132:
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470:). Most of the other entries are either apparent - though not always credited - translations of the English, German, or Polish Wikis from some past date; or stubs (which themselves seem to be a copy of a cross-wiki lead) - with relatively few edits following their creation, and about the same "conspiratorial status" as their origin article at their time of creation. The dynamics between the English, German, and Polish Wikis are interesting:
205:. Inmates were mostly Jews from other parts of the Nazi empire - many Greek and Hungarian, along with some Czech, Dutch, and Slovakian - chosen for their unfamiliarity with the Polish language and Polish geography, which would've minimized their chances escape. They were brought to the camp to salvage construction materials from the destroyed
103:. The theory, which gained considerable following in the years since it was published, now serves as the basis for several commemoration sites and memorials; Davies even describes a memorial procession at one of Warsaw's churches, complete with a priest sprinkling holy water and two soldiers. According to Davies, this theory fits within a "
60:
Poster hanging near the tunnel, showing the schematics of the alleged gas chamber: gas was supposedly injected through a concrete vent on the roof of the building, and blown in by giant fans. The fans were only installed in the tunnel during the 1970's; one of the surviving motors is revered as a
599:
within the topic area - dynamics that deter even seasons admins from getting involved - that pushed editors away. But whatever the reason may be, the result is the same: the KL Warschau
Extermination Camp conspiracy theory propagated through Knowledge for fifteen years; and if not for chance, it
833:
Biddle, Ian, and Beate Müller. "“… and all of a sudden, in the middle of it, they began singing…”: languages and commemoration in Arnold
Schoenberg’s cantata A Survivor from Warsaw (Op. 46)." Edinburgh German Yearbook: New Literary and Linguistic Perspectives on the German Language, National
135:
Church of St Stanisław the Martyr at Józef Bem street, Warsaw. Plaque reads: "In
Tribute to the 200,000 Poles Murdered by the German Occupiers in the Death Camp KL Warschau, in the Years 1942-1944.". A tiny plaque bolted to the bottom right reads: "Based on the book by Maria
750:
738:
450:). Back in 2004 this entry listed 40,000 inmates and 200,000 victims; by the time it was removed the number of inmates rose to 400,000, while the number of victims dropped to 20,000–35,000. Both revisions give a wrong operation period. Story was live for
184:
in May 2019 - were even worse: this
English Knowledge stated for a fact that the camp had 400,000 inmates, and that its existence was "debated secretly" and hidden by the post-war Communist regime, that wished to inflate the
458:
As of
September 2019, the article is present in 12 different Wikipedias, but is notably absent from the Hebrew one, which tends to have good coverage of Holocaust-related subjects (it is mentioned fairly accurately in the
123:"...the more Trzcińska’s claims were challenged, the more determined her supporters became. Marches, demonstrations, public meetings and religious ceremonies were held, bogus maps circulated, false testimonies promoted,
69:
Pedestrian tunnel at alleged site of the giant gas chamber, with graffiti of large fan and commemorative posters. The posters read: In these tunnels were Gas
Chambers, extermination camp for Poles KL Warschau!
630:
Everything that is related to negative treatment of Jews by Poles during the
Holocaust is now being distorted and manipulated – with the goal of promoting a false narrative and sowing confusion on English
200:
this was a medium-sized camp, with 8,000-9,000 inmates and (by the end of the war) some 4,000-5,000 fatalities. The camp only operated for one year between July 1943-July 1944, part of it as a sub-camp of
591:. Perhaps they didn't realize that the numbers didn't add up. Perhaps the fact that this wasn't a major camp, but a relatively unknown - almost obscure - location played a part as well: Knowledge has a
487:; treats the gas chambers as both fact and controversy in successive paragraphs, while noting a dispute on the exact number of inmates, and the lack of support by IPN. The article remained in "
813:. Monografie / Instytut Pamięci Narodowej--Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej--Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu.
189:
casualty numbers (for what reason, it didn't say). And this is just a selection - the whole article consisted of such details, advanced not by reliable sources but by conspiracy theorists.
774:
Camps were often arranged as systems with one main camp and multiple "satellite" camps; Majdanek had at least eight such satellites within a 130 km radius, and another one further away.
587:- the name or the general location, for example - editors were not inclined to delve deeper. Perhaps they did not notice the odd engineering details, or the telltale signs of an
156:
A cross at the center of memorial. The sign reads: "Memorial 200 thousands victims of KL Warschau. German extermination camp for Poles 1942-1944". The memorial is complete with
233:
the real purpose of this commemoration is to present it as a direct competitor with the memory of the
Holocaust, especially in Poland, the geographic heart of the genocide.
222:
113:"standard trope on the Polish nationalist right that Jews have exaggerated their victimhood in order to extort money from the Poles and obtain global power and influence"
573:; and yet on Knowledge it became a full length article with translations or cross-Wiki links in a dozen languages, surviving "in the wild" for anywhere from 3-15 years.
460:
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33:
225:, bringing the number of the dead to as much as 20,000. As for the push to commemorate KL Warsaw in the version imagined by Trzcińska, Prof. Jelena Subotic of
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871:
131:
329:): Early on it presented the "tunnel chamber" as fact; later that was removed, but the article still described the camp as an extermination camp alongside
293:
584:
545:, inadvertently propagating the conspiracy theory from the English to the German. A proposal for deletion & renewal was posted on the talk page on
317:
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249:, with another paragraph giving a daily death count of 400 victims over a period of 22 months, or about 264,000 victims - more than more well-known
721:
196:
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This is the challenge faced by the
Knowledge community: to re-assert itself as a reliable, dependable source on world history. Will it rise up?
322:
274:. Seeing the extent of false information in the article, there was no choice but re-write the article from scratch based on mainstream sources.
361:
277:
168:, describing a large camp with a capacity of 40,000 prisoners - an order of magnitude more than that accepted by historians - complete with
164:
Naturally, after reading such a provocative piece one might turn to
Knowledge for an broader outlook; but what might one find there?
785:
499:), with a lengthy discussion of the conspiracy theory along with statements on its controversiality and the IPN's conclusions. In
140:
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Reviewing the article's history, one can see it was always in "conspiracy theory" turf, despite hundreds of edits by over
338:
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127:. Worst of all, plaques and monuments bearing false witness to the secret genocide started to appear around the city."
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of short articles on esoteric subjects, which uninvolved editors are often hesitant to touch; or perhaps it was the
438:
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178:"the first gassing there took place on October 17, 1943, killing at least 150 Poles... and about 20 Belgian Jews"
17:
368:): Similar details to the main article. Trzcińska is cited as a historian, and the sole item of dispute is the
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247:"Among those grouped in Warsaw the majority was either shot to death or gassed in a provisional gas chambers"
567:"the existence of the Warschau concentration camp is hardly mentioned in standard accounts of the Holocaust"
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52:. Wartime aerial photography shows that the tunnel was used for horse and car traffic throughout the war.
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wasn't the only article affected - this conspiracy theory propagated to several higher-tier articles:
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741:, Routledge, 2010, chapter by Dieter Pohl, page 156-157 in print version (no page numbers in e-book)
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333:, Sobibor and Majdanek. Trzcińska is treated as a bona-fide historian; a 2003 investigation by the
226:
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109:"resentful of the international attention the Holocaust receives to claim a parity of suffering"
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the page was completely rewritten, including a mention of Trzcińska's claims' "fringe" status (
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Created with conspiratorial content on 25 August 2004 and remained as such until August 2019.
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of Trzcinska (published in June 2003, about a month after the IPN report), and on
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which were mostly ignored by other editors, the story was live in main space for
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might've persisted for fifteen more - an unacceptable result by any standard.
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Holocaust revisionism in Knowledge deserves to be studied in its own right.
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Why didn't English Knowledge editors notice this conspiracy theory before?
430:). An article with 36,137 average monthly views, had this story live for
100:
655:
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309:. An article with 5,562 average monthly views, had this story live for
144:
Unofficial memorial for KL Warschau at Alojzy Pawełek square, near the
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261:. And despite concerns raised by an IP and an editor two years later,
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is cited for background details, and to support that statement that
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for 15 years? One can only speculate. Perhaps once some parts were
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Road tunnels on Józef Bem street, under the railway leading to the
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has no support among scholars, which doesn't stop its followers:
27:
How Knowledge promoted alternative Holocaust history for 15 years
786:"History, memory, and politics in post-communist Eastern Europe"
729:, Martin Dean, and Mel Hecker, Volume I, part B, pages 1512-1515
180:. Earlier versions of the articles - before a large cleanup by
702:
Christian Davies is a Warsaw-based journalist writing for the
73:
In May 2019, a piece was published by Christian Davies of the
900:"The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Knowledge's Longest Hoax, Exposed"
872:"The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Knowledge's Longest Hoax, Exposed"
616:"The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Knowledge's Longest Hoax, Exposed"
218:
245:, when it was created, the article stated in WikiVoice that
213:. Most of those who survived the were taken on a series of
559:"not scientifically serious and criticized by historians"
614:, with an English version being published the next day:
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On October 3, 2019 the story broke on Israeli newspaper
846:"חשיפת מוסף הארץ: התרמית הגדולה ביותר בתולדות ויקיפדיה"
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to support the theory. And yet, the story was live for
753:, Princeton University Press, Wolfgang Sofsky page 337
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Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories
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starting in July 1944, with a 4,500-strong march to
89:, that states that 200,000 Poles were killed in the
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Konzentrationslager Warschau: historia i następstwa
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Konzentrationslager Warschau: historia i następstwa
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German camps in occupied Poland during World War II
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658:'s Center for Research on the Holocaust in Poland
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194:What do reputable sources say? According to the
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424:"similar camps existed at Warsaw and Janowska"
107:" narrative used by some right-wing activists
693:, Christian Davies, Vol. 41 No. 9, 9 May 2019
618:. Quoted in the article were leading experts
927:Mass at chruch followed by march after cross
722:Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945
719:The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
197:Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945
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751:The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp
115:. Needless to say, Davies states that this
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809:Kopka, Bogusław (2007).
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909:2019-10-04
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631:Knowledge.
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241:. Back in
174:crematoria
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105:Polocaust
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452:15 years
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272:15 years
259:Majdanek
203:Majdanek
176:, where
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255:Sobibór
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581:tagged
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219:Kutno
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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