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'Polish concentration camp' lawsuit against Die Welt dismissed

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 05.03.2015 13:25
A Polish man who tried to sue German newspaper Die Welt for using the term 'Polish concentration camp' has had his lawsuit dismissed by a Warsaw court.
The former German Nazi concentration camp of Majdanek. Photo: wikimedia commons/Alians PL/CC0The former German Nazi concentration camp of Majdanek. Photo: wikimedia commons/Alians PL/CC0

Zbigniew Osewski, whose grandfather died in a WWII German concentration camp in Iława, had wanted Die Welt to pay PLN 1 million to charitable institutions and issue a full apology in outlets of the Polish media.

Osewski said he felt personally insulted by the newspaper.

However, although the court concluded that as regards World War II, the erroneous term 'Polish concentration camp' should spark ''opposition and outrage among all people who know history, especially Poles,'' the lawsuit had to dismissed as the term was not directed at the complainant.

Mr. Osewski is now obliged to pay court costs, although he has said he will appeal against the ruling.

The use of the term 'Polish concentration camp' by international media outlets has inspired countless complaints in recent years, prompting some news agencies to change their style guidelines.

In 2007, following a Polish request, the World Heritage Committee attempted to clarify the matter by listing the Auschwitz death camp as a 'German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp.'

Meanwhile, conservative opposition party Law and Justice wants a law to be passed that makes it a crime to use the term 'Polish concentration camp' in the context of German Nazi WWII internment sites.

The Die Welt case concerned a 2008 article that referred to the former German Nazi camp of Majdanek as a 'Polish concentration camp.'

Lawyers representing the paper claimed that the term had been used to denote geographical location, and not responsibility for running the camp. (nh)

Source: PAP

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