Jan Karski exhibition at London synagogue

Jan Karski in 1943,source: Maciej Sadowski "Jan Karski. Photobiography", VEDA, 2014

Entitled ‘The World Knew’, it documents Karski’s life and activities, including his time in the Warsaw Ghetto, to which he was smuggled by Jewish underground leaders to learn about the conditions there, his arrest and torture by the Gestapo and his secret missions to London on behalf of the Polish Government’s Delegate in Poland to inform Allied leaders about the Holocaust.

The exhibits include reproductions of Karski’s report as well as information about the structure of Poland’s underground state during World War Two.

“The mission that Karski undertook was courageous,” Rabbi Alexandra Wright has told Polish Radio.

“It flew against the fears of people at the time. He took tremendous risks at his own personal life and he was really willing to stand up and go out and tell people about what was going on.”

’Karski’s ‘Story of a Secret State’ was published in the United States in 1944, selling over 360, 000 copies by the end of the war.

The first Polish edition was not published in 1999.

Several years ago, the book was published by Penguin in the UK.

The exhibition at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London runs until 18 September and has been organized by the Warsaw-based Museum of Polish History, the Polish Embassy in London and the Jewish Cultural Organization Spiro Ark.

The exhibition is one of a wide range of events marking the centenary of Jan Karski’s birth. (mk/pg)