Premiere of the book “Karski” by Andrzej Żbikowski
This event is organized by the Świat Książki publishing house and the Polish History Museum. In the discussion will participate Dr. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert and Prof. Dariusz Stola. Excerpts of the book will be read by Krzysztof Gosztyła.
As the author writes, the book „Karski” is an attempt to “integrate the history of Polish Jews with the socio-political history of Poles during the Nazi occupation and with their courageous resistance enabled by the only underground state in Europe”.
Prof. Andrzej Żbikowski has been working at the Jewish History Institute since 1985. In his research, he focuses on the history of Jews in Galicia in the 19th century and the history of Jews in the Eastern borderlands during the Second World War. He is member of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research.
Jan Karski started his underground activity in November 1939. He went in secret to the Warsaw Ghetto twice, in order to document the dramatic situation of the Jews.
To gather evidence proving the Nazi crimes, he entered a camp, which he then identified as the Bełżec death camp – later it turned out it was the transit camp in Izbica Lubelska.
Karski’s report about the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto appeared in the English press on November 24th, 1942. Karski began his mission of informing the world about the structures of the Polish Underground State, the situation in Poland and the dramatic fate of the Jews.
After the war he decided to stay in America. It is only in 1978, when he told about his mission in the film “Shoah” by Claude Lanzmann, that the world found out about the part he played during the Second World War.
In 1982 Jan Karski was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations, and in 1995 he was honored with the Order of the White Eagle. He was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize. He died on July 13th, 2000 in Washington.
More about Jan Karski on the portal “Polish Righteous”.
