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Comments about Jan Karski and
Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust…
The Times (London)
Karskis is a fantastic story and the authors tell it well. This is a riveting as well as a harrowing read.
Slavonic and East European Review
An honest, objective, and eminently readable appraisal…. This is an extremely interesting and valuable study. By concentrating on the experiences and activities of a single individual at the heart of some of World War IIs most crucial political events, the book helps to give a human dimension to their unfolding.
Michael Berenbaum, former President and Chief Executive Officer, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, in Polin
A gripping biography…. worthy of the life it depicts. The authors write without jargon and with a breeziness that permits quick reading, but they have done their homework. Historians cannot answer what if, but the question burns through each page of this book.
The Times Literary Supplement (London)
Karski is the remarkable story of a modest man who has become a professional hero, which the authors tell with sympathy and verve…. Economically written and well-researched.
Publishers Weekly
His engrossing biography is valuable, for it tempers the widespread contention that Gentile Poland was indifferent to the plight of the Jews.
Henry R. Huttenbach, City University of New York, in The Genocide Forum
An adventure… retold in a first-rate scholarly manner. It is a book all teachers of the period should read…. If a gentile hero is necessary, then the unqualified honor should go to Jan Karski and not to the one-dimensional, hollow persona that was Oskar Schindler…. Jan Karski ranks with the Wallenbergs and Bernadottes, those who actively intervened in the Holocaust and actually saved lives at enormous risk to their own.
Kirkus Reviews
A real page-turner, with drama woven into every scene.
The Washington Times
Told with the urgency of a spy thriller.
Die Presse (Vienna)
What Karski had to tell, and what two journalists have given form to in this book through many interviews and intensive research, is a monumental life story from the monstrous years of the 20th century a story that fairly cries out to be a movie.
Neue Luzerner Zeitung (Switzerland)
Jan Karskis life story is a gripping document of this century. Amidst the abundance of contemporary historical publications, it deserves special attention.
Berliner Zeitung (Germany)
The authors reliable research and friendly presentation is the best memorial for a man of courage and integrity.
Die Welt (Germany)
A moving document.
Der Spiegel (Germany)
A book that is more than just an agent-thriller: Karskis report raises anew the question of why the Allies didnt make ending the mass-murder of the Jews a war aim.
The Good Book Guide (England)
A record of extreme courage, desperate survival and moral heroism that is also a burning and all-too-relevant indictment of the worlds ability to avert its eyes…. Read it.
The American Spectator
Well-researched and unfailingly interesting.
Jewish Chronicle (London)
A gripping documentary, which expresses the complexity of Polish politics under the Nazi regime and the dilemma of one of Polands great heroes.
Jewish Telegraph (England)
A must for anyone interested in the history of the Holocaust and World War II.
Lancashire Evening Post
This is a book you just cant put down.
Church of England Newspaper
You might have expected a worthy but dull book. It is not. It reads like a spy thriller.
The Canberra Times
Compelling… In Karski, there is the fervent affirmation that good can triumph over evil, that individuals can influence the course of events.
Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill
Absolutely absorbing.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Adviser
A significant account of personal heroism not only dramatic as a story but also a compelling moral message regarding the human condition…. A superb read.
Miles Lerman, chairman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council
Karski is a true adventure, a story of incredible valor, a story of personal courage and uncommon determination. The inspiring story of Jan Karski is moving and thought-provoking a must read.
Lech Wałęsa, Former President of Poland
As a courier, at the risk of his life, Karski carried information of great political and military importance. He survived arrest and imprisonment. He did not break down in spite of savage torture. He escaped from his torturers and fulfilled his missions as before. And in November 1942, he delivered to the West documentation of Hitlers crime the total extermination of the Jews.
James Cardinal Hickey, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
The mission which Dr. Karski endeavored to carry out with extraordinary faith and courage during World War II still has a message for us today. It calls upon us to remember the lessons of the Holocaust; in addition it challenges us to reach out in a spirit of justice and charity in order to eliminate from our community, our nation and our world every vestige of hatred and bigotry.
Shimon Peres, Former Prime Minister of Israel
A great man is one who stands head and shoulders above his people, a man who, when surrounded by overpowering evil and blind hatred, does all in his power to stem the tide. Karski ranks high in the all-too-brief list of such great and unique personalities who stood out in the darkest age of Jewish history.
Ken Adelman, syndicated columnist
Here is the stirring tale of a stirring life. Through this well-written book, I came to know the real Jan Karski for the first time. I will never forget his courage, nor will any reader.
Abraham H. Foxman, national director, Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith
Jan Karski emerges from these pages as truly one of the righteous among the nations. It is the shame of history that few would believe his eyewitness accounts of the Nazi atrocities against Polish Jews and that none of the leaders of the free world would heed his call for help. This story is a must read.
Martin Peretz, publisher, The New Republic
Karski is one of the righteous among the nations, and when Wattsa mentioned that he was in our midst, the crowds sudden hush indicated that the people knew we were in the presence of one of those obsessives whose obsessions make him both brave and good.
Elie Wiesel, writer, winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
Jan Karski: a brave man? Better: a just man.
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