A libel action by a Polish-born physician against Leon Uris, American author of the novel “Exodus,” and his British publishers, opened here today in the High Court. The suit, by a Dr. Wladyslaw Dering, who is now practicing here, refers to a portion of the book which mentions a Dr. Dehring, spelled differently from the name of the plaintiff.
In his suit, the physician objected to assertions in the book that Dr. Dehring was concerned with experiments on inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. During his testimony today, Dr. Dering said that he was himself an inmate of Auschwitz and was maltreated and subjected to all the indignities of other inmates. But, as a doctor, he said, he was employed in a medical unit run by German doctors.
He also stated that he was a member of the Polish underground, a fact he said was unknown to his German captors. He told the court he does not in any way feel that he had acted against his conscience, medical ethics or humanity in general.
Witnesses for the defendant, among them former inmates of Auschwitz, will be called tomorrow. The printers of the book do not figure in the present action. They had reportedly settled with Dr. Dering by paying damages.
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