Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team warned Poland not to enact a law that would criminalize assertions of Poland’s complicity in the Holocaust.
“We all must be careful not to inhibit discussion and commentary on the Holocaust,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Wednesday. “We encourage Poland to re-evaluate the legislation in light of its potential impact on the principle of free speech and on our ability to be effective partners.”
Poland’s lower house of parliament passed the legislation Friday, as the NATO-member government maintained it was necessary for “preventing intentional defamation” of the nation. Polish lawmakers previously attempted to pass the bill in 2013, after then-President Barack Obama referred to a “Polish death camp” while honoring Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski.
“[T]he purpose of the amendment passed by the [lower house of the parliament] after two years of legislative work was to eliminate public and contrary-to fact conduct that attributes responsibility or co-responsibility for Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich to the Polish Nation or the Polish State,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said Friday. “Using expressions such as ‘Polish death camps’ was one manifestation of such conduct.”
Nauert acknowledged Obama’s remark, without naming him directly. “We understand that phrases such as ‘Polish death camps’ are inaccurate, misleading, and hurtful,” she said. “We are concerned, however, that if enacted this draft legislation could undermine free speech and academic discourse.”