Poland’s Controversial Holocaust Bill Becomes Law
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Law mandates fines or imprisonment for people who accuse the Polish population of responsibility or complicity in war crimes
Poland enacted a libel law to punish those who accuse Polish society of complicity in the Holocaust, despite objections from the U.S., Israel and some Auschwitz survivors, who said it threatened to stifle honest discussion of the Nazi genocide.
“It is important to protect the good name of Poland and the Polish people,” President Andrzej Duda told reporters in the presidential palace before signing the legislation on Tuesday. “We have a right to our historical truth.”
Mr. Duda’s country is at the center of a new nationalism gaining traction in Europe, especially in the poorer, once-communist countries of the Continent’s east, where voters complain that distant, European Union elites have dominated decision-making on immigration policy, economics and religion.
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