The lower house of the Polish parliament has voted to decriminalise the false attribution to Poland and Poles of crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, signalling a partial retreat on contentious legislation enacted earlier this year. During an emergency parliamentary session on Wednesday morning, the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, of the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party, told MPs that the legislation had succeeded in its aim of raising international awareness of Poland’s role during the second world war.

“The purpose of this law was and still is one fundamental message: fight for the truth, fight for the truth of world war two and postwar times,” Morawiecki said.
“A publisher in the United States or in Germany will think twice before publishing today an article using the expression ‘Polish SS’, ‘Polish gestapo’ or ‘Polish concentration camps’ if he risks a lawsuit and a fine of 100m euros or dollars.”(theguardian)…[+]