Duda signs Poland’s controversial Holocaust bill into law

Poland will now be able to jail people accusing the country of Holocaust atrocities. On Tuesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a controversial bill into law that involves banning people from referring to concentration camps as “Polish death camps.”

The new law states that it is now prohibited to suggest that Poland was complicit in the crimes of the German Nazis during World War II. Duda said in a televised address that the law would protect the country’s international reputation.

The law will ban accusations that Poles were complicit in Nazi crimes committed in the country. Using the phrase “Polish death camps” is also not allowed. Those convicted will face fines or will be jailed for up to three years. The Nazis had operated six extermination camps in Poland, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

The president’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) said that the law is necessary so Poles are recognised as victims, not perpetrators, of the Nazi aggression. Although Duda acknowledged individual Poles who committed crimes against Jews and other enemies of Germany at that time, the blame should not include Poland as a nation.

Duda also said he would ask the Constitutional Tribunal to check whether the bill complies with their fundamental rights. This could mean that the bill could still have amendments or be reversed entirely. Nevertheless, Duda had already signed the bill into law, which would take effect within the next two weeks before the tribunal is able to issue clarifications.

The law, however, exempts artistic and historical research work from the ban, the interpretation of which is vague. “Who is going to determine what artistic or academic expression means?” Agnieszka Markiewicz, director of the American Jewish Committee’s central Europe office, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying. “A scholar associated with a university might be excluded, but what about a schoolteacher who shares some of the horrible stories that happened in Poland?”

Israel has expressed disappointment with the move, saying the law would curb free speech and whitewash the Poles’ roles in the WWII. It hoped that Poland would still amend the law.

“We hope that within the allotted time, until the court’s deliberations are concluded, we will manage to agree on changes and corrections. Israel and Poland hold a joint responsibility to research and preserve the history of the Holocaust,” the Israeli government posted on Twitter.

The law also makes it illegal to deny the murder of about 100,000 Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war. As Reuters notes, this could likely increase tensions with Ukraine.

The US, which had discouraged Poland to pass the law, also criticised the move. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the law “adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry.”