The Memoirs and Memory of Jan Karski

Round-table discussion: Professor Michael Berkowitz, University College London; Professor Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University, Massachusetts; Professeur Annette Wieviorka, Research Director,CNRS, Paris. Chaired by Dr Ludivine Broch, University of Bristol

Time:6.00pm – 7.45pm
Venue: Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Free event open to all: To register please go to:
http://jankarski.eventbrite.co.uk/

Jan Karski worked as a messenger for the Polish underground, risking his life to keep the exiled government informed of the situation in Poland. He was captured and tortured, rescued by his comrades and smuggled by Jewish leaders into the Warsaw ghetto and a Nazi concentration camp. It was Karski who brought the first eye-witness accounts of the plight of the Jews out of occupied Europe.

Karski published his memoirs, Courier for Poland: The Story of a Secret State, in 1944. His story has captured the attention of film makers, novelists and journalists who have focused on Karski’s meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt and role in alerting the Allies to the Holocaust – it is a role that has become dogged by misinterpretation, conjecture and controversy.

This round-table features an international panel of distinguished speakers. They will consider the mythology that has grown around the Karski story and explore the connections and controversies which have revolved around Karski both during and after his lifetime. They will also discuss representation, testimony and the transnational effects of Holocaust memory in America, France, the UK and Poland.