Apparently the current Polish government really doesn’t like it when people refer to the death camps in German-occupied Poland with phrases such as “a Polish death camp.” Barack Obama used that phrase while awarding a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the administration later clarified that the President “was referring to Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland.”
According to a BBC report, the Polish legislature wants to take that a step further by making it a crime to say that Poland “took part, organised or was co-responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich.”
And they don’t just mean in Poland–a spokesperson for the Polish Justice Minister told CNN in August 2016,
According to proposed provisions, Polish system of justice will have global jurisdiction over the offence, as it has now over many other criminal behaviors. Therefore this draft law, when comes into force, could be applied towards foreigners committing aforementioned offences abroad.
. . .
The question of execution of such rulings abroad is a problem which could be solved by using international cooperation and mutual assistance instruments.
Certainly it is important that people understand that Poland was a victim of German aggression, but to argue that every time someone refers to “a Polish death camp” that it is being implied that Poland was responsible for the crimes there is absurd. To criminalize the phrase rather than educate people about it is obscene.