The woman is suing academic Anna Hájková, associate professor of modern continental European history at Warwick University in a court in Frankfurt for €25,000.

She claims breaches of a previous ruling that Dr Hájková violated the dead woman’s personality rights.

The woman is bringing the legal case in Germany because its constitution protects reputational rights after death. Her lawyer told the regional court that her mother met the SS guard at a concentration camp in 1944. The guard fell in love with the claimant’s mother and followed her twice to different camps.

In 1945, the guard was arrested following the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and was later imprisoned for two years. The mother emigrated to Australia.

The daughter said she told Dr Hájková that the relationship was not sexual and that her mother used the guard’s infatuation with her to ensure her survival.