Holocaust survivors sue publisher over Nazi-era books

WARSAW, Poland — Two Holocaust survivors and a Polish anti-Nazi resistance fighter have filed a lawsuit against the publisher of books praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a civil case that the plaintiffs’ lawyers say on Monday is the first of its kind in Poland.

The lawsuit against Katmar, a publisher based in the Baltic port city of Gdansk, focuses on two pro-Nazi propaganda books by Belgian Nazi collaborator and SS officer Leon Degrelle, entitled, “The Age of Hitler 1,” “The Age of Hitler 2,” and “Hitler the Democrat.”

Degrelle led Belgium’s far-right Rex Party before the war, and then became a Nazi SS officer, decorated by Hitler.

“The promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in Poland, and in theory prosecutable in the criminal courts, but in practice public prosecutors fail to act effectively in the majority of cases,” Wojciech Kozlowski, a lawyer with the Dentons global solicitors, tells AFP.

“This is the first civil case of its kind ever brought in Poland,” he says, adding that prosecutors had rejected a previous suit against the Katmar publications under an article in Poland’s criminal code outlawing hate speech.

Launching a civil case means that courts have no choice but to deliberate it.

The plaintiffs argue that the Katmar publications authored by Degrelle can be regarded as pro-Nazi propaganda rather than a historical record because they do not contain a forward that would contextualize their content.

— AFP