WARSAW — President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday that he would sign into law a bill making it illegal to accuse “the Polish nation” of complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities, a measure that has roiled relations with Israel and the United States, and spurred claims that the nationalist government is trying to whitewash one of the bloodiest chapters in Poland’s history. 
 
 Opponents have predicted that the law — which prohibits, among other things, the phrase “Polish death camp” — would stifle free speech and put questions of historical accuracy into the hands of judges and prosecutors who may be more motivated by politics than scholarship. Despite weeks of ferocious criticism from other nations and from independent scholars, Mr. Duda’s right-wing Law and Justice Party pressed ahead with the bill. 
 
 Mr. Duda said in a speech broadcast on Polish television and radio that he would sign the measure, while asking the Constitutional Court to determine whether the law violated free-speech protections and to make clear specifically what kinds of speech could be prosecuted. He said that the government wanted to be sure that survivors of war crimes felt free to tell their stories without fear. 
 
 But a judicial review is unlikely to placate those who have accused the Law and Justice Party of dangerous revisionism. It is unclear when the high court, which is controlled by judges appointed by Mr. Duda’s party, might act; the law would remain in effect at least until then. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Poland has long objected to phrases which suggest shared responsibility for Nazi Germany's actions 
 
 Poland's Senate has approved a controversial bill making it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust. 
 
 The bill, which sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term as punishment, must be signed off by the president before becoming law. 
 
 President Andrzej Duda says Poland has the right "to defend historical truth". 
 
 But it has outraged Israeli MPs, who are now seeking to strengthen their own Holocaust denial laws. 
 
 What does the bill state? 
 
 It says that "whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich … shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years". 
 
 But it adds the caveat that a person "is not committing a crime if he or she commits such an act as part of artistic or scientific activities". 
 
 It passed in a late-night sitting of the upper house of the Polish parliament with 57 votes to 23, with two abstaining. 
 
 The country has long objected to the use of phrases like "Polish death camps", which suggest the Polish state in some way shared responsibility for camps such as Auschwitz. The camps were built and operated by Nazi Germany after it invaded Poland in 1939. 
 
 But the more contentious point raised by the bill is whether it will outlaw references to acts of individual complicity by Poles with the Nazis - something historians say there is clear evidence for. 
 
 What has been the Israeli reaction? 
 
 The Israelis are furious about the bill, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as an attempt to rewrite history and deny the Holocaust. 
 
 There was particular anger as it came just a few days after the Polish president promised to engage in dialogue with Israel about the bill amid the outcry. 
 
 Deputies from across Israel's often fractious political spectrum have united to denounce it. 
 
 Opposition MP Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union party - normally a staunch critic of Mr Netanyahu - said: "They have spat in Israel's face twice, firstly as the state of the Jewish people that is trying to prevent a second Holocaust, and secondly in the face of an Israeli prime minister who had reached an agreement with his Polish counterpart, and had it ignored." 
 
 Centrist MP Yair Lapin was also defiant, tweeting that the law could not change history. 
 
 Following the passage of the law, Israel's Foreign Ministry asked to postpone the visit of a senior Polish official. 
 
 Pavel Solosh, the head of the Polish National Security Council, will not arrive in Israel on Sunday as was planned. 
 
 Now, Israeli MPs are backing a bill that would expand Israel's existing Holocaust denial laws to include a five-year jail sentence for anyone denying or minimising the role of Nazi collaborators, including Poles, in crimes committed in the Holocaust. 
 
 The amended law would also give legal aid to any Holocaust survivor telling their story who is prosecuted in a foreign country. 
 
 The US state department had also urged the Polish government to rethink the bill. 
 
 What about in Poland? 
 
 Polish politicians have expressed bafflement at the Israeli response. 
 
 "We are very sad and surprised our fight for the truth, for the dignity of Poles, is perceived and interpreted in this way," said Senate speaker Stanislaw Karczewski. 
 
 Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Warchol said it was wrong to suggest the bill would stop people researching Polish history. 
 
 "Poland is a democratic state of law which respects the freedom of public debate, scientific research, and the right to criticism," he said. 
 
 Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland was committed to combating lies about the Holocaust. 
 
 "The camps where millions of Jews were murdered were not Polish. This truth needs to be protected," he said. 
 
 Poland is governed by a nationalist party, Law and Justice (PiS), which is keen to show the world how Poland was ruthlessly victimised by its German and Soviet neighbours in the war. 
 
 Media reaction to the law has been much more ambivalent. "Instead of settling the crisis, we have made it even worse," said a columnist in the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita. 
 
 About 100 Polish artists, politicians and journalists have signed an open letter calling for the repeal of the bill, saying it goes too far in trying to make Poland "the only blameless nation in Europe". 
 
 Analysis: It's not a black and white issue 
 
 by Adam Easton, Warsaw correspondent 
 
 "Polish death camps" is a depressingly frequent term in the international media, often as a kind of journalistic shorthand. Even President Obama used it in 2012 during a speech honouring a Polish war hero, Jan Karski. Many Poles believe that the user thinks that Poles created and ran the camps. Of course that's not true. 
 
 Poland's right-wing government, while acknowledging that some Poles blackmailed Jews in hiding to enrich themselves, is keen to promote the history of Poland as a victim, of not just the Nazis, but also the Soviets. 
 
 The government is rightly proud that more Poles are honoured in Israel for saving Jews during the war than citizens of any other nation in occupied Europe. But Polish-Jewish relations during the war were complex - they were neither black nor white. 
 
 Historians say individual Poles denounced their Jewish neighbours to the Germans and also took part in their murder. Critics say this bill may act as a muzzle on people trying to uncover the full complexity of the Holocaust. 
 
 What happened in World War Two? 
 
 Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany. Millions of its citizens were killed, including three million Polish Jews in the Holocaust. 
 
 Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust overall. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he strongly opposed the bill 
 
 More Poles have been honoured by Israel for saving the lives of Jews during the war than any other nation. 
 
 However, historians say others were complicit by acts such as informing on Jews in hiding for rewards, and participating in Nazi-instigated massacres including in Jedwabne where hundreds of Jews were murdered by their neighbours. 
 
 A historian and well-known "Nazi-hunter" at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, says the number of collaborators runs into "many thousands". 
 
 "The Polish state was not complicit in the Holocaust, but many Poles were," Mr Zuroff told the Times of Israel. ||||| Polish President Andrzej Duda ratified a law making it illegal to blame his country for any part in the German Nazis’ systematic murder of millions of Jews during World War II, bowing to pressure from his ruling allies and amid rallies by far-right protesters. 
 
 Despite mounting international criticism, ruling Law & Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski urged Duda to sign the legislation. The president complied Tuesday, a day after dozens of activists chanted anti-Semitic slogans at a rally in front of his presidential palace in central Warsaw, with one banner reading: “Take off your yarmulke and sign the bill.” 
 
 Andrzej Duda on Feb. 6. Photographer: Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images 
 
 Both Israel and the U.S. have called on Poland to halt the so-called Holocaust bill, which they say curbs free speech and may be an attempt to rewrite history. Duda said that while he approved the legislation, he’s also sending it to be vetted by the Constitutional Tribunal, a court that may ask lawmakers to change part or all of the legislation. 
 
 “This guarantees Polish interests, such as our dignity and the historical truth -- that we will be fairly evaluated in the world,” Duda told reporters in Warsaw, taking no questions. “On the other hand, my decision takes into account the sensitivity of people for whom the historical truth and the truth about the Holocaust is extremely important.” 
 
 ‘Rewritten Narrative’ 
 
 Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that it hopes the tribunal’s pending review will allow it to work on amendments with Polish authorities. 
 
 The controversy represents the latest conflict for the Law & Justice party, which over two years in power has battled its partners in the European Union over allegations that it’s backtracking on democratic values. Once seen as a model of transformation from communism, Poland is “squandering the great gains” it has achieved since 1989, according to Judy Dempsey, a Berlin-based fellow at Carnegie Europe, a think-tank. 
 
 Poland’s main political objective since embracing democracy was to anchor itself in the EU and NATO, helped by “rapprochement and reconciliation” with Germany, Ukraine and Israel, Dempsey wrote on Tuesday. “But now, because of this legislation, the Polish narrative is being rewritten in a way that it is becoming seeped in patriotism, victimhood, and revenge.” 
 
 ‘A Single Jew’ 
 
 Poles say they’re unfairly held complicit in German Nazi war crimes during a period when their country was occupied and an estimated 2.7 million non-Jewish civilians were killed, including a large number of resistance fighters. Only 380,000 of Poland’s 3 million Jews -- Europe’s largest pre-war Jewish community -- survived the Holocaust, according to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. 
 
 While some Polish civilians participated in the murder of Jews or turned them over to Nazis to avoid being executed for hiding them, others resisted. Yad Vashem has commemorated 6,700 Poles for rescuing Jews, the largest number of “Righteous Gentiles” in any country. 
 
 The law would impose fines or up to three years in jail for public claims that Poland or the Polish nation bears responsibility for crimes against humanity committed on its soil. Works of art and science are exempt. 
 
 “We don’t have any intention to prosecute someone who says that somewhere a single Jew or a family were murdered,” Kaczynski told public radio on Feb. 3. “Such events took place and we never denied this.” 
 
 Ukrainian Objection 
 
 Last week, Israeli legislators drew up a bill defining any attempt to deny or minimize the crimes of Nazi collaborators as Holocaust denial, which carries a five-year prison sentence in the Jewish state. It would provide state backing for any Holocaust survivor or educator prosecuted under the Polish bill. 
 
 Neighboring Ukraine also criticized the Polish law, which widened the government’s mandate to prosecute crimes committed by “Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian formations collaborating with the Third Reich” from 1925 to 1950. Lawmakers in Kiev passed a resolution Tuesday saying they were “deeply concerned” the law could pave the way for “the strengthening of anti-Ukrainian tendencies.” 
 
 — With assistance by Konrad Krasuski, Daryna Krasnolutska, and Alisa Odenheimer
– The US and Israel pitched a fit, but it ultimately wasn't enough to fully stop Poland from moving ahead with its controversial Holocaust law. Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday announced he would sign a bill that prohibits speech that states or suggests his nation was complicit in Nazi Germany's crimes. In a concession to critics, though, Duda will have the Constitutional Tribunal examine the law; Bloomberg reports the court has the power to force lawmakers to alter the law's language in whole or part. The New York Times quotes Duda as saying he's adding that step because the "very painful, delicate issue" needs to be handled thoughtfully, though the Times sees the move as doing little to assuage those who say it could curtail free speech and whitewash the role some Poles played in the killing of Jews during World War II. Duda said that should the court clear the law, he'd like to see it specify exactly what type of speech is subject to prosecution. As it stands now, using the phrase "Polish death camp" to refer to Auschwitz and other Nazi-constructed concentration camps within the country can result in a prison term; claiming the Polish nation "is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes" is punishable by up to three years. In a Washington Post column, Anne Applebaum writes of the law's "ludicrous" potential: "Will the long arm of the Polish state reach out to academic conferences in Tokyo or Buenos Aires if someone uses an incorrect phrase? ... In a pompous speech the Polish prime minister gave supporting the law, an automatic translation service made it appear as if he himself said that 'camps where millions of Jews were murdered were Polish.' Should he go to prison, too? Should Google Translate?"