[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E537-E538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN TRIBUTE OF PROF. JAN KARSKI

                                 ______


                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 16, 1996

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with the Holocaust Center of 
Northern California to honor Prof. Jan Karski, a member of the Polish 
underground during World War II who risked his life in an effort to 
stop the Holocaust.
  Professor Karski, a devout Roman Catholic, was captured and savagely 
tortured by the Gestapo while working as a courier in 1940. Willing to 
sacrifice his life to protect the underground, Professor Karski escaped 
with the help of the Polish workers, and returned to his work as a 
courier.
  In 1942, Professor Karski was smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto and 
death camp near Belzec, and then traveled secretly to Washington, DC, 
where he provided President Roosevelt, other top Government officials, 
journalists, and religious leaders with a terrifying eyewitness account 
of the extermination of thousands of helpless and innocent Jews. 
Professor Karski traveled extensively throughout the

[[Page E538]]

United States lecturing about the atrocities he had witnessed. In 1944, 
he published a best-selling book, ``The Story of the Secret State'', 
which exposed the Nazis' genocidal plans.
  Twenty-five years later, Professor Karski broke his silence about the 
terrible secret in Claude Lanzmann's epic Holocaust film documentary, 
``Shoah.'' In recognition of his courage on behalf of the Jewish 
people, Professor Karski was honored at Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among 
the Nations in 1982 and the Israeli Government awarded him honorary 
citizenship in 1994.
  I am pleased to join with the Holocaust Center of Northern California 
and the Jewish religious community to pay tribute to this great man on 
Yom HaShoah, the Day of Holocaust Remembrance, which begins at sundown 
on Monday, April 15, 1996.
  Professor Karski is a hero not only to his own people but to all of 
humanity. With his unwavering courage and integrity, Professor Karski 
is a role model for us all, for he demonstrated how the human spirit 
can triumph over extreme evil and adversity. Now in his eighties, 
Professor Karski continues to speak out against racism, anti-Semitism 
and intolerance so others might learn from the horrible mistakes of the 
past.

                          ____________________