Jan Karski (1914–2000)

Jan Karski was born Jan Kozielewski in Łódź, Poland. After graduating from a military academy, he served with a Polish Army mounted artillery regiment. In 1935, he received a master's degree in law and diplomatic science at the University of Lviv (Lwow), and then served in various junior diplomatic posts in Romania, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK. In January 1939, he started work in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September 1939, when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in the prelude to World War II, he was called up to fight. Karski's regiment was trapped and he was taken prisoner by the Red Army and sent to the Kozielszczyna camp. He concealed his status as an officer and was transferred to the Germans as a person born in Łódź, thus escaping the Katyń Forest massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets. He escaped the German POW train and returned to Warsaw, where he joined the armed Polish Resistance against the Nazis. He repeatedly crossed enemy lines to act as a courier between Occupied Poland and Western Europe. He was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto and the Izbica transit camp by the Jewish underground in order to witness the conditions first-hand and report to the outside world. In 1942, Karski was dispatched to the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Allies to describe the destruction of the Jews in Poland and appeal for intervention. In 1943, he personally met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House. In 1944, he published Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World, which became an instant bestseller, and went on an extensive speaking tour of the USA and Canada. However, his mission to stop the Holocaust failed. After World War II, he emigrated to the USA and earned a PhD from Georgetown University. He taught history at Georgetown for 40 years, specializing in East European affairs, comparative government, and international affairs. He also went on many more international speaking tours, this time sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and often testified before Congress on Eastern European matters. His other books included The Great Powers and Poland: From Versailles to Yalta (1982).