Oscar-winning actress film actress.
Jack Nicholson (1937—): American actor, three time Academy Award-winner. Nicholson told Vanity Fair he doesn't believe in God anymore but envies people with faith.
Julia Phillips (1944–2002): Academy Award-winning film producer and author, the first woman to win an Oscar as a producer.[67]
Griff Rhys Jones (1953–): Welsh comedian, writer, actor and television presenter.
Omar Sharif - Academy Award-nominated Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films; an Egyptian Melkite Catholic who converted to Islam, but is now an atheist.
Theo van Gogh (1957–2004): Dutch film director, television producer, publicist and actor, murdered following the broadcasting of his film Submission.
Peter White (1947–): English broadcast journalist and DJ; blind since birth, he is closely associated with disability issues.[89]
Gene Wilder (1933–): American actor best known for his role as Willy Wonka.

ATHEISTS - AUTHORS
Douglas Adams (1952–2001): British radio and television writer and novelist, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Tariq Ali (1943–): British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner and commentator.
Sir Kingsley Amis (1922–1995): English novelist, poet, critic and teacher, most famous for his novels Lucky Jim and the Booker Prize-winning The Old Devils.
Eric Ambler OBE (1909–1998): influential English writer of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre.
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992): Russian-born American author of science fiction and popular science books.
Aldo Braibanti (1922–): Italian writer and dramatist, famous for having been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for 'plagiarism'.
João Cabral de Melo Neto, (1920–1999): Brazilian poet, considered one of the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008): British scientist and science-fiction author.
Roddy Doyle (1958–): Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter, winner of the Booker Prize in 1993.
George Eliot (1819–1890): Mary Ann Evans, the famous novelist, was also a humanist and propounded her views on theism in an essay called Evangelical Teaching'.
Ken Follett (1949ndash;): British author of thrillers and historical novels.
E. M. Forster OM (1879–1970): English novelist, short story writer, and essayist, best known for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th century British society.
Alex Garland (1970–): British novelist and screenwriter, author of The Beach and the screenplays for 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
Constance Garnett (1861–1946): English translator, whose translations of nineteenth-century Russian classics which first introduced them widely to the English and American public.
Sir William Golding (1911–1993): British novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies.
Graham Greene OM, CH (1904–1991): English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer and critic.
Germaine Greer (1939–): Australian feminist writer. Greer describes herself as a "Catholic atheist".
David Grossman (1954–): Israeli author of fiction, nonfiction, and youth and children's literature.
R. J. Hollingdale (1930–2001): English biographer and translator of German philosophy and literature, President of The Friedrich Nietzsche Society, and responsible for rehabilitating Nietzsche's reputation in the English-speaking world.
Ludovic Kennedy (1919–): British journalist, author, and campaigner for voluntary euthanasia.
Paul Krassner (1932–): American founder and editor of the freethought magazine The Realist, and a key figure in the 1960s counterculture.
W. Somerset Maugham CH (1874–1965): English playwright, novelist, and short story writer, one of the most popular authors of his era.
Charles Maurras (1868–1952): French author, poet, and critic, a leader and principal thinker of the reactionary Action Française.
Ian McEwan, CBE (1948–): British author and winner of the Man Booker Prize.
Arthur Miller (1915–2005): American playwright and essayist, a prominent figure in American literature and cinema for over 61 years, writing a wide variety of plays, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are widely studied.
Sir John Mortimer CBE QC (1923–): English barrister, dramatist and author, famous as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.
Dame Iris Murdoch (1919–1999): Dublin-born writer and philosopher, best known for her novels, which combine rich characterization and compelling plotlines, usually involving ethical or sexual themes.
Aziz Nesin (1915–1995): Turkish humorist and author of more than 100 books.
George Orwell (1903–1950): English writer and journalist, a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture, one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century, and most famous for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general (Nineteen Eighty-Four), and Stalinism in particular (Animal Farm).
Harold Pinter (1930–): British playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist, best known for his plays The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.
Terry Pratchett (1948–): English Fantasy author known for his satirical Discworld series.
Salman Rushdie (1947–): Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822): British Romantic poet, contemporary and associate of John Keats and Lord Byron, and author of The Necessity of Atheism.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894): Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, especially famous for his works Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Allen Tate (1899–1979): American poet, essayist and social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress 1943–1944.
Sue Townsend (1946–): British novelist, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole series of books.
Naguib Mahfouz - Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature and is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature.
Ismail Kadare - World-renowned Albanian writer.

ACTIVISTS - FREETHOUGHT & EDUCATORS
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969–): Dutch feminist and politician.
Natalie Angier (1958–): Nonfiction writer and science journalist for The New York Times; 1991 winner of Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.
Peter Brearey (1939–1998): British secularist, socialist and journalist, Editor of The Freethinker from 1993 until his death.
William Montgomery Brown (1855–1937): Episcopal bishop and Communist author.
Richard Carrier (1969–): historian, philosopher, and atheist activist.
Chapman Cohen (1868–1954): English freethought writer and lecturer, and an editor of The Freethinker and president of the National Secular Society.
Margaret Downey is an atheist activist who is the current President of Atheist Alliance International.[9]
Joseph Edamaruku (1934–2006): Indian journalist, author, leader in the rationalist movement, and winner of the International Atheist Award in 1979.
Saraswathi Gora (1912–2006): Indian social activist, wife of Gora and leader of the Atheist Centre for many years, campaigning against untouchability and the caste system.
George Holyoake (1817–1906): English secularist. Holyoake was the last person in England to be imprisoned (in 1842) for being an atheist.[21] He coined the term "secularism" in 1846.
Ellen Johnson: President of American Atheists, 1995-2008.
Hemant Mehta (c.1983–): Author of I Sold My Soul on eBay, chair of the Secular Student Alliance and author of the blog FriendlyAtheist.com.
Michael Newdow (1953–): American physician and attorney, who sued a school district on the grounds that its requirement that children recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, containing the words "under God", breached the separation-of-church-and-state provision in the establishment clause of the United States Constitution.
Charles Lee Smith (1887–1964): an atheist activist in the United States and an editor of the Truth Seeker until his death. He also founded the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. Smith was arrested twice in 1928 for selling atheist literature and for blasphemy. Since he refused to swear an oath to God on the Bible, he was not allowed to testify in his own defense.
Barbara Smoker (1923–): British humanist activist and freethought advocate. Wrote the book Freethoughts: Atheism, Secularism, Humanism – Selected Egotistically from The Freethinker.

* * *