Holocaust historians to apologise in libel case
A Warsaw court has ordered two prominent Holocaust scholars to apologise to a woman who claimed her uncle had been slandered in a historical book which suggested he had collaborated with the Germans and robbed a Jewish woman during WWII.
"Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland," edited and co-written by Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski, is a 1,600-page historical book published in 2018.
The publication describes the survival strategy of Jews in several counties of Poland under Nazi German occupation.
The court ordered Engelking and Grabowski to put an apology on the publisher's website and send a written apology to Filomena Leszczyńska, the 80-year-old plaintiff.
However, the court dismissed Leszczyńska's plea for a PLN 100,000 (EUR 22,350) compensation.
Leszczyńska was supported by the Polish League Against Defamation, a group that targets instances of slander against Poland.
Monika Brzozowska-Pasieka, Leszczyńska's lawyer, said the ruling also banned such violations in the future. "It will not be possible to infringe upon personal rights, it will not be possible to write that Edward Malinowski was complicit in the killing of Jews and that he robbed Estera Drogicka nee Siemiatycka."
