Has anyone written a novel? Need advice on place and names reference?
I would say that you need to fictionalize your account of what happened. By all means, change the names. You need to identify the country — Poland, Sweden, Germany ? — but find different names for specific places. You don’t want to be sued. Lawsuits from people who feel that they have been portrayed in an injurious way are very infrequent, but when they happen are very destructive. You may not remember Peyton Place, a cutting edge novel when it came out. An individual claimed that he was portrayed in the book, sued Grace Metalius, and tied up the income from the book for several years. In some fiction works, you will find a disclaimer at the beginning that says something about the story being not about any real persons, living or dead.
