Three Polish citizens, survivors of the Nazi occupation of Poland, filed a statement of claim on April 6, 2018 with the Regional Court in Warsaw against the publishing company Katmar sp. z o.o. and Andrzej Ryba, its issuer, editor and representative. At issue are two books “The Age of Hitler 1” and “The Age of Hitler 2. Hitler the Democrat” published by Katmar sp. z o.o. The books, authored by the former SS officer Leon Degrelle, promote Nazism and deny the Holocaust.

The plaintiffs are all in their 80s and include a former fighter of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and Warsaw Uprising and two Holocaust survivors, who were both saved from the Warsaw Ghetto as children, and whose closest family members were killed by the Nazis.

The plaintiffs brought a civil action alleging infringement of their personal rights, claiming that Degrelle’s books, which promote Adolf Hitler’s ideology, violate their right to dignity, their sense of national identity, their right to the undistorted memory of their ancestors and to the historical truth about their life and history, their right to respect for their dramatic experiences which included immediate danger to life, and their physical and mental suffering.

The lawsuit seeks an order stopping the defendants from selling, distributing and promoting these books by Leon Degrelle and requiring defendants to pay a specific sum for social purposes.

The Warsaw office of Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, is handling the case pro bono as part of its Strategic Litigation project, focused on representing clients pro bono in human rights cases. Dentons’ supporting partner is The Lawfare Project, the U.S. think tank dedicated to fighting discrimination and anti-Semitism across the globe.

One of the plaintiffs commented: “The motivation behind my involvement in this case is to protect historical truth about Nazi crimes and to pass this truth on to the young generations of Poles”.

Wojciech Kozłowski, the Dentons Partner in charge of the case, said: “This statement of claim reflects the policy of zero tolerance for those who propagate Nazism or anti-Semitism. The civil lawsuit filed by private individuals determined to protect their personal rights in this case has both a unique human element and a groundbreaking legal dimension.” Mr. Kozłowski added that the case was based on a precedence-setting judgment issued by the Regional Court in Kraków on April 25, 2016, in the case that also concerned the protection of historical truth in the context of dramatic wartime experiences of the plaintiff.

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