March 18, 2016

“THE WORLD KNEW: JAN KARSKI MISSION FOR HUMANITY AND THEY RISKED THEIR LIVES – POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST”

Poland became home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, there were 3.3 million Jews in Poland before the Holocaust. The history of Polish Jews is an integral part of the history of Poland. It is a history of cooperation and competition, coexistence and conflict, separation and integration.

The exhibit honors those Poles who risked their lives to save lives of Polish Jews and those who perished during the Holocaust. Jan Karski an ambitious junior diplomat during the war joined the Polish Underground, twice disguised and unshaven, he infiltrated Warsaw’s Ghetto through a tunnel to learn what is happening to Polish Jews. He saw horrors, starvation, brutality and exterminations. Jan Karski being fluent in several languages was assigned to tell outside world what was happening in German occupied Poland.
He delivered his eyewitness account about Polish Jews to Anthony Edan, British Foreign Secretary, President Franklin Roosevelt, and Supreme Justice Felix Frankfurter, they did not believe him. In 1944 he wrote and published “Story of secret State: My Report to the World.”
The book became best seller and Karski was invited on a speaking tour throughout the US and Canada.
Karski never returned to Poland, fearing Nazi execution and then communists, he remained in America, earned a Ph.D., and taught for 40 years at Georgetown University.
He received many honors: the Order of the White Eagle in Poland, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US highest civilian honor, honorary citizen of Lodz, Poland and Isrćl, Jerusalem’s Righteous among the Nations. Jan Karski died in 2000.

There were many Poles who saved Jews, one of them is Irena Sendler (born Krzyzanowska in Feb. 1910 in Warsaw), began helping Jews in 1939 when Germans invaded Warsaw by offering them food and shelter. Once Warsaw Ghetto was formed, she started saving orphan children, Irena and her helpers made 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families. Irene joined Zegota (Polish Underground group to assist Jewish People) and being a nurse received a papers as a Polish social worker to enter the Warsaw Ghetto. Irene and tens who went with her into the ghetto, used many methods to smuggle children out, they saved 2500 of Jewish orphans. She was arrested in 1943, placed in notorious Pawiak prison, constantly tortured, during one of the questioning she had her legs and feet fractured. The only information she gave was the version that she and her collaborators had prepared in the event they were captured. She received a death sentence. She was to be shot. Zegota had bribed the German executioner who helped her escape. During the remaining years of the war, she lived hidden, just like the children she rescued. Irena was the only one who knew where the children were to be found she kept their names in the jar, buried in the ground. When the war was over, she began the job of finding the children and trying to find a living parent. Irena Sendler received Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1996,Jan Karski award for Valor and Courage in 2003 in Washington, D.C., Order of the Smile in 2007. Her only regret in her own words: “My emotions is being shadowed by the fact that no one from the circle of my faithful coworkers, who constantly risked their lives, could live long enough to enjoy all the honors that now are falling upon me…” Irene Sendler passed away in 2008 in Poland at the age of 98.

The “The World Knew: Jan Karski ….” and “They Risked Their Lives - …” exibit and lectures in the months of February and March 2016 were a huge success. During the Opening ceremony, which was one of the biggest this year, we had a packed house with more than 200 attending the opening reception. We have prestigious keynote speakers Dr. Michćl Berenbaum, American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Mr. Mark Sendrow, President, Arizona Jewish Historical Society, Dr. Lawrence Bell, Executive Director Arizona Jewish Historical Society, Hon. Mariusz Brymora Consul General of the Republic of Poland, Hon. Dr. John Kavanagh, Arizona State Senator and Hon. Bogumil Horchem Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Arizona.
Also in attendance Madam Mayor of Fountain Hills Linda Kavanagh, The Honorable Ileana Orlich Ph.D Consul of Romania, The Honorable Gerrit Stenblik, Esq. Consul of France, honorary Consul of El Salvadore Enrique Melendez, Michćl Nowakowski Councilman City of Phoenix Dist. 7, President of Polish American congress in Arizona Dr. Ewa Grabowski. We got fantastic media coverage, also we had school tours.
This was a wonderful way to introduce Phoenix to Poland’s Heroes in the Holocaust and to Poland in general.

Bogumil Horchem
Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Arizona

Źródło: Bogumil Horchem