Polish senate passes controversial Holocaust Bill

World
Europe

Polish senators have passed a controversial bill which makes it illegal for anyone to try to link the Polish people and nation to Nazi crimes.

The Holocaust Bill was designed to defend the country's image abroad but has instead sparked a diplomatic row with Israel.

The upper house of parliament voted 57-23, with two abstentions, to approve the Bill, which sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who refers to Nazi German death camps as Polish or accuses Poland of complicity with the Third Reich's crimes.

Israel "adamantly opposes" the bill's approval, and had called for the Bill to be dropped, seeing one of its provisions as an attempt to deny Polish involvement in Nazi Germany's extermination of Jews and fearing that it would curb free speech.

Poland has long objected to the use of phrases like "Polish death camps", which suggest the Polish state in some way shared responsibility for camps such as Auschwitz.

The country's governing nationalists, who came to power in 2015, have pushed back against any notion of complicity.

Holocaust survivors heading towards the Death Wall with a buggy during the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi-German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27. /VCG Photo

Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, losing six million of its citizens including three million of its Jews, who numbered 3.2 million before the conflict.

The United States on Wednesday said the bill could undermine free speech.

"The history of the Holocaust is painful and complex. We understand that phrases such as 'Polish death camps' are inaccurate, misleading, and hurtful," US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"We are concerned, however, that if enacted this draft legislation could undermine free speech and academic discourse. We all must be careful not to inhibit discussion and commentary on the Holocaust.

"We are also concerned about the repercussions this draft legislation, if enacted, could have on Poland's strategic interests and relationships – including with the United States and Israel."

Source(s): AFP