AJC Mourns Death of Jan Karski

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 13 July 2000

The American Jewish Committee today expressed great sorrow with the passing of Jan Karski, a moral giant of the twentieth century who played an instrumental role in Poland's anti-Nazi resistance movement during the Holocaust and in seeking to focus world attention on the Nazi Final Solution.

"We will cherish his memory as near to our hearts as he cradled the souls of the millions of Jews he never knew but tried to rescue," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

"He risked his own life again and again to report the unimaginable atrocities of the Holocaust he had seen to the Polish, British and American governments and to plead for help in saving Jewish lives," said Mr. Harris.

"Karski modestly referred to himself as a human tape recorder, but he was, in actuality, a trumpet, heralding the harsh tones of human indifference and cruelty while at the same time personifying the indomitable spirit and inherent goodness that mankind can still possess," Mr. Harris said.

Apart from his scholarly duties at Georgetown University, Karski devoted his postwar life to protecting the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, combating anti-Semitism and intolerance, and advancing the cause of human rights.

Mr. Harris continued: "Jan Karski was a diplomat, a Righteous Gentile, a messenger for the Polish underground resistance during World War II, an eyewitness to the Nazi extermination of the Jews in Poland, and since the Holocaust a devoted friend of Israel."

The American Jewish Committee, in 1993, bestowed its highest honor on Jan Karski, and in 1999 he was the first recipient of the Eternal Light Award from the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, a collaboration of AJC and Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Florida.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org