Under a new law approved by the Polish government, making phrases like "Polish labor camps," "Polish extermination camps" and "Polish death camps" will be punishable by imprisonment for up to three years when referring to Auschwitz and other camps that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said that under the new law "there will be criminal consequences taken against persons who publicly and against the facts say the Polish nation participated, organized, is responsible or co-responsible for committing the crimes of the German Third Reich."

"The offenders will be subject to fines and up to three years of imprisonment and those who committed it unintentionally will be fined or detained. The rulings will be announced publicly."

"It wasn't our mothers, nor our fathers, who are responsible for the crimes of the Holocaust, which were committed by German and Nazi criminals on occupied Polish territory," the minister said.

The law has yet to be approved by Parliament.

Four years ago, U.S. President Barack Obama condemned what he termed the "Polish death camps" of the war. The president later apologized.

"In referring to 'a Polish death camp' rather than 'a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,' I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world," Obama said in June 2012.