Polish PM backs down in Holocaust law row

POLISH LAWMAKERS have agreed to water down a controversial Holocaust speech law that had caused anger in Israel and the US.

MPs meeting in parliament on Wednesday voted 388-25 to drop the threat of prison to anyone convicted of attributing Nazi crimes to the Polish nation.

The original law passed earlier this year had included a three-year jail term, with some observers saying even using the phrase, “Polish death camp” could result in a conviction.

The proposal was tabled by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

“Those who say that Poland may be responsible for the crimes of World War Two deserve jail terms” he told parliament before the vote.

In an acknowledgement of international pressure, he added: “But we operate in an international context and we take that into account.”

The passage of the amendments means that Polish authorities have largely back-tracked on a law that had supposedly been aimed at defending the country’s “good name” but which mostly had the opposite effect.

Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Millions of its citizens were killed, including three million Jews — approximately half of those who perished in the Holocaust.

The country has long objected to the use of phrases like “Polish death camps”, which suggest the Polish state in some way shared responsibility for the Holocaust.

Earlier this year, Mr Morawiecki tweeted that “Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a Polish name, and Arbeit Macht Frei is not a Polish phrase”.