Voices From the Holocaust

Jan Karski

JAN KARSKI For his extraordinary efforts to assist Jews during the Holocaust , Jan Karski, a Polish Catholic diplomat, was recognized as an authentic hero and benefactor by Yad Vashem, where a tree bearing his name was planted in the "Alley of the Righteous Gentiles among the Nations." He earned two master's degrees from the University of Lvov in 1935(inLaw and Diplomatic Sciences) and continued his education in Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain. Karski then entered the Polish diplomatic service. He was mobilized in 1939, taken prisoner by the Red Army, and sent to a Russian camp. He quickly escaped, returned to Nazioccupied Poland, and joined the underground resistance movement. Because of his knowledge of languages he was used as a courier, making several trips between France, Great Britain, and his homeland. In 1940, he was captured by the Nazis but was rescued by the Polish Underground and was later sent to meet with high-level figures, including Anthony Eden and President Franklin Roosevelt. After the war he refused to return to Poland and became an American citizen. He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University. On several occasions he was sent by the State Department on lecture tours speaking in sixteen nations. Dr. Karski's book Story ofa Secret State (1944) was a Book-of-the- JAN KARSKI 57 Month Club selection. His major work appeared in 1984: The Great Powers and Poland, 1919-1945 (From Versailles to Yalta). He was awarded Poland's highest military decoration, several honorary degrees, and many tributes for his life's work. HJC What role did you play in alerting the West to the true nature of what was happening to Jews under Nazi occupation in Poland? JK In the summer of 1942, Mr. Cyril Ratajski, a delegate from the Polish government in exile, approved a request that I be sent on a secret mission to London as a courier for himself and for the leaders of the political parties organized in the Central Political Committee. This was to be my fourth secret trip between Warsaw, Paris, and London. HJC You were active in this work even though you had once been captured and tortured by the Nazis. JK The Gestapo arrested me and they beat me and beat me and beat me. Icouldn't standit. So Itook a blade that Ihad hidden under the sole of my shoe and I cut my wrists. I was afraid they could make me talk and I knew all kinds of important information. I was taken to a hospital because I was in very bad shape and the Nazis wanted to keep me alive, to extract the facts from me. I was placed in a room with a guard outside the door. The Polish doctor who was taking care of me, while changing my bandages, whispered in my ear: "You must be sick, be ver~ very sick. We want to keep you here as long as possible." From that moment I simulated that I was dying. Some time later I conceived a plan. I pretended that since I was dying I had to go to confession. I said that as a Catholic who tried to commit a suicide which may still be successful I faced eternal hell. One of the hospital nuns got permission for me from the guard. I was wheeled into the chapel and confessed to a Polish priest. Then Iwhispered to him a woman's name and address. "Someone must go to her," I explained. I used my pseudonym , Witold. The priest began to cry. He said, "People looking for sanctuary are abusing the Church. You cannot use confession for such a purpose." But then he asked me her 40.207] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 13:24 GMT) 58 Voices from the Holocaust name and address. Two or three days later this woman came to my room dressed in a nun's habit. I told her of my fear of going back to the Gestapo and warned that I must either be savedor begivenpoison. In a couple ofdays shereturned with some apples and hid some cyanide under my pillow. She told me to take it only under extreme circumstances and that they would attempt to save me. Jozef Cyrankiewicz, the leader of the Socialist Underground in Cracow, organized my escape. I was to take offmy hospital clothes. When the doctor entered the room with a cigarette, that was my signal to go to the window which was above a flower bed...