POLISH President Andrzej Duda signed a controversial Bill into law today, criminalising any references to nazi death camps on occupied Polish soil as “Polish camps.”

But Mr Duda said he would also ask Poland's constitutional court to review the Bill, potentially opening the way for parliament to amend it.

The legislation calls for prison terms of up to three years for falsely attributing the crimes of nazi Germany to Poland.

Authorities describe it as an attempt to protect the country's reputation from confusion about who bears responsibility for Auschwitz and other death camps Germany set up in occupied Poland.

But critics have argued that it could be used to prohibit historical research indicating the participation of some Poles and stop Holocaust survivors talking about their personal experiences.

However, Mr Duda claimed it would not stop Holocaust survivors and witnesses from talking about crimes committed by individual Polish collaborators.

"We do not deny that there were cases of huge wickedness," he said.