Jan Karski Honoured in Warsaw
"Warsaw residents, as well as tourists, strolling along the Wisła, along this beautiful boulevard opened in August 2015, are not even aware that it has been named after Jan Karski, a Polish World War II hero, an outstanding person, a Pole and an American", said Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, "We want them to know".
On the Boulevard in May of this year, the Jan Karski Education Foundation ran a series of anti-discrimination and multicultural workshops under the title of "Be Like Karski - an Exercise in Empathy and Respect". The workshops were aimed at post-secondary young people and Warsaw residents.
Read the story of Jan Karski
Unveiled on 23rd June 2017, the plaque, in both Polish and English, recalls the most important facts about Jan Karski's life and his mission to inform the free world of the situation in occupied Poland and of the extermination of the Jews:
During World War II, he was a courier between the country at war and the Polish Government-in-Exile. He alerted the free world about the situatoin in occupied Poland and about the extermination of the Jewish people.
Carrying secret information and risking his life, he repeatedly crossed through a Europę occupied by Nazi Germany. Having survived Soviet captivity, German torture and an attempted suicide, he returned to underground activity.
Recognising the Holocaust as something incomparable, as an credible eye-witness, he wanted to inform the leaders of Great Britain and the United States about it. Twice, he managed to enter the Warsaw Ghetto. Disguised as a guide, he also entered thc camp in Izbica.
With the efforts of the Polish government in London, as the greatest participant in Europe's resistance movement, Karski submits his reports on the situation in Poland to United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself. Writing in his book "Secret State" in 1944, he says that he counted on the fact that he could motivate American public opinion to take action to liberate Poland. Following the end of the War, he is unable to return to his country which is run by communists. He remains in the USA and lectures in the Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington.
A Christian, a man of conscience, a Righteous Among the Nations of the World, a Polish and American patriot, an honorary citizen of Israel, a recipient of the highest honor - the Virtuti Militari (twice), a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle and awarded the American Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He said, "I did not matter. My mission was what was the most important”.
