„Week of the Polish Courier”

On Sunday, September 19^th, 2010 the “Week of the Polish Courier” devoted to Jan Karski was inaugurated in the Museum of the City Lodz. From September 19^th to 26^th various events will take place there, presenting the legendary emissary of the Polish Underground State.

The project devoted to the “Polish Courier” was opened by the screening of the documentary “My mission” (“Moja misja”) based on the screenplay by Michał Fajbusiewicz and Waldemar Piasecki, produced in 1996. The film is a record of Karski’s memories. From Monday to Thursday (September 20^th – September 23^rd) the Museum will organize lessons and workshops for secondary school students. Classes entitled “Jan Karski – courier from Łódź” are supposed to present the figure of the emissary, his history and biography. The workshops “Łódź-Lodz-Litzmannstadt” are devoted to the Jewish community that had been living in Łódź before the Second World War. The participants will talk about the period from the beginning of the 19^th century to the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Museum of the City Lodz presents the exhibition “Study of Prof. Karski”.The collection consists of photographs, correspondence, medals, distinctions and publications devoted to the life of the courier. Karski decided to make this donation to the Museum when he visited Łódź, his home town, in 1996, after a 50-year absence. The exhibition also consists of his private furniture and belongings, paintings and sculptures, orders (among others, the Order of the White Eagle, the Order Virtuti Militari of the V class and the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations), letters (from the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt etc.), personal documents (among others the diploma of the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, his passport etc.), awards and distinctions. Throughout his life Karski received 8 honorary doctorates from various Polish and American universities. On September 26^th the “Week of the Polish Courier” will be concluded by a meeting with the courier’s cousin, Jadwiga Lenoch-Bukowska, and in the study of Jan Karski an open day will be organized.

During the Second World War Jan Karski was the emissary of the Polish Underground State. He transmitted information about the Holocaust to the Allies. He managed to get into the Warsaw Ghetto twice. He also reached the transit camp in Izbica. He was an eyewitness of the extermination of the Jews. In 1982 Jan Karski was honored with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations and in 2000 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Łódź. He died on July 13^th, 2000 in Washington.