The Polish government wants to make it a crime to imply that Poland bears responsibility for Nazi crimes committed on Polish soil.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has called for new regulations to punish the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” when referring to Nazi concentration camps in Poland.

The drafted bill aims to preserve the “honour” of the Polish people and stop linking Poland to the Nazi crimes committed there. It calls for the camps to be described as “Nazi extermination camps” or “camps in occupied Poland” and would make it illegal to say that Poland "took part, organised or was co-responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich".

People could face up to five years in prison if found guilty.

Poland was occupied by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945 and contained 457 camp complexes, including the extermination camps Auschwitz-Berkenau, Treblinka and Chelmno. Ninety per cent of Poland's pre-war Jewish population was murdered during the Second World War.

Law and Justice - the current governing party in Poland - introduced a similar bill to parliament in 2013, when it was still in opposition. However, this was rejected on the first reading.