Jan Karski brought the Holocaust to public attention in the West. He was a a witness to one of the greatest tragedies in history: the extermination of the Jewish population of the Warsaw Ghetto.
In spite of a meeting with President Roosevelt and the publication of his 1944 book, Story of a Secret State, his efforts to warn Western leaders proved fruitless at the time. Little is known about him. He has often gone down in history as a “forgotten” hero, but 2014, the 100th anniversary of his birth, is an international occasion to preserve the memory of the tragic past as most remaining direct witnesses of the Holocaust are fading away. He left his imprint in history books as a man who thought that powerful leaders might be able to stop the Nazi machinery but “at the end of the war I learned that governments, leaders, scientists and writers didn’t know about the fate of Jews”. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Read full biography of Jan Karski on Culture.pl
MORE INFORMATION
Jan Karski biography in Jewish Virtual Library
Jan Karski Foundation
Real Clear Politics: Jan Karski and the Awful Truth No One Believed
