The amendment to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN)

Amendment to the law says that "anyone who publicly and against the facts assignes responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the Third German Reich or other crimes against humanity, peace and war crimes will be subjected to a fine or up to three years of imprisonment. The amendment applies both to Poles and foreigners “regardless of the law rules of the place where the act was committed”. Artistic and scientific activities are not subjected to these regulations. However, according to experts, this is not obvious and can be interpreted differently. By definition, the amendment was to prevent the use of the words “Polish death camps”. Consequently, it can be used to clean up difficult moments from Polish history, related to anti-Semitism and the participation of Polish citizens in criminal activity. This regulation was met with unprecedented negative reaction of Israel. The amendment also introduces criminal responsibility for the denial of “crimes of Ukrainian nationalists in the years 1925-1950, involving the use of violence, terror or other forms of violation of human rights against individuals or groups of people” and committed by Ukrainian military formations collaborating with the Third Reich. It obviously caused indignation of Ukraine. All details of the amendment to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) can be found here: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/sejm8.nsf/druk.xsp?nr=771 http://www.sejm.gov.pl/sejm8.nsf/druk.xsp?nr=806

Ukraine is not glad about the amendment to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN)

Ukrainian commentators believe that the Polish authorities have lost their geopolitical awareness. Many of them think that Poland has come so far in the changes concerning historical policy because Polish authorities favour a “third party” – interested in dismantling Polish-Ukrainian relationships and weakening both neighbouring states.