„Klub Trójki”: French writers about Jan Karski

The host of the program, Dariusz Bugalski, talks about Jan Karski with his guests, two French writers: Yannick Haenel and Bruno Tessarech.

The central figure of both of their books is the legendary courier of the Polish underground, Righteous Among the Nations (he was awarded with the title in 1982), who from January 1940 had been participating in courier missions of the underground Polish authorities and appealed numerous times to the representatives of the Allied authorities, asking them to save the Jews.

Yannick Haenel, author of a book arousing big controversy, entitled “Jan Karski. A Novel”, recalls that the interview given by Karski in the film “Shoah” by Claude Lanzmann had a big impact on him. He found this account far more moving than any literature devoted to the subject of the Holocaust.

Bruno Tessarech, author of the book „The Guards” in which he presented people who saved Jews during the Second World War – became interested in the figure of Jan Karski when he read his book “Story of a Secret State”.

Although, judging by appearances, Jan Karski did not achieve success, according to the two writers invited to the studio he was not really defeated – Karski actually accomplished his mission.

As Haenel emphasized, Karski managed to transmit the information from the Polish underground movement and from the Jews, and it was politics and Western countries that did not listen to him who met with defeat.