User:Ealdgyth/Warsaw Ghetto Uprising audit

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
 * 1) "The SS conducted many of the deportations during the operation code-named Grossaktion Warschau, between 23 July and 21 September 1942. Just before the operation began, the German "Resettlement Commissioner" SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle called a meeting of the Ghetto Jewish Council Judenrat and informed its leader, Adam Czerniaków, that he would require 7,000 Jews a day" is sourced to this book which is a primary source.
 * 2) One of hte sources for "for the "resettlement to the East"." is to a court judgement, again, not a good source
 * 3) "Czerniaków committed suicide once he became aware of the true goal of the "resettlement" plan. Approximately 254,000–300,000 ghetto residents were murdered at Treblinka during the two-month-long operation. The Grossaktion was directed by SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, the SS and police commander of the Warsaw area since 1941." is sourced to this source, which aside from being hosted on an unreliable source (Jewish Virtual Library) is statement by Stroop about the his actions in the Warsaw Ghetto - a primary source. It also doesn't support large chunks of this text, and the text is wrong about "Czerniaków committed suicide once he became aware of the true goal of the "resettlement" plan." as most historians state the Czerniakow committed suicide when he was ordered to help select the deportees for the resettlement plan - not when he learned the truth about deportation. Some thought is that he might have done it because he refused to have anything to do with the deportation of children, but that's a matter for the historians to debate.
 * 4) "He was relieved of duty by SS-und-Polizeiführer Jürgen Stroop, sent to Warsaw by Heinrich Himmler on 17 April 1943." is sourced to another Jewish Virtual Library source and a Jerusalem Post article (?) that doesn't support this information. The JVL source doesn't support this information either - it says that Kruger was the one who replaced Sammern-Frankegg with Stroop
 * 5) "Stroop took over from von Sammern-Frankenegg following the failure of the latter to pacify the ghetto resistance." is sourced to another Jewish Virtual Library source which doesn't support the "following the failure of the latter to pacify the ghetto resistance."
 * 6) "When the deportations first began, members of the Jewish resistance movement met and decided not to fight the SS directives, believing that the Jews were being sent to labour camps and not to be murdered." is tagged with a citation needed tag, but I'm not sure that this is correct. Avinoam Patt in "Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto" in Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis on pp. 408-409 "At the time [late 1941], individual movements, including Hashomer Hatzair, the Bund, and Betar, began to come to the realization that the reports of murder throughout Poland pointed to the systematic nature of the genocide, necessitating a form of resistance that exceeded underground activity and would require the acquisition of arms." so it's clear that the Jewish resistance knew of the genocide before the beginnings of the ghetto clearing actions in July. Likewise Israel Gutman's entry on the "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" in the fourth volume of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust  (p. 1625) says "In the spring of 1942 some members of the Jewish underground of the Warsaw ghetto, especially those in the Zionist pioneering movements, under the impact of the reports of a mass murder campaign in the east had come to the conclusion that a defence force had to be formed that would go into action if an attempt were made to deport the Jews from the ghetto." and "When the deportations began, renewed efforts were made to establish a fighting organization, consisting of the various undergroun factions operating in the ghetto; but this attempt too was quashed by some of the ghetto leaders, who believed that an armed resistance posed an intolerable threat and could lead to the end of the entire Jewish ghetto poplulation, including those who might otherwise be saved."
 * 7) "But by the end of 1942, ghetto inhabitants learned that the deportations were part of an extermination process. Many of the remaining Jews decided to revolt." is sourced to this source which does not support the information - the source says "The “Great Action” had been disguised as a “resettlement operation.” However, by late summer 1942 it was clear to many ghetto inhabitants that deportations from the ghetto meant almost certain death." which contradicts the timing given in our article ... and does not support the "Many of the remaining Jews decided to revolt."
 * 8) "The first armed resistance in the ghetto occurred in January 1943." is sourced to this source which does not support the "first armed resistance" bit - it says "These were the first organized, armed actions undertaken within the ghetto." which is a significant qualification. Also - why is this not described in a bit more detail?
 * 9) "On 19 April 1943, Passover eve, the Germans entered the ghetto. The remaining Jews knew that the Germans would murder them and they decided to resist to the last." is sourced to this source where it's an almost word for word copy of the first sentence of the source "On the 19th of April 1943, Passover eve, the Germans entered the ghetto. The remaining Jews knew that the Germans would murder them and they decided to resist to the last man."
 * 10) "While the uprising was underway, the Bermuda Conference was held by the Allies from 19 to 29 April 1943 to discuss the Jewish refugee problem." ... is ... sourced to the state department documents on the conference. Why is this IN the article? I can't see the connection to the Uprising at all. Is it because of the next sentence and the source for it? I smell POV pushing to get more prominence for this source
 * 11) "Two resistance organizations, the ŻZW and ŻOB, took control of the ghetto. They built dozens of fighting posts and executed a number of Nazi collaborators, including Jewish Ghetto Police officers, members of the fake (German-sponsored and controlled) resistance organization Żagiew, as well as Gestapo and Abwehr agents (including the alleged agent and Judenrat associate Dr Alfred Nossig, executed on 22 February 1943)." is sourced to a memoir by one of the fighters, and it doesn't support all of this information.
 * 12) "The ŻOB established a prison to hold and execute traitors and collaborators." is sourced to the JVL and does not totally support the information anyway - it says "He was in charge of the prison established by the Jewish Fighting Organization and for the execution of several traitors and collaborators."
 * 13) " Józef Szeryński, former head of the Jewish Ghetto Police, committed suicide." is also sourced to the JVL - which says he committed suicide in Jan 1943 - but the placement of this information implies that it was later and owed at least something to the resistance in the ghetto - while the JVL article says that "Szerynski escaped from the ghetto and hid in the Polish sector. He committed suicide during the minor uprising in January 1943."
 * 14) "On 19 April 1943, on the eve of Passover, the police and SS auxiliary forces entered the ghetto. They were planning to complete the deportation action within three days, but were ambushed by Jewish insurgents firing and tossing Molotov cocktails and hand grenades from alleyways, sewers, and windows. The Germans suffered 59 casualties and their advance bogged down. Two of their combat vehicles (an armed conversion of a French-made Lorraine 37L light armored vehicle and an armored car) were set on fire by the insurgents' petrol bombs" and "Jewish policemen were used in the first phase of the ghetto's liquidation and subsequently summarily executed by the Gestapo." links to a web redirect that goes to history.net article titled "British Soldiers' Heroism Went Unrecognized for Years. Then Came the Victoria Cross" so ... I can't try to verify that.
 * 15) Why do we list Stroop's list of captured "booty"? And why are we naming specific German soldiers killed in places? Why do we have the detailed listing of daily losses of Germans but lack a list of the various resistance leaders killed? By saying "The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II." and then immediately following that with 547 words detailing the daily losses of the Germans... we give the impression that the German losses were more important than the fact that the uprising was the biggest resistance in World War II? There are also issues with the lack of coverage for the events DURING the revolt - we spend much more time on the aftermath than on details of what happened during the revolt - there's an excellent book by Israel Gutman that is devoted to the Uprising.
 * 16) "The latter often presided over the police "trio", signing mass death sentences for Polish political prisoners, which were later pronounced by the ad hoc court of the security police." what does this have to do with the Ghetto Uprising or its aftermath? Why are we told about the executions of Polish political prisoners?
 * 17) "Due to its socialist leanings, the Soviets and Israel promoted the actions of ŻOB as the dominant or only party in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a view often adopted by secondary sources in the West." This is sourced to ... a newspaper article? We should not be stating such a "fact" in wikivoice based on a newspaper article.
 * 18) "Due to the ŻZW's anti-socialist stand and close ties with the Polish Home Army (which was subsequently outlawed by the Soviets), the Soviets suppressed publication of books and articles on ŻZW after the war and downplayed its role in the uprising, in favor of the more socialist ŻOB. The initially highly Socialist Israel did likewise thus hardly anyone heard of the ŻZW and its leaders. Also, the 1950s best selling American novel Mila 18 by Leon Uris presented the ŻOB." this is unsourced and definitely opinion.
 * The first sentence was added in [Special:Diff/790195976 this July 2017] edit by . The second and third sentences were added in [Special:Diff/1104345321 this Aug 2022 edit] by
 * 1) Much of the Jewish force discussion is about material and who provided it and opinion about why the ZOB is better covered in works about the Uprising, and does not discuss the organizations that contributed fighters, how many fighters there were, who the leaders were. The focus distinctly feels ... off. A lot is devoted to help that the Jews received from the Poles - and not actually about the Jewish fighting organization.
 * 2) In contrast - the Polish section of the forces discussion is very detailed and describes a number of actions the Polish underground attempted to do... as well as very detailed descriptions of the aid the Polish underground gave. THis section totals 1019 words, compared to 637 words in the Jewish forces section. Comparing this to the coverage of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Rozett and Spector's Encyclopedia of the Holocaust which covers the Polish aid to the Ghetto fighters as "They [the ZOB] made contact with the Polish Home Army, which recognized the new resistance organization and sent it a small number of weapons." and, describing the end of the uprising, "Several dozen fighters managed to escape with the help of ZOB members on the Polish side of the ghetto who led them through the city's sewer system." Longerich, in his Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews covers the Uprising on pp. 377-378 and doesn't mention Poles at all. Cesarani covers the Uprising on pp. 613-617 of his Final Solution. The only mention of aid from the Poles during the revolt is from a letter that Anielewicz sent to Jewish fighters outside the ghetto - Cesarani says that Anielewicz "was thrilled that the AL had conducted a supporting attack". Then on p. 617 Cesarani says that "Polish reactions to the uprising and the liquidation of the ghetto varied from admiration through compassion to glee. The AK and the AL mounted at least eleven supporting attacks on German targets outside and at least one AK unit may even have penetrated the ghetto to fight alongside the ZZW. In a press bulletin the Home Army high command praised the 'courageous, determined armed resistance... the fighters of the Warsaw ghetto should be accorded full respect and support.' Broadcasting from London on 4 May, General Sikorski called on his countrymen to 'give all help and shelter to those being murdered'. He added that 'before all humanity, which has for toolong been silent, I condemn these crimes'. But a Catholic underground paper saw the tragedy as an opportunity for the Jews to convert: 'Their souls will be cleansed and redeemed by the baptism of blood... they can be saved in the face of destruction by baptism and the true faith'." Shmuel Krakowski devotes an entire chapter to the Uprising in The War of the Doomed and very very little is mentioned about Polish forces taking part in his detailed description of events during the uprising.