ADL: Not all Poles were innocent as Jews were being slaughtered

The Anti-Defamation League says it is “deeply disappointed” after Poland’s Senate passes the controversial Holocaust complicity bill, and urges the Polish president not to sign it into law.

“Despite assurances from the Polish government, concerns about this bill have not been adequately addressed. We are calling on President Duda to refrain from signing it into law until concerns from Holocaust survivors and others are appropriately accounted for,” says ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement.

“It is clear from this misguided attempt to silence certain forms of speech about the Holocaust that much work remains to be done in terms of Poland’s coming to grips with its history. There’s no doubt Poland was a victim of the Nazis and their brutal occupation, and any effort to confuse perpetrators with victims should be rejected. But not all Poles were innocent as the Jews were being slaughtered,” he adds.

The law could even see Holocaust survivors imprisoned over their testimony, he underlines.

“It raises the possibility that anyone offering Holocaust survivor testimony about actions by individual Poles could be charged with a crime. This is unacceptable and could silence the voices of survivors and their families,” says Greenblatt.