The website, launched on 30 January, highlights some of the atrocities of the Holocaust. It stresses that the campaign to exterminate Jews was run by Nazi Germany and that World War II saw millions of Poles and members of other ethnic groups killed.
Piotr Chęciński, the director of public broadcaster Polish Radio's website, PolishRadio.pl, said the 102,000 views over the past week was a record for the website.
“But it is also a success for the image, not only of PolskieRadio.pl or Polish Radio but ... of Poland,” Chęciński said, attributing the record to the website's availability in three languages: Polish, English and German.
Chęciński said many viewers were based in the US, Asia, and Central and South America.
The website has since its launch invited internet users to contribute the testimonies of their relatives who survived the Holocaust.
On Wednesday it was set to offer a new feature to enable users to draw attention to defamatory content, such as the phrase “Polish death camps”.
“If anyone reads ‘Polish death camps’ … they should document it by taking a photo on their smartphone or scanning the offending newspaper and immediately sending it, using the contact form [on GermanDeathCamps.info] to Polish Radio. We will verify and send the information to the Polish foreign ministry,” Chęciński said.
The phrase has been used by international media numerous times in recent years.
The Polish foreign ministry and other officials have been combating its use, calling it a historic falsehood and saying it places blame on Poland.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said there were no Polish concentration camps, but “such camps were built on the territory of the Polish state, which was non-existent at the time, by Germans, by Nazis”.
Under Poland’s new laws, signed by Duda on Tuesday, anyone who publicly ascribes blame or joint blame to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by Nazi Germany or for war crimes or other crimes against humanity would face up to three years in prison or a fine.
The law has been criticised by the US, which said: "Enactment of this law adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry."
The law provides exemptions for academic researchers and artists.
Commentators have said that Israel is concerned that the new law could mean penalties for anyone who criticises individual Poles' role in the Holocaust.
Israeli ambassador to Poland Anna Azari has said that in Israel the law "is seen as creating a possibility of punishment for Holocaust survivors' testimony.”
The law has also been protested in Ukraine because it could see penalties for anyone who denies crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists until 1950.
(vb/pk)
Source: IAR