The Year of Jan Karski

The five cities with the largest Polish populations are, in order, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Los Angeles. These communities, along with Poles everywhere, join together in 2014 to honor JanKarski. Karski, at great risk to his own life, struggled to deliver reports of the Holocaust to British and American authorities in 1942. He even spoke with President Roosevelt and presented his findings to Hollywood movie moguls. No one did anything; in fact, most of the people with whom he spoke didn’t believe him. Whether this is indicative of a hidden anti-Semitism among the British and American people or simply an inability to grasp the mass extermination of groups of people is at this point moot. Polish people in the United States and in Poland itself honor this patriot by naming 2014 as the Year of Jan Karski.