June 24 - The birthday of Jan Karsky. Righteous Among the World.

This person did not personally hide any Jews. He tried to save all the Jews of Europe. And I want to bow to his memory.

Jan Romuald Kozelevsky was born on June 24, 1914 in Lodz. The nickname, which became his surname, he took during the war. Jan, a Pole by nationality, was fluent in several languages, dreamed of becoming a diplomat. He received his legal education at Lviv University. But did not manage to pursue a career.

The war began. Jan was in the Polish army. He was taken prisoner, was exchanged, then was taken prisoner in Germany, but fate kept him and he managed to escape.

He illegally returned to Poland, became a member of the Polish Resistance, worked in the Bureau of Propaganda and Information of the General Staff of the guerrilla Army Krajowa.

In 1942, on instructions from the leadership of the Krajowa Army, Karski was sent to London. Shortly before his departure, he was introduced to the Jewish activist Leon Feyner, who asked him to convey information about what was happening to Polish Jewry.

Finer told Karski: "Poland will regain its independence after the war. But Polish Jews will not be left by that time. Travel to London. We must do everything so that none of the allies after the war could not say that he knew nothing about the extermination of the Jews ... I sent dozens of letters, hundreds of times, breaking through to the phone, talking with Jews in Switzerland and France. Nobody believed me ... ".

Karsky promised ... Before that, he, disguised in a German military uniform, secretly visited the Warsaw ghetto and, and the ghetto in the Polish town of Izbica Lubelskaya. This small shtetl during the war became a transit point for the deportation of Jews from Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria to the extermination camps.

Basically, there were assimilated European Jews, far from traditions. Many tried to escape by performing the rite of baptism. But could this help in that inhuman machine of destruction, which spared no secular or religious ....

Yang saw with his own eyes what was happening behind the barbed wire. He was in the Warsaw ghetto during the rally, he saw how old people and children were seized, suffering, humiliation and misfortune ... And he saw the Poles on the other side of the fence look at what is happening indifferently. On the contrary, the Germans began to organize something like an excursion for the curious to stand near the fence and see what was happening in the ghetto.

He managed to illegally leave Poland, get to London. Ask the country's leadership for help. The answer was short: England already helped enough, sheltering Jewish refugees. It was 1943.

Then the road led to the USA. And here Karski was able to get to the top of American power. He told everything he saw, everything he knew. Alas ... Personal assistant to President Roosevelt said to him: "Mr. Karski, I can not believe you. I'm not saying that you are a liar, but what you told me is so monstrous that I can not bring myself to believe it! ".

Today after so many years, it often seems to me, but if they believed. Or they wanted to believe ... How many Jewish souls could have been saved if you methodically bombed the railway tracks that led to death camps. But the Allies were not up to this ... The Jewish question was of little interest to them.

And one in the field, as is known not a warrior ... Ian Karski wanted to return to Poland. But in the occupied country he was put on the wanted list and the return meant a sure death.

Yan stayed in the US. He wrote a book of memoirs, became a professor at Georgetown University, defended his doctoral dissertation in political science, received American citizenship.

His wife was a Polish Jewish woman, Polina Nirensk, a famous dancer and choreographer.

The whole family of Polina died during the years of occupation. She was saved by a miracle, because during the Germans' invasion of Poland she was on tour in London and she did not return home.

Throughout his life, Jan Karski continued his story about the Holocaust, considering it his mission. He participated in the film "The Catastrophe". In 1982 he received the title of Righteous Among the World, and then - the honorary citizenship of the State of Israel.

At a press conference in Washington in 1982, Karski said: "God chose me to let the West learn about the tragedy in Poland. Then it seemed to me that this information would help save millions of people. It did not help, I was wrong. In 1942, in the Warsaw ghetto and in Izbica Lubelskaya, I became a Polish Jew ... My wife's family (all of them died in the ghetto and in the death camps), all the tortured Jews of Poland became my family. At the same time I remain a Catholic. I am a Catholic Jew. My faith tells me: the second original sin that humanity committed against Jews during the Second World War in Europe, will pursue it until the end of time ... "Not so long ago in Russia, the premiere of a documentary film" Ian Karsky. Righteous Among the World ".

In this regard, Vladimir Pozner wrote in his blog: "This is a film that should be seen by everyone, and if I were my will, I would show it compulsorily in all schools of the country". Posner took part in the creation of the Russian version of this picture. And Yanka Karsky himself in the film is voiced by Sergei Yursky.

He died on July 13, 2000 at the age of 86. And if you find yourself in Tel Aviv University, maybe you will see a monument to him:

the bench on which Ian Karsky sits in front of a chessboard. He loved chess.

Sit next door. Get him company. And do not forget to say "thank you" for everything he tried to do for the Jewish people.

Let even one in the field is not a warrior ... Light Memory.

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