Polish Government Criminalizes Domestic Accusations of Poland Being Complicit in Nazi Crimes

The day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Polish Parliament approves a bill that criminalizes making accusations about Poland being complicit in Nazi war crimes during WWII. Prompting rancorous international pushback, this law, if enforced, could lead to a prison sentence of up to three years in Poland. Israeli politicians, news outlets, and citizens loudly joined international Jewry and others in condemning the law. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum deemed the law as “liable to blur the historical truths regarding the assistance the Germans received from the Polish population during the Holocaust.” This legislation sits as a backdrop to growing right-wing, anti-Semitic and white nationalist political movements steadily growing in certain parts of Europe. At the Munich Security Conference in February 2018, Israeli President Rivlin expressed Israel’s outrage towards the law.