Jan Karski

Jan Karski (24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later professor at Georgetown University. In 1942 and 1943 Karski reported to the Polish government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the secretive German-Nazi extermination camps.

Early life

Jan Karski was born Jan Kozielewski on 24 June 1914 (in Łódź, Poland) as recognized by the Karski family’s lawyer, Dr. Wieslawa Kozielewska-Trzaska, Karski's niece and goddaughter, as well as by the Jan Karski Society, an organization established shortly after his death to preserve his legacy. The same date was used by Karski on some existing pre-war hand-written documents, including several in his diplomatic dossier at the League of Nations.

Jan Karski was named "Jan" [in Polish John] having been born on St John's Day, following the Polish pre-war custom of naming newborn infants after saints. An error was made in the baptismal records of August 8, as Karski explained later in interviews on several occasions (see Waldemar Piasecki's definitive biography of Karski: One Life, about to be published in Poland) as well as published interviews with his family.