Former Israeli ambassador to Poland and Holocaust survivor Shevah Weiss has denied suggesting that the Polish government-in-exile murdered Jews during WWII, a Polish broadcaster has reported.

Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post on Sunday quoted Weiss as telling Israeli Army Radio that “there were instances in which the Polish Government-in-Exile itself took part in the murder of Jews”.

But Weiss told RMF FM that the Polish government, both in Poland and abroad, did not collaborate with the Nazis at a time when most of Europe did.

He was cited by RMF FM as saying that Poland’s underground Home Army -- which included Jewish soldiers -- saved Jews, and punished those who blackmailed or informed on Jews who were hiding from the Nazis, but did include “some who collaborated with the Germans when it came to Jews”.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Weiss had “sharply criticised” a Polish-Israeli joint declaration on historical truth, signed last month by the countries’ prime ministers to end a months-long dispute over an anti-defamation law that soured bilateral ties.

The joint statement said that “the wartime Polish Government-in-Exile attempted to stop this Nazi activity by trying to raise awareness among the Western allies to the systematic murder of the Polish Jews.”

It also said that “the term ‘Polish concentration/death camps’ is blatantly erroneous and diminishes the responsibility of Germans for establishing those camps.”

The joint declaration came after Poland amended a controversial anti-defamation law just months after it was introduced, doing away with possible fines and even prison terms for people who accused Poland as a nation of being complicit in the Holocaust.

The law, in its original wording, was seen by the government in Warsaw as a way of fighting the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” in reference to German Nazi concentration camps in occupied WWII Poland.

The US and Israel had slammed the original law, saying Poland was hitting out at freedom of speech.

They have since welcomed the changes.

But the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Centre said that the joint document "contains a series of very problematic statements that violate existing historical knowledge accepted in the field."

(vb/pk)