Jan Karski was a Polish soldier, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. He is known for having acted as a courier in 1940–1943 to the Polish government-in-exile and to Poland's Western Allies about the situation in German-occupied Poland. He reported about the state of Poland, its many competing resistance factions, and also about Germany's destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and its operation of extermination camps on Polish soil that were murdering Jews, Poles, and others.
Jan Karski photo portrait
US stamp from 1943, a tribute to Polish Underground State
Jan Karski with General Colin Powell at the 1993 opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Jan Karski Statue in Tel Aviv University
Polish resistance movement in World War II
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Sequentially from top: soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw on Stawki Street in Wola district, during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944; Jewish prisoners of Gęsiówka concentration camp liberated by Polish Home Army soldiers from "Zośka" Battalion, 5 August 1944; Polish partisans of "Jędrusie" unit in Kielce area, 1945; Old Town of Warsaw in flames during Warsaw Uprising
Image: Warsaw Uprising by Deczkowki Kolegium A 15861
Image: Jewish prisones of KZ Gesiowka liberated by Polish Soldiers of Home Army Warsaw 1944
Image: Warsaw 1944