“Polish death camp” and “Polish concentration camp” are misnomers[1][disputed ] that have been used in news media and by some public figures in reference to concentration camps that were built and run during World War II by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Poland.
When used about the Jewish Holocaust or about Germany’s World War II murder of Poles or persons of other nationalities in German-operated facilities on German-occupied Polish soil, these expressions have generally been meant to refer to the camps’ geographic locations in German-occupied Poland, but they can be misconstrued as meaning “death camps set up by Poles” or “run by Poles” or “run by Poland”.[2] Polish officials, organizations, and private citizens, in Poland and among the Polish diaspora, have objected to such expressions as misleading. They fear that such phrases will be understood by the uninformed as meaning that Poles operated the camps.[3]
On 6 February 2018 an Amendment to the Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance and the Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation was signed into law by Polish President Andrzej Duda. It criminalizes false public statements that ascribe to the Polish nation collective responsibility in Holocaust-related crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, or war crimes or which “grossly reduce the responsibility of the actual perpetrators”. Exempted from such strictures are scholarly studies, discussions of history, and artistic activities.[4] It is generally understood that the law will criminalize use of the expressions “Polish death camp” and “Polish concentration camp”.[5][6][7]
While the Government of Israel and Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee discourage use of such expressions as misleading,[8] they view the new Polish legislation as an attempt to restrict discussion of the culpability of some Poles in the Holocaust. Some Israelis have gone so far as to accuse the Polish government of Holocaust denial.[9][10] However, the original 1998 Act was already a law against Holocaust denial,[11] criminalizing “public denial, against the facts, of Nazi crimes, communist crimes, and other offenses constituting crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, committed against persons of Polish nationality or against Polish citizens of other nationalities, between 1 September 1939 and 31 July 1990″.[12]
The Polish government initiated a campaign in support of the Amendment, using social media and broadcasts directed at Israel, the United States, and other countries.[13][14][15]
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