Talk:Mogilev Conference/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Alex Shih (talk · contribs) 14:00, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Preliminary note

• Another well-written article and a work of collaboration involving many established writers, thank you all. I will be going through each sections thoroughly and try to find any potential concerns before doing the GA checklist. Alex Shih (talk) 14:31, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Lede

• I don't see any concerns. The lede is well written, and the length is appropriate considering the scope and the length of the article itself.

Infobox

• I am tried to verify the death count of 32 but was unable to do so. Perhaps it's because I cannot view page 10, may I request an excerpt of the source?

I don't have the book on hand at the moment, but here's the excerpt from the 2011 article (page 323) listed on the Talk page:

• "In the afternoon, the collection of officers observed an actual operation conducted by 7 Company, Police Battalion 322. Approximately fourteen kilometers northwest of Mogilev, a town was searched and its inhabitants interrogated. A summary written afterward stated, “Suspicious strangers to the village [Ortsfremde] and a few Jews were discovered (32 executions).”[77] Supporting the police was a sixteen-man detachment from the SD.[78] The war diary of Police Battalion 322, which carried out the operation, provides more telling detail. “Strangers to the village, in particular partisans, could not be found. Instead, the investigation of the population revealed 13 Jewish men, 27 Jewish women, and 11 Jewish children. Of these 13 men and 19 women were executed with the help of the SD.”[79]

I can add this citation to the article. More details on it are here: Talk:Mogilev_Conference#Source: A Calculus of Complicity. K.e.coffman (talk) 23:46, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Sounds good, thank you! Alex Shih (talk) 05:54, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

• I am not sure if {{Infobox event}} is the best infobox template here. Personally, I would even consider other options such as {{Infobox civilian attack}} instead. What do you think?

There's a "Holocaust event" template (see for example Babi Yar), but I think that the current template is okay. It was an organised event, with the field exercises, one of which resulted in the deaths listed. K.e.coffman (talk) 23:46, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Fair enough, thank you. Visually I think the casualties section in the current infobox looks slightly out of place, but it isn't really a concern. Alex Shih (talk) 05:54, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Agree that’s it’s somewhat incongruous, i.e. one would not expect a military training conference to include shooting of civilians who had not been convicted of a crime. But it is what it is, so it seems appropriate to include in the infobox. K.e.coffman (talk) 02:45, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Background

• Comprehensive, well-written, reliably sourced; did not spot any outstanding concerns.

The conference

• The commander of the 2nd SS Cavalry Regiment...: I believe this was Franz Magill; wouldn't it be better if his name is mentioned?
• ...reacting to unforeseen situations: I think the wording here is slightly ambiguous. I assume it's unforeseen situations when carrying out mass murders?
• About the village of Knyazhichi: I was wondering if something can be done to help the readers to visualize where the village is located; I am tempted to just record what Marching into Darkness says, "11 miles (18 km) northwest of Minsk". Since Mogilev is 113 miles away from Minsk, isn't that quite a travel for such minor field exercise? I wonder if the source explains anything about this. Alex Shih (talk) 05:54, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

1. Makes sense. I’ve added Magill as Franz Magill; he has an article on de.wiki.
2. I took it out; it’s vague and non-informative.
3. Re: Knyazhichi – I believe it’s a typo / error in the book; it seems implausible that the conference attendees would pick a location a 100+ miles away, as you point out. The article by Beorn (“A Calculus of Complicity”, p. 323) does not mention the locality by name, but states: “In the afternoon, the collection of officers observed an actual operation conducted by 7 Company, Police Battalion 322. Approximately fourteen kilometers northwest of Mogilev, a town was searched and its inhabitants interrogated. …” I’ve located Knyazhitsy / Kniazitch, which is indeed ~9 miles NW of Mogilev, so it must be it. I’ve added the locality as Knyazhitsy; there’s a page on ru.wiki for it. K.e.coffman (talk) 02:45, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Conference summary and aftermath

• No concerns.

Assessment

• No concerns.

Checklist

• K.e.coffman, I will complete the GA checklist once these three minor remarks are addressed. Thank you for the excellent article, and my sincere apologies for the long delay. Best, Alex Shih (talk) 05:54, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

1. Well written: The article had went through several major copyediting; certainly well written.
2. Verfiable: Every paragraph is supported with inline citation; no unreferenced claims found.
3. Broad in its coverage: For a relatively unknown conference, the coverage is broad by all means.
4. Neutrality: The article conforms to neutrality standards.
5. Stable: Minimal changes have taken place since the last copyediting was done, which was in the past month.
6. Images: While there are no images in this article, considering the subject matter, I don't believe there is a perceived need. I am passing this article as a Good Article based on the criteria. Thank you again for the excellent article and your patience. Alex Shih (talk) 16:54, 25 January 2018 (UTC)