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. ||||| Columnist 
 
 The Streisand effect is one of the curious byproducts of the Internet age. Named for the singer — who tried to suppress a photograph of her Malibu mansion, only to have the picture seen far more widely as a result — it occurs when an attempt to hide, remove or censor something from public view backfires badly. 
 
 The Streisand effect is now in full swing in Poland, where a simultaneously incompetent and malevolent government has passed a law — rapidly, in the middle of the night — intended among other things to criminalize the term "Polish death camps" and other expressions implying that the Polish nation was responsible for Auschwitz and other camps built by German Nazis. The national dislike of this term goes back many years and is shared widely by all political groups, for understandable reasons. Millions of Polish citizens, including many who were not Jewish, died in these camps, among them university professors and Catholic priests, both groups deliberately targeted for extinction. Unlike in France, Belgium, Italy and most other European countries, there was no fascist, pro-German or collaborationist government in Poland during the war, and no Polish SS formation. The Nazi occupiers intended to destroy Poland as a nation, to Germanize a large chunk of the country and to turn the rest of it into a German agricultural colony. 
 
 Nevertheless there were individual Poles who did terrible things to Jews during the war and afterward, just as there were individual Poles who did heroic things. The debate about how much Poland, as a nation, bears responsibility for these individual crimes has gone on for a long time and has had depressing as well as uplifting aspects. At times the conversation has been ill-tempered. But for a quarter century, dedicated Polish historians, diplomats, politicians and curators have also tried to reconcile different memories and heal wounds; one of the results was Poland's superb museum of Jewish history, jointly built by the international Jewish community and the Polish state. Another result was the hitherto excellent Polish-Israeli relationship, which has had big cultural as well as political benefits. Every summer, for example, a Jewish festival in Warsaw (there are others in other cities too) brings Israeli pop singers to a square near my apartment, and the concerts are always packed. 
 
 The imposition, now, of a three-year prison penalty for anyone who participates in the conversation about the past in ways that irritate the current ruling party is simply ludicrous, even laughable. Will the long arm of the Polish state reach out to academic conferences in Tokyo or Buenos Aires if someone uses an incorrect phrase? Will people be punished for politically incorrect memoirs? 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? The very stupidity and unenforceability of this law is what has brought on the Streisand effect: Beginning in Israel but moving quickly across all forms of social media around the world, the use of the phrase "Polish death camps" has suddenly spiked and has now been used many more times than ever before in history. 
 
 To Poland's anti-pluralist ruling party that doesn't matter, because the real purpose of the law was never Poland's international image. In a sharp break with all previous democratic governments of the left, right and center, going back to 1989, this government does not care how isolated or ridiculous the country becomes. On the contrary, foreign criticism offers another chance to solidify the support of "patriots" who oppose the "slander" of the country, against "traitors" who do not. One pro-government journalist gave the game away when he declared that the criticism of the law in Israel was an element in an international conspiracy against the Polish government. On cue, Polish social media has been saturated with the howls of anti-Semites defending their country against this terrible attack. 
 
 I have no doubt that the Israeli government is also using this nasty little controversy for its own purposes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been disturbed by the Hungarian government's long-standing and well-funded campaign — on billboards, in the noisy state and pro-government media — against billionaire George Soros, with its clear anti-Semitic overtones, since he dislikes Soros's philanthropic support for liberal causes. His decision to make an issue of this absurd Polish law instead no doubt gives him a chance to solidify his domestic support as well. Taking a stand on the past is so much easier than dealing with the complex present. 
 
 The irony is that none of the protagonists of this story can actually remember World War II, or the terror that it brought to the Jews and to Poland. But that is part of the explanation: As genuine memories of the horror recede, cartoon versions of history, easily manipulated, have come to replace them. This illiterate "debate" is one of the more sordid results. 
 
 Read more from Anne Applebaum's archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook. ||||| 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?"