We are thrilled to notify you that President Barack Obama has announced he will honor Jan Karski with the Presidential Medal of Freedom May 29, 2012. The Telegram & Gazette carried this story about the award to Jan Karski and about Marc P. Smith’s play, Karski. This recognition has been a central mission of the Jan Karski U.S. Centennial Campaign committee. Susan L. Smith has been in communication with the committee to identify ways to incorporate Marc’s play, Karski, into the centennial events in 2014, and on a more long-range basis, into curricula within university, high school, and middle-school settings. We’ll keep you up to date as these collaborative plans progress. Their website: www.jankarski.net
Meanwhile, here are the moving words of President Obama regarding his decision to award this honor to Jan Karski:
“We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen; because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts; because so many others stood silent. But let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations. Among them was Jan Karski ; a young Polish Catholic who witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself. Jan Karski passed away more than a decade ago. But today, I’m proud to announce that this spring I will honor him with America’s highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Jan Karski
Marc P. Smith’s play Karski was written in 2009, and from 2009-2010 the play was presented in several Massachusetts venues, in New York City (The Kosciuszko Foundation, May 2010), and in Poland (the Lutheran Church in Wroclaw and Kreisau/Krzyzowa)
