Voting Station

Jan Karski

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (April 24, 1914-July 13, 2000)
    Born in Lodz, Poland
    Birth name was Jan Kozielewski
    Member of the Polish resistance during World War II
    Informed the Polish government-in-exile and Western Allies about the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi extermination camps
    Became a naturalized US citizen (1954)
    Became a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University
    Wrote 'Courier from Poland: The Story of a Secret State' (1944) and 'The Great Powers and Poland' (1985)
    Interviewed in the documentary 'Shoah' (1985)

Why he might be annoying:

    He chain smoked.
    His attempt to bring the Holocaust to the attention of the Allies had little effect, as the politicians he met with often refused to believe him and would not alter their strategies to make rescuing Jews a priority.
    When he was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, Barack Obama referred to 'a Polish death camp,' seriously offending the Polish government and people.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He escaped from a train taking him to a POW camp and joined the Polish underground.
    He was assigned work as a courier because he had a photographic memory.
    During one mission, he was captured by the Gestapo and tortured (July, 1940).
    Fearing he would reveal secret information, he slashed his wrists and was taken to a hospital, from which an underground commando squad helped him escape.
    To witness Nazi atrocities in Poland, he was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and, disguised as a Ukrainian camp guard, infiltrated the sorting and transit facilities for the Belzec death camp.
    His meeting with FDR did at least lead to the establishment of the War Refugee Board (which, among other activities, funded Raoul Wallenberg's mission to rescue the Jews of Hungary).
    After the fall of Communism in Poland, his wartime service was finally recognized by his homeland and he received Poland's highest civilian and military awards.
    Elie Wiesel called him 'a masterpiece of courage, integrity and humanism.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 102 Votes: 50.98% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 208 Votes: 45.19% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 211 Votes: 39.34% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 139 Votes: 51.80% Annoying