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Reference.org
"Polish death camp" controversy
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<p>In historical discussions of <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a>, "Polish death camp" and "Polish concentration camp" are ambiguous expressions which, while accurately describing camps located in Poland, are misconstruable as indicating that there were <a href="/facts/Nazi_concentration_camps/2st2dDQm">Nazi concentration</a> and <a href="/facts/Nazi_extermination_camps/v9VjaFP8">extermination camps</a>—established by <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a> in <a href="/facts/Occupation_of_Poland_(1939%25E2%2580%25931945)/qIIryAJw">German-occupied Poland</a> during World War II—established or operated by Poles or by Poland. </p><p>Some Poles, including politicians, have viewed use of the expressions "Polish death camp" and "Polish concentration camp", by careless speakers, as having been deliberately intended to <a href="/facts/Disinformation/JNY1zmLJ">disinform</a>. </p><p>Poland's subsequent 2018 <a href="/facts/Amendment_to_the_Act_on_the_Institute_of_National_Remembrance/jLLeInkL">Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance</a> prompted objections within and outside Poland. The law criminalized public statements ascribing, to the Polish nation, responsibility in <a href="/facts/Holocaust/vGQsAb2y">Holocaust</a>-related crimes, <a href="/facts/Crimes_against_peace/wvs7NASS">crimes against peace</a>, <a href="/facts/Crimes_against_humanity/N4nRKINC">crimes against humanity</a>, or <a href="/facts/War_crime/36qQAugC">war crimes</a>, or which "grossly reduce the responsibility of the actual perpetrators". It was generally understood that the law criminalized use of the expressions "Polish death camp" and "Polish concentration camp". </p><p>The amendment also prohibited use of the expression "Polish concentration camp" in reference to camps operated by the Polish government after World War II on sites of former Nazi camps. In a January 2018 trial, <a href="/facts/Newsweek.pl/ClFEs5So">Newsweek.pl</a> was sentenced for referring to the <a href="/facts/Zgoda_camp/3JGva0hC">Zgoda camp</a>, operated by Polish authorities between February and November 1945, as a "Polish concentration camp". </p><p>In 2019 Poland's <a href="/facts/Constitutional_Tribunal_of_Poland/RpR8V14m">Constitutional Tribunal</a> ruled that the portions of the amendment relating to the expresions "Ukrainian nationalists" and "Eastern Lesser Poland" were null and void. </p>