Holocaust researchers in Poland win libel case on appeal

By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — An appellate court in Poland has rejected a lawsuit brought against two Holocaust scholars in a case that has been closely watched. Their case has been expected to serve as a precedent for research into the highly sensitive issue 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, and which believes that a focus on Polish wrongdoing distorts the historical picture. The court argued in its ruling Monday that it’s not the responsibility of the courts to judge scholarly research. The researchers, Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, called it a “great victory.”