To celebrate the hundredth birthday of Georgetown professor Jan Karski (PHD ‘52), the Jan Karski Educational Foundation and Georgetown University will be hosting a panel discussion on April 24, moderated by Acting SFS Dean James Reardon-Anderson, followed by a dramatic reading of Karski’s 1944 book, Story of a Secret State.
During World War II, Karski worked for the Polish underground, smuggling himself in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto. He subsequently made his way to London and D.C. to alert the Allies of the Holocaust. After the war, he immigrated to the United States, received his doctorate from Georgetown, and taught at the SFS for 40 years. He passed away in 2000.
“A friend of mine calls Karski the real James Bond because of what he did, jumping out of trains, being tortured and escaping, all the rest of it,” said Robert Billingsley (SFS ‘68), a former student of Karski’s and advisory board member to the Jan Karski Educational Foundation. “[He embodied] Jesuit tradition and service for others.”
“He was an extraordinary man,” said Georgetown professor Robert Lieber, a former colleague of Karski.
The panel and dramatic reading are the culmination of a series of celebrations that began last January with the republication of Story of a Secret State, which documents Karski’s work in the Polish underground, by the Georgetown University Press. According to Jan Karski Educational Foundation President Wanda Urbanska, a “generous group of Georgetown alums” associated with the Foundation helped fund the reprint and free distribution of his book to Georgetown students.
The panel will feature U.S. Ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull (SFS ‘80), director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security Melanne Verveer, and Security Studies Program professor Robert Egnell. The discussion will focus on the responsibility to protect, the idea that the state has a responsibility to protect its citizens from mass atrocities.
The dramatic reading of Karski’s book is being produced by Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center Derek Goldman and will feature renowned American actor David Strathairn as Jan Karski.
