Warsaw, 7 December 2016

Speech delivered by Mr Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of :

Distinguished Minister of National Defence, Distinguished Ministers, Your Excellency, Mr Ambassador, Distinguished Presidents, Excellencies, all honorable Guests gathered here, and first and foremost, Honorable Family of General Professor Jan Karski,

Mr Minister, I am grateful that the application filed by you allowed us to fulfil something that I refer to as an act of historical justice. General Jan Karski was not only a great Pole, not only a great man, he is not only a Righteous among the Nations, he was not merely steadfast in striving for the truth, honesty, and predominantly in his striving to ensure that everywhere in the world the rights of every man are respected, their dignity, their life ‒ he thus was a great humanist. But he also was, or perhaps looking through the lens of today`s ceremony we should say that he predominantly was, a man of indomitable, huge courage as a soldier of the Republic of Poland.

He fought in the September campaign of 1939, serving in the 5th Division of Horse Artillery. He was captured by the Russians, then taken prisoner by the Germans, from whom he fled. He did not flee to Western Europe though, he stayed in Poland and started to be active in the Polish Underground State. He embarked upon an extremely difficult mission – that of an emissary of the Polish Government in the West. He repeatedly forced his way across the border in order to carry information and also to take orders to Poland. He was captured by the Germans in , tortured in the Prešov prison, then taken to Poland, to Nowy Sącz and recaptured from the local hospital by a unit. And he still continued his activities for the Republic of Poland, for freedom, for the man.

Soon afterwards he accomplished deeds for which he went down not only in Polish history, but also in the history of the world. In agreement with Jewish organizations, acting as the representative of the Polish Underground State and of the Polish Government in the West, he made it twice to the Warsaw Ghetto. He saw, with his own eyes, the ordeal inflicted by Nazi Germans, by Hitler followers, upon Polish Jews. He saw the dramatic, horrific conditions in which those people were living, he saw death, he saw the Annihilation prepared by German Nazis for the Jewish Nation. Dressed as a Ukrainian guard he entered the transit camp in Izbica, from which Jews from all over Europe were transported by Germans to the Belzec and Sobibor concentration camps, and also murdered on the spot. Some 4.5 thousand people of Jewish origin, citizens of different states, were shot dead at the Izbica Jewish cemetery.

Hence, Jan Karski was the one who not only heard about the Holocaust, about the Annihilation of Jews, but he also saw it with his own eyes. He compiled three shocking reports on the subject. The first and the second were co-authored by his brother, police officer, Marian Kozielewski, whereas the third was written by Jan Karski himself, in London. The third report, which was also submitted to the Polish Government in the West, was presented to the Allied governments, and in 1943 Jan Karski brought it to the United States and passed on to the President of the United States and the most prominent members of his administration. What Jan Karski wrote and said was so shocking that the people in Western Europe and in the United States, the politicians who had seen war and had fought in it, who were decision-makers, refused to believe. When Jan Karski met with different groups in the United States and told stories of what he had seen and related what was unfolding on the Polish territories occupied by the Germans, in the concentration camps set up by the Germans, he was looked at with disbelief, they did not believe him. It was only when concentration camps started to be gradually liberated by the victorious Allied forces, that the world actually came to believe in the boundlessness of the Annihilation, the vastness of the Holocaust.

Jan Karski never, not until the end of war, gave up his activities to rescue Jews. He made appeals to drop bombs on railway tracks which were used to transport people to concentration camps, he appealed to the Allies to conduct revenge actions for the Annihilation which was inflicted upon Jews. He remained active till the very end. Was he a great soldier? Yes, he was a great soldier – the fact best evidenced by the double award of the order of Virtuti Militari: in 1941 and in 1943. He was a great soldier of the Republic of Poland who never ceased to fight for Poland`s freedom, who never ceased to fight for human dignity either.

It is my great honour to award this posthumous nomination to the rank of general to Mr Jan Karski. Jan Karski died in 2000, he left us, and rests in the cemetery in the United States. Nevertheless, I would like this nomination awarded to a great Pole, to an honorary citizen of Israel, and to the Righteous among the Nations to be the testimony to Poland`s remembrance about a grand historical figure, about a silent hero in the time of struggle, a hero who devoted his entire young life to fight for Poland`s freedom, to fight for human dignity.

I wish to thank cordially the Family of Mr Jan Karski, and the Director for having accepted the nomination. May it testify to the greatness of a Polish soldier, Jan Karski, a great man, a wonderful Pole, a WWII hero of many nations. May the memory of Jan Karski, of his heroism, of his indomitable spirit, of his deeds be forever preserved among Poles, among Jews all over the world and among all righteous people. Thank you very much.