h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, then what about putingt a footnote directly on the figure for Poland and explain why the numbers don't add up? Just for the lazy guys who skip the text and go directly for the table.

How about that?

HELL

I think we are simulposting. I have checked the original table and I cocked up the cut and paste.

It is fixed now, per the one that I copied.

Thanks for pointing it out.

B

Ah, yes... Simulposting. Happens always at the wrong time.

But I guess you still have a typo in the table (also striking that the total numbers for Germany and Poland are identical). You see... It's the *only* row that doesn't add up, and that might need an explanation...

HELL

Finally done. Thanks Hell. I am crap at proofing my own stuff.

B

OK I see you have just changed the figures and now everything adds up. OK. You trust your source...

And all's fine with me, as far as you Entry is concerned. In my opinion it is good to go, even if I still don't like everything about the numbers...

HELL

PS: Just for your, and whoever's information, here's what I don't like about the statistics (now just talking about Poland) 6M dead Polish people... With around 3M Jews in Poland 1939, we would have to explain the remaining non-jewish 3M dead Polish civilians... This number seems to me to be too high, even for Nazi standards...

Hmm. I hope that the entry says that I *dont* trust my sources.... If that isn't one of the messages that comes across, then I need to rewrite it. Ok, I need to rewrite it anyway, but I had hoped my scepticism showed through.

B

Oh... wah... It does... I mean... Shine through... Your scepticism... That's why I think it's alright for you to use this table.

HELL

I don't quite understand Hell's assumption that the number of Polish civilian deaths during WW2 can only be attributed to Jewish people. There were *lots* of different ways you could be killed as a civilian in Poland by the war during WW2, concentration camps being only one. And even for the concentration camps, there were *lots* of ways you could end up in one -- being Jewish wasn't the only 'crime'.

I'm also under the impression that, in general, deaths are only listed as 'military deaths' when the person was actually an acting member of the official military at the time. So if a person dies while acting as part of the more informal 'Home Guard' or as part of the resistance movement, those are counted as civilian deaths.

Just food for thought.

I didn't say all of them should be attributed to Jewish people murdered in Poland. I am just saying, that 3M seems (to me) to be too high...

You are right when you say that there were lots of ways of getting into a concentration camp, but the VAST majority of the people who ended up in the 'death camps' *were* Jewish (or half-jewish, or quarter-Jewish, if you believe such a thing exists). There is a difference, actually, between the ordinary concentration camp, and a death camp. My grandfather told me about some peoeple who spent some time in a concentration camp that were left out after some time, they were mostly communists or homossexual artists. The Jewish did not leave, they were taken to the next concentration camp...

HELL

Well, as I said, I am not tampering with the sources, though I may comment on them and I may mis-type the damn things.

It is very well documented that a large number of Polish, Hungarian, Roumanian, Baltic, and central and eastern European civilians were used as slave labour. That, presumably, would account for the large number of Polish civilian dead.

Someone has already pointed out that the war started at different times in different countries.

B

Yah... I think this particular discussion could go on somewhere else. As I said, I think the Entry is now fine, the numbers add up, you give the source, and the rest is really good. This is a solid Entry. All I am saying is that I, in my very personal opinion, since I didn't have time yet to check more thoroughly, think that 3M civilian deaths in Poland seems a bit too high.

HELL

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done Ben

Pimms

Cheers, Ben.

C \|/

And I really thought I had written my last EG entry. It'll be interesting to see whether it garners any debate from the Front Page.

B