Sabina Citron (August 4, 1928 – September 27, 2023) was a Polish-Canadian

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

. She was a founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, charged a Nazi propagandist under the Canadian ''Criminal Code'' with spreading false news in relation to

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, and prevailed in a civil lawsuit for libel against Hungarian war criminal

Imre Finta Imre Finta (2 September 1912 – 1 December 2003) was the first person prosecuted under Canada's war crimes legislation. He was charged in 1987 and acquitted in 1990. Early life Finta was born in Kolozsvár (modern-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He s ...

. She authored ''The Indictment''.

Early life

Sabina Citron was born in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, Poland on August 4, 1928. She performed

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

in an ammunition factory during World War II. Later during

, she was incarcerated in

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

, where her oldest brother died. Although the rest of Citron's close relatives managed to survive, almost all of her extended family were killed. She moved to Israel in 1948, later immigrated to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada. She later returned to Israel, living in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

until her death in 2023.

Later life

Citron became a founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association. In 1983 Citron began a

private prosecution A private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual private citizen or private organisation (such as a prosecution association) instead of by a public prosecutor who represents the state. Private prosecutions are allowed in ...

under the Canadian

Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

against Nazi propagandist Ernst Zündel, a

Holocaust denier Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

and pamphleteer, charging him with spreading false news. The charges were based on two pamphlets he had published. Citron alleged that the publications were "likely to cause mischief to the public interest in social and racial tolerance".''R v Zundel'', 1987 CanLII 121 (ON CA).
/ref> The case was taken over by the Crown Attorney's office, and Zündel was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in jail. However, on appeal to the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

, the conviction was set aside and a re-trial ordered, due to procedural errors made by the trial judge. Zündel was again convicted at the re-trial and appealed, first to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which dismissed the appeal, and then to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

, which allowed the appeal, overturning the decisions of the courts below. In its decision, the Supreme Court held that the charge of spreading false news was unconstitutional, because it infringed the guarantee of

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

in the

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

. Citron also prevailed in a civil lawsuit for libel against

, after he accused her of being a liar for saying that he had committed war crimes. Citron was the author of ''The Indictment: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Historical Perspective'' (Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2006).

Death

Sabina Citron died at her apartment in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023, at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citron, Sabina 1928 births 2023 deaths Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Activists from Jerusalem People from Łódź Polish emigrants to Canada Polish emigrants to Israel Canadian non-fiction writers Writers from Toronto Jewish Canadian writers Holocaust denial in Canada Canadian women non-fiction writers Jewish women writers