Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sparked a storm of criticism Saturday after defending his country's new law concerning the Holocaust, which he said had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish.

The controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

Appearing at the Munich Security Conference, Morawiecki was questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them.

The journalist, Ronen Bergman, asked if by recounting this, "I am a criminal in your country?" It garnered a round of applause from the audience.