Sejm resolution for the 10th anniversary of the death of Jan Karski
The resolution reads the following words: “Poland and the whole world know today, who Jan Karski was. Nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize, honored with the Order of the White Eagle and the Righteous Among the Nations medal, Honorary Citizen of Israel, teacher of many years’ standing at the Georgetown University in Washington, holder of honorary doctorates of 8 Polish and American universities (…), Honorary Citizen of the Town of Łódź, he was honored not only with monuments, but also with recognition and admiration”.
Jan Karski (born Kozielewski) was born in Łódź in 1914. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Diplomacy at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów. In November 1939 he reached Warsaw and started his underground activity. Twice he went in secret to the Warsaw Ghetto, 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. Disguised as a Ukrainian guard, he entered it exactly when Jews were placed in the train cars.
In the beginning of October 1942, Karski started his mission. In a key he hid a microfilm with the secret documents he managed to gather. He also had a pass of one of the French seasonal workers in Poland. Under a false name he arrived without difficulties to Paris, where he handed over the documents to one of the Underground activists, who transferred them by diplomatic pouch to London. The report about the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto appeared in the English press on November 24th, 1942. Karski himself arrived to London after some time. He 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. He met many Jewish, Polish and British politicians, journalists, writers and influential representatives of the public opinion. In mid-1943 he left to the United States, where he presented his report to American politicians. In July he met the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 1944 in the US appeared the book “The Story of a Secret State” – autobiography of Karski from the time of the Nazi occupation. After the war he decided to stay in America. For 40 years he was lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Service at the Georgetown University in Washington. 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.
