[Wikipedia-l] Helga Jonat on [[Berlin]]

[Julie Hofmann Kemp]

Regarding Mirwin's essay --

I generally agree with what you've said, mike.  Just thought you should
know that this has been going on for close to a year now.  Wikipedians
have left partially because they were too fed up with their time being
wasted by Helga.  In almost every case, one of us (often me) has broken
down her work, explained where the problems are, and asked for sources
and/or clarification of very specific points.  We've also offered to
help turn what she comes up with into effective English.  Sometimes,
we've put together essays on sources and use of documents that have made
it into different articles.  Other times, we've gone out and looked at
her sources ourselves (they are often from highly biased minority
opinion sites or books that are hard to find because they are incredibly
outdated local histories in German), and found that either there was a
fair body of criticism or that she'd quoted out of context.  

You are absolutely right about minority opinions -- as long as they are
valid ones.  Helga's views on the Heimatvertriebene are generally quite
valid and need to be expressed (I would say it's analogous to the fight
by Roma and gay activists have placed on their inclusion as victims of
the Holocaust -- its only recently that any real research has been done
on the topic, but as it comes to light, it is included in the
mainstream).  HOWEVER, she does nothing to help create a collegial
atmosphere where we can add PROVABLE claims in a neutral POV.  IMO, her
irredentist views are pretty much insupportable -- not because they are
not accepted by the mainstream, but because she is just wrong.  Taken to
an extreme, Helga's arguments could be used to prove that Iberia belongs
to the Irish (choose a group of Celts) -- although she'd probably stop
at the Visigoths, since they're Germans.

Plus, she's accused other wikipedians of drinking too much (Michael
Tinkler) and insulted me on many occasions, to which my fovourtite
response is still from the much-missed Paul Drye "Pot. Kettle. Black."

Jules

Regards, 


Julie Hofmann Kemp 
253-638-1944
206-310-3461

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