Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomes Polish law move
(27 Jun 2018) The director of a leading Jewish human rights organisation on Wednesday welcomed Poland's decision to scrap criminal provisions that were part of a Holocaust speech law.
Polish lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the changes on Wednesday at the request of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Efraim Zuroff, the director of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said that "there's no question that a law like this, in it's original form posed a very serious threat to serious historical research on the role of Poles during the Holocaust."
The original version of the law, passed early this year, called for prison terms of up to three years for falsely accusing the Polish nation of Holocaust crimes that were committed by Nazi Germany.
The ruling Law and Justice party said it was trying to stop the use of expressions like "Polish death camps" for camps Nazi German operated on occupied Polish territory during World War II.
The passage of the amendments means that Polish authorities have largely backtracked on a law that had supposedly been aimed at defending the country's "good name," but which mostly had the opposite effect.
There were widespread suspicions that the true intent was to suppress free inquiry into a complex past, and the law was compared by some to history laws in Turkey and Russia.
The amendments, presented to lawmakers by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, were passed 388-25 in the lower house of parliament with five abstentions following an emotional but short debate.
The original version of the law, passed early this year, called for prison terms of up to three years for falsely and intentionally accusing the Polish nation of Holocaust crimes that were committed by Nazi Germany.
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