Zbigniew Brzezinski, Wanda Urbanska, Sigmund Rolat, Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Robert Kostro
Jan Karski’s posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom award -- conferred May 29 by President Obama to Polish Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld in the East Room of the White House -- was celebrated at the Polish Ambassador’s new residence on Observatory Hill that evening.
To start the evening, a video about Karski was shown to the large gathering. The event featured a full roster of speakers, starting with Ambassador Robert Kupiecki, the evening’s host. Former Polish Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld delivered stirring words identifying Karski’s role in history and asserting that “there were never any Polish death camps, ” a comment that drew a round of applause. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke about first meeting Karski when Brzezinski was a boy in Canada and being struck by Karski’s slashed wrists and horrified by news of the slaughter of Polish Jews.
Wanda Urbanska, director of the Jan Karski US Centennial Campaign, addressed the educational campaign on which the Karski initiative is now focusing. Campaign Steering Committee members Andrzej Rojek and Robert Billingsley, along with Robert Kostro, director of the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw, and Polish Consul General Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka of New York, rounded out the evening with insightful comments about the importance of the campaign, of the Karski legacy, and of Georgetown University’s plans to memorialize the international hero through a Karski Fund.
Campaign Steering Committee members Alicia Belzberg (with her husband Sid Belzberg), Sigmund Rolat, General Edward Rowny, Alex Storozynski, Michal Mrozek, and Leonard Kniffel also participated in the momentous occasion. Other dignitaries attending the event included Paul Tagliabue, chairman of the Georgetown University board of directors and former Commissioner of the NFL, Timothy Chorba, President of the Council of American Ambassadors, John Brodke, a senior aide to Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Karski biographer Thomas Wood, Gregory Wierzynkski, and Jason Issacson of the American Jewish Committee. Supporters of the Jan Karski Campaign journeyed from as far away as Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Chicago.
Photos below (left to right) top row: Ambassador Kupiecki, Sigmund Rolat & Foreign Minister Rotfeld; video with former Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski talking about Karski; Andrzej Rojek, Wanda Urbanska & Robert Billingsley; American Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein, Georgetown University President John DeGioia, Robert Billingsley; second row: Wanda Urbanska addresses the audience; Adam Daniel Rotfeld at the Ambassador's residence, being interviewed by Polish television prior to his return to Poland; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Wanda Urbanska, Sigmund Rolat, Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Robert Kostro
Photos are courtesy of Eric W. Herr, Wanda Urbanska, and Justine Jablonska, Embassy of Poland.
