Karski, Jan

(1914–2000)

   Karski, a member of the Polish underground and a courier of the Polish government-in-exile, was sent on a mission in 1942 to evaluate the conditions in occupied Poland as the situation of the Jewish population deteriorated. Twice Karski slipped into the Warsaw ghetto and met with Jewish leaders who briefed him on the terrible conditions faced by Polish Jewry. In November 1942, Karski arrived in London and reported on his mission to Prime Minister Winston Churchill as well to other prominent members of the British government. Based on his report, the Polish government-in-exile called on the Allies to take measures to prevent the murder of European Jewry. Karski subsequently went to the United States, where he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and disclosed the terrible plight of Polish Jewry. Assured by the president that something would be done, Karski spent his remaining time in the United States arousing public opinion about the Nazi atrocities against the Jews. In 1944, he published Story of a Secret State, an account of his witness to the unfolding tragedy of Polish Jewry.

   See also Righteous Gentiles.