Holocaust researcher files libel lawsuit after accused of falsifying history

A historian and Holocaust researcher has filed a lawsuit against a Polish organization for libel after it publicly accused him of ruining Poland’s good name and charging that his Holocaust research falsifies the history of Poland.

Professor Jan Grabowski of the University of Ottawa filed a lawsuit for libel against the Polish League Against Defamation on Thursday at the District Court in Warsaw.

The historian’s lawsuit proposes that each person who in June 2017 signed a defamatory statement published by the organization, purchase and donate to one Polish high school a copy of the book “Night Without an End. Fate of Jews in selected counties of occupied Poland.”

The Polish League Against Defamation on June 7, 2017, published a statement condemning Grabowski. It was signed by 134 people and circulated, among others, to authorities of the University of Ottawa. It is in this document that statements were made that libel the Polish-Canadian historian, according to the lawsuit.

Lawyers representing Grabowski say that the letter called into question confidence in the scientific reliability and in the historian’s scientific knowledge, and that “the goal of the organization was to discredit him in the eyes of the scientific community.” ...