Poland eases Holocaust law punishments

Polish legislators passed changes to a disputed Holocaust speech law yesterday, scrapping the threat of prison for those who attribute Nazi crimes to the Polish nation.

The changes mean that Poland has largely backtracked on the original law, supposedly aimed at defending the country’s “good name”. However, there were suspicions that the true intent of the law, which called for prison terms of up to three years for accusing Poland of Holocaust crimes, was to suppress free inquiry into a complex past.