SAVIORS OF THE 20TH CENTURY 3 - HITLER & STALIN - Note to French Readers

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The war of annihilation between the Nazis and Communists

ISBN 0964599317
LCCN 2004095812

Available worldwide through Amazon Kindle books

http://www.amazon.com/Saviors-20th-Century-Hitler-ebook/dp/B0040ZNU76/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1285077808&sr=1-1

Note to French Readers - What You May Not Know About Your History

During my 7 years researching my history book, Saviors of the 20th Century, Hitler & Stalin, The War of Annihilation between the Nazis and Communists, I was somewhat surprised to learn of the role of France in the development and spread of Communism and the rise of Jewish dominance in the communist movement prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

From the time of the French Revolution until the Russian Revolution, France was the place where the German, English and other radical Communists met to plan and execute the rise of the Communist party into one of the most powerful and blood thirsty political movements on earth.

It was action by Communist sympathizers in France that seeded the international revolutionary socialist and then Communist movements that brought about the overthrow of several European nations before achieving success in overthrowing the Czar in Russia and forming the Soviet Union.

More important, it was a pamphlet whose origins are reputed to be French called The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion that seemed to expose a worldwide revolution undertaken by Jews. This document fell into the hands of Czar Nicholas II and led to intensifying the Russian revolution, a battle between the Czarist regime and Jewish revolutionaries.

The same document fell into the hands of a young Adolph Hitler and was responsible for the war of annihilation between the Nazis and Jewish Bolshevik Communists controlling the Soviet Union 20 years later.

In a way it was this documented that played a role in bringing about both Communism and Nazism, and with it brought about the deaths of 220 million people at the hands of the leaders of the two political movements.

As the following excerpt from my book, Saviors of the 20th Century Hitler & Stalin, Chapter 7 describes, it was often the unnoticed and unexpected events that changed the course of history.

Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion

It was rumored throughout western nations that in the fall of 1897 Jewish leaders from around the world met and adopted “The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion,” an inflammatory document outlining a plot by the Jews to undermine society, overthrow governments, and destroy Christianity.

The story of this publication is fascinating and none told it better than Konrad Heiden, an acquaintance of Hitler and the self-proclaimed leader of an anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi group in Munich, Germany in the early 1920s. In his book, “Der Fuehrer,” 1944, the following excerpts indicated the history of the Protocols according to Heiden.

One day in the summer of 1917 a student was reading in his room in Moscow. A stranger entered, laid a book on the table, and silently vanished. The cover of the book bore in Russian the words from the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew: “He is near, he is hard by the door.”

The student sensed the masterful irony of higher powers in this strange happening. They had sent him a silent message. He opened the book, and the voice of a demon spoke to him.

It was a message concerning the Antichrist, who would come at the end of days. The Antichrist is no mythical being, no monkish medieval fantasy. It is the portrait of a type of man who comes to the fore when an epoch is dying. He is a man with a white skin, in everyday clothes, dangerously contemporary, and a mighty demagogue. He will talk with the masses, and at his word the masses will rise up and turn a culture to ashes, a culture which has deserved no better, since it has borne the Antichrist in its own image and for its own destruction.

“We” - the demon always says “We” - shall create unrest, struggle, and hate in the whole of Europe and thence in other continents. We shall at all times be in a position to call forth new disturbances at will, or to restore the old order...

Unremittingly we shall poison the relations between the peoples and states of all countries...

We are the chosen, we are the true men…

Outwardly, however, in our “official” utterances, we shall adopt an opposite procedure and always do our best to appear honorable and co-operative. A statesman’s words do not have to agree with his acts…

If any state dares to resist us; if its neighbors make common cause with it against us, we shall unleash a world war.

By all these methods we shall so wear down the nations that they will be forced to offer us world domination...

He turns back the pages and discovers that all this accursed wisdom, all these diabolical plans, were hatched out by a group of old Jews. Who met together in a back room in Basel, Switzerland, in the year 1897? The demon aiming to devour the world is a Jewish club…

And thus The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, since became so famous, fell into the hands of Alfred Rosenberg.

A mysterious occurrence. Rosenberg himself has often told how the unknown suddenly stepped into the room, laid down the book, and silently departed. To Rosenberg it was a sign from heaven. Both the place and the hour were significant. Moscow, 1917. Far to the west, the German-Russian phase of the First World War was drawing to an end in crumbling trenches; in the streets of the capital, the Russian Revolution was ebbing and flowing. Alfred Rosenberg, the son of a shoemaker, born in Reval (Tallinn) on the Baltic, was then twenty-four years old; he was of German descent but as an Esthonian, he was a subject of the Russian Tsar. He had been raised in the German and Russian languages; he had first studied engineering and architecture at Riga, also on the Baltic; then, when the German army occupied Riga, he had fled. Now he was studying in Moscow.

The globe was afire. The Tsar’s empire was crumbling. Perhaps there would never again be peace. Perhaps this book would tell him why. The demon, who had incited the nations against each other, had spoken…

The demon of world domination has spoken. He has proclaimed the great secret: the world can be dominated. Bowed with weariness, the peoples demand subjection. And those who resist will be tamed by terrible blows and sufferings. Modern society is charged with a magical current which in all men creates the same thoughts. The masses expect great things of their rulers. And for that reason, great things are easy.

This is the true sense of the secret writings, which we today know as The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion. Everything else in them develops from the basic idea that world domination is possible in our time; with sovereign contempt it is shown with what relative ease it can be achieved…

Its content is how to establish dictatorship with the help - and abuse - of democratic methods…

Furthermore, democracy, in the international field actually offers a dictator, who has firmly entrenched himself in one country, the possibility of world domination. This is the true content of the famous Protocols...

Three generations ago a brilliant thinker wrote this secret formula for the achievement of world domination. We know little concerning his life. He was a French lawyer named Maurice Joly. He was, at the time he wrote his little book, a conservative, ligitimist and monarchist. He had no thought of writing a secret document; on the contrary, he had in mind a satire against Napoleon III, then emperor of the French. Whether he ever perceived that he was leaving behind him the prophecies of a great seer; whether he ever guessed that his book embraced a political doctrine of world-shaking force, we do not know.

The work was published in Brussels in 1864, by A Mertens et Fils, as an illegal propaganda pamphlet; it was written in French and bore the title: Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu, ou la politique de Machiavel au XIX siecle, par un Contemporian. (Dialaogue in hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, of the politics of Machiavelli in the nineteenth century by a contemporary.)

His anonymity did not avail the author. The police of the French emperor discovered him, he was sent to prison for fifteen months. His book was published in a second edition, then it was forgotten, and today scarcely any copies of it can be found.

This brings us to world domination. It is the secret necessity inherent in the mechanism of our existence; it lives in our minds as a secret goal; it stands in the sea of the future as a magnetic mountain, inexorably attracting the ship of modern society…

Is this the truth? Who has spoken? Perhaps it is only a half-truth, but even in its halfness it is of enormous import, which is not seen by most men…

History is the most skeptical of all sciences; it knows no absolute truths…

Joly’s magnificent portrait of modern tyranny underwent a strange fate. After thirty years of oblivion, its great day came. It was discovered by a group of Russian conspirators. Not, to be sure, by the Russian revolutionaries of that day, the Nihilists, Social Democrats, or Social Revolutionaries; but by a few crafty agents of the counter-revolution, members of the Ochrana, the tsar’s secret police. They wanted to frighten the tsar and drive him to bloodshed. To this end they persuaded him that the Jews of the whole world had devised a secret conspiracy to achieve world domination, first over Russia, then over the whole world.

Claims of this sort were not new; they lay to a certain extent in the air. In the nineteenth century the Jews had nearly everywhere - though not in Russia - achieved civil equality and thus taken their place in modern society. Some had amassed great wealth, a few - for example, the house of Rothschild - had even attained real influence, and inspired venomous anti-Semitism…

In 1868, Hermann Godsche, a German signing himself Sir John Retcliffe the Younger, wrote a novel entitled Biarritz. In it twelve rabbis from all corners of the earth meet in the Jewish cemetery in Prague. There they set up a cry of Satanic glee, for through accursed gold, through its mighty bankers, Judah has conquered the world, brought kings and the princes to the Church; Judah is wallowing in vice and glory. The rabbis represent the twelve tribes of Israel and speak Chaldaean…

Godsche’s text was childish and none too convincing. But suppose you take these rabbis conspiring in their cemetery and give them the worldly wisdom, the contempt for humanity, the seductive power of Joly’s tyrant…

That is what happened. The group of Russian conspirators dug up Joly’s forgotten book; they were also familiar with the horror story about the Jewish cemetery in Prague; they knew by the newspapers that in 1897 the Jewish Zionist Movement had very publicly been founded at a congress in Basel; finally, they knew only too well the golden awe emanating from the ancient fame of the Rothschilds. The ingredients of a magnificent conspiracy lay at hand, requiring only to be mixed.

The Orchrana, the tsarist secret police, furnished the means and the brain. Fiurst General Oryevsky, one of its heads, had a pamphlet prepared, based on the rabbis’ conspiracy in Godsche’s story. The novelty was that the pamphlet was written in the form of protocols; this gave it a much more serious look…

This was the work of General Ratchkovsky, the leader of the French division of the Ochrana…

Their plan was more than a simple palace conspiracy. It was the first great attempt at a mighty national counter-revolution against the democratic and socialist revolution of the nineteenth century. The plan was to fuse the passion of the people and the cold power of the state into a mighty, counter-revolutionary force that would shake society to its foundations…

Through this conspiracy, Russia became the spiritual mother country of modern fascism, as it later became the world center of Communism.

The name of the movement was “The Black Hundreds,” which meant simply; the black guard. The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion became the program of this movement; with it they were born and with it they grew. Even the primitive version, based on Godsche’s nocturnal conspiracy of rabbis, had a terrible effect. It was circulated widely, and in 1903 gave the signal for the Kishenev pogram, in which several thousand Jews were massacred…

A first version had been prepared toward the end of the nineties by Golovinski and Manuilov, two journalists in the service of Ratchkovsky…

In 1904-05, the pamphlet was refurbished as an attack on Prince Svatopulk-Mirski, minister of the interior, and Count Witte, the finance minister, who were too liberal for the Ochrana…

This is the origin of the supposed textbook of Jewish world domination. Today the forgery is incontrovertibly proved, yet something infinitely significant has remained: a textbook of world domination pure and simple…

The spirit of the Protocols, therefore, contains historical truth, though all the facts put forth in them are forgeries. Hence its influence on such varied times and peoples. When they were published, their deeper, genuine content beneath the varnish of falsification found a receptive mood in many sections of the Russian people - a mood of decadence and despair. The Russian literature of the period from Tolstoi to Sologub bears witness to this mood…

Sergei Nilus…Nilus was a religious writer…

He had written a book, under the influence of Soloviev, on the theme of the Jewish Antichrist. Its title: “Small signs betoken great events. The Antichrist is near at hand.”

This second edition was sponsored by the Ochrana and published in 1905 in the Imperial stateprinting shop in Tsarskoye Selo. Its appendix includes The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion. This was the first publication of the Protocols in their present form, and it was claimed by Nilus that these Protocols were the minutes of speeches and debates which were made at the founding congress of the Zionist Movement in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897.

This much was true, that in 1897 in Basel the Jewish Nationalist Movement of the Zionists was born. The goal of this group, to put it simply, was to lead the Jews back again to Palestine; to state it more exactly, to create for those Jews who were leading an intolerable life of oppression, especially in Russia, a ‘legally assured homestead’ in Palestine…

This was the purpose of the Basel congress. But, if we believe Nilus, its true, secret aim was just the opposite; that is, the foundation of an uncontested world domination by the Jews. He claimed that the public congress was a mere blind for a number of far more secret sessions. In those secret sessions the Zionist leaders set forth their plan for Jewish world conquest…

These speeches were taken down in shorthand and entered in the minutes. A courier of the congress was supposed to bring the terrible papers from Basel to the German city of Frankfurt am Main, to be preserved in the secret archives of the Rising Sun Lodge of Freemasons…

But there is one point to which he always adheres: that he himself had received the papers from a certain Suchotin, marshal of nobility in the district of Chernigov, who had received them from Ratchkovsky…

In 1917, during the World War and after the tsar’s downfall, Nilus published the last edition of his book, with the Protocols in the appendix. This time it was: ‘He is near, he is hard by the door.’ It is this edition which was placed on Alfred Rosenberg’s table…

Rosenberg believed in the secret session of Basel, at least he did then. For this we cannot be too hard on a lad of twenty-four. For beneath the heavy coating of a clumsily exaggerated forgery, the Protocols contain a genuine element which might well carry a strong, mysterious appeal to the modern intellectual…

With the book in his bag, he fled at the beginning of 1918 to his native city of Reval, later called Tallinn. German troops took the city. Rosenberg remembered that he was a German. He volunteered for the German army, to fight against the Bolsheviki who for some months had been in the saddle in Petersburg and Moscow. The German commandant distrusted the German Russian and rejected him…

The Bolsheviki, in a desperate life-and-death struggle, always in power but always on the brink of catastrophe, struck down their enemies by ruthless, barbaric terror. They acted in accordance with the recommendations of the Protocols of Zion. Were they not themselves the Wise Men of Zion? Hadn’t they Jewish leaders?

For at the end of 1918, Rosenberg was forced to leave Reval with the remnants of the withdrawing, disbanding German army. The Bolsheviki pressed after them, occupied Reval, took Riga, approached the German border…

In a swarm of Russian fugitives, officers, intellectuals, barons and princes, Rosenberg reached Berlin, then Munich. At the same time other refugees reached Constantinople, London, Paris; Russians, Germans, but also Englishmen, Frenchmen, even American, members of those Allied expeditionary armies who, after the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution, had occupied, for a time, Russian territory in Siberia, in the North, in the Crimea…

A pity that General Ratchkovsky never lived to see the day. The shadow of Russia fell over Europe. From the Kremlin, Lenin exhorted the world to revolution, holding aloft the Communist Manifesto. Rosenberg comes, a humble fugitive, with the textbook of world domination in his battered suitcase.”

Upon reaching Munich those driven from the Russian territories by the Communists found a way of finding each other. They formed groups, often in secret, to plan conspiracies and raise arms to fight the Communists.

Rosenberg joined such a group, along with a young man named Rudolf Hess and an elderly writer named Dietrich Eckart. They shared the Protocols. The name of their secret group was called the Thule Society. Through them a German translation of the Protocols was issued with the distribution success extraordinary. Edition after edition followed. Soon it was released in England, France, Poland and even America.

The Thule Society finally decided to act, and decided to kill Kurt Eisner, the leader of the Bavarian Revolution. Unlike Lenin, whose Judaism could be traced only as far as his grandmother, Eisner really was a Jew. But while the Thuilists and many other groups made plans to recapture Bavaria from the socialists, a young Jewish officer the Thuilists had rejected from membership because he was Jewish beat them to the act.

Count Anton Arco-Valley, insulted by his rejection by the Thulists and determined to shame them, shot Eisner in the midst of his guards on an open street. It was the very day Eisner was going to resign. In the chaos that followed the Communists seized power from the socialists and Eisner became a martyred hero.

Remnants of the Bavarian army recaptured Munich; they were part of a group called the National Socialist Workers Party, dedicated to hunting down the Jewish Bolsheviks. Rosenberg was invited to speak to their group and along with the Thule members Eckart, Hess and Feder became a part of this rapidly growing political movement.

In time a young soldier assigned to keep watch on potentially subversive groups would speak to the new organization, and then become a member. His name was Adolf Hitler and the Protocols became an essential source of his attitudes toward the Soviets (the Antichrist), and the Jews (the Wise Men).

Whether the document was true or not the response this amazing document achieved wherever it was published served the purpose of inciting people against the Jews. If it indeed was a hoax it was one of the more elaborate and comprehensive hoaxes in history.

That it was mysteriously received by Rosenberg in Russia, and delivered by him to Hitler personally is quite coincidential, or is it? The entire text of the mysterious Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion appears in the appendix of this book.

The Roots of Country Music - Appalachia to Nashville

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Most people probably have little understanding of the roots of country music in America because it has always been taken for granted that country is one of the core genres we have always had around. It is known as the heartbeat and soul of America and been around about as long as the Europeans have been here.

Over the years we may have heard country music we liked, some even crossed over to pop and rock charts, and many stars in other genres either started as country music singers or became famous and then cut a country song or album. But do we really know from whence it came?

When English speaking America was first being colonized in the 1600's the coastal areas were settled first, Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland, all by 1634 and it did not take long for the European immigrants to make their way to the Appalachian Mountains, the Southern Appalachians that is, which included the Blue Ridge Mountain range and Cumberland Plateau. Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee territories along with pieces of the Carolinas and Georgia made up the region which served as a barrier to westward expansion.

Immigrants came to the area because the coastal regions were already populated and with them came the Old World musical instruments were brought together in barn dances and celebrations by these hardy people settling the region. This was in the days before electricity, before electric guitars and synthesizers

The Irish fiddle, German dulcimer, Italian mandolin, Spanish guitar and African banjo were brought to these celebrations and played together in hillbilly jam sessions far from the operas and symphonies of the cities on the east coast. This came to be known as "Old Time" music.

In the 19th century some immigrant groups moved to the Texas area to settle and further integrated the hillbilly sound with Spanish, Mexican and Native American music and large dancehalls were built where the locals could gather and dance to the sounds. This was the final step in the evolution of the roots of Country Music.

Then came the 20th century with cars and roads and radio which brought down the barriers of communication and people from throughout the nation could hear this unique American creation. The first country recording was in 1921 and throughout the 1920's as radio expanded so did the country music.



Country musicians were great innovators ever since mixing the instruments from five counties up in the Appalachians and electricity, recording and touring gave them more and more opportunities to do this. Hillbilly music grew in popularity driven by the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers and in 1925 WSM-AM radio in Nashville started the first country music broadcast, on November 28, 1925, when the WSM Barn Dance was first broadcast. In time it would become the Grand Ole Opry under the guidance of people like Roy Acuff.

By the 1930's and Great Depression people were poor and the radio became the primary source of news and entertainment. Soon a fledgling movie industry introduced the Singing cowboys while radio was expanding the barn dances with legendary country shows being broadcast from Chicago to Texas to California. In the 1940's these shows introduced singers like Roy Acuff, Bill Haley, Eddie Arnold and singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.



Bob Wills and his legendary Texas Playboys was among the innovators of country music when in 1935 he introduced drums to the band, a first, then became the first group with the electric guitar in 1938. Yet it was not until the early 1960's that the steel guitar and drums were fixtures in country bands.

Hillbilly music spawned Hillbilly Boogie by 1939 and a new country genre called Bluegrass emerged with the sound of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at the end World War II. By this time country music included Hillbilly, Boogie, Blues, Honky Tonk, Gospel and Rockabilly.



To the rest of the world country music was called Hillbilly until 1944 when the name was changed to Folk and Blues music. By 1949 it was labeled Country or Country Western, the latter referring to the singing cowboys of movies and then television. Honky Tonk saw the rise of Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lefty Frizell and Hank Williams.



Along came the 1950's and country music changed again as Rockabilly dominated with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins leading the way. From 1955-1960 ABC-TV became the first network with a nationwide country show called the Ozark Jubilee that showcased country stars to the nation. Elvis helped drive the cross-over between Rockabilly and Rock 'n Roll.

Late in the '50's came the Lubbock Sound of Buddy Holly and then there was a country backlash as the industry felt rock 'n roll was to dominate. Ray Price, Marty Robbins and Johnny Horton began to shift the music back to traditional country.

In the early 1960's the Nashville sound became dominant with producers like Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill reviving the genre with legendary singers Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold. Ray Charles introduced Country Soul in 1962 with his release of I Can't Stop Loving You. A new sound in Nashville called Countrypolitan was created featuring the sounds of Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich. But soon the Nashville sound became stale.

Out west Honky Tonk and Western Swing were merged by Bob Wills and Lefty Frizell to form the Bakersfield Sound. It would encompass the diversity of different styles from Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins and Wynn Stewart.



In other places like Lubbock, Tulsa and Austin the disappointment with the Nashville Sound and control of the record labels was causing an Outlaw movement. Inspired by the success of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones in demanding creative control of their music and control of their songs, the Outlaws gravitated to Austin where Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson became the leaders.

Not only did their music change but their image as well. Gone were the clean cut, clean shaven cowboys of old and in were the long haired radical Outlaws of the future. Jessie Colter, wife of Waylon, was one of the female pioneers while Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard soon joined forces.

With The Beatles astounding success blending rock and pop music Nashville was hungry to tap into the crossover sound needed to reach the mainstream markets. Others, seeking a return to the "old values" of rock 'n roll, created a new genre called Country Rock.

The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Buffalo Springfield and Eagles exploded onto the music scene as Southern Rock and Heartland became new subgenre spin offs. Ever since there has been a tug of war between traditional country and country rock or country pop as stars like Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Juice Newton, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr., Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakum, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Keith Urban helped move country towards rock over the years.

By the mid 1970's Olivia Newton John and John Denver captured the Country Pop crossover market and powered their way to CMA and Grammy Awards with multi million selling hits. Soon a whole new group of country performers would take up the mantle.

George Straight, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Tim McGraw among others perform the Classic Country style today while the pop crossover comes from new artists like Carrie Underwood from American Idol fame and newest sensation Taylor Swift who have breathed new life into the country music industry.

What is next? Who knows. Still, those who understand that country music is an ever-changing genre that morphs into a variety of styles depending on the needs of the people and the innovation of the artists, must feel good as a broad range of artists currently dominate the radio airwaves and rule the concert circuit.

As the major record labels collapse, the radio stations strangle on their own automated programming and the formula music once again becomes stale we know it is the time when country music always rediscovers itself. Nashville will be a lot better as a result, all country artists will benefit, the public will reap the rewards of new and innovative country music and history will once again record that the American country sound once again became relevant in a time of need and a time of truth.
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Two Champions of Children Are Given Nobel Peace Prize

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By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

updated 3:25 PM EDT, Fri October 10, 2014

CNN) -- The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to India's Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people's rights, including the right to education.

Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, "Nobel Peace Prizemust go to school, not be financially exploited."

Yousafzai came to global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban -- two years ago Thursday -- for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan. Since then, after recovering from surgery, she has taken her campaign to the world stage, notably with a speech last year at the United Nations.

Through her heroic struggle, Yousafzai has become a leading spokeswoman for girls' rights to education, said Jagland.

According to the Nobel committee, at 17 she's the youngest ever peace prize winner.

Yousafzai said that the award is a "great honor for me," and that she's honored to share it with Satyarthi.

The late Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel left the bulk of his fortune to create the Nobel Prizes to honor work in five areas, including peace. In his 1895 will, he said one part was dedicated to that person "who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly in 1901 to Jean Henry Dunant, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and French peace activist and economist Frédéric Passy.

Malala Yousafzai split the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people's rights. Yousafzai came to global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan.

"I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person getting this award," she said in Birmingham, England.

Yousafzai learned she won the award while she was in chemistry class in England on Friday morning, she said. She wasn't expecting to get the award, and at 10:15 a.m., she was sure she hadn't won. But soon afterward, a teacher called her over and told her she had.

Yousafzai said she continued to attend classes, and it was a "normal day," besides teachers and fellow students congratulating her.

She said she doesn't believe that she deserved the award but considers it an encouragement to continue her campaign and "to know that I'm not alone," Yousafzai told reporters.

New beginnings.

Her award will not mark the end of her campaign to advocate for girls' education, she said.

"I think this is really the beginning," she said, adding that children around the world "should stand up for their rights" and "not wait for someone else."

Yousafzai spoke with Satyarthi by phone Friday, and they agreed to work together to advocate that every child is able to go to school. She said they also decided to try to build a stronger relationship between their countries, which are longtime rivals.

She said she wants the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to attend the December ceremony where she and Satyarthi will receive their awards. Peace between the two nations, Yousafzai said, is important for their progress.

Awarding the Peace Prize to a Pakistani Muslim and an Indian Hindu "gives a message to people of love between Pakistan and India, and between different religions," Yousafzai said. The decision sends a message that all people, regardless of language and religion, should fight for the rights of women, children and every human being.

The Malala Fund, set up to promote girls' education, said via Twitter that Yousafzai called the prize "an encouragement for me to go forward. It means we are standing together to ensure all children get quality education."

Committee commends Satyarthi's courage

Meanwhile, Satyarthi, age 60, has shown great personal courage in heading peaceful demonstrations focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain, the committee said.

Satyarthi told reporters that the award was about many more people than him -- and that credit should go to all those "sacrificing their time and their lives for the cause of child rights" and fighting child slavery.

"It is a great honor for all those children who are deprived of their childhood globally," he said.

"It's an honor to all my fellow Indians who have got this honor -- it's not just an honor for me, it's an honor for all those fighting against child labor globally."

'She has made her countrymen proud'.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Yousafzai.

"She is (the) pride of Pakistan, she has made her countrymen proud," he is quoted as saying in a statement. "Her achievement is unparalleled and unequaled.

"Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment."

His Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, congratulated both Nobel laureates via Twitter.

"Kailash Satyarthi has devoted his life to a cause that is extremely relevant to entire humankind. I salute his determined efforts," he said, adding that "Malala Yousafzai's life is a journey of immense grit (and) courage."

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, via email called Yousafzai a "beloved servant" of "infidels" who was awarded the Nobel "for her services to them." The Islamist group, which has intimate links to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, unabashedly confirmed two years ago that it tried to kill the teen activist as she rode home from school in a van.

The spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said she was targeted because of what he called her "propaganda against Islam."

The Nobel committee said it "regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.

"It has been calculated that there are 168 million child labourers around the world today. In 2000 the figure was 78 million higher. The world has come closer to the goal of eliminating child labour."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated both winners, describing Yousafzai as "a brave and gentle advocate of peace who through the simple act of going to school became a global teacher" and Satyarthi as having carried out heroic work to combat child exploitation.

"The true winners today are the world's children," he added.

Opinion: Malala is the new symbol of hope

'Absolutely thrilled'

Nigel Chapman, chief executive of the Plan International aid organization, said the award brought a "fantastic glow" to his heart.

"I think anybody who's interested in campaigning for children's rights is absolutely thrilled by this news," he said, speaking to CNN from New York.

"It's often hard to get these issues at the top of the agenda, and the fact that these two really important figures have been honored today is terrific news."

Chapman praised the Nobel committee for its smart move in awarding the prize jointly to Yousafzai and Satyarthi, who are "two major heroes" in their countries.

The issues of education and child labor are intimately linked together, he said, "because one of the reasons that girls in particular don't go to school is because they are working, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances, trying to earn money for their families."

There are still 65 million girls worldwide who are not in school, he said. Millions start lessons but drop out for reasons including having to work or being forced to marry very young.

He said it was also a great boost for campaigners on the eve of the International Day of the Girl.

Pakistani campaigner: Hard work is needed

Mosharraf Zaidi, a Pakistani education campaigner and former adviser to the Foreign Ministry, welcomed the award but cautioned that there is still a long way to go in his country.

In Pakistan, he told CNN, there are 25 million children ages 5 to 16 who are not in school, more than half of whom are girls.

"So there's a huge need for a campaigner and a voice like Malala's," he said. "Unfortunately, that voice hasn't been welcome in Pakistan in the way that we would've hoped and the work that needs to be done to fulfill the dreams that Malala has, has not yet begun.

"Pakistan's politicians have become very good at paying lip service to the needs of Pakistan's children without doing any of the hard work that's needed."

Pakistan needs to dramatically increase its spending on education and improve how that money is spent, he said, and it "needs to get serious" about giving every child a good education.

Courage, determination and vision

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is the U.N. special envoy for global education, described the two winners as "the world's greatest children's champions."

They "deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their courage, determination and for their vision that no child should ever be left behind and that every child should have the best of chances," he said.

"Kailash's life-long work in India fighting child labour -- which I have had the privilege to see at first hand -- complements Malala's work standing up for girls' rights to education from Pakistan to the rest of the world."

European Union leaders Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy said the prize was a victory for all the children around the world who aspire to go to school.

When the European Union won the peace prize in 2012, they said, it decided to use the money for the same purpose, through an EU program for children in conflict zones.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the award sends an important message of support to all those working for children's rights and rewards "two extraordinarily inspirational human rights defenders" who "have demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of powerful adversaries."

He said he hoped it would bolster the political will of countries and institutions worldwide to uphold the rights of children.

Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International, hailed the pair's work as representing the struggle of millions of children around the world.

"This is an award for human rights defenders who are willing to dedicate themselves entirely to promoting education and the rights of the world's most vulnerable children," he said.

Prerequisite for peace

The Norwegian Nobel Committee makes the point that 60% of the current population is under 25 years of age in the poorest countries of the world.

"It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected," it said. "In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation."

Yousafzai was among the favorites for the prize last year, which instead went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, for its longstanding efforts to "do away with a whole category of weapons of mass destruction."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee received a record 278 nominations for the 2014 prize, 47 of which were for organizations.

Each prize carries with it a monetary reward of 8 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million) to be divided among the winners.

CNN's Ray Sanchez, Lindsay Isaac, Alexander Felton, Sophia Saifi and Radina Gigova contributed to this report.

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Farewell to our Friend Patti Wagner Counter

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Goodbye Patti

It's not often that one gets to walk with an angel.  Yet, if there are angels surely we shared one named Patti Wagner.  She was just a country girl from an Iowa farm who came to the city for school and taught all the kids a thing or two about life.

In my little world I was a late bloomer when it came to girls.  I was far too busy in grade school to give them much notice.  There was adjusting to a new town, new friends, an overwhelming sports schedule, learning to play rock and roll, trying to keep up the grades, and being a model alter boy among many pressures.

Add in paper routes, caddying at the golf courses, Cub and Boy Scouts, working for my dad and practicing thousands of hours at baseball, basketball and golf and time was a very precious commodity.

All the time I expected to be attending Walsh High, an all boys school at the time.  Then came the Ottumwa Heights fire that destroyed the girls high school.  Suddenly everything changed and the boys and girls were thrown together for the first time at the old Navy Base.  Our class of '64 would be the first co-ed class to graduate.

It was tough being a new freshman with those upper classes determined to put us in our place.  In addition, the freshmen came from three different schools and were together for the first time far from town.

That was where I first noticed Patti and before long we became great "secret friends."  Over the next four years we would run in to each other at different events and times and if neither of us had a date, which was quite often for me but not so often for Patti, we would talk and talk and just enjoy each other's company for hours on end.

There were times others would be with us like Edith Tray, Curt Trilk, and Mary Ann Conroy and we wound up in some rather odd places as we talked through the night like graveyards, houses under construction, and even just sitting along the side of the river.

Like I said, the times were not often but we made up in hours for the lost opportunities.  Patti could talk about anything and everything and to me she was a stabilizing force because she could laugh about my wildly fluctuating passions for world affairs.  Yet we chose to keep our occasional meetings a secret.

After graduation, our lives changed but our friendship didn't and Patti was the only person in the class I stayed in touch with for every decade of our lives.  First it was by letter and phone, then email and phone.

We counseled each other through our problems, disappointments, dreams, and hopes and it seemed whenever either of us needed a friend the other was always there.  That was Patti.  Solid as a rock and always ready to help out a friend.

After she got sick we talked and emailed often as she moved from Colorado to Maryland to North Carolina and my only regret was five years ago when I got sick and was not able to go see her these past few years.

My many adventures over the years gave her a lot of laughs but she was genuinely interested in them and wanted to hear every detail of the good and bad.  Then she always encouraged me to keep pursuing dreams.

We talked a few times about how it might have been if we had been together all those years but Patti was never one to dwell on lost opportunities.  Besides, she would point out, had we been together we would not both have our wonderful children.

She was very special and will be missed by family and friends.  But, she would never let her own health problems stop her from living, from loving and from inspiring others.  I was one who found her shoulder always there to lean on whether I was in Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, or California.

Another empty chair

I was honored to know and cherish Patti Wagner and will always remember her smile, strength, adventurous attitude, curiosity, and genuine interest in everyone who knew her.  Mostly, because she was so connected to her faith in Jesus and strength in God, I will know she is home and one day we will see her again.

Farewell Patti

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