Jan Karski Biography Essay
Jan Karski
Jan Karski, Polish activist and later on academic professor at Georgetown’s University, was an essential eyewitness of Nazi terror in the occupied Poland during the Second World War. He gathered information and presented a report concerning the horror of Jewish discrimination and Holocaust to the allies. Emissary of the Polish exiled government and member of underground army in Poland, Mr Karski is considered as a Hero of the Second World War, deserving prestigious honours as Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States of America and the title of Righteous Among the Nations*.
Childhood and Youth
Jan Karski, pseudonym of Jan Kozielewski, was born in 1914, in Łódź. Last of eight brothers, Karski grew up in Roman Catholic …show more content…
Thanks to his wide knowledge of languages and once completed the diplomatic practice, the Minister of foreign affair hired him in January 1939. As every young man at that time, Karski joint the compulsory military service (1935-1938) at the Horse Artillery in Włodzimierz Wołyński and he was sorted Primus and sent to the 5th Regiment of mounted Artillery; the War in 1939 surprised Karski in Auschwitz.
The beginning of the Second World War Jan Karski was captured by Soviet troops September 16 in Tarnopol*, where he retreated with his Regiment after the outbreak of war; he was sent to the Soviet camp in Koscielcina* (current Ukraine) when he was forced to spent the summer 1939. On August 1939, USSR and Germany signed Treaty of Non-aggression* and during the first period of the Agreement there was a exchange of population*; Lodz, hometown of Karski, had already been incorporated in the Reich in September 1939* and this fact allowed him to be exchanged and delivered to the German side (*according to an interview Karski believed in German democracy).
Once in German hands, Jan Karski found himself in a camp from where he was carried on a prison train to a POW camp* in General Government*; nevertheless, Jan Karski managed to jump down the train overnight and escaped toward Warsaw to join the Polish underground
Jan Karski, Polish activist and later on academic professor at Georgetown’s University, was an essential eyewitness of Nazi terror in the occupied Poland during the Second World War. He gathered information and presented a report concerning the horror of Jewish discrimination and Holocaust to the allies. Emissary of the Polish exiled government and member of underground army in Poland, Mr Karski is considered as a Hero of the Second World War, deserving prestigious honours as Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States of America and the title of Righteous Among the Nations*.
Childhood and Youth
Jan Karski, pseudonym of Jan Kozielewski, was born in 1914, in Łódź. Last of eight brothers, Karski grew up in Roman Catholic …show more content…
Thanks to his wide knowledge of languages and once completed the diplomatic practice, the Minister of foreign affair hired him in January 1939. As every young man at that time, Karski joint the compulsory military service (1935-1938) at the Horse Artillery in Włodzimierz Wołyński and he was sorted Primus and sent to the 5th Regiment of mounted Artillery; the War in 1939 surprised Karski in Auschwitz.
The beginning of the Second World War Jan Karski was captured by Soviet troops September 16 in Tarnopol*, where he retreated with his Regiment after the outbreak of war; he was sent to the Soviet camp in Koscielcina* (current Ukraine) when he was forced to spent the summer 1939. On August 1939, USSR and Germany signed Treaty of Non-aggression* and during the first period of the Agreement there was a exchange of population*; Lodz, hometown of Karski, had already been incorporated in the Reich in September 1939* and this fact allowed him to be exchanged and delivered to the German side (*according to an interview Karski believed in German democracy).
Once in German hands, Jan Karski found himself in a camp from where he was carried on a prison train to a POW camp* in General Government*; nevertheless, Jan Karski managed to jump down the train overnight and escaped toward Warsaw to join the Polish underground