4:40 — Wieluń and the First Morning of the Second World War

State

First full draft: about 30,800 words of chapter text, 292 working notes, a prologue, ten chapters, an epilogue, and an appendix on the 1929 directory.

The method from here

The draft was written with AI assistance from my research and my instructions. The prose becomes mine by rewriting, not editing: each chapter is dictated from a points sheet — facts, figures and the move the paragraph makes — with the draft present only as a fallback. Chapter 1's sheet is done (28 blocks).

Priority: prologue, chapter 1, chapter 10 and the epilogue in full; chapters 2, 7 and 8 a lighter pass; chapters 5 and 6 in between.

Two rules

1. Nothing drafted by the machine reaches print unless I have seen the source. 108 verification points remain open.
2. The author's note states the method: the research, documents, argument and judgements are mine; AI was used as a research assistant and drafting tool; every fact was checked by me against its source.

Publisher

Needed. Self-publication forecloses a PhD by publication, weakens a Royal Historical Society application, and is worth less to the town. Taube Center Sefarim grants are one route; a UK small press another.

Standing decisions

• On the hour: set out the evidence both ways, say only that my review tends to suggest, and do not call a judgement.
• Not an audit. Personal and historical.
• No forward signposting, no rhetorical set-ups, no narrating a play.