Zbigniew Radłowski together with the World Home Army Union have sued the German TV channel and the producers of the series for its portrayal of the Home Army. The series was highly popular in Germany and was perceived to be understanding of or even apologetic of German actions during the war.
The series does show Germans committing war crimes but in situations in which there was little alternative, whereas Poles are shown as antisemitic, willing to kill Jews. The German historian Julius Schoeps who was a consultant on the TV series is a German Jew who declared that the only good underground in Poland was the communist underground controlled by the Soviets.
I lived through the German occupation of Warsaw, the Warsaw Rising, a prison camp. No ZDF program and no German court can falsify the truth about who was the victim and who was the oppressor
Both ZDF and the producers of the series are defending themselves arguing that Polish historians are biased in favor of a Polish view of history. They have requested that another witness be heard, thereby prolonging the case.
Another case against ZDF
ZDF are facing a similar legal action brought by 96-year-old Karol Tendera, an Auschwitz survivor for allowing the term “Polish concentration camp” to be used. ZDF lost the case in a Kraków court but appealed to Germany’s Federal Justice Tribunal which declared that the verdict of the Kraków court is inapplicable as it challenges the “fundamental freedom of expression and media”.
Commenting on the verdict of the German court, captain Radłowski said:
I lived through the German occupation of Warsaw, the Warsaw Rising, a prison camp. No ZDF program and no German court can falsify the truth about who was the victim and who was the oppressor, who was the criminal and who the hero. We must fight for that truth, ALL of us!”
