17 January 2006
The widow of a Belgian SS volunteer has reached a court settlement with the Irish state television broadcaster, RTE, granting her the right of reply to a documentary about Nazi fugitives and collaborators in Ireland, JTA reports. Juliet Folens, wife of the late Albert Folens, a former member of the SS-affiliated Flemish Legion and founder of Ireland’s largest publisher of schoolbooks, had sought an injunction preventing RTE television from broadcasting a portion of 'Ireland’s Nazis' dealing with her husband’s wartime activities. The second half of the documentary was set to air Tuesday, but it was redited to exclude an enactment of torture that Folens allegedly carried out during the war.
The program will now also include a reply by Folens stating that she and her family do not accept that Folens was a member of the Nazi party or employed by the Gestapo, as the film claims. Folens was sentenced to 10 years in prison by British authorities for his participation in the Flemish Legion, but escaped custody in 1946 to Ireland, where he lived until his death four years ago. The film documents several Nazis and collaborators who found safe haven in Ireland in the postwar years.
