User:Ealdgyth/Nazi ghettos audit

Nazi ghettos


 * 1) "However, soon after the 1939 German invasion of Poland, the Nazis began to designate areas of larger Polish cities and towns as exclusively Jewish, and within weeks, embarked on a massive programme of uprooting Polish Jews from their homes and businesses through forcible expulsions. The entire Jewish communities were deported into these closed off zones by train from their places of origin systematically, using Order Police battalions." is sourced to Browning Origins of the Final Solution p. 139 which does not support the information
 * 2) "The Nazis had a special hatred of Polish and other eastern Jews. Nazi ideology depicted Jews, Slavs and Roma as inferior race Untermenschen ("subhumans") who threatened the purity of Germany's Aryan Herrenrasse ("master race"), and viewed these people and also political opponents of the Nazi party as parasitic vermin or diseases that endangered the overall health of the Volksgemeinschaft, the German racial community. German doctors and public health officials helped advance these racist, political and fearmongering ideas. The German invasion of Poland (Sept. 1, 1939) and the formation of Jewish ghettos caused hunger and poverty, crowding and unsanitary conditions, which in turn actually created typhus epidemics in occupied Poland. German physicians and public health officials in the Nazi regime did not acknowledge this; instead, German medical professionals published essays blaming Jewish people's supposed "low cultural level" and "uncleanliness" for the typhoid epidemics. Posters depicting Jews as lice, which transmit from person to person the bacteria that causes epidemic typhus, were publicized, and the respected status of German doctors helped spread the belief that the Jews were responsible for spreading typhus." is sourced to this source which does not support much of this information
 * 3) "The German public health officials in occupied Poland were concerned only with the health of German personnel, so they repeatedly urged occupation authorities to isolate Jews further from the rest of the population." is sourced to this source which does not support the "The German public health officials in occupied Poland were concerned only with the health of German personnel" part. This was added with Special:Diff/1027482207 this Jun 2021 edit by
 * 4) "German forces regarded the establishment of ghettos as temporary measures, in order to allow higher level Nazis in Berlin to decide how to execute their goal of eradicating Jews from Europe." is sourced to this source and was added with Special:Diff/1027482207 this Jun 2021 edit by, but it's a close paraphrase of the source "The Germans regarded the establishment of ghettos as temporary measures, in order to allow the higher echelon of the Nazi leadership in Berlin to decide upon a course of action by which to fulfil their objective of eliminating the Jewish population from Europe."
 * 5) "Nazi officials had an Endziel, an unarticulated final goal that would take time to reach, and also an Endlösung, a "final solution" which was a euphemism for the murder of Jews. Toward the Endziel and Endloesung there were intermediate goals to be carried out in the short term, and one of these was to concentrate Jews from the countryside into larger cities, thus making certain areas Judenrein ("clean of Jews")." is sourced to this Jewish Virtual Library source which is unreliable. This was added with Special:Diff/1027482207 this Jun 2021 edit by
 * 6) "with the Tuliszków ghetto established in December 1939. The first large metropolitan ghetto known as the Łódź Ghetto (Litzmannstadt) followed them in April 1940, and the Warsaw Ghetto in October. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941. Subsequently, many ghettos were sealed from the outside, walled off with brickwork, or enclosed with barbed wire. In the case of sealed ghettos, any Jew found leaving there could be shot. The Warsaw Ghetto, located in the heart of the city, was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres (1+3⁄8 square miles)." is sourced to this USHMM source on Warsaw which only supports "The Warsaw Ghetto, located in the heart of the city" and "with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres (1+3⁄8 square miles)."
 * 7) "The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 people" is sourced to this USHMM source which does not support the information (although it does support the fact that Warsaw was the largest ghetto)
 * 8) "According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, there were at least 1,000 such ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone" is sourced to this USHMM source which supports most of it (the "archives" bit is not supported) but is a close paraphrase of the source which has "The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone."
 * 9) "Ghettos across Eastern Europe varied in their size, scope and living conditions." is sourced to this USHMM source which doesn't really support the information (which, however, should be easy to source)
 * 10) "In the ghetto of Odrzywół, 700 people lived in an area previously occupied by five families, between 12 and 30 to each room. The Jews were not allowed out of the ghetto, so they had to rely on smuggling and the starvation rations supplied by the Nazis: in Warsaw this was 1,060 kJ (253 kcal) per Jew, compared to 2,800 kJ (669 kcal) per Pole and 10,930 kJ (2,613 kcal) per German. With the crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and insufficient sanitation (coupled with lack of medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease became a major feature of ghetto life." is sourced to Browning Origins of the Final Solution p. 149, 167. Page 149 is discussing conditions in the labor camps established from the Warsaw ghetto and page 167 doesn't support the information at all either. The only thing these two pages support is "With the crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and insufficient sanitation (coupled with lack of medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease became a major feature of ghetto life."
 * 11) "To prevent unauthorised contact between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, German Order Police battalions were assigned to patrol the perimeter. Within each ghetto, a Jewish Ghetto Police force was created to ensure that no prisoners tried to escape. In general terms, there were three types of ghettos maintained by the Nazi administration." is sourced to this USHMM source which supports the second and third sentences but not the first.
 * 12) "Open ghettos did not have walls or fences, and existed mostly in initial stages of World War II in German-occupied Poland and the occupied Soviet Union, but also in Transnistria province of Ukraine occupied and administered by Romanian authorities. There were severe restrictions on entering and leaving them." is sourced to this USHMM source where is mostly a close paraphrase of the source "Open ghettos had no walls or fences, but there were restrictions on entering and leaving. These existed in German-occupied Poland and the occupied Soviet Union, as well as in Transnistria, that province of Ukraine occupied and administrated by Romanian authorities." nor does the source support "existed mostly in initial stages of World War II"
 * 13) "Closed or sealed ghettos were situated mostly in German-occupied Poland. They were surrounded by brick walls, fences or barbed wire stretched between posts. Jews were not allowed to live in any other areas under the threat of capital punishment. In the closed ghettos the living conditions were the worst. The quarters were extremely crowded and unsanitary. Starvation, chronic shortages of food, lack of heat in winter and inadequate municipal services led to frequent outbreaks of epidemics such as dysentery and typhus and to a high mortality rate." is sourced to Edelheit, Edelheit, and Arons A World in Turmoil with a link to the google books page 216. which does not support this information at all. (note that it was likely originally pulled from this USHMM source where it closely follows the text and is probably a too-close paraphrase)
 * 14) "The destruction or extermination ghettos existed in the final stages of the Holocaust, for between two and six weeks only, in German-occupied Soviet Union (especially in Lithuania and Ukraine), in Hungary, and in occupied Poland. They were tightly sealed off. The Jewish population was imprisoned in them only to be deported or taken out of town and shot by the German killing squads, often with the aid of local collaborationist Auxiliary Police battalions." is sourced to this USHMM source which does not support most of the information (and is again, a too-close paraphrase of the source which says "Destruction ghettos were tightly sealed off and existed for between two and six weeks before the Germans and/or their collaborators deported or shot the Jewish population concentrated in them. These existed in German-occupied Soviet Union (especially in Lithuania and the Ukraine), as well as Hungary.")
 * 15) "The parts of a city outside the walls of the Jewish Quarter were called "Aryan". For example, in Warsaw, the city was divided into Jewish, Polish, and German Quarters. Those living outside the ghetto had to have identification papers proving they were not Jewish (none of their grandparents was a member of the Jewish community), such as a baptism certificate. Such documents were sometimes called "Christian" or "Aryan papers". Poland's Catholic clergy massively forged baptism certificates" is sourced to Paulsson "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland" Journal of Holocaust Education pp. 19-44 (which is the whole article... blech!) but a search of "Aryan" in that article does not come up with a definition of what is meant that supports "The parts of a city outside the walls of the Jewish Quarter were called "Aryan"." nor does a search for "German" show any content that supports "For example, in Warsaw, the city was divided into Jewish, Polish, and German Quarters". A search of "grandparent" returns nothing that would support "none of their grandparents was a member of the Jewish community" ("grandparent" isn't even in the article). A search for "Christian" or "Aryan" does not show anything that would support "Such documents were sometimes called "Christian" or "Aryan papers"." And a search on "baptism" only shows "Catholic priests co-operated in providing forged birth and baptismal certificates and altering parish records" which while it does support the fact that clergy did forge baptismal certificates, it does not support the "massively" in this "Poland's Catholic clergy massively forged baptism certificates" statement. The earliest I can get the "massively" traced to with "Who Wrote that" is [[Special:Diff/422679025] this diff from 2011 where it was unsourced ... it predates that but I can't get WWT to trace it further due to all the copyediting/etc that has gone on.
 * 16) "which were given to Jews by the dominant Polish resistance movement, the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK)." is just sourced to "Tadeusz Piotrowski (2007). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces, and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947. McFarland" - this is a 437 page book but a search for "certificates" turns up 7 results - p. 62 is to a personal account of a Home Army unit leader, p. 117 mentions the Catholic Church providing certificates but doesn't mention the Home Army, p. 120 mentions a priest who was tortured to death for providing false certificates to Jews (but no mention of Home Army), p. 184 is discussing school certificates, p. 270 is discussing certificates issued by the NKVD by L. Beria so not connected to the Home Army, and p. 339 is another personal account where a priest provided a false certificate directly to a Jew, so I'm not seeing that this statement is supported by the source. This was added in Special:Diff/569099529 this Aug 2013 edit by
 * 17) "Any Pole found by the Germans to be giving any help to a Jew was subject to the death penalty." is sourced to and Nicosia Columbia Guide to the Holocaust p. 114, but this is discussing Lukas' opinions in his The Forgotten Holocaust and would only support something along the lines of "Lukas says that any Pole found by the Germans to be giving any help to a Jew was subject to the death penalty." This was also added by Andrew Dorsons in Special:Diff/569099529 in Aug 2013. Note that I'm not saying that the statement isn't true - just that its not supported by the source given for it.
 * 18) "In 1942, the Nazis began Operation Reinhard, the systematic deportation of Jews to extermination camps. Nazi authorities throughout Europe deported Jews to ghettos in Eastern Europe or most often directly to extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. Almost 300,000 people were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto alone to Treblinka over the course of 52 days. In some ghettos, local resistance organizations staged ghetto uprisings. None were successful, and the Jewish populations of the ghettos were almost entirely killed." is sourced to this Yad Vashem source on Warsaw which does not mention Operation Reinhard at all, nor does it support the second sentence or the last sentence. The only part this source supports is "Almost 300,000 people were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto alone to Treblinka" but the "over the course of 52 days" is not supported (the source says it was "a two month long wave of deportations"). THe information was present prior to Special:Diff/423543808 this 2011 edit - I can't get Who Wrote This to give me a diff of exactly when it was added. The information was removed with Special:Diff/906863469 this July 2019 edit by an IP as "uncited" but was restored with the given source in Special:Diff/906957591 this July 2019 edit by another IP.
 * 19) "On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps. A few ghettos were re-designated as concentration camps and existed until 1944." is sourced to this Yad Vashem page that gives Himmler's order, but Himmler's order does not mention "liquidation" nor can a document from 21 June 1943 source that camps existed until 1944. This is a primary source and as such its interpretation should be left to the historians. The information was added in Special:Diff/489415212 this edit from April 2012 by  but no source was given for the information. The information was removed with Special:Diff/906863469 this July 2019 edit by an IP as "uncited" but was restored with the given source in Special:Diff/906957591 this July 2019 edit by another IP.