Polish resistance fighter, eyewitness, and the messenger the world refused to hear, this is the Jan Karski Holocaust biography and resources including actual audio interviews.
Jan Karski was a Polish underground agent who, in 1942, smuggled himself into the Warsaw Ghetto and witnessed a Nazi transit camp for Jews being sent to their deaths. He carried what he saw to the leaders of the Western world — to the British Foreign Secretary, to President Franklin Roosevelt, to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. He told them what was happening. They did not act. This is the story of a Jan Karski, a Holocaust rescuer who risked everything to deliver a message the world was not ready to receive.
Remember.org holds primary source material from and about Karski that exists only here: audio recordings of Karski speaking in his own voice, and book excerpts from the definitive account of his mission, Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust by E. Thomas Wood and Stanislaw M. Jankowski, published by Texas Tech University Press.
Hear Jan Karski in His Own Words
In these recordings from an interview conducted by E. Thomas Wood, Karski describes the disbelief he faced when he reported what he had witnessed — including his account of Justice Frankfurter’s response: “I am unable to believe what you told me.” He reflects on why the Holocaust was unprecedented, the danger of trying to express its reality, and what the existence of Israel means in its aftermath.
Read Excerpts from Jan Karski’s Holocaust biography:
The following excerpts are from Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust by E. Thomas Wood and Stanislaw M. Jankowski. Copyright 1994. All rights reserved.
A Message Still Fresh: Why we had to tell Karski’s story.
The Price of Freedom: The dramatic tale of Karski’s escape from Gestapo captivity — and its harrowing consequences.
A Tour of the Warsaw Ghetto: A Jewish underground leader takes Karski on a clandestine tour of the Nazi prison-city in Warsaw.
Believing the Unbelievable: Jewish officials in London react to Karski’s revelations about the emerging Holocaust.
Mission to Washington: Karski’s fateful first encounter on his secret trip to the U.S. in 1943: dinner with Justice Felix Frankfurter.
Revisiting the Horror: A tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with Jan Karski.
About the Book and the Man: Praise from publications around the world and from Zbigniew Brzezinski, Lech Walesa, Shimon Peres, and Elie Wiesel.
Order your own copy of Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust
From Chapter 4, when Karski learns the world can’t believe the truth.
“Frankfurter lingered after the other guests left the embassy. Adjourning the gathering to a quiet ballroom, Ciechanowski took a seat to Karski’s left. The Supreme Court justice sat opposite Karski, looking into his eyes.
“Mr. Karski,” Frankfurter asked, “do you know that I am a Jew?”
Karski nodded.
“There are so many conflicting reports about what is happening to the Jews in your country,” Frankfurter said. “Please tell me exactly what you have seen.”
Jan spent half an hour patiently explaining how his missions to the Ghetto and the camp had come about and precisely, in gruesome detail, what he had witnessed. When Karski finished, he waited for the visitor to make the next move.
Frankfurter silently got up from his chair. For a few moments, he paced back and forth in front of Karski and the ambassador, who looked on in puzzlement. Then, just as quietly, he took his seat again.
“Mr. Karski,” Frankfurter said after a further pause, “a man like me talking to a man like you must be totally frank. So I must say: I am unable to believe you.”
About the Book
Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust by E. Thomas Wood and Stanislaw M. Jankowski. Published by Texas Tech University Press. Originally published by John Wiley & Sons, 1994; paperback 1996. Also available in German as Jan Karski — Einer gegen den Holocaust (Bleicher Verlag, 1997).
For questions about the book or Jan Karski’s story, please contact Remember.org.
Audio recordings, excerpts, and related materials are presented by Remember.org in collaboration with E. Thomas Wood. Copyright 1994, 1996. All rights reserved. This material may not be reprinted or reproduced in any form without written permission.
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