Talk:Vilna Ghetto

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I moved the article from Vilna Ghetto to Wilna Ghetto because this name is more logical, as Wilna is German name for the city. The name Vilna was not used for the city for a long time by the time ghetto was established. Vilne is the Yiddish name for the city. Burann 16:39, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

But Vilna was the English language name for the city before 1945 (from both Jewish and Catholic English language sources) --Henrygb 09:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

According to Vilnius#Names: The names Wilno and Vilna have also been used in older English and French language publications. Xx236 10:40, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What’s the Great Provocation?

Question: What was "The Great Provocation" of September 2, mentioned in the article? Dr. Dan 14:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC) Anyone know? Dr. Dan 03:54, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Answer: The Great Provocation means the incident the Nazis staged as a pretext for clearing the predominantly (poorer) Jewish quarter in the Vilna Old Town in order to force the rest of the (predominantly more affluent) Jewish residents into the Nazi-created ghetto. The numbers in this article look suspect, i.e., suspiciously low, for the Jewish population remaining after the Lithuanian volunteers had a crack at exterminating the Vilna Jews in the first wave of terror in the summer of 1941. Specifically, the Great Provocation of 31 AUGUST 1941 was led by SS officer Einsatzkommando 9 Oberscharführer Horst Schweinberger under orders from Gebietskommissar of the Vilnius municipality Hingst and Murer, Hingst’s deputy for Jewish affairs, under “provisional directives” of Reichskommisar H. Lohse. Murer, Hingst and Vilnius mayor Dabulevichius selected site for future ghetto and staged a sniping at German soldiers in front of a cinema from a window on the corner Stikliu (Glezer, also known as Szklana) and Didzioji (Wielka, meaning Great Street, part of the reason for the name for the event) streets by two Lithuanians in civilian clothes who had broken into an apartment belonging to Jews. The Lithuanians fled the apartment, then returned with waiting German soldiers, seized two Jews, accused them of firing on the German soldiers, beat them and then shot them on the spot. Stikliu and Mesiniu (Jatkowa) streets were ransacked by the local militia and Jews were beaten up. At night, in “retaliation,” all Jews were driven out of the neighborhood the Nazis had selected as the future ghetto territory, street by street, and the next day the women and children on remaining streets were seized while the men were at work. Men at workplaces were also seized. Jews were taken to Lukishkes prison, then to Paneriai (Ponar, Ponary), where they were murdered on September 1-3. Five to ten thousand people were murdered, including ten members of the Judenrat. The objective was to clear a territory for the establishment of a ghetto to imprison all the Jews of Vilnius and suburbs. (Arad, Dr. Yitzhak, “Ghetto in Flames: The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust,” Holocaust Library, New York, 1982, pp. 101-105; Kruk, Herman, “The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944,” edited and introduced by Benjamin Harshav, translated by Barbara Harshav, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2002, pp. 81-83, 94; Šhuras, Grigorijus [Grigori Shur], “Užrašiai: Vilniaus geto kronika 1941-1944,” ERA, Vilnius, 1977, pg. 35.)

As to naming conventions, "Wilna" is probably the least accessible. "Vilna" is the most common name for the city in English in Holocaust literature and generally in works by Jewish authors. "Vilnius" is the Lithuanian name. "Wilno" is the Polish name, and the majority language at the time of the German invasion was Polish; Lithuanians had only recently regained their ancient capital thanks to Stalin and were attempting to Lithuanianize the city. The Yiddish name for the city is usually transliterated "Vilna" and the Hebrew is usually transliterated "Vilne." "Vilno" was the common transliteration from Russian, although Russian speakers now say "Vilnius."

PS I must be going blind, I can't find the Great Provocation mentioned in the wiki article. 81.7.91.43 12:53, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

You’re not going blind: It isn’t there; but if what you’ve written above is true, it certainly should be. If for some reason you can’t work the above into the article (you seem to have access to the sources and to be familiar with them), I will give it a try. Best regards, Jim_Lockhart 13:15, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I'll see what I can do in the next few days. The article barely skims the surface of the Vilna ghetto, there are many more stories to tell about what went on. To do it justice the article should be expanded. Kruk's library, for example, deserves treatment. When they lent out the 100,000th book to ghetto readers, an awards ceremony was held and Kruk delivered a presentation on library statistics. It's interesting that the most popular book was The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel about the Turkish genocide against the Armenians in 1915. Hopefully I can get around to it.

81.7.91.43 14:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Wilna2 tn.jpg

Image:Wilna2 tn.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 03:12, 12 February 2008 (UTC)