Holocaust researchers win contentious libel dispute
WARSAW — An appellate court in Poland on Monday rejected a lawsuit brought against two Holocaust scholars in a case that has been closely watched because it is expected to serve as a precedent for research into the highly sensitive area of Polish behavior toward Jews during World War II.
Poland is governed by a nationalist conservative party that has sought to promote remembrance of Polish heroism and suffering during the wartime German occupation of the country. The party also believes that discussions of Polish wrongdoing distort the historical picture and are unfair to Poles.
The Appellate Court of Warsaw reasoned that scholarly research should not be judged by courts. A lawyer for the plaintiff said Monday that she would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The decision was welcomed by the two researchers, Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking.
“We greet the verdict with great joy and satisfaction all the more, that this decision has a direct impact on all Polish scholars, and especially on historians of the Holocaust,” they said.
Monday’s ruling comes half a year after a lower court ordered the two researchers to apologize to a woman who claimed that her deceased uncle had been defamed in a historical work they edited and partially wrote, “Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland.”
Lawyers for the niece, Filomena Leszczynska, 81, argued that her uncle was a Polish hero who had saved Jews, and that the scholars had harmed her good name and that of her family by suggesting the uncle was also involved in the killing of Jews.
Some researchers and others feared that if the researchers were punished, it could have a chilling effect and dissuade young scholars from taking up the sensitive issue of Polish behavior toward the Jews in World War II.
Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany during the war and its population subjected to mass murder and slave labor. Yet there were also some Poles who betrayed Jews to the Germans or took part in their killing, while other Poles risked their lives to save Jews.