[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S6380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING DR. JAN KARSKI

 Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise today to honor an 
individual who truly personifies courage and compassion. When the dark 
night of Nazi occupation descended across most of Europe, and the spark 
of humanity was crushed beneath Gestapo jack boots, Dr. Jan Karski knew 
that he couldn't just curse the darkness.
  Dr. Karski was a wartime courier for the Polish underground, and he 
is often credited as being the first person to alert the Allies about 
the existence of the death camps and the extermination of the Jews.
  Karski's secret work began in 1939. He was riding in a cattle car, 
with other Polish soldiers, heading for forced labor in Germany, when 
he jumped from the window and joined the underground movement. Between 
the winter of 1939 and the early summer of 1940, Karski was sent by the 
underground back and forth from Warsaw to France on successful missions 
as a courier. However, in 1940 he was arrested by the Nazis in Slovakia 
and brutally tortured. Eventually, he was rescued by the Polish 
underground and continued to fight for freedom.
  Karski clandestinely surveyed conditions in the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto 
and even volunteered to be smuggled into the Belzic death camp to 
gather evidence of the Nazi's extermination policies. In 1943, he was 
sent by the Polish government-in-exile to inform American officials 
about the situation in his native country, among the prominent 
individuals he met with was President Roosevelt. In fact, shortly after 
meeting with Karski, Roosevelt ordered the creation of the American 
Refugee Board, an organization whose main task was to protect Jewish 
escapees and place them in the United States.
  After the war, when Poland traded Nazi totalitarianism for Soviet 
totalitarianism, Karski moved to the United States. He earned his Ph.D. 
in Georgetown and has been teaching at the university since 1952. Among 
other honors, Karski has received the highest Polish military 
decoration, a special citation by the United Nations, and was declared 
a ``Righteous Gentile Among Nations'' by the state of Israel.
  Mr. President, the great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer once noted, 
``A great person helps others, but a good person touches the lives of 
others.'' If that's true, then Dr. Karski proves that good and great 
can exist in the same individual. He continually demonstrated that one 
person can make a difference, and at a time when many were content to 
curse the darkness, he kept the candles of hope and humanity burning. 
Undoubtedly, he is an example for our times and a hero for the 
ages.

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