Festive promotion of Jan Karski’s memories

The reissue of the war memoirs of Jan Karski, "Secret State", first published in 1944, was issued by a French Publisher “Robert Laffont” in March. The French edition of the book is entitled: "My testimony to the world data. The history of the Underground State."

As Leonello Brandolini, the President of“Robert Laffont” Publishing House, has explained during the presentation at the Polish Embassy, this is already the third edition of Karski’s book “on the Seine”. Brandolini has pointed out that all credits for the current reissue goes to Mr Yannick Haenel, whose recently published book, "Jan Karski" has recounted to the French a forgotten story of the legendary Polish courier.

During the evening, Andrzej Seweryn, the famous actor of Comedie Francaise, read in French two pieces of the "Secret State". In one of them Karski described in an impressive way his expeditions to the Warsaw Ghetto, about which he reported to the leaders of the Allies. The second read passages refers to a meeting of the Polish courier with the American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington in 1943. During this conversation, Karski provided Roosevelt with information about the ongoing Holocaust of the Jews and with details of Polish Underground State activities against the Nazi occupants. According to Karski Roosevelt was surprised and wondered how Poland managed to remain the only country without a Quisling "(Vidkun Quisling - a Norwegian politician, a symbol of collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II – editor’s note) .

One of the guests at Tuesday’s night in the Polish Embassy in Paris was Claude Lanzmann, a director of famous documentary film about the Jewish Holocaust - "Shoah". On 17th of March, the Franco-German TV ARTE will broadcast the premiere of his another documentary film: "The Karski report". It shows fragments of an interview with the Polish courier recorded during the filming of "Shoah", granted in 1978 but not used in the film.
The documentary narrative novel "Jan Karski" by Yannick Haenel, published last year, has been on the French bestseller lists for many weeks. At the same time it has caused much controversy. Some readers, including Lanzmann, have accused the author of "falsifying" the history and the story of Jan Karski. Haenel retorted that, as a writer, he had the right to use literary fiction in his book.