Polish History Museum polski

Upcoming Events

Apr 11
Remember This: The Legacy of Jan Karski Today

Our Generous Supporters

National Endowment For The Humanities
Polish History Museum
Consulate General of Poland in New York
Share your story
Page

I first met with Professor Jan Karski in the early 1980s when I started getting involved with Facing History and Ourselves; this meeting had a profound impact on my career. Listening to this dignified gentleman so passionately describe his efforts to convince world leaders that they should do something to save the Jews from atrocities, persecution, and mass murder during World War II, left me in awe. As he recalled his efforts to speak with leaders in London and Washington D.C., I watched his hands shake and heard him say emphatically “They Knew! They Knew!” Karski’s work has had an impact on teachers, students and community leaders around the globe, especially those dealing with Facing History and Ourselves. Karski’s actions encourage concerned citizens to take a stand against injustice and find ways to make their voices heard when they advocate for social justice. Jan Karski very much fits the definition of an “upstander,” a word Samantha Power coined in the early 21st century to describe individuals willing to stand up for their beliefs in treating all human beings with respect and dignity.

Marc Skvirsky · Brookline, MA · December 7, 2011

I am a graduate of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and had Jan Karski for class twice. He was a truly remarkable man. Then, and now, I believed it to be one of the highlights of my education at this very distinguished university that one of the 20th century's heroes was a member of this community and that I had an opportunity to learn from him, to listen to him and to know him. My stories about Jan Karski are both numerous and probably very familiar to others who knew him and took his classes. He was not a great formal lecturer, but he was a spellbinding storyteller. In each of the classes I took with him, there came a time, not on the syllabus, when he told the story of his trips to the Warsaw ghetto. If I live to be 100 and lose all my other memory, I doubt I will ever forget those moments in my life. I grew to know Karski well outside of class. I asked him on several occasions what gave him the moral courage and fortitude to do what he had done, what so few others did, could have or would have done. In my experience, he found the questions perplexing. I think it betrayed an impatience with the notion that he was somehow different or built of greater moral fiber. He never said this, but based on my conversations with him, I believe he would agree with the following: Karski was put in a position to see and know of the fate of the Polish Jews. Once he knew, there was never any question that he would do everything he could to bring their plight to the attention of the world. I honestly do not believe that he ever considered doing less a realistic possibility. Prof. Karski wrote a letter of reference for me for a famously competitive and very sought after graduate scholarship. After I interviewed, a member of the committee told me that, in more than 25 years of interviewing, he had never read a letter like Karski's on my behalf. He said that he thought "it said at least as much about Prof. Karski's character and generosity as about your talent." I agreed with him wholeheartedly, then and now.

Bart Moore · Georgetown University, Washington, DC · October 12, 2011

In Jan Karski’s description of the Warsaw ghetto, he begins by asking, “Is it necessary to describe [it]? So much has already been written about it, there have been so many accounts by unimpeachable witnesses. A cemetery? No, for these bodies were still moving, were indeed often violently agitated. These were still living people, if you could call them such. For apart from their skin, their eyes, and voice there was nothing human left in these palpitating figures. Everywhere there was hunger, misery, the atrocious stench of decomposing bodies, the pitiful moans of dying children, the desperate cries and gasps of a people struggling for life against impossible odds.” Although I have read hundreds of ghetto accounts for academic research in connection with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Volume II, Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe, nothing quite compares to Jan Karski’s description of the horrors he witnessed in the Warsaw Ghetto. His mastery of language and the intensity of the situation he describes are beyond incredible. The reader breathes his story—seemingly the same air he depicts as “polluted by death, the stench of rotting corpses, filth and decay.” Although I never had the opportunity to meet Jan Karski, his character and his life continue to inspire and I too feel compelled to share his story and help weave his legacy into tolerance and Holocaust education here in the U.S., Poland, and abroad.

Holly Robertson · Washington DC · October 11, 2011

Now first let me say that I am a high school freshman and I tend to read on a higher level than many of my peers. I would not suggest this book to most other people of my age. I would stick more to high school juniors and seniors. Still, I immensely enjoyed this book. There seemed to be the perfect mix of history, politics, and action. This kept the book informative yet still very exciting. Despite the fact that I know quite a bit about the situation in Poland during WW2, I actually learned quite a few things I was not aware of, such as how extensive the Polish underground was, including priests, nurses, and townspeople. There were many points in the book where I actually had to put it down and try to wrap my mind around everything that was happening. And in the middle of all the action and politics is Karski, one of the many brave men and women who were trying to fight against oppression and for Poland, its citizens, Catholics and Jews alike. All in all it was a great read and I would strongly recommend it to…well, anyone actually.

Henry Levering · North Carolina · September 20, 2011

Two stories. When I was to travel to the UK for my junior year abroad from Georgetown, I went to see my favorite professor, Karski. I told him of my French proficiency and that somehow I needed to improve it while abroad. He, in his very sweet manner, said that I looked like a healthy young man and that French pornography would pique my interest and that I would read it with relish and look up every word. That plus a French girlfriend would do the trick, he said. We both had a laugh. For the final in Modern Foreign Governments II he asked the following essay question in 1982: compare and contrast the legislative process in East Germany and Venezuela. I laughed to myself and did what I could. I later by letter recounted both of these stories to him before he died. He wrote me the most marvelous letter stating that he did not remember either incident, but had no doubts that both were true. He then went on at length as to how we the young had the world's future in our hands and were well equipped to do better than our predecessors. It brought tears to my eyes. All the best with the Campaign.

Harvey Jay Cohen · Cincinnati, Ohio · July 22, 2011

I am a former student of the late, great Georgetown University professor Dr. Jan Karski, Ph.D. It was my enormous privilege and pleasure to learn from him. Tall, thin and dressed in a crisp gray suit even in August, Dr. Karski lectured college seniors on "The Theory of Communism" back in the fall of 1985. As the Cold War continued its chill, many of us yearned to fathom what made the Kremlin tick. Hearing murmurs about his earlier activities, we begged him near semester's end to skip the dialectics and answer one question: "What did you do during the war?" Professor Karski hesitated at first, but began recounting his remarkable wartime story in his thick accent and sometimes high-pitched voice. As he concluded his wartime reminiscences, we stunned college students warmly gave Jan Karski a spontaneous and lengthy standing ovation. The world he helped keep free owes him its eternal appreciation as he rests in peace.

Deroy Murdock · New York · June 26, 2011

I've delayed too long writing you about Karski's Diary of a Secret State. I ordered it immediately after your recommendation and read it at once. It's an extraordinary book by a man with a most extraordinary life. I was so dispirited reading his account of the concentration camp that I delayed writing you about it. But that was only part of his account of those terrible times. He was both skilled and very, very lucky that he did not get caught. I can't help but wonder if the Allies could have done more to lessen the horrors Hitler perpetrated in those camps. Totally the fault of Hitler and his accomplices, of course, but I wonder if we couldn't have in some way mitigated what was done. I watched a documentary recently about Operation Odessa, which was the Nazi program to sneak thousands of SS officers out of Germany immediately after the war, including Eichmann and Borman. It concluded the Church played a significant role in the operation. Anyway, thank you so much for telling me about Jan Karski. I admire you and wish you success in getting him whatever accolades you can.

Scott Kelley · Springfield, Missouri · June 25, 2011

Jan Karski was a great story teller and he had some to tell, so his students benefited from first-hand oral history, including his recounting of his own escapes from the NKVD and Gestapo. As he said it: "You don't play footsie-footsie with the Fuehrer!" The day of our final exam coincided with one of many Vietnam War protests. This one had turned nastier than before, and the D.C. police had driven large numbers of protesters from the Mall up to the Hilltop. My girlfriend (now wife of 40 years) and I headed toward the East Campus for the exam, but discovered that the iron gates at the main entrace were closed. Protesters along O-Street were hurling rocks at police, who in turn fired tear gas rounds, with clouds of gas drifting up the street toward the Main Campus. Getting safely to the exam seemed unlikely. At that moment, Professor Karski emerged from O-Street, coming the other way towards the Main Campus attired in his usual pearl grey suit and white shirt, but holding a white handkerchief to his face to ward of the tear gas. He came through the smaller pedestrian side-gate where the two of us stopped him to ask if we would have the exam sometime that day. Still with tears, he said he thought not, and then, smiling, he added: "You know, this tear gas....I've always wanted to try it....and, you know...it's not so bad!"

James Reuland · Bucharest, Romania · June 23, 2011

After reading Karski's book, A Story of a Secret State, I can understand his strength and courage, but also his humility. It's unusual to find these qualities together in the same person. His inspiring story made me realize that the tiny irritations of our lives are so trivial compared to what he endured, and the horrors that he tried to stop. His message did have an influence in swaying public opinion, according to historians. I recommend that you read his book, or the biographies of him, and seek to understand why he is such a hero to the world.

J. Robbins · Virginia · June 16, 2011

Karski – no one ever used his first name – was the type of man who left you with deep memories. He had this regal and patrician air about him; he was tall and very thin and you could see in his face the pain and literally the scars of war. We were Georgetown undergraduates and not really worthy of him, but we all knew we were in the presence of a great man. He was a remarkable teacher. I took three of his classes, and they were the highlights of my time at Georgetown. Those were the days before the Internet and Wikipedia, but those of us who cared had read his book "Story of a Secret State." He very, very rarely ever mentioned his work in the War. In 1983, Ruth (who later became my wife) and I saw the plaque with his name on it as a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem. We took her father, who is a survivor, to the Holocaust Museum in Washington when it opened. We saw the Karski display. Dan, my father-in-law, knew who Karski was and did not need me to tell him. I was with Karski in the hallway at Healy Hall the day after John Paul II was elected, and he was ecstatic. He had much to say, and many jokes, about the election of a Polish pope. I remember him being very proud that day.

Anthony Paduano · New York · June 15, 2011
Page