Dering v Uris and Others was a 1964 English libel suit brought by Polish-born Wladislaw Dering against the American writer Leon Uris. It was described at the time as the first war crimes trial held in Britain. Dering alleged that Uris had libelled him in a footnote in his novel Exodus, which described his participation in medical experiments in Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. The case was tried in the High Court of Justice before Justice Lawton and a jury between April and May 1964. On 6 May, the jury returned a verdict for Dering, but awarded him contemptuous damages of one halfpenny, the smallest coin in the currency. As a result, Dering became liable for the defendants' legal costs. The trial attracted wide media coverage. In particular, The Times provided extensive coverage of the case, printing large portions of the testimony presented in court. The novel QB VII and its 1974 miniseries adaptation are loosely based on this case. Background Wladislaw Alexander Dering was a Polish doctor who was imprisoned at Auschwitz during the Second World War for resistance activities. After the war, he reached Britain, but was detained by the British government as an alleged war criminal, while the Polish government sought his extradition. In 1948, he was released, the Home Secretary having decided that there was insufficient evidence to support a prima facie case against him. Dering thereupon joined the Colonial Medical Service, running a hospital in Hargeisa, British Somaliland. For his services, he was appointed an OBE in 1960. The same year, he returned to England and established a medical practice in North London. After his return, his family drew his attention to a passage in the novel Exodus by American author Leon Uris. The passage, on page 155, read:Here in Block X Dr. Wirths used women as guinea pigs and Dr. Schumann sterilized by castration and X-ray and Clauberg removed ovaries and Dr. Dehring performed 17,000 'experiments' in surgery without anaesthetics.Dering issued writs for libel against Uris, his British publishers William Kimber & Co Ltd, and the printers. The printers settled the case before the trial for £500 and an apology. Uris and William Kimber admitted the words at issue were defamatory against Dering, but pleaded that the words were true in substance and in fact, save for some particularized exceptions. The trial The trial opened in the High Court of Justice in London