US campaign to honour war-hero Jan Karski

The project is being masterminded by Wanda Urbańska of the Jan Karski US Centennial Campaign in conjunction with the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw.

A letter addressed to President Barack Obama has been signed by several prominent personalities, including former US Presidential national security adviser Zbigniew Brzeziński, President of the Kosciuszko Fundation Alex Storozynski and executive director of the American Jewish Committee David Harris.

A letter to President Obama has also been addressed by 66 members of the House of Representatives.

Karski witnessed atrocities in the Warsaw Ghetto and at great personal risk, met with Allied leaders including British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and President Roosevelt sharing his eyewitness accounts and pleading, in vain, for a strong response.

His firsthand account, Story of a Secret State, was published and became a bestseller.

The letter to President Obama says: “Dr. Karski has been widely recognized by the governments of Israel and Poland for his contributions. Israel granted him honorary citizenship and Yad Vashem honored him as a “Righteous Among the Nations.” He also received Poland’s highest civilian award, the Order of the White Eagle, along with its premier military decoration, Virtuti Militari.”

After the war, Jan Karski settled in the United States and became a professor as Georgetown University in Washington. He remained an advocate of Holocaust memory until his death in 2000, aged 86. (mk/pg)