(JTA) — The newly passed Polish Holocaust law will not lead to criminal charges, according to a government minister.
The law, which takes effect at the end of the month, criminalizes claims that the Polish nation or state are responsible for Nazi crimes.
Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki said late Tuesday in an interview on Polish television that no criminal charges will be brought against offenders, but Poland will require some remedy for untrue statements, The Associated Press reported.
Poland will “react, demand clarifications, argue against them, but no means of prosecution will be implemented,” Cichocki said on TVN24.
The law, which has been sent to the country’s Constitutional Court for review, provides for jail sentences of up to three years for violations, such as using the term “Polish death camp.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spurred more Israeli and Jewish upset over the law with remarks he made last weekend in an interview at the Munich Security Conference.
“Of course it’s not going to be punishable, [it’s] not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian; not only German perpetrators,” Morawiecki told an Israeli reporter.
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