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Lecturer taken to court for suggesting late Holocaust survivor had affair with SS camp guard
Daughter of deceased Shoah survivor argues university teacher has breached a court order
October 9, 2020 13:54
Daughter of deceased Shoah survivor argues university teacher has breached a court order
October 9, 2020 13:54A Warwick University lecturer is facing fresh legal action from the daughter of a Holocaust survivor for suggesting her late mother had had a lesbian relationship with a concentration camp guard, according to the Guardian.
Dr Anna Hájková, associate professor of modern continental European history, is alleged to have breached a court order earlier this year that ruled the claim violated the mother’s rights.
The survivor, who died in 2010, met the SS guard in a concentration camp in Hamburg in 1944.
The guard had fallen in love with her mother and followed her to two other camps, the daughter's lawyer told a Frankfurt court. After the liberation of Belsen, the guard was sentenced to two years in jail.
According to the Guardian, the daughter had told Dr Hájková in 2014 that the relationship was not sexual.
Dr Hájková – who is researching the queer history of the Holocaust – based her view that the women might have had a lesbian relationship on trial documents and survivor testimony, the paper reported.
But when she named the two women in publicity for lectures she gave last year, the daughter filed a case in a German court, which ruled the claim infringed the late woman’s dignity and barred her from naming the survivor without her daughter’s permission
The academic had promised six years ago not to use the survivor’s full name but “simply forgot” this pledge, the paper reported.
Now the daughter alleges that Dr Hájková has breached the court order, which the academic denies. The court could impose a fine of up to 250,000 euros (£225,000), the daughter's lawyer said.
According to the Guardian, Dr Hájková, who is Jewish and from Czechoslovakia, said she had gone beyond the conditions of the court in using a pseudonym rather than an abbreviated name for the survivor when referring to her alleged relationship with the guard.
The daughter is looking for compensation from Warwick University, which is conducting an investigation.