A Polish court in Warsaw issued a ruling on Tuesday (9/2) ordering two prominent historians to apologize for "inaccuracies" in a book they wrote about the Holocaust.
The court decision comes after a lawsuit was filed against the two historians for defamation, in a case that has sparked a heated debate about the freedom of scientific research in the country.
Professor Barbara Engelkink, President of the International Auschwitz Council, and Professor Jan Grabowski, University of Ottawa, are the co-authors of the two-volume work entitled "Night without End. The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland', which refers to several cases of Polish complicity in the genocide of Jews during World War II.
As reported by the BBC, the lawsuit was filed by the 81-year-old niece of Eduard Malinovsky, mayor of the village of Malinovo during the German occupation and whose alleged involvement in the massacre of Jews is briefly mentioned in the book. Specifically, it is reported that Malinowski betrayed Jews to Nazi Germans.
The lawsuit was sponsored by the Polish Anti-Defamation Union, which opposes allegations of Polish involvement in the killing of Jews.
Judge Eva Jonczyk ruled that allegations of Malinowski's involvement in the massacre were "inaccurate" and recognized complainant Filomena Lescinska's right to "worship the dead". However, he rejected a request for compensation of more than 22,000 euros so that the decision would not act "as a deterrent to additional investigations".
The researchers announced that they would appeal the decision. "I respect the court's decision, but I must not accept it. I hope our reasons will be taken into account" in the appeal, Professor Grabowski told Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
The trial was held in a climate of distrust, which has intensified since the rise to power of the nationalist right and suspicions that it wants to rewrite the history of the country and discourage investigations into Polish actions during the period of German occupation.
The Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, as well as a number of Jewish organizations and researchers on both sides of the Atlantic, in statements strongly condemned the legal actions against historians. The World Jewish Congress said it was "surprised" by the decision.
Six million Poles, including three million Jews, were murdered between 1939 and 1945.
The attitude of the Poles towards their Jewish neighbors was not homogeneous, in Nazi-occupied Poland, where offering even a glass of water to a Jew was punishable by death by the Germans.
Although, on the one hand, many cases of indifference, sometimes cruelty, towards Jews have been recorded by historians, Poland also has the largest number of any other country of honorary titles of "Righteous Among the Nations", awarded to over 7,000 people from Yad Vashem, for rescuing Jews during the war.
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