At the initiative of Polish League Against Defamation, Krystian Brodacki filed a lawsuit against Onet.pl. The case concerns a photograph published on 15 March 2016 on onet.pl, portraying women taken away to be executed in Palmiry, Poland, including Mr Brodacki’s mother. The photo accompanied an article on love affairs between Polish women and German soldiers, and prostitution during the occupation.
The late Maria Brodacka was recognised in the photograph. Her son, Krystian Brodacki, demands an apology and PLN 150,000 as compensation for disrespecting his mother. He was deeply shocked by the publication of the article on collaboration and intimate relationships with the occupying forces, coupled with the unnerving photograph of women taken away to be executed.
Before court he is represented by our partner, the Pasieka, Derlikowski, Brzozowska and Partners law firm.
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Krystian Brodacki is the only son of Maria Brodacka. In 1939, his father, Antoni Stanisław Brodacki, died from combat wounds suffered during the defence of Warsaw against Germans. His mother, the late Maria Brodacka, was a daughter of Gen. Władysław Jaxa-Rożen, and a sister of Capt. Stanisław Jaxa-Rożen, both of whom served in the Polish Army. Already early on during the occupation, she became involved in resistance and worked for PLAN, a Polish independence organisation. She hid Kazimierz Andrzej Kott, commanding officer of a PLAN fighting unit and a Pole of Jewish origin, who was arrested on 14 January 1940, and on 17 January 1940 escaped from prison and came to Maria Brodacka, who hid him in her apartment and later helped him safely leave Warsaw. Warrants for arrest, with photographs of Kazimierz Kott, were distributed all over the General Government. A substantial financial reward was put up for providing assistance in capturing him. But Kott was not captured by Germans. However, following a tip-off from the nanny of her then 2.5 half year old son Krystian, Maria Brodacka was arrested. After being arrested, Maria Brodacka had to endure a brutal investigation by the Gestapo in prison at Rakowiecka St. and in Pawiak, but did not betray anyone. On 14 June 1940 she was executed by a firing squad in Palmiry.
Palmiry near Warsaw in the Kampinos Forest is a town that witnessed mass murdering of Polish people, and especially Polish intelligentsia. In total, Germans killed 2,200 people there. Krystian Brodacki is the only heir of Maria Brodacka.