– [The new law] may cause total self-censorship. And, next – penalization of scientific research – said Doctor Elżbieta Janicka in Robert Kowalski’s program Sterniczki in Krytyka Polityczna. The member of the Program Board of our Association, researcher from the Slavic Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the author of the book Festung Warschau commented in this way acceptance by the Polish government of the draft amendment of the act on the National Memory Institute.

The draft prepared by the Ministry of Justice stipulates that “making the Polish nation or the Polish state responsible (or co-responsible) for the Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich or other crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes – will be punished with a fine or imprisonment up to 3 years”.

The solutions prescribed in this draft are to „be a reaction to the public use and dissemination of such phrases as “Polish death camps”, “Polish extermination camps” or “Polish concentration camps”. Investigation will be instituted en officio by IPN prosecutor, and verdicts in such cases will be made available to general public.